Tag: Management
The importance of being collaborative
If you regard your venture as being ‘you against the world’, chances are this will become reality. Rowan Gilmore explains why collaboration is good for business.
Tame the email beast – get control, get opened, get actioned
If you’re not careful, half your day can vanish down your inbox’s throat.
A survey of almost 600 professionals showed two thirds of them spent...
The Entrepreneur vs. Venture Capitalist
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, just one-tenth of one percent of business pitches secure venture capital investment. Yet despite the odds, many...
How to conquer six life and death business scenarios
Life is rarely predictable. So why would business be any different? Paul Ryan and Jodie O’Keeffe square up to a meteor shower of corporate Kryptonite and figure out how to dodge commercial doom. Cyber-attack, idea theft, competitor outsourcing, cash-flow crises, disruptive innovation and fraud. Take a deep breath, assess risk, consider your options…and never turn your back on a clear blue sky.
Strategy: The importance of culture
Every organisation has a culture. Spend time observing the day-to-day goings on within, say, a medical practice, a law firm, an airline and a fast food franchise, and you will notice some stark differences. While each business might have common objectives - serving clients, generating profits - it is very likely they go about these objectives in vastly different ways.
How to win at classifieds
First off, let's be clear. We have to kill the phrase 'online classifieds'. At best, it has the weary note of strained metaphors, like moving staircases and horseless carriages. At worst, it's symptomatic of a dated way of thinking about the world. These days, winning in classifieds really means winning in markets. And that, dear readers, is a much tougher job.
Media shake up – only the moguls will gain
The Packer deal took everybody by surprise. It coincided perfectly with the media reform announcements, but in fact had more to do with maximising shareholder value than with media reforms.
Here we go again
Everyone knows that business is all about cycles. What goes down must go up, and vice versa. With my dot-com scars so recently healed, I am loathe to be trumpeting another technology boom. But things are certainly afoot.
For miracle sales, get a halo
It seems like every bus shelter you pass features a back-lit silhouette of a dancing girl or boy with wires coming out of their ears. You don't have to read the logo to know that it's another ad for iPod. But did you know that the ad is doing wonders for Apple PCs?
The silver dream
The similarities between start-ups and film projects are even greater in the US, where venture investors are likely to install their own people into a business for a short period of time to help get it moving.
Ninja marketing
FIGHT LIKE A NINJA, PLEASE LIKE A GEISHA
THE NINE CODES OF NINJA MARKETING
Marketing is both a science and an art. It is also like...
Strategy: Effective leadership
While it may be heretical to some, I believe great leaders are made, not born.
Undoubtedly, there are those among us who inherited certain traits that naturally lead them to leadership roles. But any individual with the right character, willpower and discipline can become a great leader.
Challenging the academics
Here's the ugly truth the multi-million dollar management training and development industry doesn't want you to hear: Australia's businesses are being hoodwinked by academics.
Heroic profits
Microsoft. Amazon. Intel. Federal Express. Google. Due to economies of scale and network effects, these firms are likely to dominate - for decades - the global industries that they created. Australia desperately needs to create new industries as the USA has done and as all other first-world nations are struggling to do.
Small business is big business
Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. More than one million of them operate in Australia, accounting for a staggering 97 percent of all private sector businesses. They employ around 3.6 million people, representing 33 percent of our workforce and 49 percent of all private sector employment.
Ticket to ride: tech parks and industry clusters
Ambitious business builders know better than most that, in this lucky country, the only luck that sticks is self-made. Sid Subbrahmanyam considers a few locations where geography still matters in search of some elusive ingredients for success. Hold on tight!
Cashflow 101: the King and I
Cash is king... and no one except Elvis is likely to disagree. So why don't we ever have enough and how can we fix cashflow problems without selling off part of our company?
Strategy: Cash is king
While sometimes apocryphal, start-up failure rates tell a sombre story: most start-ups don't see their third anniversary. This high attrition rate has many causes, but a primary factor is poor cash flow management.
Dr Don Fry – Aussie all-rounder
Dr Don Fry's ultimate objective in life is to see every home on Earth powered by sun and water. As owner and director of AIMTEK, Fry has designed and built 225 ships and trained 1,000 apprentices. Now he wants to fly from Sydney to London in two hours and unleash the sun's nuclear power.
Your customer is always right. Are you?
You might think that your product or service is the best in the world, but you might also need your head read. Market research is one of the best ways to get into the minds of customers. And it's no longer the expensive and exclusive domain of big corporates. Hell, you don't even need a clipboard! Jodie O'Keeffe reports.
