Latest News
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Beef up your managerial muscles
Virginia Harrison | January 11, 2011http://www.carnegiemg.com.au/
THE strategy used to get a teenager to clean their room might not be so persuasive in the boardroom. Yet executive mentor Kayley Liddle often sees managers fall short by failing to distinguish between worlds – just one area where a corporate coach can help sharpen a professional’s edge.
“Executive coaching helps individuals stay focused on their goals a lot quicker, and a lot more effectively than if they were doing it on their own,” Ms Riddle from Carnegie Management Group says.
“People ask if I had a coach what would I get? It’s a very difficult question to answer, I ask what would you like to get, what would you like to achieve?”
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Trend alert: business bait for innovative thinkers
Virginia Harrison | January 10, 2011Keen to step up your entrepreneurial efforts in 2011 but not sure where to start?
A new book by businessman and technology forecaster Dr John. H. Vanston might help you along that path.
MINITRENDS sketches out nine key money-making opportunities that will emerge over the next few years.
Rather than trends that will shape the way we do business, Vanston has identified trends individuals and businesses can capitalize on, and turn into profit-making ventures.
“Minitrends are of a scope and importance to offer attractive opportunities to individual entrepreneurs, decision-makers in small and mid-size businesses, innovative thinkers in large companies, and adventuresome investors,” Dr Vanston says.
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The Pacioli-Fritz accounting system: bringing intangibles to light
Peter Fritz | December 24, 2010Since the so-called father of accounting, Luca Pacioli published his book Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalitain Venice in 1494, in which he describes the method of bookkeeping that Venetian merchants were using, known as the double-entry accounting system, much has happened in the world of commerce and economics.
Relatively speaking, not much has happened in the double-entry accounting system.
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All I want for Christmas…
Natalie Susman | December 22, 2010Give your clients a really great Christmas gift that will help them remember you all year round – and you could be giving someone a job too!
It’s that time of year again. When the streets become decorated in a sea of tinsel and holly and you can’t walk past a retail outlet without hearing a rendition of Jingle Bells.
It’s also that time of year when businesses like to show their appreciation of their clients and staff. Conscientious staffers frantically search the internet for that perfect gift… the one that doesn’t take a lot to coordinate, that falls within budget and might just even bring a smile to the faces of those that receive it.
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Uncategorised
When personal problems become workplace issues
Virginia Harrison | December 21, 2010Is a moody teenager at home making your workplace less productive? It might seem trivial, but real-life problems can’t always be fenced off from the office. Here organisational psychologist Leanne Faraday-Brash offers tips to identify and handle non-work stresses that impact the job.
The Principal of Brash Consulting, Faraday-Brash has spent the past 2 decades advising mid to large organisations on leadership and change development.
Relationship dysfunction, family breakdowns and challenges with children are some of the common issues she sees spill into the workplace.
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Paid maternity leave just around the corner…are you confused?
Matthew Tukaki | December 20, 2010It’s time to make sure you understand and are prepared for the introduction of the paid parental leave scheme.
It strikes me that there is a degree of confusion in the business community about a fundamental series of changes that will come into force from 1 January 2011. In the main, those changes relate to the introduction of the Government’s Paid Parental Scheme.
This confusion has been evident in a series of workshops that I have been running around understanding the impacts of legislation on employers and hiring managers.
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Mid-size businesses should factor in factoring
David Hechter | December 14, 2010In today’s credit restricted economy, it’s more important than ever for medium-sized businesses to know what forms of financing are available to them.
Medium-sized businesses are different, but like companies of all sizes they have the challenge of chasing up slow payers.
In fact, because they are more likely to be providing services to large companies, the mid-size business is feeling this pain more acutely.
The global financial crisis and the rise in funding costs has prompted banks to protect their internal balance sheets more than ever, and are tightening up their credit criteria for businesses of all sizes. To ensure their success, mid-size growth companies may need to rely on alternative forms of financing, like accounts receivable factoring.
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Last minute goodwill gift guide
Virginia Harrison | December 14, 2010
Despite jitters from retailers that Christmas spending will be down this year, Australians are expected to fork out nearly $40 billion dollars this festive season.
The estimate from the Australian Retailers Association also found that in the 6 week lead-up to Christmas, we’ll spend $3.4 billion in department stores and nearly $3 billion on apparel alone.
Pro-Bono Australia is helping you direct some of your festive spending to a good cause. Use its Ethical Giving Guide to find goodwill gift options and ways to support not-for-profit groups this Christmas.
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Who are you in the zoo?
Virginia Harrison | December 13, 2010
Hyenas make great project managers. A lion should head up your sales team, but never the HR department. That job is best left to an owl.
Or so according to The Organizational Zoo, a system of understanding human interactions which uses animals to represent different behavioural styles, devised by lecturer and knowledge expert Arthur Shelley.
The concept is designed to improve group dynamics and outcomes.
“It doesn’t matter how good a project is, success always leads back to the dynamics of the people that involved,” Shelley says.
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Win a copy of The Profit Principle
Sally Rose | December 9, 2010Refer a member to win!
Help grow the First 5000 community. Nominate an eligible* friend or colleague to receive complimentary First 5000 membership before 31 December 2010 and we’ll shout you a copy First 5000’s book of the month, The Profit Principle.
Just send an email to editor@first5000.com.au with the name, position, company and email address of the eligible member you’re nominating, plus the postal address where you’d like us to send your copy of The Profit Principle.
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Buck rising in business travel
Virginia Harrison | December 6, 2010The billion-dollar business events industry is returning to health after the economic downturn slashed spending in the sector.
Business events visitor expenditure took an 18 per cent or $1.8 billion dive last year in the wake of the financial crisis, according to a new report by Tourism Research Australia.
The Minister Assisting on Tourism, Senator Nick Sherry, said the report shows the worst appears to be over for the sector, which was worth $9.7 billion pre-global recession.
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A commercial edge, an exploratory edge and a learning edge
Virginia Harrison | December 6, 2010At the First 5000 launch held at NSW Parliament House on 20 October 2010, Carl Harman, Academy Dean for Leadership at the National Australia Bank spoke about why NAB became involved with the initiative.
I should explain that prior to becoming the Dean of Leadership and Talent at the NAB I was heading up marketing and strategy for the Business Bank and as Australia’s leading business bank this segment is at the very core of our DNA.
Around four years ago, before I met Peter, we had been thinking about how we might connect businesses to draw systemic knowledge from the market place, rather than snippets, from the strong relationships we have made over the years with our customers. Yet as a bank we are not very good at playing in the online and social media space and that’s what we are going to be able to develop through the First 5000 initiative.
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Shaping the market-place
Virginia Harrison | December 6, 2010
The leader of Deloitte Private, David Murray, had this to say at the launch of First 5000, held at NSW Parliament House on 20 October 2010, about why Deloitte Private decided to become involved in the initiative.
We often say things are all about the timing and in the case of First 5000 the timing of the initial expression of interest aligned with what we were doing. As JV said in the introduction, I have the pleasure of running what we call Deloitte Private which is a division of Deloitte that looks after private organisations, private entities, businesses and their owners- high networked individuals.
Deloitte Private also spans into certain elements of the listed sector as private business obviously has a very close correlation with the listed sector as many seek to list.
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Opportunity for a collective voice
Virginia Harrison | December 6, 2010At the launch of First 5000 on 20 October 2010 held at NSW Parliament House Leo Silver, managing director of Integrated Wireless, spoke to Jeanne-Vida Douglas about how First 5000 can meet the needs of a businesses like his own.
JVD:In order to get an idea of what kinds of businesses that are involved within the First 5000 initiative I would like to introduce Leo Silver. He is the managing director of the Australian technology company Integrated Wireless which delivers emergency wireless communication solutions to large institutions like hospitals and so forth throughout the country.
So Leo, tell me why would you join First 5000 and how are the needs of a business such as your own meet through joining a group like First 5000?
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Know-how: tips to manage your information load
Rodney Coyte | December 6, 2010
Dr Rodney Coyte put a SME under the microscope and discovered cracks in conventional wisdom about how to manage information in smaller organisations.
Plenty of work has been done assessing knowledge management practices in large enterprises, but a research gap exists when it comes to SMEs.
Read the first stage of Dr Coyte’s findings and advice on how mid-size companies can better manage information and boost profit-making.
