For the past 55 years, every Australia Day, the ‘Australian of the Year’ is announced, usually by the Prime Minister in a ceremony outside Parliament House. It’s become a major occasion, and is televised. The Award was originally designed to bring some deeper meaning and a focal point to Australia Day itself. These days the...Read More
Last week I spoke about catastrophe theory, and the way things can go belly up pretty quickly, from a seemingly impregnable position. It can happen in business (think Kodak, Blockbuster, Australia Post..) and sport (countless examples – including the French golfer who blew up in the last at Carnoustie in 1999). It can happen in...Read More
There’s no doubt that most of business, sport and life generally is played in the mind. What fascinates me are those moments of madness, when what has gone before is seemingly irrelevant, and pressure leads to craziness. Take the incredible implosion of French golfer Jean van de Velde at the last hole of the British...Read More
For the fourth time, TED has come to town, or rather ‘TEDx’ – the independently organised TED event run by volunteers. As always, it was a sell out. I made it down by tea time to hear the last 3 speakers, and the chat around the Concert Hall was of another terrific day, full of eclectic...Read More
On the 100th anniversary of the Perth-based conglomerate Wesfarmers last year, Chairman and former MD Michael Chaney was asked what measures he used to decide on acquiring another company. “I use the Three S’s as a guide,” said Mr Chaney,”and they are: Synergy, Strategic and Someone else will do it. If anyone uses these words, then I am not buying!” Management...Read More
Google “I like lawyers” and the top results are articles such as “Why do people hate lawyers so much?” and “People like lawyers less than you think”. Even Google can’t find a positive result. It might be easy to knock them, but finding a good lawyer or accountant is critical to the success of any business. I...Read More
Yesterday I attended the ‘Entrepreneur’s Convention‘, run by the Entourage. Billed as Australia and New Zealand’s largest conference for entrepreneurs, I’d missed the previous two times it has been to Perth, so was keen to give it a look this time. So keen in fact, I bought myself a VIP ticket, which got me preferred...Read More
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyn_xLrtZaY] International businesswoman Margaret Heffernan took to the TED stage a few months ago in Monterey, CA, to deliver an impassioned plea to business to remove the ‘superchicken’ culture. ‘Success comes from collaboration, not from competition’, she implored. In the video above she begins with the evolutionary scientist William Muir’s experiment with chickens at Purdue University. He...Read More
One of my favourite quotations from economist John Maynard Keynes was “in the long run, we are all dead.” He made this quip to pour scorn on those who thought the problems of the day were insurmountable and impossible to cure in the interim. He argued for the government to take the lead, and ‘prime the...Read More
When I ran my own business I found that one of the best ways to get a free kick with media is to win business awards. When our business was a fragile 6 month old we won the ‘Best E-Commerce Innovation‘ award. We were up against some big players, and we were amazed. It gave us a...Read More
