Management Matters

The New Year is a great time to take stock and prepare your business to gear up for a new operating environment. Westpac’s Sian Lewis provides the following New Year’s resolutions to kick-start your business for the year ahead…

During this two hour seminar and networking event, attendees will learn from five of Australia’s leading experts on venture capital and business development - real investors, currently seeking investment opportunities, and successful entrepreneurs, who have ‘been there’ and secured private funding for their growing companies.

Two weeks ago, we asked our readers to help us assemble our annual Dumb Report, a selection of Australian goofs, gaffs and groaners from...

Two weeks ago, we asked our readers to help us assemble our annual Dumb Report, a selection of Australian goofs, gaffs and groaners from...

The December and January period is normally a slow time for small-to-medium sized businesses, with most customers on holidays, suppliers operating on skeleton staff and budgets on hold. The Interface Financial Group’s David Hechter offers his top five tips for surviving the Christmas slowdown.

It's probably the many hours I've spent over the past week researching (and rabble rousing) in aid of our annual Dumb Report, but I couldn't help reading Fairfax's Top 100 Most Influential People with more than the usual requisite amount of cynicism.

It's probably the many hours I've spent over the past week researching (and rabble rousing) in aid of our annual Dumb Report, but I couldn't help reading Fairfax's Top 100 Most Influential People with more than the usual requisite amount of cynicism.

Brands such as Coca Cola are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and rely on secrecy to protect their secret formulae. Rumour has it that only four people know the formula for Coca Cola. It is also alleged that only four people know the secret to the finger licking good taste of Kentucky Fried Chicken. If companies like Coca Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken can rely on secrecy, is that enough?

Jeremy Levitt once had a promising career at the international law firm Allens Arthur Robinson. For him, entrepreneurship was just a pipe dream, and it wasn't until the moment he finally shook off the guilt associated with leaving the law firm that the dream had become reality.

March is consistently the worst month of the year for company insolvencies. Why? Because businesses don’t plan for the inevitable drop in cashflow over the holiday period. Tim Lea offers some great advice on how to keep all the balls in the air while you and your customers are enjoying the summer break.

It is generally thought that a soaring Aussie dollar is terrible for exporters. However, as Austrade's Chief Economist Tim Harcourt reveals, there are two sides to every coin.

Firstly, let's clear up some confusion. Commercialisation Australia is not going to pay for your marketing campaign, help you with advertising or fund you to break into your desired market. CA will help you up to the point that you are ready to go commercial. That is, it will help with pre-commercialisation.

The tangle of red tape is shortly about to be made much simpler and more seamless as a result of an initiative led by the Australian Treasury called 'Standard Business Reporting', which will be available from 1 July, 2010.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here at Anthill, we've taken a particular interest in the evolving concept of crowdsourcing, and specifically the growing practice of companies sourcing creative ideas and designs from the crowd online. Crowdsourcing is a bone of contention in the Anthill community. For yet another view, here we publish the thoughts of Paul Cornwell, Partner at creative agency BCM Partnership, on Unilever's recent use of crowdsourcing website Idea Bounty to source creative ideas for its Peperami brand.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here at Anthill, we've taken a particular interest in the evolving concept of crowdsourcing, and specifically the growing practice of companies sourcing creative ideas and designs from the crowd online. Crowdsourcing is a bone of contention in the Anthill community. For yet another view, here we publish the thoughts of Paul Cornwell, Partner at creative agency BCM Partnership, on Unilever's recent use of crowdsourcing website Idea Bounty to source creative ideas for its Peperami brand.

Okay, maybe that's a tad on the dramatic side. What I hate is this faffing around with logos as an excuse for not doing other, real, important stuff with your business.

It's a subject that is not often written or spoken about, particularly in the first person, leaving most entrepreneurs with only one option for learning how to shut a company down... the hard way. Special thanks to AIMIA for making this footage available and 'hats off' to Brendan Lewis for this enlightening presentation. To quote the speaker, "You won't find this in any accounting or legal textbook.")

The news yesterday that the Federal Government has unveiled details of its $196 million Commercialisation Australia (CA) initiative has been welcomed by many entrepreneurs and innovation consultants. These same intended beneficiaries might also be forgiven for wondering whether it is an improvement on the $1 billion Commercial Ready Scheme it is designed to replace.

The news yesterday that the Federal Government has unveiled details of its $196 million Commercialisation Australia (CA) initiative has been welcomed by many entrepreneurs and innovation consultants. These same intended beneficiaries might also be forgiven for wondering whether it is an improvement on the $1 billion Commercial Ready Scheme it is designed to replace.

The US remains the largest developed market in the world and a big influence on other global markets. It remains important for any company with global ambitions. The current economic environment does not do a lot to encourage Australian firms to focus on the US. However, innovative new models and technology have dramatically changed the cost of entering and developing the US market. Australian firms can now do much of the early market development work without having to hire a US-based team.