So it’s half time. You are behind by a goal (or a basket, or a stroke …). You take a breather, reassess your situation and fire yourself up for the second half. And what happens? More than likely, you end up winning. Much has been spoken of the emotional half time Churchillian speech from the coach, an inspired...Read More
On Friday I attended an Economic Outlook breakfast, hosted by RSM, with NAB chief economist, Alan Oster. Here are my notes… it’s more positive than you might have guessed (which was the main take away.) The headline is that there will be no recession in Australia in 2016, continuing an amazing 24 year run for our economy. Basically,...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
I get to go to many business awards these days, many functions, and often (let me confess dear reader) they can rather blend into each other. But not the one I attended last Friday, the annual Wanneroo Business Association Awards. It was clear from the outset people were in a celebratory mood. The surrounds, the Bridgeleigh...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
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
I was lazily scrolling through LinkedIN the other day and got to that bit where people who you may know are served up to you as in some professional speed dating site (not that I know what that looks like). You know, the rows and rows of people who are linked to people you are linked...Read More
The passing of Alan Bond this week has made many think back to the decade of the ’80s with its big hair and even bigger, brasher entrepreneurs. It was the decade that saw a new generation of leaders in Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Richard Branson come into their own (their companies still hold sway to this...Read More
