Blog

The foremost ad space buyer in the country may not be a Sinatra fan, but he has definitely done it his way. Tom Skotnicki reports

At 69, Harold Mitchell has never looked fitter. He has lost 70kg over the past three years and sold the business he spent 35 years developing.

Mitchell remains chairman of Mitchell & Partners and the second largest shareholder in its international parent, Aegis Media.

Loose lips sink careers. Charlotte Harper ponders the etiquette of new media in the workplace.

You have just woken up after finishing your shift late the night before. Your smartphone's message alert chimes. You have a new SMS. Almost immediately, another alert tone signals the arrival of a direct message on Twitter.

Beep! A third sound indicates a friend has contacted you on Facebook.

Knowing what behaviours you are trying to motivate will help you lead your teams more effectively.

We all know that motivated teams achieve better outcomes. That's because team members put something extra into their work. Lose it, and results would not stand out in the same way.

Jim Sloman OAM, the man who headed up SOCOG, talks about leadership and the importance of making the hard decisions.

In Australia, from a logistics point of view, there is nothing in peacetime - except perhaps coordinating disaster relief - that quite matches the sheer size and complexity of running a modern Olympic Games.

Management should not be thought of as a science but as a practice, says management thinker Henry Mintzberg.

The best management style is one that comes naturally and fits with the context of the job, rather than a method pushed into conforming with academic fashion, according to leading management thinker Henry Mintzberg, who examines the area in his latest book Managing. "Effective management requires emotional health, clear-headedness, a genuine empathy for others and a good understanding of the field," he says.

Tasked with the responsibility of saving lives, Victoria's Transport Accident Commission leads the way in social marketing innovation.

Early this year the tiny town of Speed in northern Victoria temporarily changed its name to 'Speedkills'.

The quirky new title was the result of a sponsorship by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC). But how great would be the marketing effect of the temporary changing of a town's name when the town itself only contained 45 people?

Patrick Imbardelli, CEO of Pan Pacific Hotels Group, eschewed survival mode and chose a sustainable growth strategy during the GFC.

When A. Patrick Imbardelli was appointed President and CEO of Pan Pacific Hotels Group (PPHG) in 2009, he couldn't have been more primed for it.

For Melbourne-born Imbardelli, the high-profile appointment and move to the company's Singapore headquarters was the culmination of 25 years of experience in the hotel industry.

For companies eyeing off the colossal Chinese marketplace, success is by no means a guarantee.

With seeds sewn by former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's then-radical 1972 policy of engagement, and China's own subsequent reformations and 'opening up', Australian companies large and small are seeking their fortunes in a vast, mysterious country with a growing middle class of consumers. Some have succeeded, while others have been derailed or defeated.

Partnership principles - HASSELL

If you're personally mired in a state of inertia, achieving momentum requires a bold rethink.

Why does a business lose momentum? There can be structural reasons: shifts in the economy, technological change, the age of the business or its people. Mostly, however, it's management. All those structural things can be managed, but in challenging times management batteries can run low. Over time, inertia sets in.