Growth Newsletter

When you open up the doors to your business each day, do you ever adopt the strategy the customer comes last?

Do you see the customer as an imposition to your day?

When a customer contacts you, do you give them platitudes, but don’t solve their problems?

I’ve long held the belief that retirement is an outdated notion. In Australia, in 1900, the average Australian male retired at age 65 and died at age 66. In 2018, there appears to be this predilection for retiring earlier, even though we are living longer. Some people are now contemplating 30 years in retirement – almost as long as they spent in the workforce.

Last night, Scott Morrison handed down his third budget. Apparently, times are good. The budget will be back in surplus in 2019/2020 for the first time since 2007/2008. And, rather than pay down some of the credit card debt that successive Governments in this country have run up over the past ten years, it was deemed prudent to issue tax cuts to all taxpayers earning up to $90 000 per annum from 1st July, 2018 – even though we are still in the red!

Whilst the great Australian rock band “The Divinyls” had a monster hit in the ‘80s titled “Pleasure and Pain”, I can’t help but disagree with their lead singer, Chrissie Amphlett, who professed there was a fine line between the two.

Because there isn’t!

Today is the 103rd occasion of ANZAC Day, the commemoration of that bloody battle fought on the shores of Gallipoli in what is modern day Turkey. Australian and New Zealand troops, under the command of the British Armed Forces, landed on the 25th of April, 1915 as the Allies endeavoured to seek an early advantage in their ultimate aim of capturing Constantinople, the city we know today as Istanbul. Gallipoli was a strategic position in the Dardanelles and if the Allies were successful in capturing it, all sea traffic into the capital of the Ottoman Empire from the Mediterranean would have been cut off.

From the time we wake up almost until the time our heads hit the pillow at night, we are bombarded. Emails, phone calls, meeting requests, interruptions, complaints – you name it, it’s there. In my opinion, we’ve experienced some great technological advances over the past 30 years. I don’t know if mobile phones beeping away and never leaving our sides is one of them.

Two weeks ago, the Australian cricketing world changed forever following the proof of ball tampering by the Australians in the 4 match test series against South Africa, in Cape Town.

I’ve worked with a wide range of family businesses over a 30 year period. A great many of them know about business strategy. In my opinion, these businesses fall into the following four categories:

Monday 26th just passed was a milestone for me. In cricketing terms, I waved my bat to the crowd to celebrate reaching my half century. Looking back over the innings so far, it is more akin to a steady, yet solid test match knock rather than the bash and crash of Twenty 20 cricket. 

In my opinion, when you talk about an ideal employee in your family business, for the great bulk of your team, you’re really boiling it down to whether or not they have the following two characteristics: