BLOG

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

5 Levers you can pull for explosive growth in your business

by Phil Brown
In a business environment obsessed with short-term business growth strategy, it's easy to fall into the trap of focussing on tactics that produce the fast results, such as direct response digital marketing. But this approach distracts businesses from putting focus into other tactics that may have a slower delivery but ...

Three Defining Leadership Themes for 2023 – Liability, Legitimacy & Legacy

by Rosanna Iacono
Co-author - Kirsty Simmonds, Reputation & Impact Strategist and ESG Advisor. There’s no doubt that the challenges leaders will face heading into 2023 will be complex and require an unprecedented level of intricate navigation. We are in a time of poly-crisis (the Davos 2023 buzzword), where the problems facing businesses, and ...

Patagonia’s Big Move – When Stakeholder Capitalism Meets Legacy

by Rosanna Iacono
Patagonia’s recent announcement that the Earth would become its only shareholder sent shockwaves through the global business community. It was the ultimate throwdown to Milton Friedman’s long-standing edict that the sole responsibility of a business is to deliver profit to shareholders. This move is not only the most high-profile example ...

Elevating  the ‘G’ in ESG: The critical importance of good governance

by Rob Shwetz
It’s no surprise that the environmental and social performance of businesses has come under greater scrutiny in recent years. As we face up to environmental and social challenges as a global community, all stakeholders — consumers, employees, investors, shareholders and the community — demand higher standards and more transparency into ...

Five Sure-fire Ways to Supercharge Your Council’s Internal Communication

by Phil Brown
Council workers are responsible for delivering many public services, so it is essential they have access to up-to-date information about their role, their council and an appreciation for the challenges facing local government. Communication in the workplace was always a challenge and the pandemic, and the shift to remote work, ...

6 things to consider for your Sustainability Transformation

by Phil Brown
Sustainability Transformation is needed now Today, to stay competitive, every organisation needs an Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy. Not just for the social and environmental sustainability benefits, but for long term business sustainability too. It is now an integral part of how we do business and something that stakeholders expect. ...

Solving the Social Dilemma: Best-practice ESG management for business

by Rosanna Iacono
The fight against climate change has proved business can be — and must be — a force for good. Look around and you’ll see commitments to sustainability transformation in just about every aspect of business. From organisation-wide carbon audits to powerful decarbonisation strategies, so many businesses are putting their best ...
A sunset view over a line of windfarm turbines demonstrates renewable power generation for your decarbonisation strategy

5 Tips for Bringing Your Brand’s Decarbonisation Strategy to Life

by Rosanna Iacono
After ranking last for climate policy among more than 60 nations, the Australian government’s climate change performance was widely slammed at the recent UN COP26 summit.  Fortunately, the Australian business community has its eyes wide open to the climate challenge. According to a global Deloitte report, 81 percent of Australian business ...
B Corp Certification Process

Key tips to accelerate the B Corp certification process

by Rob Shwetz
That old adage of ‘the first step in running a marathon is the hardest’ definitely applies to starting B Corp certification. It’s a complex process that can take an average of six to 12 months from initial assessment to submission.  But there are some critical things you can do to accelerate ...
B Corp Certification

Understanding B Corp certification for large enterprises

by Rob Shwetz
Completing a Business Impact Assessment (BIA) is a critical step in your B Corp certification journey. But for large businesses, it is not the first step. It’s not the second step either. In fact, it could be up to the seventh step on your certification pathway.  The BIA is a free ...
A businessman walking

Bringing the Humanity into SME Banking

by Rob Shwetz
Consumer banking is well and truly entrenched into the world of self-service, online, faceless, commoditised financial services products.  When it comes to SME banking, this segment in which businesses can range from a one-person florist to a construction company with revenues of $45 million, a counter trend is emerging.  Bringing the ...
woman in shopping during pandemic

How To Understand Shopper Behaviour During A Pandemic

by Rosanna Iacono
Covid-19 has changed many things in 2020, and shopper behaviour is high on the list.  With the pandemic still hanging like a dark cloud over the bricks-and-mortar retail environment, shoppers’ expectations have shifted.  Relaxed in-store browsing has largely given way to a more focused approach. Consumers are now more likely to ...
GenZ girl in grocery store

Why Gen Z Hates Your Brand – And How to Win Them Over

by Rosanna Iacono
In 2019 Generation Z surpassed Millennials as the most populous generation, currently making up 32% of the 7.7 billion humans on the planet. Here in Australia those born between 1995 and 2010 make up 20% of our population and are set to  grow as a group by 17% over the ...
businessman walking with his leather bag

Retail Leadership Skills of the Future

by Rosanna Iacono
The future is already here - it’s just not evenly distributed. William Gibson The rapid acceleration of trends we’ve seen in the first half of 2020, thanks to COVID-19, prove Gibson right. The speed of adoption of new behaviours was only possible because the ideas and technologies applied ...
cash register in the shape of a unicorn

Hey, Retailer – Is a Unicorn Eating Your Lunch?

by Rosanna Iacono
A new breed of retail business is emerging to take the place of those who failed to innovate for the new economy. The failure of traditional retailers to evolve and adapt to the new economy has been well documented. Far less attention has been given to the key characteristics of the ...
a woman in a liquor store

The Top 5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Business Consultant

by Rosanna Iacono
At one point or another in its journey, every business will need to reach out for help to improve its performance. Whether the problem applies to the total business or to one division, once it's clear that internal attempts at improvement are failing, it becomes necessary to search out expert ...
spilled milk on the table

Insight on Research Insights

by Rob Shwetz
A while ago, I was working on the strategy team of a large media buying company. A media buyer, in a panic, came running up to our desks. ‘I need some insights.’ ‘What?’ was my response, obviously not having noticed the ‘Take a Number for your Insight’ queue that had been set ...
loudspeaker on purple background

When CEOs Become Activists

by Rosanna Iacono
Why more business leaders are putting Purpose first. There was a time when no CEO in their right mind would dare make a statement that risked customer alienation. Back in 1990, when Michael Jordan was asked why he failed to endorse a local black candidate running against an openly racist incumbent, ...
Birds eye view of a 6 way pedestrian crossing in Japan. There are lots of people walking in all sorts of confused directions.

CSR is Dead

by Rosanna Iacono
Why Purpose is moving from the sideline to the core of business strategy When the Royal Commission into Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services published its final report in February 2019, the death knell sounded loudly for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Kenneth Hayne’s report implicated Australia's largest financial institutions as having engaged in ...
Hand and 3D earth representing Cloud Technology

Case Study: Brand Strategy Driving Growth

by Phil Brown
Driving growth with brand strategy The challenge: FirstWave is an ASX-listed provider of cloud-based cybersecurity. Central to the business’ success is the technology IP that powers their solution. For over 10 years FirstWave had only one customer, Telstra, who white-labelled their product, selling it to SMEs as a Telstra product. Despite a ...
products on the shelves

Case Study: Maximising Sale Price Through Brand Equity

by Phil Brown
 JURLIQUE The challenge: Jurlique was Australia’s largest global beauty business with operations in 22 countries. In Australia the brand had plateaued at number 3 for skincare behind Clarins and Clinique, and in other markets it lacked the brand clarity required to drive rapid customer adoption. The challenge was to significantly accelerate brand-led ...