Articles

For the most part, we Australians huddle in and around our eastern seaboard cities, with healthy respect for the harsh realities inland. But there's more to Australia's tech sector than MBA-educated entrepreneurs and wealthy investors in Sydney and Melbourne. As globalisation levels the international playing field, so the performance gap between urban elites and regional innovators narrows.

London, New York and . . . Shanghai. When global citizens call to mind the world's mega-cities in 2010, Shanghai's Government wants to rank in the very top echelon. Becoming an "international city" by 2010 might sound like a strange goal for a municipality, but foreign entrepreneurs need only look as far as the incentives Shanghai's government is offering to understand that this is an opportune moment to set up shop in this sprawling metropolis. In the final instalment of his four part series, returning Australian expat Paul Waide delves into the city that is commonly acknowledged as being a window on China's future.

After nearly a decade of protest, Show Business has discovered the web. Whether it is Disney selling episodes of Desperate Housewives on iPods, Fox screening prime time TV shows on the web or Hollywood Studios selling full versions of their movies online, this year has seen a major turning point for the titans of Tinseltown. Now everyone is scrambling to unlock new networks and future fortunes.

So, you've selected a great brand and have started to build consumer awareness and loyalty in it. And, of course, you've done the right thing to protect your rights in the brand by registering it with IP Australia. Your work is finished. Right?

J P Morgan, the famous American Industrialist, said: "People do things for two reasons... the right reason and the real reason". Understanding the real reason can be the ultimate point of differentiation when pitching for business.

Public speaking is a core business skill that's often not taught in any business course. Many people avoid public speaking and don't understand the importance of using presentations to help build their business. Here are some tips to help you plan and deliver a presentation with impact.

On mention of the word "mashup", approximately half of you will immediately and unselfconsciously think of boiled spuds. This is a given. Now, mashups are the latest boom trend at the cutting edge of Web 2.0. In short, they are hybrid web-based applications combining taken from more than one source. In the brave new world of Web 2.0, linear is boring. Mono is tres uncool. You're all invited to the mashup jamboree ... as long as you know how to share.

G'day Anthillians. These are troubled times, but nothing some good PR can't fix! Antagoniser extraordinaire, Ray Beatty, considers exhibit A: the brand new Hardest Job In The World. (Hint, it's not W's.)

The boots might be warm and fuzzy, but the term "Ugg/Ugh" sends chills down the spines of many Australian retailers. For decades, "Ugg/Ugh" remained off the Australian Register of Trademarks, largely because it was considered by manufacturers and retailers to be a generic term in Australia. Then US giant Deckers Outdoor Corporation registered "Ugg" (and its derivatives) as an Australian trade mark and, like all diligent patent and trade mark holders, began mailing cease and desist notices to Australian retailers selling boots under the name(s).

BI-GOODNESS is a bi-monthly column dedicated to the quirky, generally funny and often dangerously impractical inventions and business concepts that occasionally come our way. It is a tribute to the one-eyed entrepreneur, the nutty professor and dotcom jockey in each of us.

Highly acclaimed marketing expert Tony Surtees prefers to avoid labels. If he had to nominate one for himself, it would be 'enterprise creator'. His particular ability is to assess changing market places and pick future trends, uncovering opportunities. He lets us in on some tricks learnt so far in his glittering global career.

I just don't get the handout mentality. A friend of mine is doing his Doctorate. His research institution and the university will own any IP generated, and he is immensely grateful for the modest stipend that he is surviving on throughout this process.

I had a fascinating exchange with a venture capitalist the other day. I made the mistake of having a private conversation about the industrial relations reforms (yes, I know, religion and politics), which he overheard. I was delighted when he exploded next to me - "I can't stand listening to this socialist crap any longer!" Readers, I am not now, and have never been, until last week, accused of being a socialist.

Lists. Endless lists. The latest curse of the web are those endless swimming pools of customer data - most popular, most active, most tagged or downloaded. Personally, I hate them. They tell me nothing, other than other people's aggregated bad taste. Worse, they miss one of the internet's most subtle and powerful features - the discovery power of networks.

Wandering through the halls of the enormous 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February, it was plainly evident that mobile communications is still in the very active stages of the innovation cycle. This event, which brings together most of the world's top telecommunications technology and network companies, has come a long way from its humble beginnings last decade in the French seaside town of Cannes, when early attendances numbered in the hundreds.

Wandering through the halls of the enormous 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February, it was plainly evident that mobile communications is still in the very active stages of the innovation cycle. This event, which brings together most of the world's top telecommunications technology and network companies, has come a long way from its humble beginnings last decade in the French seaside town of Cannes, when early attendances numbered in the hundreds.

If you ever feel under the pump at work, spare a thought for these three professionals. How would you have dealt with the pressure to win gold placed on Cathy Freeman at the Sydney Olympics? Perhaps the intensity that greets a police sniper at a siege would be more to your taste? Could you have surmounted your own vertigo to launch the Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb business? When it's your job to deal with fear, you'd better learn fast.

In these pensive days, where a backpacker on a bus could pose more of a threat than a cave-dwelling Taliban, Governments and corporations are hungry for technology that will help secure their people and resources. It has fed a boom in the defence tech sector; a world of cutting-edge machinery and multi-million dollar contracts, and home to some of the world's keenest strategic and technical minds. Several Australian companies are emerging as genuine players in this highly competitive space. Liz Heynes and Catherine Kerstjens take a look at six on this new front line.

Salespeople acquired a stereotype for foot-in-the-door, sell-your-mother-for-a-dollar moral bankruptcy long before Zig Zigler cartwheeled his way into the public consciousness. But if salespeople appear a hardened bunch it's because they spend their days on the front line. And let's face it, if salespeople fail, no one gets paid. It's about time we cleared society's pedestal of entertainment celebrities, precious artists and fatuous egomaniacs. At long last, it's time to hail the salesperson!

Over $500 million in venture capital was earmarked for China in the first half of 2005 alone. With a shortage of deals and management talent, opportunities abound for both investors and investee companies from abroad. In the third instalment of this four-part series, Paul Waide pulls back the curtain to reveal the complex machinations of China's vibrant private equity market.