Tag: Staff

Small businesses are big business in Australia, with the vast majority of all companies coming into this category. While they may not have the resources and manpower of larger organisations when optimising efficiency, their small size and all-hands-on-deck ability means that they have the competitive advantage when comes to their most important asset: human capital. Tony Wilson explains.

With one in five Australian workers admittedly unhappy at work, those companies that can keep their employees engaged have all sorts of advantages. Here are some tips to help your staff get the most out of themselves.

With so much information flying around these days, it’s easy for good ideas to slip through the net. Roger La Salle highlights the importance of trawling deep and wide.

When it comes to building a company from scratch, there’s no substitute for hard work, writes Sahil Merchant.

What are the most pressing issues facing Australian business owners and CEOs? To find out, The CEO Institute polled its members on a range of questions during the month of October. Here are the issues that business owners and leaders deemed most important:

We’re conditioned to think that people who excel at school are the ones that go on to excel in business. However, research indicates that a better guide is not the distinction between A and C students but between ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindset individuals. Robert Wood explains.

Earlier this year, Digg users were invited to submit questions they would like to hear Branson answer, then urged to rate (digg) the questions of others. Then, socialite-turned-media-mogul Arianna Huffington put the top ten most dugg questions to Branson on the inaugural Virgin America flight from San Francisco to Orange County, California. Some people find the experience of listening to Arianna Huffington a bit like fingernails down a blackboard, but Branson's dulcet tones and the hum of the jet engine help to balance things out.

‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ Who hasn’t trotted out this old platitude to encourage themselves or someone else to tough it out, hang in there or generally put up and shut up? Well, guys – listen up, we were wrong!

When the global recession hit, Robert Castaneda packed his bags and moved his family to California. To him, the financial crisis was a perfect opportunity to launch a USA office for his company, CustomWare, a business integration and collaboration services firm.

Why do we think that fast is better and why do we so often mistake speed for efficiency in the workplace? John Freeman, author of 'Shrinking the World', thinks it's all a bit wrong-headed. Persephone Nicholas reports.

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.

If you ain't the Big Cheese, it's likely you think (at least occasionally) that you could run the company better. So get a team together and make it happen! Here are eights steps to buying out your boss and seizing the reins.

This week Ross Dawson released a list of extraordinary technologies he thinks will be commonplace seven years from now, in 2016.

This is an oldie but oh-so good. If your office discipline is waning, it might be time to keep your colleagues on their toes by bringing in an office enforcer. No HR gab-fests here. This is old school office discipline, Terry Tate-style. Hellll yeahhh.

You can choose your friends and business colleagues, but you can’t choose your family. However, many people choose to start or continue running businesses with family members. Of course, the common stresses of family and business are usually multiplied in a family business, so it’s important to establish the ground rules early on. Here are 20 tips to keep your family business on track.

A company’s culture is set early and by the founder. If you hook in from the get-go, the resulting stories can become the stuff of legend that sustains staff morale long into the future, says Sahil Merchant.

I don't know about you (dear readers) but, whenever I'm stuck for an answer at work, I either look for an instructional screencast on YouTube, pose my question to fellow Anthilians via IM and Skype, request feedback from LinkedIn Groups or simply blog about it.

Chances are, you’ve had to make some changes to your company’s internal structure in response to the economic downturn and in preparation for the slow recovery that appears to be underway. As with everything in business, restructures can be done well and they can be done poorly. Here are seven principles to help you avoid unnecessary complication.