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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November 10th, 2009
We’re thrilled to announce that we are establishing a Queensland office of mta optima!
Initially being based in Coolum, we will be looking to take up space in offices in the Sunshine Coast region in the very near future and we’ll be able to provide excellent, personalised service to the clients in south-eastern Queensland. We see it as a fantastic opportunity for our business. There are some wonderful opportunities for businesses to work with us to minimise their tax, maximise their growth and plan for and implement strategies that will see them create wealth.
Our staff in Queensland are all Victorian trained and supported and we’ll regularly have people from our Victorian office up there to work with our Queensland-based staff and customers.
We look forward to a fantastic future in the Sunshine State!
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October 1st, 2009
When listening to music, we can often hear a small portion of a tune and immediately know the whole piece. It’s fantastic as you can revel in your knowledge and understanding of how the tune goes and where and when it ends.
If we then extend this example, just hearing one note of a tune will make it impossible to identify which tune it came from (unless you’re absolutely brilliant or lucky – or both!)
Similarly with business – if you’re given enough information, you can understand what, where and how the business is going (even get a basic idea as to how it will end up). But if you’re not given enough information (eg: one note), you will simply have no idea.
Like many advisers to business, we find that the successful operators will generally have a good grasp on their figures and “understand the tune”. Those that run in to trouble generally pay little or no attention to them and are happy listening to the one note all the time with no idea as to how it fits in with any tune.
This is where regular, meaningful, reporting and analysis comes in to it. By keeping an eye on how your business is going (band is playing…) and understanding how it’s meant to play, you’ll be like a conductor (or band leader) – able to make changes and improvements as you go to enable the sound to be as melodic and mellifluous as possible.
From the perspective of your management and internal reporting, how often do you “listen to the music”? How often do you sit back and try and improve the playing. If you just listen to the one note forever, you’ll not only become bored, you’ll be come tone deaf and you’ll also lose all context.
So, if you’re wanting to run a great business, be like a great band leader or conductor – listen to all the notes your band is playing. Rehearse and practise as this will improve your performance. Communicate regularly to your band the tune you want them to play - let them appreciate what it is you’re wanting to sound like together.
That way, you should have a great band and a business of note!
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September 7th, 2009
Just how comfortable are you that all your work is being done correctly and you’re not getting to a place where your business is falling foul of things?
Many people believe that they are being well served by their professional advisors because, well, they’re professional advisors. Sort of like saying I know they’re good because I say so!
In many cases, this is not quite right. We’ve seen numerous occasions where a potential customer has approached us with a view to doing their work. The thing is that we will find (usually) a raft of issues where there are significant omissions from their reporting/tax. I’ll give you some examples:
- a medical specialist who came to us – he was structured completely incorrectly – we sorted that out and realised a saving of $16,000 for him EVERY YEAR from then on;
- a customer who approached us about doing their work – they have a number of commercial buildings on which their then accountant wasn’t claiming the depreciation – cash savings to him of around $25,000 per year EVERY YEAR from then on including amendments for previous years getting them tax back; and
- customers who came to us to review their situation – we were able to implement strategies which gained them about $10,000 tax back for previous years and enabled them to get additional deductions EVERY YEAR from then on.
In all cases, these people were using advisors who they believed were doing their work correctly – they were, it’s just that they weren’t thinking about things as we do with the consequence that they were paying far more tax than they needed to be.
We don’t pretend to be the stars out there – it’s just that, based on our experience, we see a lot of opportunity to do high value work for people where they haven’t been aware of what they can be doing.
So have a think about what you (and your advisors) know and don’t know – odds-on there are a range of unknown unknowns out there that are potentially costing you money.
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September 3rd, 2009
There is starting to be a little bit of discussion amongst the leaders of the legal and accounting professions regarding the use of Trusts for client structures.
Trusts have been around in Australia (and most UK-based legislatures) for years and they generally work very well.
The problem comes about when a number of accounting and legal firms start drafting and selling Trust Deeds to their clients when the firms doing the drafting are not really “over” the issues with regard to the drafting.
There are a raft of matters to be considered when drafting a Trust Deed and, unfortunately, many of the sellers of these Deeds do not fully consider the issues before selling them to an un-suspecting client base.
We’ve recently had cause to review some Trust Deeds prepared by some firms for clients (prior to them coming to us). The issues created by these Deeds are absolutely horrendous! Rather than dealing with the matters which they should deal with and consider carefully some pretty fundamental matters like definition of income, they seem to cut and paste very old definitions which are no longer referable or applicable to the legal enviroment in which we now operate.
In some cases, the Deeds are, as a Tax Barrister friend of mine said recently “internally inconsistent”. This makes it impossible to use the Deeds in any effective way.
So, you need to be very careful when ordering your Deeds – they need to be drafted by a lawyer who understands the issues around them (and not only the commercial aspects - the taxation aspects).
One other thing we’ve noted over the past 10 or so years – a number of accounting firms will merely grab a Deed from (usually) an existing client, copy it and attach a new schedule to the back of it in an attempt to create a new Deed. This is not only dangerous, it’s stupid and negligent.
When considering your structure and whether you will use a Trust as part of that, take your time and carefully consider the knowledge and expertise of your advisor with regard to the Trust Deed you end up with – it can create more trouble than you would believe if it’s a poor Deed and your advisor has not been careful in operating the Trust in accordance with the Deed.
A little bit of care at commencement can, quite possibly, save a whole heap of pain and cost down the track.
So, who do you Trust?
Tags: accountant, care, lawyer, planning, Trust Deed
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August 18th, 2009
The New York Times recently published a graph (it’s intereactive) that details what the “average” American was doing with their day during 2008.
It makes for fascinating reading (particularly as you change the group graphed).
Please find it at http://www.nytimes.com//interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html?hp
There is a lot of information that can be gleaned from this with regard to advertising and access to people across the range of demographics charted.
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August 6th, 2009
Pricing and relationships. A lot of decisions in our business and personal lives come down to the “cost” as perceived by the customer as to the value they see in what they are acquiring.
In many cases, people will go for the cheapest option – thinking that the saving they are getting will translate in to wealth.
A very successfully retired solicitor I know has always said “I’m not rich enough to buy second best”. His thinking is you pay for the best you can afford at the time because the initial savings will be more than up taken in poorer perfromance, replacement/repairs etc over the life of the cheaper product/service. This is such a true position.
A very successful farmer I know has always said “You’ll go broke buying bargains”. Again true – just because something is cheap doesn’t mean it’s good or serviceable or useful or needed. People buy cheap because they think they’re getting a bargain (witness all the mark-down shops). The stuff they buy looks similar to the “good” stuff but it’s, at essence, completely different.
Conversely, the successful people with whom we deal understand that true value isn’t merely reflected in the price of a product or service. They appreciate the value of a relationship and have an inherent focus on outcomes rather than price. The relationship is pivotal to successful operations. To “sell out” a relationship for a short-term saving is more often than not the pre-cursor to lower performance and less satisfactory outcomes (see The Price). In most cases, they end up paying the price of regret.
So, a relationship has a value which is often incredibly difficult to attach a price to. The outcomes that relationship yields are however, far more quantifiable.
Relationships don’t have a price tag. Price is not part of it. Do you truly value your relationships?
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