From In The Black: In the trenches The likes of actor Johnny Depp, with plenty of help from Hollywood, have in recent times romanticised the image of pirates and privateers. There he was charging about as Jack Sparrow in the blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean, causing many a swoon and coining around US$2.7 billion worldwide at the box office. However, truth can be much stranger than fiction. According to some leading academics, pirates and privateers were not only very […]
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In the trenches: marketing in China
IN THE BLACK: In the trenches Cool customers: the growing Chinese consumer goods market may give us the greatest lessons about understanding the customer. By Ed Charles Knowing your customer is essential to the success of any business enterprise. China is the market that many multinationals are concentrating on. So how does one begin to understand this rapidly expanding and complex market? The scale and the nuances of China are bewildering. Nearly 80 per cent of the country’s people are […]
Social media is the new thing, and it’s rapidly being integrated into business.
IN THE BLACK Are you a knowledge worker or a pen pusher? The likelihood is that you are the former, which means you are about ideas and -collaboration. In that case, the expressions ‘social media’, ‘Web 2.0’, or more importantly, ‘Enterprise 2.0’, should be in your vocabulary, even if you don’t have a profile on Facebook. While these ideas may seem a threat to old-school types, the reality is that most social media users are Generation Xers and Yers – […]
INTHEBLACK: Caught in the middle
Big 4 firms have traditionally aimed high. But now that they’re turning their attention to the middle market, just where does that leave mid-tier firms? Something’s in the air. First Big 4 firm Deloitte swooped on the Melbourne office of mid-tier firm BDO. Not long after it scooped up the Sydney business of Horwarths, also a mid-tier firm. And at the end of 2006 the remaining BDO and Horwarths networks in Australia announced a merger. What gives? The big end of […]
INTHEBLACK: In the trenches with animal trainers
‘Come into my office.’ Now there’s an expression to make everyone’s pulse quicken. Even if your boss is a good sort, you are likely to become all defensive. ‘What have I done wrong?’ you ask yourself. In fact the adrenaline in your system has kicked in because you have become conditioned to act that way. It all started in your school days when your principal called you in for that first telling off. The feeling is the ‘fight or flight […]
Lucky country is unlucky for some
From IN THE BLACK May 06 Wherever you are in Australia houses are bloody expensive and have been for some time. State and federal governments have debated the issue and there has even been a Productivity Commission report. According to the Demographia International Housing Survey (using September figures) Sydney is the seventh most expensive city in the world to buy property, with the median house costing 8.5 times the median take-home pay. Still, at least you’re not living in Los […]
Office space: rent or buy
From IN THE BLACK April06 The big debate on property is whether to rent or buy. When property values and rents are falling the market favours the renters. But when the market is in an upswing – as it is now – owning a property can shield against rent rises, an attractive option for small business owners. One option is the strata office. The fact is that 71 per cent of strata office buyers are the occupiers themselves, while the […]
Next in line
From IN THE BLACK April 06 When it comes to succession planning, many business owners overlook the obvious: selling to their own employees. It’s the dilemma facing all ageing business owners. What to do with the company upon retirement? Many will choose a trade sale of the business. But few are thinking about a sale to their employees. The average age of a family business owner is 57. Over the next five years, more than 40 per cent of business […]
In The Black: Dirty money
From the March edition of In The Black. More on the mutual evaluation report on money laundering at FATF. Australia needs to clean up its act on the money laundering front. accountants are being drafted in to assist the cause.