Blog

Good information management is about more than just databases. It can make or break a business. By Ann-Maree Moodie When the board and management of a food company specialising in products with ingredients such as omega-3 analysed its business, it was apparent that while the company was successful, inherent disorganisation was causing it to miss the profitable opportunities in the market. The company produced 'functional foods' in the form of products such as bread and yoghurt.

Organisations of whatever persuasion - for-profit, not-for-profit and public service - must pursue the twin and related goals of improved efficiency and productivity. No, you can't get off this particular roller-coaster.

Under CEO Karen Matthews, the skincare company Ella Baché adopted a new business model in 2002, protected its brand fiercely, and turned the company's fortunes around. By Darren Baguley.

Brand is everything in the ultra competitive world of cosmetics and in the late 1990s, Ella Baché's was second to none. Yet, When Karen Matthews became the chief executive of the skincare company in 1999, the business was languishing.

From cost-cutting program to centre for profit generation, contact centre operations need a clear benchmarking plan. By Darren Baguley.

Pan-American Airlines invented the call centre in the 1970s, and benchmarking performance using key performance indicators (KPIs) has been around almost as long. But after decades of using the same old benchmarks the Australian contact centre industry is in the midst of a major shift in how it measures an agent's performance.

Managing employees with a suspected mental illness calls for professionalism and an understanding of the legal and ethical issues involved. By Steven Booker

Most employers are proactive in trying to eliminate the risk of physical injury to their employees. However, less emphasis is placed on managing the risks posed by employees with suspected psychological illnesses, such as stress conditions and depression.

With the world's economic axis shifting, research suggests that leaders everywhere have universal similarities as they face the No.1 trend: the rise of complex challenges. By Deborah Tarrant

In the early 1990s, Professor Robert J. House of the Wharton Business School in the US had a prescient notion. Looking at the global nature of business, he set out to determine what defined leaders around the world and compare their styles and values.

Leading an organisation that has undergone dramatic change in its ownership, been forced to address the challenges of a deregulated and fiercely competitive market, as well as deal with the demands and expectations of politicians, regulators and the wallets of the public, remains a challenge. CEO Solomon Trujillo's passion for telecommunications stand him in good stead as he seeks to completely change Telstra's business culture at high speed. By Jennifer Alexander

Great achievements invariably have imagination, planning and hard work behind them. David Parmenter outlines some leadership lessons from pioneering explorer Sir Edmund Hillary.

The late Sir Edmund Hillary was credited with many things, but few have realised what a great CEO he was. Having climbed Mount Everest as the member of a team, he subsequently achieved everything else as the leader, as the CEO.

How do you successfully integrate five parent companies to work together on a series of major infrastructure projects? Louis White finds out.

Large infrastructure projects make for a big, messy, expensive and competitive business. Too often they attract media attention for all the wrong reasons, raising the ire of an inconvenienced public.