The Business Of

How can brands connect with the next generation of consumers?    It's a question on the minds of many, especially in a bustling online marketplace. Yet, only a few have cracked the code.  While most organisations have jumped on social media in a bid to attract young consumers, what they haven’t done – according to  Sam Koslowski , co-founder of youth media bran...

Lights... Camera... Spreadsheets? Emile Sherman and his production company See-Saw Films have produced some of the most beloved films and TV shows of the last few decades, including The King’s Speech, Lion, Heartstopper and Slow Horses. It’s a job he loves, but it’s not all glitz and glamour. In fact, it's similar to running a business in almost any other field...  Whether you're trying to spot th...

‘Dreaming is such an important thing. You have to have space to imagine what something could be.’  Carving out the time and space to imagine and ideate is crucial for all business leaders. The development and growth of their companies depend on it.   And for contemporary artist Ramesh Nithiyendran, finding time to ‘daydream’ is only possible with the strong infrastructure he’s built around himself...

At seven years old, Hayley Saddington experienced an incident that became the catalyst for her whole career.  Decades later, Hayley founded two companies – HALO Medical Devices and PeakMedical – but she’s not your typical tech entrepreneur. For one thing, she doesn’t come from a tech background.  Both companies have tested her patience, her drive and her sleep schedule, but her deeply personal pur...

It’s the early 2000s, and Roby Sharon-Zipser just wants his internet connection to cover his whole house. He’s on his hands and knees, trying to thread a cable through a hole in the floor, caked in white dust when he realises... I need some help!  In that moment, the idea for hipages was born. And over 20 years later, it’s transformed from a Yellow Pages-style home improvement directory to an app-...

We’re finalists in the 3rd Annual Signal Awards! Help us win the Listener’s Choice Award by voting for The Business Of here. Bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to data.   In a digitised world, it is possible to collect reams of data on customers, but at what cost? Many companies don’t even realise they’re suffering an extreme case of ‘bad data hygiene’ which in the face of a cyb...

How productive can you be if your working environment is bad for your mental health?  Psychosocial hazards at work are often less visible than physical risks but can have a significant impact on employees' mental health and wellbeing and typically arise from the way work is structured, the organisational culture, and relationships within the workplace How can workplaces be better designed to bette...

Tell the truth and tell it fast, especially when faced with a crisis that has the potential to put people – and an organisation’s reputation – at risk.    Most businesses have some sort of crisis management plan to enact when threatened with turmoil, but what happens when the best laid plans fail?   Sue Cato, one of Australia’s leading crisis experts, has been at the coal face of many of those inc...

Would you describe yourself as a right-brained or left-brained thinker?  We’ve been conditioned to believe you’re either one or the other. And while we all know a math genius who couldn’t hold a paintbrush if they tried and some creative geniuses who’d be lost in the simplest of spreadsheets, we can all develop both our creative and logical abilities. And in business, having a balance of both is k...

In today’s attention economy, it’s all about getting and keeping eyeballs on your product or service. How do you capture attention in an increasingly crowded market? And once you have it, how do you convert a casual fan into a die-hard fan?  Darren Werner is the Head of Marketing at Kayo Sports , an Australian streaming service that airs live and on-demand programming. He explains how to capture v...

Business is an incredibly powerful force – how do you use it for good?  How do you balance ambitious social impact targets with the realities of day-to-day operations?  For Adam McCurdie, co-founder of social enterprise ticketing platform Humanitix, creating social impact was the priority from day one. How was he going to change the world? By starting a software company with a difference: one wher...

What will you need to know – or know how to do – to succeed in business over the next ten years?   A decade ago, the answer would have been to up-skill in tech. According to Lee Hickin, the AI Technology and Policy Lead for Microsoft in Australia, the advances we've seen in the last decade mean that “technology is not this thing that happens as a segment of a business, it’s actually how a business...

Artificial intelligence becomes more powerful by the day – which means the dangers that come with it are growing too. If you’re using AI tools in your business, you need to know how to use them safely and responsibly.  So where do you start? Dr Catriona Wallace, a world-leading AI expert and Adjunct Professor at AGSM, shares a framework for using AI ethically, and explains why that responsibility...

So, you want to start a business.    And no matter how big your ambitions are, chances are you’re going to start small as one of the 99.8% of businesses in Australia that operate as small-to-medium enterprises – or SMEs.      Associate Professor Kristle Romero Cortés teaches people how to make confident financial decisions for themselves and their organisations every day at the University of New S...

Katrina McPhee is in the superannuation industry for the long haul now, but that wasn’t always the case.   She’s currently the Chief of Staff at Aware Super, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, but when she first entered the industry, she wasn’t interested in sticking around in a field not exactly known for its desire to shake things up.  But that all changed after a Royal Commission...

Tech start-ups have been the darlings of business media in recent years, and for good reason: new technology is exciting and flashy, and tech entrepreneurs tend to share pithy catchphrases about grinding, hustling, or “moving fast and breaking things.”   But what happens when a start-up needs to slow down?   In the case of the investment app Pearler, speed was never the ultimate goal. Co-founder H...

In their first few years of operation, Humanitix didn’t spend a cent on traditional marketing. Despite this, they managed to build up a client list that includes Google, TED, Red Bull, Canva and Facebook, and gave millions to charity in the process. How did they do it?  Adam McCurdie is the co-founder and CEO of Humanitix, the new contender disrupting the fiercely competitive ticketing industry fo...

How do you market your business when consumers pay not to see your ads? How do you make your name stand out when the internet is overrun with marketing? And how do you build trust and make your name sticks when everything’s moving so fast?   Dee Madigan is an advertising expert, a founding panelist on ABC’s The Gruen Transfer and the creative director and owner of ad agency Campaign Edge. Dee brea...

What makes a great marketer? Maybe a good eye for product design, a deep understanding of market dynamics, excellent communication skills and the ability to give customers what they want. But what about a fierce devotion to ethics?   Wendy Mak is the Chief Marketing Officer at Link Group, a global financial services company driven by digital and data technology. Wendy’s excited about the potential...

“In future, I expect that everybody will have climate resilience and climate mitigation as part of their roles.”  Penny Joseph is the Head of Climate Resilience at major Australian electricity provider Ausgrid, but when she began her career, this type of role didn’t exist.   As the climate heats up and more industries are feeling the effects of changing weather, Penny explains to The Business Of h...

You might have come across the term black swan events – commonly used in the insurance space – they’re considered rare occurrences that are almost impossible to predict.  As our climate and weather patterns continue to change at pace, the unexpected is really all we can expect now. How do businesses like insurers plan for risk and implement resilience strategies in the face of uncertainty?   Leadi...

The battle to halt climate change is impacting most aspects of our day to day lives – right down to the cars we drive. But there’s a missing piece in motoring that could improve things – the electric vehicle industry.   Manufacturers are making higher quality EVs than ever before, and more of them. At the same time, more Aussie drivers want their next car to be electric. So why is our country one...

The way we do business originates in the minds of great leaders, thinkers and doers. And that’s what we’re in the business of.  From the art world to the world of artificial intelligence, The Business Of brings real-world lessons from industry leaders together with cutting-edge research coming out of the University of New South Wales Business School.   You’ll hear host Dr Juliet Bourke speaking wi...

Over the last few years, Australia has seen its fair share of major data breaches, affecting more than 147 million individuals and shaking the trust people had in organisations responsible for safeguarding their data. There is no doubt that AI is now capable of performing tasks that were once considered science fiction just two decades ago. How can you know that your privacy and data is protected?...

Imagine you're a radiologist with 500 scans awaiting your thorough review. Each scan demands your undivided attention, and the process is anticipated to span over a week. Now, consider the prospect of AI technology drastically shortening this time frame, potentially completing the same comprehensive assessments in a matter of just a few hours. What option would you choose? Hear how a ground-breaki...