August 31st, 2010
How long does the stuff we put on the internet actually last? Based on my very rudimentary checking, it would seem like it’s there forever. Somewhere.
When I see things like facebook, twitter and social networking sites like these, I have a concern that people can post stuff which they then have the rest of their lives to regret. It is an issue that we need to be aware of and we need to take care that what we post on the net is something that won’t come back later and cause us embarrassment or discomfort.
I suppose the issue is something that younger people need to consider carefully as they try to grapple with this new, hyper connected world. All their friends are on various sites and can post all sorts of stuff on there. In many cases, we poor parents will not know what they’re doing until it is too late. Similarly, the schools would have an almost impossible job to control what can go on. And, the ultimately unfortunate part is that no matter how hard you try, it will be highly unlikely that you can get through to the kids the import of “just silly” things that they may post.
Similarly, what happens when the current crop of 12-18 year olds finish their studies and go for jobs. Most employers are now moving to the ubiquitous “google check” on potential employees. All the stuff that they have posted over how many years is then available to potential employers to pore over and bring in to their consideration as to whether the kid is worthy of employment. Now most employers will look at it and think (hopefully) – they were only 14. Some may not.
I suppose it’s like tattoos – they look great when you’re young and trendy and are (currently, apparently) the essence of “cool”. Trouble is that you’ll grow out of them. Think of all those young girls who see themselves as very with-it at the moment with their arm and ankle tatts. Bet they might think a bit differently when it comes to their wedding day…(that’s of course if they ever get married, or leave home….)
The posting of “stuff” on the internet needs to be treated with caution – it is there forever and I am not aware of any method available that will allow the “stuff” to be permanently removed once posted.
Be careful what you and yours post – it is there forever.
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August 26th, 2010
Last week I attended the Taxation Institute of Australia National Intensive Conference on issues surrounding succession for family businesses.
The TIA conference is always an absolute ripper and covers the various aspects of the particular technical issue at a very in-depth level. The presenters are some of the best and most highly qualified in Australia and the attendees tend to be the “leaders” in tax from around the country.
Anyway, back to this year’s topic. The basis of the conference was to explore in depth aspects surrounding the issues of succession. There were papers presented on how to deal with Trusts, superannuation funds, insurance proceeds and the impact of divorce on planning for succession.
On review of the presentations and papers, it highlighted to me just how complex this area is and the issues that arise from seemingly “simple” transactions can have profound effects on the next generation from both operational and taxation perspectives. There are a lot of practitioners out there who profess to understand the detail about succession. Unfortunately, from my discussions with various delegates at the conference, they get to see the messes that are created when well-meaning but not-up-to-speed advisers create succession plans for clients. The “clean up” process can be lengthy, costly and messy.
Any succession planning process needs to be considered in light of a wide range of factors. To enable a successful succession, a business needs to brief competent and experienced professionals in the accounting/tax, business advisory and legal areas. This is especially the case where there are trusts, superannaution funds and possible relationship breakdowns involved. This latter issue is especially important due to the increased powers of the Family Court with regard to reversing transactions that had been effected as part of the succession where there is a marriage breakdown subsequent to the succession. The potential ramifications from this aspect alone can be horrific from a taxation perspective.
So, if you’re looking at succession for your business (and most businesses should be doing this), care needs to be exercised in selection of your advisers.
Surround yourself and your family with the “right” advisers to ensure your success in succession. If you don’t it is highly likely that you’ll end up as a Case Study at a future conference!
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August 24th, 2010
I was having a think about things the other day regarding how people approach their businesses. This largely came about due to work we’re doing on our business in here.
The one thing that I realised is that a lot of people (yours truly included) get in to the habit of NOT doing things until it becomes either too late, ineffective or plain inexcusable.
The best way to demostrate this is by the exercise analogy. We all know that we should exercise because it is good for us and can have the result of reducing adverse health issues later in life. On a cold winter’s morning however, the attraction of exercising is diminshed because the warmth and cosiness of your bed are very appealing. The consequence is often that you will roll over, snuggle up and think how nice it is to be “in here” rather than “out there”. Now, you will get some form of comfort from doing this – rested and relaxed for the morning. BUT, each day you do this, you get less used to exercising. It gets easier to make the excuse and you will develop a habit of not doing exercise. In effect you will rationalise your exercise desire away.
There won’t be any great impact now, tomorrow or next week. There will be in many years to come. It’s an incremental thing.
Same with business. You will know things that need to be done in your business. You will appreciate that the things you need to do will more than likely give the business a “high pay-off”. You will also know that starting to do these things will be hard – it will be a process that takes you out of your established routine and may well require you to honestly and truthfully assess various aspects of your and your business’ performance. “Yep, I know I have to do it but I will put it off until tomorrow” – and so it goes.
What if you actually started doing it? What if you made (and kept) the commitment?
One of the real privileges we get in our work is to encourage and assist our customers in identifying the issues they need to address then help them through this often difficult process. The results are, by and large, astounding.
When it comes to exercise, it really is easy to roll over and snuggle in – it’s not going to have any impact until it is (possibly) too late. When it comes to business, it’s easy to rationalise things away – imagine, just imagine, that you decided that NOW is the time to start doing the things that matter?
Making a difference starts with making a change. The right time to do that would be????
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June 7th, 2010
We have recently had the opportunity of more fully understanding the impact of the thing called emotional intelligence. This is a term which is bandied around quite widely and is taking up a fair bit of space in the various management books and journals out there (including Harvard Business Review).
Emotional intelligence relates to the understanding of the person you are dealing with along with the aspect of the issue that you are dealing with. By being in tune with the person as well as the issue, you will find that you are able to achieve a far better outcome and one which your customer is more satisfied.
To use emotional inteligence, you need to appreciate that the capacity to listen and give consideration to the other person’s point of view is as critical as understanding the mattter at hand. It comes in the form of visual and non-visual cues and you need to be alive to not only what is being said but also how it is said. In some forms, the delivery of a message can contradict the message being delivered!
To gain better insight in to people (including your family, colleagues, customers and suppliers) it is a very worthwhile investment to develop an understanding of emotional intelligence and the way it can positively impact on the relationships you have.
Being focussed purely on a result without taking in to account the person you are providing it to will see only half the job being done.
And to do this sort of job just isn’t intelligent….
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May 17th, 2010
Just been reading the article “How to Stop Customers Fixating on Price” in the May 2010 edition of Harvard Business Review.
It makes for interesting reading on the philosophy of pricing and how it impacts on the decisions we, as business owners and managers, make every day.
In the article, the authors argue that increasing the price of a “commoditised” item can have the effect of increasing customer interest in that item and particularly the benefits it offers. By getting the premium attaching to the item “right”, the customers’ interest will be piqued and they will spend time to find out the reason for the premium.
In effect, the impact of the increased premium on the price focusses the attention on the value provided as opposed to the price of the item. In their analysis, the authors describe an experiment conducted on students which revolved around a premium of 20% on some “staples” which they were then asked about. In most cases, it would appear those that paid the premium price identified more personally with the product they acquired as a result of the price they paid.
Getting the philosophy of pricing correct can be a difficult task – in many aspects argue the authors, it is counter-intuitive. Spending the time and having a good think about your product and differentiating it from the competition can be a very valuable exercise. I recommend the article highly.
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April 12th, 2010
Are you at risk?
What areas of your business expose you to potential risk?
The vast majority of business people will detail risk areas including products, staff and OH & S. They will, however, rarely identify taxation management as a risk area.
Each year, the ATO releases its compliance program which outlines their major focus areas of audit and review to assist taxpayers in managing their risk exposure. It should however be part of the business’ operational management that issues around tax risk are mitigated as much as possible. This process will assess the business’ exposure to those matters identified by the ATO each year and ensure that processes and procedures are established by the business and its advisers to protect the business should they be subject to an ATO rview or audit.
The process need to not be overly cumbersome, but will, by necessity, reflect the style, size and complexity of the business. It is very imortant that any risk management strategy will also deal with “unusual” transactions that are undertaken by the business including asset purchases and sales and (especially) remuneration of senior employees and proprietors.
One of the benefits of implementing a tax risk plan is that it will enable the acquisition of information on a timely basis as transactions occur. This will help protect the business should staff leave or die between the occurrence of the transaction and a subsequent review/audit. The “we don’t know or can’t remember” argument is not one that holds weight when arguing with the Tax Office.
So, your risk management in your business needs to be cognisant of your tax position and records as this is an area which most businesses fail to consider.
Are you at tax risk?
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February 22nd, 2010
I was fortunate to be on the receiving end of another of Russ Wylie’s lines this morning:
Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people
Having had a think about this, it is just such a brilliant statement – taking care of your customers is important – but so is looking after your people.
When you look at your business, do you have a focus on customer satisfaction? Do you understand what your customers are wanting and needing you to provide? I know in our business, we focus pretty heavily on this (and sometimes we get it wrong, but we’ll work like hell to make it right!) – it comes about from having “the conversation” with them about their desires and wishes.
Similarly with your people – we need to remember that without them, we don’t really have much apart from a big job that has to be done. By engaging and motivating your people, they will ensure that the focus and goals of your business are delivered to the people that matter – your customers! We also need to remember that without customers we don’t have a business. By having our people in the right mind-set and having the right levels of motivation, truly exceptional things can be achieved.
So, to take ourselves back to Russ’ quote, are you being applauded for what you’re doing, or do you need to improve your performance?
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January 22nd, 2010
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help small men up by tearing big men down. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage-earner up by pulling the wage-payer down. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish sound social security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
Abraham Lincoln – Former President of the United States
We need to remember that it is man’s right to expand his horizons and to develop himself – in so doing, he contributes to his family, his community, his country and also to humanity.
There are a lot of vested interests in the world who probably don’t understand or want to understand the tone of Lincoln’s piece and pursue their own agendas to (often) the detriment of those they are purporting to help. This is a sad thing but one we, as human beings, need to be aware of and take action against where we see it.
Honour and encourage greatness and assist everyone around you be the best they can be.
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January 19th, 2010
We’ve just had the privilege of doing some initial work with Jeremy Scrivens of The Emotional Economy at Work. Jeremy is currently (we believe) the only person in Australia who takes his customers through a process called Appreciative Inquiry.
Appreciative Inquiry is all about focussing not on what has gone wrong in the business or where your problems are, but more about working out what was going on when things went right. With a background in the “rational” analysis work including TQM, Six Sigma and the like, Jeremy has a deep understanding of the things that make business work really well. It’ not about process improvement and incremental cost reductions – it’s about creating an alignment of the business and your people such that goals and strengths are built on and focussed to provide exceptional results.
Jeremy has given us permission to link to his website and we encourage you to read his whitepapers which are available on that website.
From our perspective, the process of Appreciate Inquiry makes intuitive good sense. Rather than the process being one of attrition of “bad things”, it is more about the celebration and encouragement (leadiong to systemisation) of “good things” that are done in the business. By having the focus on when things were going at their best, people think about what was happening at that time and what made things go so well. This then gets mapped and becomes part of the business – it’s replicated and works to give your people the environment in to which they can grow and excel. This should be the ideal scenario for any business as it will deliver consistently superb results.
We encourage you to have a look at the website.
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December 21st, 2009
Tell you what, it’s simply marvellous what can happen when you have time to think and act with a plan and strategy in place.
We’ve recently been privileged to work with some customers and have developed a range of strategies and detailed plans for them which have delivered absolutely exceptional results. It all comes down to having clarity about what you’re wanting to achieve, why you’re wanting to achieve it and then developing a pathway to take from where you are now to where you want to be.
It’s been liberating for these guys in that they have seen what can happen when it “all comes together”.
One of the dangers with this is that once the goal has been reached, people can fall back in to their bad, comfortable old habits. This is why the goal setting process needs to be “over the horizon”. By having goals that are a “stretch” and take you beyond what you believe you can achieve, you’ll actually approach things from a different viewpoint – it will also help to minimise the chances of you falling in to bad old habits when you get somewhere along the path.
For this reason, it is vital that your goals are built around a serious, long term goal that delivers for you on your values and strategy – without having these to start with, the plan will be useless. Having clarity about your values and strategy, longer term, will enable you to devise and implement plans that move you along your desired route.
So, when you get some way along your planned route and start achieving your goals, don’t fall back in to bad habits – it’s very easy to do. It’s very comfortable. It’s also very dangerous.
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