Latest News
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UPDATE: Retailers lead the way in Christmas confidence
Virginia Harrison | September 7, 2010
September 2010: Australia’s executives are tipping strong growth in the lead up to Christmas, but remain cautious about bringing on new staff.The latest Dun & Bradstreet Business Expectations survey reveals improvement in 5 out of 6 key indicators of business strength.
Executives are confident of growth in sales, profits, inventories, capital investment and selling prices during the December quarter.
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Digital tools for pricing compliance
Virginia Harrison | September 7, 2010
Electronic labels are helping one hardware store owner save time and money, and stay on the right side of the law.David Berry owns Thrifty Link in Gunnedah and last year installed nearly 6,000 ILID labels throughout his store.
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Work safety more than hardhats and steel-capped boots
Virginia Harrison | September 4, 2010
Aussie tech-company keeps workers in high-pressure environments safe from harm. Virginia Harrison spoke to Leo Silver.Workers in high-pressure environments like prisons or hospitals can find themselves in life-threatening situations, and that reality has created a business opportunity for an Australian tech-company.
Integrated Wireless provide messaging and duress systems solutions to protect staff working in intensive environments.
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Women to drive the global economic recovery
Virginia Harrison | September 4, 2010
Women outpace men when it comes to growing businesses and hold the potential to lead the global economic recovery according to a new study.A report by Ernst & Young investigated the productive power of female entrepreneurs and states that women-owned enterprises grow faster than those owned by men.
Females own or operate up to 33 per cent of private businesses worldwide.
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Manager skill-set blocks mid-size growth
Beth Walker | September 4, 2010Medium-sized businesses often stumble when it comes to scaling up because they lack strong managerial skills.
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Cloud Computing: What does it mean for SMEs?
Matthew Sorell | July 22, 2010Cloud computing is the notion that you can put or process your data “in the cloud somewhere”. Where it is and how it got there is not your problem. How reliably it’s stored, whether it can be hacked into, and a whole host of other issues shouldn’t be your problem either; in the ideal cloud environment.
But back in the real world, reliability, access, security and recoverability are your problem, and that means that you do care where your data is and how it got there. How do you respond?
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Getting up to speed with workplace flexibility in SMEs
Juliet Bourke | July 22, 2010As a partner in a business, plus an outspoken advocate on workplace flexibility, I am very conscious of practicing what I preach and maintaining a competitive business edge.
I often hear it said that flexible work practices can work in a very big business, with lots of resources including an HR department, but not in small (1-19 employees) or even medium (20-199 employees) businesses .
That’s not my experience. I don’t think size matters – it’s more about creating a culture of give and take.
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Open Letter to the G20 Leaders
Patrick Callioni | July 21, 2010Markets make money whether the economy is going up or down – it is only the rest who stand to lose.
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Action on Gender Equality Urged
Les Pickett | July 21, 2010
Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick recently launched the Gender Equality Blueprint 2010. There are some highlights worth noting.
The Gender Equality Blueprint 2010 sets out fifteen recommendations in the following five priority areas: 1) Balancing paid work and family and caring responsibilities 2) Ensuring women’s lifetime economic security 3) Promoting women in leadership 4) Preventing violence against women and sexual harassment 5) Strengthening national gender equality laws, agencies and monitoring.
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Productivity Commission Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business
Les Pickett | July 21, 2010The Australian Government Productivity Commission invites comment on draft report on Annual Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business: Business and Consumer Services.
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Health Information Exchange becoming a reality in Canada. When in Australia?
Malcolm Crompton | July 21, 2010Canada is getting on with the job that matters with eHealth information: Health Information Exchange (I call it HIX…).
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Finding the First 5000
Peter Fritz | July 21, 2010Driving to work last week I was listening to ABC Radio coverage of the latest Dun & Bradstreet business report which indicated that 1 in 4 businesses expect to dismiss staff in the near future.
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How I Became a Chocolate Merchant
Peter Fritz | July 21, 2010I like chocolate.
Twelve years ago I landed in Brussels airport on a stopover and treated myself to a small box of Belgian chocolates which were absolutely wonderful.
I enjoyed them so much that I didn’t want to wait until next in Brussels to enjoy them again. So I kept the packaging and upon my return to Australia telephoned the company, Neuhause, and asked if they had a local stockist in Sydney.
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Actions speak louder than words: APEC Launches New Privacy Enforcement Initiative
Malcolm Crompton | July 21, 2010The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has launched an initiative to help boost consumer trust in e-commerce by fortifying enforcement of regional data privacy laws.
The APEC Cross-border Privacy Enforcement Arrangement (CPEA) will serve as a platform for authorities to engage in information sharing, evidence collection and complaints handling, among other imperatives. The formal commencement day was 16 July 2010.
