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They can be demanding and impatient – but some of the traits that so infuriate many bosses can also make Gen-Ys outstanding employees. It’s a matter of channelling the energy. By Mike Preston. By Mike PrestonThe jury is ...
For Sarosh Mehta, owner of the Casablanca bar in Brisbane, it seemed like a perfect deal. When group buying site Cudo approached him late last year to consider running a discount deal on its site, Sarosh saw the chance to introduce his business to a range of new customers...
A group of restaurants run by one of Australia's most highly regarded chefs, Justin North, has fallen victim to rapid expansion and has gone into administration. North and his wife, Georgia, were well known for the award-winning Becasse restaurant, which first opened in 2001. The restaurant is housed in a 19th century sandstone building that was formerly a bank and is decorated with velvet, leather and crystal chandeliers. Becasse was the big signing for the $840 million ...
The complicated family life of Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has taken another turn, with her daughter Hope Welker launching legal action against her mother in the Supreme Court of New South Wales this morning. According to Supreme Court documents, legal action was launched by Hope Rinehart Welker against Gina Hope Rinehart  before Justice Paul Brereton in Court 2 in the Supreme Court’s Hospital Road complex.  The nature of Welker’s claim against...
The market turmoil seen across the globe has hit some of our best-known billionaires hard. Warren Buffett has seen about $US11 billion wiped off the value of his stock in Berkshire Hathaway. Larry Ellison is down more than $US7 billion on his holdings. The boys from Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are down about $US2.5 billion.
Google has issued a major update to its Google Maps service in the aftermath of Apple's release of its own mapping service, although Australian cities will miss out on most of the updates. According to Google, the new update includes high resolution 45° imagery of the following US cities: Ames, IA; Anderson, IN; Billings, MT; Bloomington, IL; Carmel Valley, CA; Cedar Rapids, IA; C...
Take the SmartCompany etiquette pledge… I will not be late for meetings. If being late in unavoidable, I will make a short, genuine apology and get on with it. I will not make long-winded excuses. I will use my iPhone, Blackberry and/or iPad in a considerate manner. I will not tweet an...
Are there too many group buying sites? Yes, according to coupon industry guru Simon McCord, who says although group buying sites are good for his business, there's more than enough out there these days. The Shop A Docket founder also says the business is in the best financial state in its 25 years, with $24 million in revenu...
A contactless payment system introduced by NAB has begun a commercial roll-out in over 500 Melbourne businesses that eliminates the need for customers to enter a PIN or sign for transactions under $100. Retailers, including trial participants Sumo Salad and Pancake Parlour, have welcomed the new payment solution, saying it reduces the need for cash to be held on business premises and shortens the length of individual transactions. The system, which appears similar to a sta...
Commercial printing company Geon Group has gone into receivership leaving the jobs of its 1,000 employees at risk. Geon operates in Australia and New Zealand. The printing, mail and logistics provider prints catalogues and marketing material and does mail-out campaigns in both countries. PPB Advisory was appointed as voluntary administrator for the business yesterday followed by the appointment of Shaun Fraser, Jason Preston, Murray Smith and James Thackray of McGrath Nicol ...
Retail billionaire Solomon Lew has something to smile about today, after a number of brands associated with the retail veteran emerged as the big winner in a major reshuffle of brands at department store David Jones. It has been a difficult few weeks for Lew, who has been described as the "driving force" behind the establishment of a coalition of retailers determined to push the Government to slash the GST exemption on goods purchased from overseas for under $1,000. Lew and fello...
A private equity firm has paid over $133,000 for the homeloan.com.au and homeloancalculator.com.au URLs, in yet another sign the market for URLS is continuing to grow even more important and lucrative. Both purchases come after a string of expensive purchases in the past year. Woolworths reportedly bought Hardware.com.au for $33,000, while Zoupon turned into Deals.com.au after a $100,000 transaction. The real estate market for URLs is also heating up, after investmentpropert...
Australia's richest person, mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, has requested her estranged children cease all legal action against her, saying that their motives will be called into question if they do not stop. The move comes after Rinehart's children attempted to remove her as the head of their family's trust, in a legal battle that has dominated headlines for months. In a media statement sent through her lawyer Paul McCann, Rinehart said her children, "who either do not wo...
Revenue growth in the group buying industry has started to decline from its peak but the market is still ripe for larger entrants with existing audiences, such as media companies, new figures have revealed. The new figures come as radio group DMG has announced the launch of its own group buying website in order to promote deals to its younger audience. The figures from Quantium research, an analytics firm which analyses data for a number of major companies including NAB, sho...
Being crowned the richest woman in the Asia-Pacific region doesn't protect you from family drama. Despite the best efforts of mining and media giant Gina Rinehart to keep the spat with her children private, fascinating emails from her progeny have become public thanks to a case in the NSW Supreme Court where three of the kids are suing Gina over control of a family trust. The emails show that the Rineharts, like many families, worry about money and safety. But the bar is con...
There is an enormous amount of time wasted debating whether Australian house prices are over- or under-valued. The vast bulk of everything that is written on this subject is, unfortunately, both factually flawed and misleading.   Today I want to objectively eviscerate the long-standing myth that the Australian housing market is in the throes of an unsustainable bubble using two very simple charts, which you are unlikely to have seen before.   By referencing this analysis...
Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart has appointed the only one of her children who backed her in a vicious family dispute to the boards of three major mining companies that hold the key to Rinehart's multi-billion dollar fortune. According to The Australian, Rinehart has now appointed her 25-year old daughter Ginia to the boa...
One thing is certain after yesterday's revelation that Gina Rinehart's daughter Hope Welker has launched a legal claim against her own mother – it is going be an awkward Christmas at the Rinehart household this year. Details of the legal action remain unknown at this stage, beyond the fact that the case has been classified as an intellectual property matter in the equity division of the New South Wales Supreme Court, before Justice Paul Brereton. The case may remain shrouded in...
This article first appeared on August 16, 2011. Take the SmartCompany etiquette pledge… I will not be late for meetings. If being late in unavoidable, I will make a short, genuine apology and get on with it. I will not make long-winded excuses. I will use m...
Marissa Mayer was appointed the new CEO of Yahoo! yesterday. Having been a Google leader for 13 years, Mayer is an important recruitment for a company that has struggled in recent years. Meet the woman behind the role with 21 little-known facts about Mayer. 1. On the same day Yahoo! announced hiring her as its leader, Mayer was pregnant – six months pregnant. She and her husband are
One of Gina Rinehart's children has dropped out of her litigation against Australia's richest person, leaving her two siblings to carry on with the legal action alone. Rinehart has reached a settlement with her daughter Hope Welker, who has split with her husband and was struggling to support her two young children in New York without an income. Ac...
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart signed an agreement with her adult children in 2006 that allowed her to extend the vesting date of the family’s multi-billion-dollar trust in exchange for her children receiving a 50% return of the family’s net cash from its main iron ore mine in Western Australia. The benefit from the mine could soon be worth more than $1 billion a year. Under the Hope Downs deed signed by Rinehart’s four children, Rinehart was granted the right to extend ...
Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, has succeeded in keeping her legal battle with family members private, after a judge ruled that the family's right to deal with the dispute without media coverage outweighed public interest in the case. Rinehart is being sued in the Supreme Court of New South Wales by members of her family, including her daughter Hope Rinehart Welker. The case relates to the family's trust, of which Rinehart is the trustee and her four children are beneficiaries....
Tough times for Australia’s tomato industry have lead Premier Fruits Group and Mercuri Family Farms to enter into a joint venture to try to create value. The deal between Premier, one of Australia’s largest tomato growers, and Victorian-based Mercuri only signals the beginning of further consolidation in the industry, according to Anthony Di Pietro, chief executive of Premier. Di Pietro told SmartCompany further consolidation would “absolutely” occur in the ...
If you are an arborist looking for the ultimate job, then I’ve found it for you. More details on Apple’s new super campus in the Californian city of Cupertino have revealed the spaceship-like building will be ringed by an assortment of blossoms and fruit trees that will bloom each year in February, around the time of Job’s birthday. Here’s a particularly (ahem!) flowery description from
Single-minded dedication to a cause or a goal or an idea is usually something that society admires. Think of the athlete striving for a gold medal, a philanthropist or even a political leader. But when the dedication turns to obsession, things get ugly. And when money is involved, things get uglier still. That’s essentially the th...
James Stewart of Ferrier Hodgson has prepared a graph about the likely growth in internet retailing that will frighten bankers, particularly those who are worried about their jobs. Bankers will look at business lending propositions with a degree of self-interest – they don't want to make a mistake. On the other side, retail tenants will also be frightened because they usually have to put their houses on the line and the changes taking place make them very nervous. And perhaps the greatest f...
The taxman knows that recent natural disasters will have thrown people's lives and their businesses into turmoil, and he intends to help, with the Government's blessing. We unwrap the tax office's care package to see what's on offer. The recent natural catastrophes that have affected Victoria, Queensland and northern NSW have prompted the Federal Government and the tax office to of...
Each week it seems that another manufacturing company has collapsed or is
The bitter family feud between Gina Rinehart and three of her children will return to court today, with lawyers set to argue in the NSW Supreme Court over the release of further documents detailing the extent of the dispute, which centres around the children’s attempt to remove Rinehart as trustee of a multibillion-dollar trust. The trust was set up by Rinehart’s father Lang Hancock and holds about 23.5% of Hancock Prospecting, of which Rinehart is chairwoman. The children belie...
One common story of the Australian companies I visited in Thailand is that they had all expanded operations in Australia as a result of their Thai forays. Last week I visited a business park that was the epitome of modern global manufacturing. The factories there all had state-of-the-art technology, the workers were highly skilled, production techniques were sophisticated, and over 60% of production was earmarked for export. Was I in a deve...
An online business which offers cashback deals on consumer electronics and household products founded by internet entrepreneur Adir Shiffman has just taken a stake from private equity group Aura Capital. The business, StartHere, has already gained significant scale, with brands such as Apple and JB Hi-Fi selling products through the site. The investment follows Shiffman's successful ventures in foundi...
Iconic fashion label Valentino – famous for its signature red gowns worn by stars from Sophia Loren to Anne Hathaway – it set to be sold for the second time in five years, with a sovereign wealth fund from the Middle East the likely buyer. Valentino, which is owned by European private equity firm Premira, is being shopped around as investor appetite for luxury brands grows on the back of strong demand for luxury goods in China. Reports out of London suggest that the brand ...
The revelations about the Rinehart family fight continue to emerge, with hundreds of pages of documents released yesterday providing fresh details about how bitter the dispute has become. Mining and media magnate Gina Rinehart has said her children are “manifestly unsuitable” to manage the family’s multibillion-dollar trust, and warned them they faced bankruptcy if they sought to have her removed as trustee. Her children, however, say Rinehart has acted “deceitfully” and w...
Gina Rinehart has spent the best part of the last two months desperately trying to keep the details of her bitter family feud out of the public spotlight, filing a series of legal actions designed to get the details of the NSW Supreme Court case suppressed. Gina, it's officially time to stop wasting your time and money going down the suppression route. The ugly details of this spat – which is centred on control of a $3 billion family trust – are now so widely known that ...
If I walked into your business today, would you be able to look at me and know if I were in your major target demographic?  Sure, I doubt you'd turn down my sale if I wasn't in your target demo, but would you know if your marketing was specifically designed to bring me and my wallet into your business. Gone are the days when your "ta...
We’re a few days out from Mother’s Day, a time when children around Australia will spend at least a little bit of time thinking about their mum. We doubt Gina Rinehart’s children, John Hancock, Hope Welker and Bianca Rinehart, will be sending their mum a present on Sunday, given they are embroiled in a bitter legal war with her. But the kids may spend at least a bit of time thinking about their mum this weekend. Specifically, they’ll be thinking: What is she u...
When I was about six years old I was at my Mum's workplace running amok as I always did. When it was time to go I'm not sure what came over me, but I refused. I hid under tables, I ran from my Mum and I basically caused all sorts of fuss and embarrassment for her. I then got the brilliant idea that with this newfound leverage over my Mum I'd start making demands (genius I know!). I wasn't leaving the office until she promised me that we could go out for pancakes. After muc...
So the bitter split between Gina Rinehart and her children Hope Rinehart Welker, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart will be fought out in open court if the parties cannot come up with a settlement sooner rather than later. On Friday, Rinehart lost her High Court bid to keep details of the case suppressed and, as a result, we now know more about what is at the heart of the fight. Hope, Bianca and John want to remove their mother as trustee of a trust that controls 25% of Hancoc...
Industrial cutting tool manufacturer ANCA turns over $160 million a year and has just won exporter of the year. SmartCompany talks to co-owner and founder Pat Boland about being part of the Apple supply chain, surviving multiple recessions and the lack of government assistance for exporters. Company: ANCA
Last week we looked at the very strong profit performance McDonald's has recorded as a result of the significant investment in store refurbishments - a pleasantly linear story of cause and effect where investment creates a great shopper experience, delivering a tangible profit improvement for shareholders. I focussed on two of the four leading indicators we use to measure improvements in shopper experience: "increased frequency of visit" and "average spend". Those are always the t...
The acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 was one of the more shocking moments in recent technology news. Given the company had only been around for 18 months, it was a valuation unheard of for such a business. The fact the business was founded by two men in their 20s – and with no revenue model to speak of – makes the deal all the more interesting. A new piece over at Vanity Fair delves into the inside story behind the deal. At the time of the deal, Instagram ...
There’s an interesting report doing the rounds today that $200 billion worth of mining projects in Australia could be delayed due to a combination of falling commodity prices, concerns about the global economy and rising costs. That could well be bad news for Australia’s rich list, which has come to be dominated by the mining sector in the last few years, with Gina Rinehart’s incredible rise and Nathan Tinkler’s sudden wealth explosion two of the better stor...
Looking at RP Data-Rismark's daily hedonic home value index, which is also published by the Australian Stock Exchange, we can see that the "stabilisation" evident in Australia's housing market in 2012 has galvanized further during the month of April.   Australian home values are now in the black for the first time in 2012, having fully recovered from the drop recorded during the seasonally-weak month of January. At April 10, 2...
“I've never found the government support for export assistance to be particularly useful.” That’s what Pat Boland, the co-owner of industrial tool manufacturer ANCA, told me when I interviewed him just after his Melbourne-based business was awarded exporter of the year. Boland says that in his experience you are better off doing things yourself than relying on the government. It’s a sentiment I...
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg is set to use her first book to help women close the gender gap in leadership and rise up the corporate ladder, something she's personally already achieved at the social networking giant where she was recently appointed the first female on the board. According to AllThingsDigital, ...
More explosive emails in the legal battle between mining billionaire Gina Rinehart and her daughter Hope Welker have emerged, revealing the magnate attempted to offer a $300 million settlement. Two months after Rinehart's children, Hope Welker, Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock, initiated legal action against their mother in September 2011 to remove her from the family trust, Welker sent an email to her sister, Ginia Rinehart, pleading for financial help. "Gin, can you please...
Gina Rinehart's son attempted to make a secret deal with his mother in exchange for $3 million in offshore payments a year and a $15 million "sorry payment", according to court documents disclosed yesterday. John Hancock suggested the deal in 2011, which would have been in exchange for agreeing to some of Rinehart's demands in relation to the trust. The "confidential alternative" deal was a secret from his sisters, who Hancock described as lacking the "intellectual capacity"...