commercial blog of paul curtis, the business growth architect
17 March 2011 Leave a comment
When market conditions change, it may be time to start ‘thinking the unthinkable’ and question whether you’re still in the right business at all. An even better business might be waiting for you to discover?
This interesting UK case study entitled Thinking The Unthinkable appeared in Management Today, Jan/Feb 2011, illustrating how dramatic changes can be warranted and beneficial.
2 February 2011 Leave a comment
Studies show that once a merger has taken place, the most important task is managing people in the newly created firm. Find out how Bupa Australia rose to this challenge after its 2008 merger between Bupa and MBF, which has resulted in the largest health insurance group in Australia.
Bupa’s efforts won them the 2009 AHRI National Award’s Wayne Cascio Award for Responsible Restructuring, and Bupa Australia, with the support of AHRI and the US Society for Human Resource Management, have created a 20 minute video case study which outlines the steps Bupa took during the integration.
If you would like more detail, there is a 40 minute video, plus a 36 page discussion guide and a companion presentation.
Every year, thousands of mergers and acquisitions – totaling trillions of dollars – take place worldwide. Though financial benefits are expected from these deals, research shows that roughly 2/3rds of M&A’s fail to live up to the expectations set for them.
This video highlights Bupa’s innovative and people-centric approach to the merger, and it identifies steps that all companies should take to ensure merger success.
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26 October 2009 Leave a comment
Small businesses in Australia are greatly underutilising the internet, according to an article in BRW (November 26 to December 2, 2009, p47) as below:
[Although more than 80% of small businesses in Australia use the internet, and almost 43% go online to place orders or buy products and services, fewer than 25% of these businesses actually extend such a service to their own customers, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports.
Having grown accustomed to static $500 websites, many smaller companies balk at the cost of creating a more dynamic and effective web presence, and as a result are losing potential customers.
“It’s hard when you’re a small business - especially in the trades – we know that spending $20,000 on machinery or tools will increase your productivity, but you don’t really understand how investing that money in your website will boost your business,” business manager for the Melbourne headquartered construction company 4Walls, Kelly Savvides, says.
Nonetheless, by integrating search engine optimisation technology into the company’s website, 4Walls was able to respond in a more targeted way to web-based searches. And as a result, it could win more work.
“There’s no point in having an aesthetically pleasing website that no one can find,” Savvides says. “We only need to win one contract as a result of being easy to find on the web and we cover the extra cost of making it more functional.” Read more of this post
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