Category: Business Today

Corporations as Agents for Positive Change


The shift in the perceived role of corporations as solely profit generators to agents for positive change has become clearer than ever before with the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs focus on the greatest challenges faced by humanity with the aim of ending poverty and hunger, misery and war, unfairness and inequality. Clearly, governments alone cannot achieve this big agenda, nor should they. Businesses have enormous power, resources, and knowledge to assist. Corporate responsibility is no longer about doing less harm, or giving money to charity.

Everything’s a Pound!


Budget shops are big business. The recently approved £55m merger of low cost retailers Poundland and 99p Stores is just the latest manoeuvre in their battle to conquer our high streets.

The rise and rise of the pound store certainly is an emotive topic – just look at the BBC’s two series of Pound Shop Wars a fly-on-the-wall documentary that charts the competition between rival chains. While some shoppers flock to them, wallets and purses at the ready, others claim they suck the life out of our town centres.

VW Practices Global Brand Destruction


Volkswagen has set aside €6.5 billion to cover the costs of the growing scandal over cheating on emissions tests in the US. Putting a number on the cost further down line will be far harder, however, as it is a crisis which calls into question the ethical credentials of the company and the industry, as well as posing tough questions about the regulators and authorities who were duped.

The Economics, and Risks, of Transnational Marriages


Reports of abuse suffered by Southeast Asian wives of men in East Asian countries regularly capture media attention.

Here Come the Seniorpreneurs


Senior entrepreneurs are Australia’s fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs, despite facing significant barriers including ageism and a lack of financial support, according to new research from the Swinburne University of Technology and Queensland University of Technology.

The research, funded by National Seniors Australia, studied more than 400 seniors through interviews, focus groups, and online surveys. Key findings include:

* seniorpreneurs lead 34% of all young firms in Australia

* seniorpreneurs average age is 57

People are Lovin’ Fast Food Less


McDonald’s, the epitome of fast food, has been suffering a decline in global sales for the past few years. Globally, McDonald’s revenues in the first half of 2015 fell by 10% to US$12.5 billion and net income dropped by 22% to US$2 billion.

In May of this year, worldwide sales dropped by 0.3%.  The greatest decline of 3.2% occurred in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.  This most certainly resulted from the food safety scandal in 2014.

The Peril and Promise of a Sharing Economy


The rapidly growing influence of Silicon Valley owners over sharing economy platforms is a troubling development. The growing strength and pervasiveness of these platforms means their owners have significant power to impose their visions of what it means to be a citizen or worker in cities across the globe.

Airbnb, for example, seems free to distort property prices and create a grey, unregulated market for short-term accommodation. Uber meanwhile continues to erode hard won labour rights and turns a blind eye to acts of discrimination committed by its drivers.

Naming Names on Financial Audits


When it comes to auditing financial information, under current professional rules, only the name of the auditing firm appears at the bottom of audit reports.

That is about to change.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has recently issued its latest attempt to require disclosure of the name of the person who oversaw an audit of a company’s books, making it binding federal law. All US publicly traded companies are required to have an accounting firm audit their financial statements.

Beware the “Amabots” or becoming One


In virtually every science fiction novel or film, there is an evil corporation that dominates the world, from LexCorp in the Superman franchise to Weyland-Yutani in Alien. Their masterminds tend to hide their ambitions behind stretched smiles and a language of care. That is, until the story’s protagonist exposes their plans and saves the world by exposing the evil afoot.

Compare this to the real world. We have corporations with huge influence that do bad things, we are well aware of it and yet we continue to let it happen. Why?

Australian Study Shows Businesswomen Not Embraced by Lenders


Despite considerable success in the international arena, many female entrepreneurs still struggle to raise capital. New research suggests that lenders may have an outdated concept of what an entrepreneur looks like.

We recently surveyed 416 Australian female businesswomen, and complemented the survey with focus groups.