Management Matters

The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Napoleon Hill’s 1,600+ page monstrosity published prior to Think and Grow Rich, contains a lot of useful information that can help you realise your potential. In this series, Joshua Moore covers each of these attributes in a practical way that you can apply to your life and work. Today he discusses Lesson Five: Initiative and Leadership.

In February, top level recruitment site Six Figures published its 2010 Executive Career Monitor Report. The report was compiled from a survey in late 2009 (in conjunction with talent site Destination Talent) of 1,332 Australian high income earners, with the findings being released at a breakfast meeting in Melbourne on 2nd March.

Picture this. You are at a party. You casually mention a problem you’ve had with your computer. Before you know it, someone you barely know creeps up and whispers the words “you need a server” and then disappears before they ever really showed up. You are left confused and on your own with those words ringing in your ear.

Business is best defined as: “Creating wealth through profitable transactions.” I came to this definition many years ago after winning a job as General Manager of a medium-sized company and later boasting to a friend that revenue had increased threefold under my guidance. “Great,” he said, “but what about profit?” This was a great question.

The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Napoleon Hill’s 1,600+ page monstrosity published prior to Think and Grow Rich, contains a lot of useful information that can help you realise your potential. In this series, Joshua Moore covers each of these attributes in a practical way that you can apply to your life and work. Today he discusses Lesson Four: The habit of saving

The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Napoleon Hill’s 1,600+ page monstrosity published prior to Think and Grow Rich, contains a lot of useful information that can help you realise your potential. In this series, Joshua Moore covers each of these attributes in a practical way that you can apply to your life and work. Today he discusses Lesson Three: Self-Confidence

He coughed, spluttered, back-pedalled and delivered amazing excuses: Credit this, debit that, liability something else, below the EBIT line over there, management fees somewhere else, intercompany loans and so on. I could see George starting to waver so I asked a very simple question to by-pass the jargon and drivel and get us back to the point of the discussion:

Funding and cashflow are the seemingly ever elusive crucial components to running a small business. With the banks being the most obvious source to approach, business owners often find this a frustrating and generally ‘closed-door’ option. David Hechtor looks at the alternatives.

Are your technology suppliers and support providers advising you according to your best interests, or theirs?

I can never figure out if that Dire Straits song goes “money for nothing and your chicks for free” or “money for nothing and your cheques for free”. Let’s stick with cheques for this post, because everyone knows you don’t get chicks for free unless you play the guitar on the MTV. Plus, getting cheques for free is in context with what I want to talk about.

You might think you have a pretty good grasp on what makes an effective leader. You might even think you're pretty good at explaining it to others. But it's unlikely you can do a better job explaining it than this roughly shot three-minute video of a lone, shirtless guy dancing at a concert.

When business partners launch a new company, all of their attention and energy goes into getting the new venture on its feet. However, it’s not long before questions and difficulties arise over disparate workloads, responsibilities and remuneration. Darren Bourke offers some advice on how to keep all parties walking in the same direction.

Inconsistency is what most influences an organisation's decision to invest in R&D and the extent of its R&D investment. This is because a company cannot budget and minimise risk if it does now know the extent to which it is likely to be eligible for a tax concession. The proposed reforms to the R&D tax concession not only conflict with their stated purpose but offer no consistency to organisations already engaged in the complex task of commercialising innovation... whether novel or risky.

Inconsistency is what most influences an organisation's decision to invest in R&D and the extent of its R&D investment. This is because a company cannot budget and minimise risk if it does now know the extent to which it is likely to be eligible for a tax concession. The proposed reforms to the R&D tax concession not only conflict with their stated purpose but offer no consistency to organisations already engaged in the complex task of commercialising innovation... whether novel or risky.

Running a small business inevitably means becoming a jack of all trades, most notably of which is ‘doing the books’. This in turn requires getting to grips with tricky accounting packages, an understanding of spreadsheets and becoming conversant with accounting jargon. The result is waving goodbye to your evenings, weekends and regular sleep.

Eugene Lin wanted to be rich. So, he decided to invent an iPhone application. With nothing but an accelerometer, two dozen naked women, and the nation of Japan, Eugene surprisingly found himself with a ripper story to tell (in under five minutes).

Starting the new year with an optimistic outlook is one thing. To remain confident throughout the rest of the year requires setting a series of short-term measurable goals that you celebrate as each is achieved.

Starting the new year with an optimistic outlook is one thing. To remain confident throughout the rest of the year requires setting a series of short-term measurable goals that you celebrate as each is achieved.

The first thing you need to do in order to take the amazing idea in your head and turn it into a fully-fledged company is to raise capital, and the first piece of advice you’ll get is to create a business plan and a forecast. If that sounds like an awful lot of hard work, you're right. If you don’t even know where your next pay cheque is coming from, how can you be expected to have foresight years ahead on the performance of a company that exists only in thin air? It also sounds suspiciously like a budget -- something you thought you’d left behind in the corporate world.

The first thing you need to do in order to take the amazing idea in your head and turn it into a fully-fledged company is to raise capital, and the first piece of advice you’ll get is to create a business plan and a forecast. If that sounds like an awful lot of hard work, you're right. If you don’t even know where your next pay cheque is coming from, how can you be expected to have foresight years ahead on the performance of a company that exists only in thin air? It also sounds suspiciously like a budget -- something you thought you’d left behind in the corporate world.