Latest News
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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.
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Go back to school in 2011
Virginia Harrison | December 6, 2010Thinking of hitting the books next year but not sure where to start?
There are plenty of options to consider, from short courses, diplomas and certificates through to a full-blown MBA.
We’ve done the first bit of hard work for you. Here’s an outline of what’s on in executive education for 2011.
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It pays to be flexible
Virginia Harrison | December 1, 2010Want to drain an extra 2 days’ work out of your staff each week? Let them set their own start times and embrace workplace flexibility.
Flexibility helps attract and retain staff, as well as boost discretionary effort by encouraging employees to go the extra mile.
“Managers in SMEs know the cost of losing an employee and the cost of recruiting again, and building someone up. If flexibility can help you retain a person for longer than you otherwise would have, then you have to put it onto the table,” Aequus Partner Juliet Bourke says.
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Business group delivers work to network
Virginia Harrison | November 29, 2010A new networking group promises to be the middle man, sourcing work as well as contacts to save businesses time and money.
IPNConnect is a UK-based networking company that will launch in Australia next month.
Founder Paul Lawton visited Australia this month for talks with local partners including government departments, chambers of commerce and private enterprise.
“We’re going to kill traditional networking, all over the world. I know I wouldn’t go to a networking event and pay a fee just to swap business cards. I want more,” Mr Lawton says.
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Style tips from a corporate image guru
Virginia Harrison | November 25, 2010For Robin Powis, the clothes really do maketh the man.
A corporate image stylist, Powis helps individuals seeking to take the next career step or simply polish their “personal brand.”
“I help people create a natural confident style. Everyone, no matter what industry they’re in has to think about what image they create,” Robin Powis, founder of Defining Style says.
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Tools for SMEs to trade on sustainability record
Virginia Harrison | November 24, 2010
No business wants to do more reporting, but tracking and publicising sustainability performance could help boost the bottom line.
Sustainability reporting covers an organisation’s economic, environmental and social achievements, to satisfy a range of stakeholder obligations.
The benefits for corporates of improving sustainable practices include brand and reputation strengthening, increased efficiency and market differentiation.
But it’s an area smaller companies often overlook.
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Banish workplace bullies
Virginia Harrison | November 23, 2010It’s a multi-billion dollar problem that affects more than half of Australia’s workforce. Find out how barrister Peter Gorman is acting to stamp out workplace bullying, and how you can make sure it doesn’t set foot in your organisation.
Gorman has worked with the law for more than 5 decades – first as a uniform policeman, and then detective before moving to the bar.
In that time he’s seen plenty of bad behaviour.
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Bookless library the next big thing
Virginia Harrison | November 23, 2010
I’m not ready for the death of the book.
Like many, I can’t imagine a world where Kindles line the bookshelf, or the latest title is downloaded rather than carried home from the bookshop.
Apparently I suffer from a sentimental objection to progress. Read this take on the two types of digital dissenters, sparked by the construction of a library-less American school.
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Creating a marketplace of ideas and opportunities
Jeanne-Vida (JV) Douglas | November 19, 2010At the launch of First 5000 on 20 October 2010 held at NSW Parliament House business journalist Jeanne-Vida Douglas interviewed First 5000 Editor Virginia Harrison.
JVD: There are literally thousands of Australians out there at the moment working in jobs that they are not enjoying all that much while sitting on excellent business ideas which could blossom into successful ventures, if only they had the know how to take those ideas and put them into operation.
That’s why I wrote the Profit Principle, with my co-author Peter Fritz, to get those businesses up and running and to get those ideas out there. In a similar vein, the First 5000 business network has been created to bring together Australia’s most successful and entrepreneurial businesses to look for new and innovative ways to grow their enterprises and thereby increase opportunities for, and productivity of, the economy as a whole.
Virginia can you tell us more about the network you are working to create through First 5000?
