Breaking through to a better bottom line   By Christopher J Tipler     For many Australian businesses the last three years have been tough and 2012 is not ending on a buoyant note. Capturing profitable revenue is a slog in the face of hesitant customers, greater import competition, wage pressures and relatively high (but

And lead successfully by acquiring a bit of ‘mongrel’   By Christopher J Tipler   Some years ago my firm was retained to advise a global investment banking house on its strategy for ANZ, which took me to New Zealand for discussions with their local teams.  The M&A team were lovely people – pleasant, urbane,

By Christopher J Tipler   The summer holidays give us the pleasure of watching elite sports men and women in cricket and in tennis. We marvel at their ability to perform seemingly impossible feats (how could Michael Clarke for hours, with apparent ease, dispatch rocks being hurled at him at more than 140km per hour!).

Or how to fly in July! By Christopher J. Tipler   I have written recently about the importance of attitude if we are to be effective managers. A good attitude is many things but it starts with wanting what you are doing. This is the key to calmness, reasonableness and humour – qualities that are

Why getting naked is the key to business effectiveness By Christopher J Tipler   In business we make hard work of lots of things and accountability is one of them. We know that we must commit to achieving outcomes and we know this commitment must be made by individuals, by work groups, by whole functions

Finding something useful amongst all the media hysteria By Christopher J Tipler     Media commentary on the global and Australian economies has reached a frenzy of paranoia. We are treated to endless commentary on what might happen to us, when and for how long. It is almost universally bad, or very bad.  Europe is

Dinosaurs or dynamos?   By Christopher J Tipler   There is a remarkable air of unreality currently surrounding Myer and David Jones. Both businesses are underperforming. Both blame weak retail trading conditions but insist their business models and strategies for the future are sound.  The share market is very sceptical. Both stocks are trading at,

Understanding the crisis at News Corporation By Christopher J Tipler   It is tempting to interpret the meltdown at News Corporation in terms of governance, values, culture and leadership. These are the lenses that we typically look through to try and understand such breakdowns in the management system, and their implications for us. The truth

The power is in your hands By Christopher J Tipler   When we consider the problems in manufacturing it is very easy to think in terms of blame. The unions are to blame, or the Chinese, or the high value of the dollar, or interest rates, or perhaps the free traders. It is true that,

Five reasons why manufacturing is critical to our future By Christopher J Tipler   Australia’s manufacturing sector is in crisis, courtesy of a high Aussie dollar and flat demand in domestic markets. Once around 30% of our economy, manufacturing has fallen to 12% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is likely to push through the