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Australian Federal Budget a cynical political move at our expense

The Australian Federal Labor Party has broken virtually every significant promise made before the last election, and are now a hair’s breadth from being the most unpopular they’ve ever been. Whilst they’d never admit it publicly, they haven’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of being re-elected when voters head back to the booths next year and, behind…

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May 9, 2012
Read more about the article Implications of offshoring for your brand image
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Implications of offshoring for your brand image

Two years ago I posted my first article in this series on offshoring. The ideas behind it had already been percolating for a couple of years, and my thoughts on this controversial topic continue to develop over time. I don’t intend to claim any moral high ground, but it’s my hope that I can contribute to what is…

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February 27, 2012
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Why the NBN Should be Costed in Rupees

ONE in eight Australians will be able to work from home by 2020 under an ambitious blueprint for the National Broadband Network that predicts it will save the typical family $148 a week. At least, that’s what yesterday’s Herald Sun declared. For those not yet familiar with the currency exchange rate, that’s savings of about Rp. 7113. (The…

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June 1, 2011
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Designing a Way Forward

The human brain and our society are programmed to build upon our pre-established building blocks. This is very helpful, because we don’t have time to reinvent the wheel for every action or task we’re required to undertake. But it also means we tend not to think creatively and look at the bigger picture. We map out where we…

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April 25, 2011
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Is Poverty a State of Mind?

Are Australians living in poverty just as much as Filipinos? Is it not about how much money you have? During my visit to Davao City last week, I had the opportunity for several great chats with my good friend Glen Biggs, from Global Impact. One of our evening discussions involved late night coffee at an excellent, relatively new,…

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August 5, 2010
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Milton Friedman got corporate Social Responsibility wrong

On my flight back from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne yesterday, I took the opportunity afforded by flying AirAsiaX (sans onboard entertainment) to read another sizeable chunk of “Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and other Economic Leaders”. I guess I’m a bit slow in getting to the literature of leading global economists but I can…

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August 3, 2010
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Whirlwind trip to Philippines is over again…

The past two weeks have flown by, and although I’ve been constantly ‘on the go’ I was still unable to meet with everybody that I would like to have. I missed out on meeting with Mellany Ramos Stametalaky from Kids Hope this time around, and didn’t get to International Needs in Marikina. I didn’t see my friend Raffy…

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July 30, 2010
Read more about the article 6 Sigma / ISO 9001 quality from Mumbai’s semi-literate dabbawallas
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6 Sigma / ISO 9001 quality from Mumbai’s semi-literate dabbawallas

Major corporations struggle to deliver high quality services, and small businesses learn through repeated ‘trial and error’, and yet 5000 semi-literate lunchbox carriers in Mumbai can lose just one 1 in 6 million ‘tiffins’ that, as a united organism, they deliver from the client’s home, to their workplace, and back to home again. I’m on a flight from…

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July 14, 2010
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Off-shoring — ethical and socially responsible

A long time ago, I started writing about “Offshoring — the pros and cons from a social and commercial perspective”. I promised then to delve deeper in three subsequent posts, and this is the first of those long-overdue posts: Off-shoring is not only ethical, it’s a socially responsible and progressive step. That’s a claim that’s going to get me in…

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June 22, 2010
Read more about the article Offshoring — the pros and cons from a social and commercial perspective
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Offshoring — the pros and cons from a social and commercial perspective

A couple of years ago I wrote a draft article about off-shoring and the reasons why, ethically, it makes perfect sense and should not be condemned. However, it languished in the recesses of my hard disk until a couple of weeks ago, when a phone call I made to Telstra was directed to a call centre in Philippines…

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January 13, 2010