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Are events the new philanthropy driver?

The twice yearly NAB charitable giving index was recently released, showing that Australians again increased their overall charitable giving by 6.5% for the year to February 2016. http://business.nab.com.au/nab-charitable-giving-index-indepth-report-12-months-to-february-2016-16416/ The report notes that factors such as, “…a resilient economy, strong employment growth…and lower levels of consumer anxiety helped support the charity sector and the ongoing generosity […]

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Time keeps on ticking…

It is the modern worlds rarest of commodities. One that we never have enough of, yet long to be able to fritter away. One that we are all striving to make better use of, yet should we actually just give it away?  I’m talking about…….time. There’s a huge amount of literature being written about how […]

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Embrace the cult of the individual

The term “one size fits all” is quickly becoming a turn off for consumers in a world where data availability is personalizing our every experience. It’s the old corner café mantra “know each of your customers by name”, but in operation for big business. Where before businesses with large customer numbers may not have had the […]

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Punching the productivity card

Do you take your breakfast to work or buy it on the way in and eat it at your desk? Is the first thing you do when you get to work to check your Facebook/Linkedin or spend time checking the local news website? In my experience both of these activities are common practise in the […]

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The business of everything

We live in a commercial world. Nearly everything in our lives today is run on the business principles of return on investment, cost minimization, and increasing profitability. This includes many things still considered community services like education, the arts, hospitals, transport, sports, your local kindergarten fete, and religious activities. The idea of community service runs […]

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Too big to pivot

Over at my startup, Pleezpay.com, we’re currently working through a minor “pivot” for our business. A pivot for a startup is where you shift from the premise of your original business in order to chase a specific opportunity (that’s us), or because customer feedback has told you your original premise isn’t working. It’s common with […]

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Short term success in the long term

I once heard of a senior manager in a business who, when meeting a new hire into the business welcomed her, pledged his support when she needed it and then said, “Come back to me in a week and answer this question: how will you know you’ve succeeded this year?” It occurred to me that […]

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The Gordian Knot in business

“An intractable problem solved with a bold stroke” – Legend has it the untie-able Gordian knot, an ancient riddle, was solved by one of history’s iconic leaders, Alexander the Great. At just 30 years of age Alexander the Great commanded one of the largest empire’s in ancient history, stretching from the Ionian Sea on the […]

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Losing your Innovation mojo

It’s obvious to say that most established businesses are good at what they do. They understand their product or service, they understand their market, they understand their competitors, and they understand their customer. So why do so many businesses reach a stage in their growth lifecycle where they stagnate, or get trapped in their niche? […]

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Surprise and delight is important

As humans we like to quantify our world as a way of making sense of it, and to cope with change. One way of quantifying our world is to break it into easily understandable stages of time. e.g; the Stone Age, the Ice Age, the Industrial Age, the Information Age, etc. We are currently living […]

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