Mining the innovation boom

For over 20 years the Australian economy rode high on the back of a once in a century mining boom. Despite declining revenues and exports, the Government continues to approve massive open cut mines, attaching to coal an importance the rest of the world seems to be quickly changing its mind about. To state Australia’s economy is transitioning is an understatement. Combining the mining fade-out with the decline in the manufacturing industry, a traditional mainstay of the Australian economy, and decade high unemployment, puts the economy under immense pressure. But what does a country...

Read more

Can cannabis-based medicines change the future of children with epilepsy?

New South Premier Mike Baird and Minister for Medical Research Pru Goward announced on Tuesday the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the New South Wales Government and GW Pharmaceuticals. The $21 million dollar commitment to support medicinal cannabis reforms will progress a major new research program for cannabis-based medicines in children with severe, drug resistant childhood epilepsy. “This confirms New South Wales’ position as a world leader on medicinal cannabis and demonstrates the determination of our Government to ensure we secure these ground breaking trials,”...

Read more

Is rigid adherence to traditional workplace models costing you productivity?

While workplace flexibility has been the go-to buzzword in HR and business circles for some time now, the reality is most small businesses appear to be fine with flexibility in theory, but not in practice. Recently released research by Galaxy for business solutions provider Citrix suggests the Australian economy, and small to medium businesses, are missing out on productivity gains estimated to be approximately $135 billion each year to the national economy. 56 per cent of people surveyed said they were not able to work from home and 72 per cent said they wanted the opportunity. Statistics...

Read more

25% of Australian students drop out before graduating

After the Abbott Government’s 2014 budget announced unprecedented cuts to Federal funding of State education, New South Wales Premier Mike Baird referred to the cuts as a “kick in the guts to the people of New South Wales.” The then Federal Education Minister’s perceived back flip on Gonski funding did nothing to ensure smooth waters between Federal and State Level Governments across the country, with Australia’s school students caught in the cross-fire. The recent “The Education Opportunity in Australia 2015” report launched on Monday by education policy think tank...

Read more

10 Tips for an effective rewards and recognition strategy

There is no doubt about it: rewards and recognition programmes are instrumental in driving engagement, increasing employee retention and has a positive impact on company culture and productivity. Now that’s just fine and dandy, but you can’t just throw random incentives at your staff, expect them to be over the moon with excitement and see your company’s productivity soar. Sorry to break this to you, but it isn’t that easy. To help you implement an effective rewards and recognition strategy, follow these 10 tried-and-true tips offered by Incentive.  1.       Plan...

Read more

How to become the market leader in your field

It's risky business to up and change your business model or any integral part of your strategy for that matter. If you miscalculate or misjudge, you stand to lose much more than if you had not made a change at all. So why change what isn’t broken? The answer is, if you want to be the very best in the biz, you can’t afford not to. Gary Pert took this approach when he accepted the role of CEO of Collingwood Football club.  At this time, the club was in great debt, not winning premierships and trailing behind the top performing clubs in terms of membership. Gary’s vision was for...

Read more

Increasing NFP efficiency through technology

  “The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change” - Bill Clinton With increasing innovations in technologies, there are numerous opportunities for NFP to increase their operating efficiencies. For instance, it can streamline the volunteer management process, keep track of complex finances, etc. There are many NFPs that are under pressure to do ‘more’ with ‘less’. The decline in government funding has really made NFP realise that they need to figure out a way to operate differently to ensure longevity and viability of their organisation.  ...

Read more

10 traits that make up a good team player

From kindergarten all the way to retirement and beyond, most of us have to deal with team work. I remember at university, every time a professor announced a new assignment half of the class would quickly ask if they could do the work as a team while others – like me – stared them down and wished they could throw fire darts out of their eyes so the others wouldn’t give the professor any ideas. It’s not that I didn’t like team work, but rather that I have a knack for pairing up with people who don’t have the same priorities or work ethics as my own. For example, it’s unacceptable to make...

Read more