Blog
Colin Blair oversees an organisation of experts in standardisation, providing a vital link in Australia's socio-economic development. By Jason Day
Ever thought of a world without recognised standards? Unless you are literally referencing Australian Standards, Handbooks or Codes, it's quite possible that you rarely give them much thought. That's even if there's plenty of relatively informal benchmarking or ratings systems in everyday life: a four-star hotel or five? Will we see that two-and‑a-half-star film or not?
The benefits of an Industry award flow to both winners and sponsors alike. By Mark Story
Amounting to much more than a plaque on the wall, industry awards can deliver tangible paybacks for entrants, winners and sponsors alike.
One of the little-known and perhaps unexpected benefits to SMEs who enter the Telstra Business Awards (TBA) is the mandatory business health check entrants are required to undertake.
MT takes a look at the key traditional strengths and new-era skills of tomorrow's successful leaders. By Sarah Marinos
A few years ago, a study at the University of Alberta in Canada examined the impact of leadership on nursing staff experiencing the stress and uncertainty of budget cuts, job losses and departmental reorganisations.
Companies are increasingly seeking to hire indigenous Australians. MT looks at the challenges and practical initiatives. By Mark Story
If you thought your industry had a lot of levers to push and pull, try running a major zoo. Taronga's chief executive, Cameron Kerr, talks about the complexity of modern zoos. By Jason Day
You don't have to be an old timer to recall that Sydney's famous zoo on the harbour needed a bit of freshening up.
Along with your happy memories were iron bars and concrete and animal living arrangements that spoke of the need for infrastructure investment.
How do you achieve change in an organisation and make it stick? A few golden rules make all the difference for successful change programs. By Michael Carman
Change programs are notoriously prone to being shrouded in fuzziness. Focused as they can be on woolly and conceptual goals - such as 'to engage employees' or 'to build knowledge' - that are handled by elaborate committee structures, far too many change program efforts end up consuming valuable time and effort for little gain.
In 2011, the key people skills managers need remain constant, whatever industry you are in. By Karalyn Brown
It's 2011 and Australia has significant parts of its economy moving at two speeds. If you're looking to expand, you'll be looking at ways to retain key staff as talent shortages bite. If you're still struggling you're probably considering how to ask an already stretched and tired team to do more with less.
John Ballard, CEO of Mercy Health, talks about the changes they are making in managing a diverse, and overwhelmingly female, workforce.
By Darren Baguley
Ask most CEOs about their role, their goals for the company and they'll talk in terms of being the number one player or doubling the business in five years. They're hard, number related goals.
Ask CEO of Mercy Health, John Ballard, the same question and he starts talking about stewardship and social justice.
Pricing is an issue for all organisations. Ron Wood outlines the common mistakes and the key areas to focus on when developing a pricing strategy. How many meetings have you recently attended where pricing strategy, aggressive competitors and customers' procurement techniques were an issue? On top of this, your finance team is reporting margin contraction across a range of key products and customer groups, yet revenues are actually higher than last year. What could be the problem?
