Bloggers

China's minimum wage

Mark Crosby — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:01 +1100

Early this month a number of Chinese provinces raised their minimum wage by one-third, and the Director of the Wages and Labour Institute at China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Soci...

Are You Making This Common Mistake & Getting Everything You DON’T Want?

Rhondalynn Korolak — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:31 +1100

Have you ever heard somebody say to another person "Don't spill that coffee." and seen that exact thing happen, that you know will happen.... which is that they do spill the coffee by accident...

Thank you

Sonia Friedrich — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:08 +1100

“Thank you”. These two simple words are the perfect response to receiving a compliment. Who would have thought that eigh...

Should I leave Australia?

Joshua Gans — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:20 +1100

It is hard to watch the current ‘population’ ...

Create Bridges to Improve Innovation

Tim Kastelle — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:47 +1100

Ethan Zuckerman's great talk from this week's TED Global conference was just posted - it is well worth watching (the ...

To Flirt or Not To Flirt...

Rhondalynn Korolak — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:15 +1100

The definition of "flirt", according to the dictionary is:

Is There Such Thing As A Natural Born Optimist?

Rhondalynn Korolak — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:53 +1100

First let's get one thing straight - happiness and optimism are not the same thing. Happiness is an emotion,...

INFLUENCE OR “ATTFLUENCE” FOR LEADERS

Richard Searle — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:20 +1100

Have you ever read any of those snappy books that you can buy at the airport with compelling titles that promise to show you how to become...

Population and Growth

Mark Crosby — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:09 +1100

Some busin...

Are You Trying To Make the EASY Way Look Hard?

Rhondalynn Korolak — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:05 +1100

What if I told you that YOU are you're own worst enemy? Would you be offended or would you smile and agree, ...

Is 'Botox' Changing the Way we Communicate?

Sonia Friedrich — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:15 +1100

The ‘Botox boom’ has become a phenomenon of enhanced proportions. Aiming to beautify our race by making human wrinkles a...

Non price increasing carbon taxes

Mark Crosby — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:05 +1100

Tony Abbott has already stated that there will be “I’ve been generally supportive of the idea of a government push to build a real high speed telecommunications network across Australia. I’m not sure whether they wi...

Would You Trust Lily Allen to Give You Career or Business Advice?

Rhondalynn Korolak — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:02 +1100

Lily Allen may not be an authority on business, but she hit the nail on the head with her honest, irreverent spin on a timeless mystery - "how to know what to do when you have n...

Why you’re the biggest obstacle in your career/business

Rhondalynn Korolak — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:49 +1100

If you didn't ha...

Australia's international development goals and me

Marissa Toohey — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:35 +1100

My heart is beating hard and fast, I’ve got a lump in my throat the size of Brisbane and I’m fighting against an army of t...

World’s largest open innovation challenge launched this morning

Ben Waters — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:40 +1100

Australian innovators encouraged to challenge for funding to cement country’s place at the forefront of addressing clima...

MBS research uncovers stock market phenomenon

Melbourne Business School — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:00 +1100

Despite the use of complex and sophisticated forecast prediction models, accurately predicting share price movements remains largely a mystery.

Forbidden fruit

Joshua Gans — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:35 +1100

Once indication of when a company has 'made it' is when they start to be the target of antitrust attention. A couple of years ago, Google entered that club and ...

I'm Invisible!

Sonia Friedrich — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:56 +1100

Being invisible will be exciting. Very exciting indeed. In fact the possibility for us mere mortals may not ...

Putting the super into the market

Mark Ritson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:17 +1100

There was only one place to be last Friday for frenzied action and nail-biting excitement. No, I am not talking about the Nels...

Patently infringed

Kwang Lim — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:10 +1100

Last year David Weston and I wrote a teaching case on how in 2000, NTP sued Research in Motion (makers of the popular BlackBerry device) for infringing its pate...

Who owns the news?

Kwang Lim — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:06 +1100

Last week MBS hosted a public seminar on "Australia’s commercial property sector can now proudly point to a group of property company sustainability programs that are coming of age. These programs are the mechan...

A Paradigm Shift for Equal Pay

Sonia Friedrich — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:32 +1100

Women are paid less and promoted less than men in Australia. Is th...

Too many central bankers

Mark Crosby — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:54 +1100

News from Singapore this week made it Over 30 hours ago, a 3rd round Wimbledon tennis match began. At that time, there was speculation that there may be some discontent in the Labor party over wheth...

Hungary and Australia

Mark Crosby — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:48 +1100

The following is my piece on Hungary published in the Age today. …

Honouring our Dead

Sonia Friedrich — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:12 +1100

We spend fortunes to ensure those who have fought for us are recognised and remembered, having parades in their wake. If...

Primal Business Challenge

Margaret Manson — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:04 +1100

"What is the single most difficult business challenge that, if effectively addressed, would help turn around your business?"

Next on the list of potential European sovereign defaults is Hungary.

Mark Crosby — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:51 +1100

Next on the list of potential European sovereign defaults is Hungary.

Gift Rangers - The New Power Rangers

Sonia Friedrich — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:55 +1100

We know that we become what we ‘repeatedly say and do’ and that our ‘thoughts become things’. Knowing this we have quite...

Calling Lieutenant Uhura

Simon Probert — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:19 +1100

I just met a businessman in the lift at my office and he was wearing the best looking bluetooth earphone thingy I have ever seen. Naturally I asked the guy what it was and it turned out to ...

Why Do We Retire at 65? An Innovation Story

Tim Kastelle — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:36 +1100

Here's an interesting question:

What CEOs can learn from MasterChef

Andrew Grant — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:18 +1100

Innovation has been on my mind of late. It’s been a recurrent theme that’s surfaced and demanded attention. While I have always accepted innovation as important, it’s now shifted centre stage.

$5 Million and counting

Sonia Friedrich — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:42 +1100

Our use of money and being paid for what we do through our choice of career somehow doesn’t seem to be helpi...

Why Apple’s in a profits league of its own

Mark Ritson — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:26 +1100

Last week, Apple overtook Microsoft as the world’s most valuable technology company.

Why does the London 2012 Olympic mascot look like a penis?

Mark Ritson — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:47 +1100

They’ve done it again! Three years after the 2012 logo united the country in disappointment, Locog – the organisers of the London Olympics – delivered another body blow for British design last ...

Get a Clue(train), Get Ahead!

Trevor Young — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:33 +1100

"You have two choices. You can continue to lock yourself behind facile corporate words and happytalk brochures. Or you can join the conversation" In business products come and go. They have a lifecycle that is maximized to ensure that we buy as much as possible for ...

The climate is changing, why aren’t we?

Dirk Dobbs — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:37 +1100

The traditional rational choice model that motivates public policy must be changed if climate change policies are to effectively alter habits.

Countries are countries, not brands

Mark Ritson — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:27 +1100

The World Cup approaches and, once again, the English nation hopes against hope that it can win the tournament and finally end 44 years of hurt. Meanwhile, in South Africa the dreams are ju...

Bored with search engines?

Simon Probert — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:20 +1100

A few days ago Google released a 30th Anniversary Pacman logo - it was so succesful that they have since made it permanently available.

Can Australia really be 5th in world competitiveness?

Rowan Gilmore — Tue, 25 May 2010 09:39 +1100

It's surprising we haven't heard more about it really, the fact that Australia now ranks 5th in overall performance in the prestigious IMD W...

"We" did it! Marketing a Business Through Communities

Rebecca Wilson — Sun, 23 May 2010 02:53 +1100
I am proud to say, “We did it”.
Yes, “We” , the communities that make up Brisbane made my favourite little café of all time, into a nationally awarded, massively...

Lend Lease - Sustainability Through the Big Lense

Simon Carter — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:18 +1100

It appears to have flown under the radar of many, but Lend Lease has launched Lend Lease Ventur...

Lights. Camera. Action.

Sonia Friedrich — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:50 +1100

There are many men and women who have changed collective thought because of their passion and ingrained belief in something different. They broke through and lead the way to the understandi...

How to create your own personal internet brand for $20

Simon Probert — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:18 +1100

Everybody knows creating a "brand" is the domain of marketing and design specialists - in other words this can be a costly exercise - but what if you just want to create a "personal brand" ...

Innovation is the Process of Idea Management

Tim Kastelle — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:21 +1100

Here are a number of actual quotes from this week. On Monday, Mark and I had a research meeting with a colleague in the business school who does business process research. When Mark asked if ...

Integrating Social Media and getting ROI

Rebecca Wilson — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:48 +1100

Social Media is undoubtedly exciting, even fun. But it is not the marketing revolution many make it out to be. To be perfectly frank, Social Media is just another communication tool tha...

Climate leadership

Ben Waters — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:54 +1100

I was disappointed with the recent shelving of the CPRS. Whilst it was certainly a compromise scheme - fully pleasing no-one - it was an important first step which established the principle of...

A quick introduction

Martin Stuart-Weeks — Tue, 04 May 2010 05:00 +1100

I work for a small strategic advisory and innovation group within Cisco - the Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) - and for the past few years have been part of a small team within our gro...

‘Sustainability’ – Is Sustaining What We Really Want?

Simon Carter — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:15 +1100

The term sustainability is now all pervasive and its definition forever debated, but it might actually be an inappropriate and unhelpful term.

Was Darwin right about business?

Rowan Gilmore — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:38 +1100

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is mos...

Waving through a new financial planning model

Rebecca Wilson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:36 +1100

So the regulators have jumped on the handbrake. No more trailing revenues and commissions from financial pro...

Innovation - the new deal killer

Rowan Gilmore — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:08 +1100

We've had innovation fatigue, now it seems that innovation is a deal killer. First, innovation only made you tired. Now it kills.

Concentrate on People and Process, not Tools

Tim Kastelle — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:43 +1100

Imagine that you are a unit manager in an organisation, and your CEO comes to you and says: "We need to be more innovative - you're in charge of making that happen." What's the first thing ...

Social Media - Utterly Lifechanging, Better than...!

Rebecca Wilson — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:21 +1100

Do you Facebook, Tweet, Linked-in, Digg, Flickr, Evite, Blog or even Skype…? or do you resist the urge to connect using these new technologies? Do you say to yourself… "I'll adopt w...

Help me Obi-wan

Simon Probert — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:27 +1100

Most of us remember those immortal lines pleaded by Carrie Fischer ( Princess Leia ) in George Lucas' 1977 science fiction classic Star Wars. The hapless farmboy Luke Skywalker after purch...

Beware the sharks – Part II

Rowan Gilmore — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:39 +1100

A colleague of mine was invited to attend a one-day seminar last week for inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses developing the ...

The. Plan.

Greg Romanes — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:58 +1100

Hi - welcome to a discussion about Social Innovation, Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurs.

Beware the sharks - Part I

Rowan Gilmore — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:25 +1100

There are some things in life that would work really well if you could just change one thing, like flying economy class if the seat next...

Renewable Energy Technology in China: Protect and Profit

Dr Justin Blows — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:16 +1100

China will soon be, if not already, one of the greatest commercial opportunities for enterprises in the renewable energy and energy efficiency business. Demand for electricity is rising at 15% ...

Shampoo Secrets

Ben Waters — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:53 +1100

Here's an an illustration of the rule that breakthroughs often occur at the intersection of disciplines.

Commercialisation is Backward Marketing

Margaret Manson — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:15 +1100

Business is about two things: innovation and marketing. Every business, including governments, needs to be tuned to market needs and in constant pursuit of knowledge that enables creating new o...

The Brutal Truth about Professional Services Marketing

Rebecca Wilson — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:00 +1100

Today is a day to forgive your shortcomings as a Professional Services business and understand the brutal truth. You are not alone in your challenges.

Community understanding of sustainability (part 2)

Ashantha Goonetilleke — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:48 +1100

Sometime back I posed the question whether the wider community understand what is meant by sustainability. I would like to repea...

What is commercialisation?

Rowan Gilmore — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:05 +1100

It's all too easy to get hung up on definitions, but for the record, I define commercialisation as "the conversion of...

An Innovation Manifesto

Tim Kastelle — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:57 +1100

There have been a few before, but h...

IKEA has Designs on Paris Metro

Jane Riley — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:17 +1100

Companies – and their advertising agencies - are forever trying to find new and innovative ways to market themselves and their products. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they do...

B1 Mining Twitter

Danny Flamberg — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:28 +1100

Every marketer is professionally paranoid. We constantly worry about what's being said about our brands. And with more than 25 million US adults regularly sharing advice, reviews and commen...

These cubes are made for ..??

Jane Riley — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:23 +1100

The late American architect Philip Johnson is quoted as saying 'all architecture is shelter; all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts ...

How Accountants Kill Innovation

John Steen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:47 +1100

This isn't going to be one of those rants against 'beancounters'. We have actually collected and analysed data which tells us that traditional accounting and valuation methods will damage innov...

B2 Orchestrating SM Strategy

Danny Flamberg — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:51 +1100

An effective social media strategy is a direct extension of a brand strategy executed artfully in new channels. The brand posture, positioning and personality should guide the development ...

Doing More With Less - Effective Delegation. Part 3

Jon Pratlett — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:22 +1100

How do we define an efficient Supply Chain?

Pieter Nagel — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:49 +1100

I was once again amazed by the enormity of sales in the retail world around Australia. This is common practice after the ...

Australia is becoming a global hub for crowdsourcing platforms: Freelancer.com, 99designs, DesignCrowd

Ross Dawson — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:34 +1100

Crowdsourcing in the broadest sense will be one of the fundamental platforms of the emerging network economy. As such it’s pleasing to see that Australia is becoming a hub for a number of the m...

Top 10 Smart DIY Marketing Tools

Michelle Gamble — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:05 +1100

When you are starting out in business or managing a growth business on a tight cash-flow you need to market smart and you need to do a lot of the doing yourself.

Aggregate, Filter & Connect in Digital Business Models

Tim Kastelle — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:51 +1100

We know the story by now: as it becomes less and less expensive to transfer digital content, the price firms can get for information-based products and services is being driven down. This has ...

The Australian Design Museum Exhibition

Jane Riley — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:53 +1100

How many times have you gone to a design exhibition and wanted to touch, hold, feel or sit on the items on display or, even better, make a purchase? In January 2007 I realised it had been 7 years since the sale of my last major entrepreneurial venture. 7 years is a long time – wondering ...

Recycled Design

Jane Riley — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:43 +1100

I'm a big fan of anything made from recycled materials and these days there are any number of designers putting the term 'upcycling' to good use proving that recycling doe...

Community understanding of sustainability

Ashantha Goonetilleke — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:43 +1100

Sometime back I posed the question whether we understand what is meant by sustainability. My question now is, whether the wider community un...

Innovation Lessons from the Checklist Manifesto

Tim Kastelle — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:31 +1100

How do we deal with complexity? A while ago I suggested that one strategy that we use to handle complexity is that...

Flat World Language and Thinking

Jon Pratlett — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:08 +1100

This is not part 3 of Effective Delegation, rather an extra, which I thought some might appreciate.

MedTrekking in the Rain

Joel Stratte-McClure — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:51 +1100

My rainiest and wettest week of MedTrekking occurred last April when I slogged south of Naples along the Sorrentino Peninsula and the Amalfi Coast (after walking it, I think they s...

Photographers Wanted: A Day in the Life of the Mediterranean

Joel Stratte-McClure — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:33 +1100

I'm thinking of getting a number (50) of different photographers to shoot the Med based on different parts of, and anecdotes in, my book(s) -- the monkish monastery on Ile Saint Ho...

Leaving Circe in the Dust

Joel Stratte-McClure — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:13 +1100

Doing More With Less- Effective Delegation Part 2

Jon Pratlett — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:26 +1100

Delegation is an acquired skill. It is also a mindset. Research by David Maister in his book 'Managing the Professional Service Firm' showed that "for the typical professional service...

Destroyed by Excellence

John Steen — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:53 +1100

There was a bit of interest in the blog piece that I did on responding to change so I thought I w...