Aussie Rules

(Episode 278; 13min 23) The ACCC has just given Woolworths the approval to acquire the specialist grocery chain Macro Wholefoods. Woolworths will rebrand the stores as Thomas Dux Grocer, which already exists in a few locations. So what are Woolworths trying to do here?

In this edition of BTalk Australia Phil Dobbie talks to Martin Kneebone from retail consultancy Freshlogic about this latest experiment from Woollies.

Do you think it will work? Add your views in the Talkback section at the end of this post?

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According to sales data from Dymocks Australia, the cheese has moved again — right to the top of the June charts. And I think the cheese has set off a definite aroma of self-improvement in this month’s top books.

Here are the Top 5 selling books for June, 2009:

1. Who Moved My Cheese?
   By Spencer Johnson
   For a book that was first published over a decade ago (in 1998), all we can really say about this top-seller is that is seems to aging nicely.



2. Good to Great
   By Jim Collins
   Following up on Collins’ last book, Built to Last, this bestseller puts forth the concept that traditional business thinking may not always be the answer.



3. Think Big and Kick Ass
   By Donald Trump and Bill Zanker
   Documenting a journey from being involved in one of the biggest real estate bankruptcies in history right back to the top, and co-authored by the CEO of the Learning Annex, this book talks about the benefits of stepping up to challenges. Personally, I find it difficult to understand, though, how publishers could have missed titling this book: “You’re Fired (Up)”.



4. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
   By Stephen R Covey
   According to the blurb, this book “presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems”. Put more simply (and with fewer “p”s), Covey uses anecdotes to illustrate effective methods of adapting to change.



5. Fish!
   By Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, John Christensen
   Last month, this was the only book not based on coping with the recession. In June, it rounds out a Top 5 that seems more concerned with how to do things better.

(Episode 277: 12minutes 32) In this second part of our look at the Fair Work Act, with Adrienne Unkovich from Workforce Guardian, we investigate further the process for dismissing an employee. What role does the new Fair Work Australia body have in this process? What other impacts will the changes have on your business?

Listen to part one of this story here.

Add your thoughts in the talkback section at the end of this post.

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View all BTalk Australia podcasts here.

(Episode 276; 10minutes 21) It’s a new financial year in Australia and, as of July 1st, a raft of new Fair Work legislation comes into place, replacing the contentious Work Choice laws that almost certainly contributed to the downfall of the Howard government.

For small businesses the new legislation takes away a lot of the “hire and fire” flexibility of Work Choices. You need to ensure that you are conducting dismissals for legitimate reasons with employees being given new, easy ways to make claims for unfair dismissals.

On today’s BTalk Australia Phil Dobbie talks to Adrienne Unkovich from Workforce Guardian, part of a newly announced consortium charged with educating small business on these changes.

What do you think of the workplace changes? Add your views in the Talkback section at the end of this post.

See also: Fairer IR Laws? | BTalk Australia - Peter Anderson, the Chief Executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, spoke out against these changes back in October 2008.

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View all BTalk Australia podcasts here.

Apologies for this way-overused opening but: as we trudge along the current path of economic uncertainty, we’ve all heard the admonitions to “tighten the purse strings” to “brace ourselves”…

All this forces HR professionals to think creatively — how can we keep our staff motivated amidst all the cutbacks?

I recently attended a seminar on this topic and I thought I’d pass on some of the “low-cost” ways they recommended to keep staff happy and productive:

• Thank staff for a job well done (and mean it)
• Offer plans that allow employees to better balance their work and personal lives [see previous post]
• Allow flexible starting, finishing times, and time off in lieu
• Involve staff, whenever possible, in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the business or department
• Offer top performing staff profit-sharing opportunities with the company
• Make the workplace a comfortable/fun to work by setting up a chill-out room, hooking up a Nintendo Wii or introducing a ping pong table
• Ensure employees all the resources required to do their job efficiently (eg, increase speed of computers with more RAM?)
• Recognise staff birthdays with cake, team emails and a card
• Provide onsite yoga or meditation classes or a masseuse before or after work
• Publicly acknowledge staff who contribute good ideas or who have worked over and above their normal responsibilities

How are you keeping staff motivated at low cost? Do you have any ideas to add?

(Episode 275: 7 minutes 56) Whether you work from home full time, or you just spend a few days away from the office, we all know that working from home can provide many distractions.

So, here are seven tips from Productivity Queen Lorraine Pirihi that will maximize your productivity when you’re working from home.

Got some more to add? Use the Talkback section at the end of this post.

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(Episode 274; 12minutes 21) How do you sell a product when it’s exactly the same as what your competitor is selling? There might be some minute differences, but your customer is more interested in the key aspects of the product which might be exactly the same, whoever they buy from.

Today on BTalk Australia sales coach David Penglase talks about how to overcome the Sameness Syndrome.

Add your comments in the Talkback section at the end of this post.

See also:
Sales Tips for a Downturn | BTalk Australia

Subscribe to BTalk Australia on iTunes.

View all BTalk Australia podcasts here.

(Episode 273; 9 minutes 45) AMR Interactive has just released the latest annual Corporate Reputation Index. It is part of a 27-country study produced in conjunction with the Reputation Institute. The results show that many Aussie businesses are making it through the global financial crisis with their reputation in-tact. In fact, many have raised their score over the last 12 months.

Phil Dobbie talks to AMR’s Reputation Practice Director Oliver Freedman about the results and what other businesses can learn from these results.

Have a look through the list of the top 60 most reputable companies while you listen to the podcast, then add your comments in the Talkback section at the end of this post:

1. Australia Post
2. Toyota Motor Corporation
3. Cadbury Schweppes
4. Nestle Australia
5. Virgin Blue
6. Myer
7. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
8. BlueScope Steel
9. Woolworths
10. IBM Australia
11. ING Direct
12. ING Australia
13. Wesfarmers
14. Hewlett-Packard
15. Qantas Airways
16. Harvey Norman
17. Mazda Australia
18. Ford Australia
19. CSR
20. Air New Zealand
21. Coca-Cola Amatil
22. GM Holden
23. David Jones
24. Vodafone Australia
25. Country Energy
26. Commonwealth Bank of Australia
27. Westfield Group
28. QBE Insurance
29. EnergyAustralia
30. IAG
31. ANZ
32. BHP Billliton
33. Fosters Group
34. Suncorp
35. Medibank Private
36. Shell Australia
37. Crown
38. TRUenergy
39. Daimler Australia Pacific
40. Allianz Australia
41. Origin Energy
42. AMP
43. RioTinto
44. AGL Energy
45. AXA Asia Pacific
46. Westpac
47. Macquarie Group
48. Optus
49. Caltex Australia
50. Visy Industries
51. National Australia Bank
52. BP Australasia
53. Fairfax Media
54. Australian Taxation Office
55. Tabcorp
56. AAPT
57. Telstra
58. Exxonmobil Australia
59. Australian Wheat Board
60. Centrelink

Subscribe to BTalk Australia on iTunes.

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I just got headhunted for a role as an Innovation Manager at a large multinational — it got me thinking: what are the core skills to manage innovation in a large team? I thought I’d put together a job description.

Responsibilities:

• The position is built around a team of unconventional people who find and fund exciting concepts through an early-stage development process
• Need to navigate through a land for which there is not yet a map (requires curiosity to pursue the interesting without getting distracted by the unimportant)
• Must establish productive plans for novel ideas — need to be comfortable with ambiguity and thrive on change
• Must create new technology opportunities, new directions for the enterprise, and positive futures for people all around us

Key Accountabilities:

• Recognise and stimulate unusual ideas with high potential impact
• Use personal networks to link ideas and people that might not otherwise interact
• Apply unique skills and interests to develop new opportunity domains
• Ask tough and insightful questions
• Provide constructive coaching and advice to projects
• Drive projects through to completion

Requirements:

• Proven experience in the ability to understand wide-ranging, out-of-the-ordinary, technical and business proposals in depth
• Experience in organising and facilitating brainstorming workshops to bring new ideas to fruition
• Experience in working on novel projects and proven ability to bring ideas from conception to completion
• Experience in showing commercial sense, contract structuring and negotiation, and business strategy development
• Proven experience in helping other people turn their ideas into reality; work with multiple fluid team structures which requires trust and integrity

What do you think? Would you qualify?

What could you do to build you skills to be able to apply for a job like this is in 10 years?

Share your thoughts, ideas, questions — comments below.

(Episode 272; 13 minutes 41) The latest Private Companies Survey from KPMG shows that most private Aussie companies are weathering the economic downturn, with an increasing proportion believing the worst is behind us. There are also noticeable trends that continue, irrespective of the influence of the global financial crisis.

In today’s BTalk Australia Phil Dobbie talks to Don Abell, a partner for KPMG’s Middle Market Advisory division, about the results. What are the views of these businesses with regard to the economy, finance, investment, government policy and the environment?

Add your views in the Talkback section at the end of this post.

Subscribe to BTalk Australia on iTunes.

View all BTalk Australia podcasts here.