CSIRO is not Ford

April 16, 2014Opinion

Have you ever considered which industries will sustain this country when the once in a life time mining boom passes? What are we good at what, what will win? Thriving Industries provide growth and jobs; innovation and technology drives industries, smart creative minds drive technology. Recently there has been a lot of speculation about the …

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As Strong As The Weak Bit

April 2, 2014Opinion

Technological development continually exceeds our wildest imagination. There is probably no better example of that than modern commercial aircraft; If your surgeon said to you, “with this procedure, the success rate is 99%”, you would be saying, “where do I sign?” Apply a 99% success rate, to the 28,000 daily commercial flights in the US, …

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Where’s the plan?

August 19, 2013Opinion

Wouldn’t it be great if Australia had a business plan? An actual plan with (well-thought-out) strategies and objectives; publicly available; updated and reported against for all to see.  Perhaps such a plan could explain the erratic vote grabbing decisions made by our politicians. “Climate change is the greatest challenge of our generation……….whoops, actually not, but …

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Retail – Some Things Never Make Sense

August 2, 2013Opinion

Some things just don’t make sense; it doesn’t matter which way you look at them; how many times you do – they don’t make sense! For me, open refrigerated and freezer display cabinets in supermarkets have always fitted into this category.  It’s like “we have done this for 100 years, it’s how we do it” …

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A Sustainable Business Model for Utility Companies.

July 30, 2013Opinion

Recently my wife, Paula spent about 20 hours on the phone with Origin Energy, attempting to sort out our electricity bills.  After building a house, we received a number of bills that appeared to be in conflict with each other e.g. we were charged at one point for electricity usage when there was no electrical …

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Foyer Art

July 20, 2013Opinion

Expensive foyer art is designed to set the tone of the building as well as provide a welcoming feel and communicate a message to visitors and staff of the building. It’s a bit like, “market positioning” for the building; it needs to be prominent and grandiose to have desired impact. Wouldn’t an entrance that displayed …

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