OCTOBER 2014 | FREE
Road rules east
connecteast passes new milestone
bottled up investors thirst for bottled water
vital germs they scare us, but we can’t live without them
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business &NETWORKING Frankston | Mornington Peninsula | Dandenong
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Inside
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ISSUE 50 / OCTOBER 2014
FRANKSTON / MORNINGTON PENINSULA / DANDENONG
50th
Edition
Columns Networking: Ivan Misner Business training: Bruce Doyle Health: Mike Ellis Markets: Richard Campbell Managing: Hamish Petrie
TONY MURRELL KEITH PLATT MARG HARRISON DAVID HILET MELANIE LARKE SIMON BROWN Design MARLON PLATT Finance ANITA HILET
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SMART BOTTLE: Two younge entrepreneurs hit a nerve when they seek finance for a new bottle.
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YOGHURT HANDOVER:
David Prior plans a surf trip and time to think before starting another business.
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Cameras monitor every kilomtre of EastLink.
COVER: After years spent running shipping companies, Charles Griplas has come ashore as CEO of ConnectEast, the company that runs the EastLink tollway from Seaford to Ringwood. PAGE 12 Cover photo: Keith Platt
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bottled invEsTO
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vital ge rm ThEy sCaRE us,
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INNOVATION
Smart bottle quenches investor thirst Mornington Peninsula Mornington Designer Jesse Leeworthy and Peninsula accountant Jonathan Byrt have been working on the Memo Bottle for well over a year and now see the way ahead to begin production. The friends attended Red Hill Consolidated School together before Byrt went on to The Peninsula School and Leeworthy Padua College. They surfed and played for Red Hill
sporting clubs - football, basketball and cricket – and their parents operate galleries on the peninsula. Byrt’s painter and potter father has the Giddy Bullfrog Gallery while Michael Leeworthy has his own, self-named gallery at Red Hill South. “We found ourselves trying to replicate a bit of this [parental] creativity via little stalls at the local craft markets,” Byrt says. They lived together during their university days and their first few years of work. “We both have very different skill sets. I’m more of a left brain operator, while Jess is right brain in its purest. We’ve always worked well together,” Byrt, who is now based in San Diego, California, says. Their desire to make an alternative water bottle was partly to combat “the Mornington Peninsula single use bottle epidemic”. 15
s s
Just when you think the bottled water market was saturated with products, two former Red Hill residents have come up with a thin, rectangular bottle to fit neatly into a carry bag. In need of money to start production, they launched a campaign on the crowd funding website Kickstarter, gaining pledges for $122,000 within 12 days, easily exceeding their target of $15,000. The $15,000 was seen as providing enough cash to pay the $1500 Kickstarter/Amazon fees; $10,000 for three custom blow moulding tools and one lid tool; $2600 packaging, die cut tooling, recycled cardboard, pad print and shipping; and $900 quality control, refinement and product and packaging assembly. The Memo Bottle will come in the most used paper sizes: A4, A5 and letter.
Making it in Main Street! Making it in Main Street!
Mornington Peninsula
Making it in Main Street!
Eview are proudly celebrating the success of their brand new
Eview are proudly celebrating the success of their brand new
Leading the vibrant team is well known Peninsula local, Jarrod Carman. Our entire team welcomes you to drop into 176 Main Street to say hello and experience a fresh new approach to real estate.
Eview are proudly celebrating the success of their brand new
Leading the vibrant team is well known Peninsula local, Jarrod Carman. Leading the vibrant team is wellinto known local, Jarrod Carman. Our entire team welcomes you to drop 176 Peninsula Main Street to say hello and experience Our entire team welcomes you to drop into 176 Main Street to say hello and experience a fresh new approach to real estate. Caitlin Broomhall
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Jarrod Carman
Jarrod Carman Director / Licensed Estate Agent
BusinessTimes | 3
profile
n Bizzquiz: tional account manager for Centrelink with a major recruitment company, overseeing the roll out of a project to provide 450 personal advisors nationally as part of the department’s Australians Working Together program. Fleming now works for the Slade Group, which offers recruitment services ranging from temporary and permanent support roles through to executive and global executive search and selection. Fleming says her consulting role is “all about developing creative solutions to ensure clients achieve and exceed their human resource objectives and candidates achieve and exceed their career goals”. I dreamed of being ... someone with amazing family and friends. Someone who helps and inspires those I meet and always leave people feeling they are somehow better off after having met me. Someone who is happy, confident, funny, and doesn’t take herself too seriously. Someone who exceeds expectations, helps others and excels at what she does. Someone
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Liz Fleming and her family moved to the Mornington Peninsula just over one year ago after toying with the idea of a sea change for many years. Like many others, she now wishes she had Liz Fleming done it sooner. Senior consultant Working in reSlade Group cruitment for more than 15 years, Fleming had early experience in the hospitality and retail industries before working as a consultant specialising in temporary staffing with a global recruitment firm. Here she placed and managed up to 150 staff a day for ANZ Bank throughout Victoria. Promoted to Victorian account manager in 1999, Fleming was responsible for about 80% of the bank’s staffing requirements. In 2002 she was appointed na-
who enjoys adventure. Someone who is lucky enough to live in a safe and beautiful place. My first paid job was ... working behind the counter at The Chocolate Box in the school holidays. The day I started I was told I could sample as many chocolates as I wanted. For a 16-year-old this was the best job ever. For three days I ate nothing but chocolate. By then I was so sick of the sight of chocolate, I didn’t eat any more for the entire summer break. In 10 years I will be ... all the things I dreamed of being and more. Our business planning entails ... spending a lot of time with our clients and candidates. The key to successful recruitment is having a deep and authentic understanding of what our clients do and the people they need for optimal success in their business. Only then can we find just the right person for them - one who will not only love their job, but who will really add value to their business. Being in constant communication with our clients and candidates, not just at the beginning of an assignment, but while on the job and post placement, we develop valuable
Get out of your comfort zone and into ours. Have your next business meeting at Brass Razu Wine Bar in beautiful Mornington.
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BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | October 2014
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EATING OUT
insight, which can really benefit both parties. Tip for success ... For me, listening is the key. So many people are busy talking about themselves or their businesses that they forget to listen to what others are saying - and just as importantly, what they are not saying. Only with astute listening are we in a position to ask the right questions, and then decipher the important issues. I am inspired by ... courage. There are so many ways those among us show courage, whether it be facing up to an illness, overcoming domestic violence or protecting those less fortunate than ourselves. It always fills me with awe and a sense of pride when I see someone overcoming their own fears to do something for the greater good. Anyone starting a business should ... believe that they are adding value in some way. Sometimes it is not enough to just love what you do. There are times when it can be so tough you want to pull your hair out and scream. There are times when you are exhausted. There are times when you doubt your ability. For me, the thing that pushes me through all these barriers is knowing that what I do is bringing about positive change, no matter how small.
I’ll know I’m successful when ... I can walk into a business and I know everyone. I can sit and have a chat about your kids, your holiday or your new house. I have interviewed you, or interviewed for you. I don’t need to be announced because I am almost one of the team. When I have successfully placed a candidate, I’ve not only helped someone to realise a career milestone; I know they will contribute to the ongoing development of your business. My mother and father always told me ... “If you fly with the crows, you’ll get shot.” This has taught me to align myself with people who are positive, ethical and forward thinking - those whose influence brings out the very best in me. I wish I had ... known what I know now when I left school. Embarking on your career can feel like plunging off a cliff into the unknown. I wish I had known that as long as you look to your core values and have the courage to believe in yourself, you can add tremendous value to any career path you decide to embark on. I wish I had not ... ignored my gut feel. There have been times when logic says “yes” but gut feel says “no”. Every time I ignore that niggling doubt, it ends in disaster. I wish I had learned that a bit sooner.
ENERGY FOR BUSINESS. It’s all we do. And that’s good for you.
Good taste list
Classic Italian dishes served with “sincerity and sound cooking” is the description given in latest The Age Good Food Guide of what diners can expect at Bel Sorriso in Frankston. Inclusion in the annual guide means its editors see the “upmarket suburban Italian” restaurant as being among the top 10% of restaurants in Victoria. Reviewers score restaurants out of 20 and Bel Sorriso was given a 13. The guide says Bel Sorriso owners Mario and Stephanie Tavian serve “classic dishes with little heed for what’s so-hotright-now”. The restaurant’s only drawback was being surrounded by car parking. Bel Sorriso is at 343 Nepean Highway, Frankston, phone 9770 0111.
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BUSY BITES
Talking business The importance of branding, social media , business integration and the right mindset will be discussed by five entrepreneurs at a Frankston training session in November. Session leaders: Beverley Unitt of Be You Success Coaching; Clinton Bailey of The Artistree; Chris Nimos of Rapid Click; Jessica Humphreys of Social Concepts Consulting; and Gerald Richards of 3X5X7. The session will start at 6.30pm on 25 November at Quest Frankston on The Bay, Nepean Highway, Frankston. Call 0418 101 202 or 0402 089 988 or www.rockstarentrepreneur.biz
Springvale gateway
Despite a falls, small business confidence remains positive, according to the third quarter WestpacMelbourne Institute Small Business Index. The index dropped 10.1% to 111.4 in Victoria, still ahead of New South Wales and Queensland, which fell 14.9% and 14.6% respectively. Western Australia was the only state to go up, with 6.2%. The institute said slowing economic prospects “continue to bear down on SME confidence”. “Despite the falls, overall confidence remains in positive territory with key indicators such as stable low interest rates underpinning hopes that recent declines will start to bottom out,” Westpac general manager, small business Julie Rynski said. “Despite a slight decline in most states, it’s encouraging to see that sentiment has remained positive for the third consecutive quarter, which reflects the dedication and hard working nature of small business.” Ms Rynski said the index showed small businesses have moderate expectations about future business activity, with 16.2% expecting activity to improve over the next three months while most expect to maintain their current level of employment. “After speaking with many of our small business customers, we expect to see sentiment pick up across the nation over the next quarter in the lead up to the busy pre-Christmas period,” Ms Rynski said.
GRANT APPLICATIONS OPEN Small businesses already operating or planning to move to Dandenong can apply for a council grant of up to $8000 as well as $2200 for marketing. The first round of Greater Dandenong Council’s 2014-15 business grants program closes 4pm Friday 31 October. The grants are aimed at helping small, homebased businesses move to commercial premises or
help new business ventures. Relocation grants are not available to businesses operating in Frankston, Kingston, Monash, Knox or Casey. More information about council’s business growth, start-up and relocation grants and government programs to help small business is available at: www.greaterdandenong.com/document/5717/ business-grants-and-sponsorship
NEW LIMITS TO TECH-DRIVEN LIVES The digital evolution has created new work practices, dubbed tech-etiquette. A white paper – Life on demand – released by Microsoft and Ipsos shows although technology reaches into every aspect of our lives we are consciously setting limits, paving the way for a new tech-etiquette. Key findings: · 30% check work emails at home before leaving for work, 23% do work activities while socialising with friends. · One in five take “no contact - time-out” breaks from technology while the same number meditate to help them “power down” – using both meditation apps and fitness classes. · 26% of Australians work from anywhere, more than double the number five years ago. · 73% believe technology has made life easier: 61% use banking apps, 41% use messaging apps, 29% use health and fitness apps and 25% use apps to buy groceries. · 72% feel devices have created “right now” culture, believing that others expect an instant response to emails and texts. However, 71% get irritated when family or friends use their phones when they’re talking to them and 79% of people think it’s rude to text when you’re with family and friends. But all that work is not at the expense of leisure, with 53% of Australians playing while at work, dipping in and out of gaming, video, online shopping, browsing blogs and social media.
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After looking at home and abroad Greater Dandenong Council has awarded a $579,000 contract to Clayton South-based Dura Constructions to build and install an Asian-style gateway in Buckingham Av, Springvale. Council ended its search for a builder last year when tender prices came in at $945,000 to $1.38 million. It also sent a project manager to China to investigate having the gateway built there. Five of the nine expressions of interest submitted in June came from China. Costs come from council, Springvale Asian Business Association and the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship.
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MOVE OVER, HERE COME THE MOBILES There will be more mobile phones than humans in the world by year’s end. Despite 60% of people in developing countries living on less than $2 a day, most have mobiles. (Google has confirmed that more people on the earth have access to a mobile than a toothbrush.) That the number of mobiles will get to 7.3 billion this year comes as no surprise to mobile top-up provider ding CEO, Mark Roden. “Mobile phones have the ability to drastically improve lives in some of the poorest parts of the world where communications are restricted,” he says. He says researchers at ding have found that mobile phone owners in developing countries will sometimes top-up their phones instead of buying groceries. Roden said up to 44% of ding customers consider the service a “need”.
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS SAFETY ISSUES Health and community services workers have a low safety consciousness, despite being the industry with the highest number of serious workplace injury claims. The safest employees work in the utilities, local government and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries. Men tend to take safety more seriously at work than women. Organisational psychology firm SACS Consulting says its Dangerous Personalities Making Work
Unsafe study shows that it is possible to identify which people are likely to flout or support occupational health and safety rules in the workplace. “It was surprising to find just how much individual factors like personality and values predicted safety behaviour,” SACS managing director and principal researcher Andrew Marty said. “We were also surprised in some high-risk industries safety consciousness was not as high as we might have expected.” He said employers in Australia spend more than $7billion paer year on workers compensation and, in particular, the costs of workplace stress and bullying claims have sky-rocketed. “For employers concerned about reducing the costs of workers compensation and time lost to injury, screening staff to identify their safety predisposition could be helpful in reducing unnecessary safety risks in the workplace.” The study’s results were based on a survey of more than 1400 employees in a range of organisations and employment sectors. The study found that by using a combination of a personality and values assessments, potentially unsafe employees could be predicted with 37% accuracy before they are hired, compared with the average accuracy of job interviews at 10-20%.
MELBOURNE GOES ONLINE TO SHOP Workers and residents in Melbourne’s central business district shopped online nearly twice as much as their Sydney counterparts in July, data collected by online payments platform eWAY shows. The online retail report showed central Melbourne shoppers were the most active of any state capital while Toowoomba, New South Wales, was the regional online shopping capital of Australia. The company says it accounts for about 22% of Australia’s online retail market. Online goods include florists, caterers, sporting goods, books, sports and recreational camps and clothing.
Going offshore A new report, Beyond Borders, shows 80% of Australian businesses which outsource non-core activities to offshore partners have retained or increased staff numbers in their onshore business. Salmat general managerbusiness development Max Tennant says the report shows Australia is among the larger economies to see growth in offshoring by SMEs. “It may be surprising for some, but cost cutting is often not the main driver for offshoring,” Tennant says. “Almost two-thirds of respondents said their primary objective was to expand their overall team. Others listed the ability to access specific knowledge and skills, extend their reach globally, or enable the ability to scale as new business comes in the door.” He said Salmat’s research has also been supported by Deloitte’s recent predictions that it will be the measure of service rather than the cost savings that will be the focus for organisations using outsourcing over the next 12 months. “Outsourcing back office functions ... enables Australian companies to put their time and resources into hiring more people in roles designed to grow the business, such as sales or marketing.”
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“One of the most interesting things about these findings is the amazing array of activities people are doing on their devices. They work, play, talk, create, share, collaborate, research, watch, listen, they manage – the list goes on,” Steven Miller, head of Microsoft Office division said. “Our devices have become much more than just utility products, they’re the nerve centres of our lives.”
October 2014 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | BusinessTimes | 7
NETWORKING gallery
1. Dandenong Business Network held its September meeting at Keysborough Golf Club. Guest speaker Janis Fatuleai, of Generational Wealth is with Michael Drew, Le Mans Go Karts, left, and Dee Healey, manager Keysborough Golf Club. 2. Dale Wyatt, Nova Bookkeeping, Zillay Batool, Real IT, and Charles Thomas, Taxstore.
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3. At the Breakfast and Retail Experts seminar Friday12 September at Frankston International Motel are Beverley Unitt, Beyond Success Coaching, and PayPal general manager Emma Hunt. 4. Also at the seminar are Samantha Yorke, eBay, and Eliza Foster, Made in the Shade. 5. BusinessTimes’ sales manager Marg Harrison and Australian Retailers’ Association chairman, Russell Zimmerman. 6. The annual general meeting of Mornington Business Chamber on Tuesday 2 September was held at Brooklands of Mornington: Lena Mitchell, Kiwi House, Ian Meredith, Farrell’s Bookshop and Kate Parkinson, BBRC Property. 7. Sam Nixon, Highview Accounting, chamber president Judy Edwards and Veronica D’ Silva, Counting Wealth. 8. Julie Dinne and Pamela Naffaa, American Express, Mornington.
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Daryl Gordon 0412 131 492
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9. More than 160 attended the Women Connect lunch at Mornington Racing Club on Wednesday 10 September. Debra Marr, of RPPFM, is with guest speaker and etiquette expert Anna Musson. 10. Also dining out on etiquette are, from left, Bel Sorriso restaurant’s Stephanie Tavian, Karen Watson, Quest Apartments and Gillian Thomson, Frankston Arts Centre. 11. At the opening of Frankston Council’s Peninsula Aquatic Recreation Centre on Friday 12 September, are Jane Taylor (wife of the mayor Darrel Taylor), with twin daughters Mackenzie and Remy, and Dereen Wallace, MBA Business Solutions. 12. Emily Hovenden, Pauline Dooley and Susan Hovenden. 13. Mt Eliza Business Networking met at Grazen Caf, Mornington, including Sonia Zerri, Jenny Williams, Delphinus Cruises and Nicole McClelland, MS Planet Computer Training. Picture: The Biz Photography. 14. Tony Sambell, Spicy Web, and Wayne Lock, Swat. Picture: The Biz Photography. 15. ConnectEast marketing manager Douglas Spencer-Roy and Mornington Racing Club manager Angela Cleland at Frankston Business Chamber’s September networking event hosted by Frankston Arts Centre. 16. Ice bucket challengers Michael Marracic, Frankston TV, Jonathon Reichweld, Frankston Council, Jim Schafer, The Schafer group, and Peter Patterson, Frankston Business Chamber. email marg@businesstimes.net.au if you have something to share.
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October 2014 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 9
NETWORKING
Business depth is strength Is your personal network “deep” or “shallow?” Chances are, it is a bit of both. The question is, how strong is the deep part of your personal network? In the course of developing your network, you meet and learn a little about lots of people. But you don’t go much “deeper.” You don’t know much more than the superficial things about these people – their names, their jobs, and maybe one or two other small facts about them. A deep network is one that contains the contacts that you know much more about – and who usually know much more about you. It’s great to have a large network, but if your network is a mile wide with many people in it, but with no deep relationships (or very few of them), it will never be very powerful. You need both a wide and a deep network – with some relationships that really go deep. To maximise the relationship, you want to know as much
Dr lvan Misner*
Networking specialist
about that person as possible: their family, hobbies and interests. One of the masters of developing a deep network is Harvey Mackay. It is truly amazing how much information Harvey asks for – and retains – when he decides you are someone he wants to have in his deep network. When I met Harvey, I remember having a nice conversation. Then, the second time we met, he started up with “So, how are your kids? You’ve got three, right? What’s Ashley doing now? What’s Cassie doing now? And how’s Trey doing – is he ready to go to college?” I was flabbergasted. Wow, how did he remember all that? The more I spoke
to him, the more I realised he must have taken notes. As it turns out, that’s exactly what he does. To help him deepen important relationships faster, he takes careful notes about things important to the people who are important to him. He carefully catalogues that information – and he adds to it every time he meets with someone, adding things like pets’ names, children’s names, your birthday, the anniversary of your business, literally tons of information. Harvey has developed a great method that helps him deepen relationships. There are several methods, and to be a successful at building a powerful personal network, you need to develop one that works for you. The important thing is to have such a method. We live in in such a sound-byte society. After a simple, “Hi, good to see you again,” so many people jump right into business without getting to know the other person very much. And that’s too bad, because one of the things I’ve found is when you really get to know somebody, amazing things happen.
Southern Partners 1140 Nepean Highway, Mornington
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Ph 0437 695 491 / 59 77 0680 jconquest@wallsbridges.com.au www.wallsbridges.com.au
Jacqueline Conquest (Principal) 2675
LLB, BSc, Accredited Family Law Specialist, Collaborative lawyer
Dandenong Business Network Buy, Sell, Promote, through your local DanDenong BuSineSS network
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Next Meeting is held at Keysborough Golf Club Wednesday 8th October 2014 55 Hutton Rd, Keysborough 5.30pm - 7.30pm Guest speaker: Jannis Fatuleai-Generational Wealth RSVP Geoff Brayshore: 0490 154 679 Email: info@dandenongbusinessnetwork.org.au
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10 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | October 2014
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Business Networks
As an experienced family lawyer I can not stress enough the importance of having the right advice early, not only about the law, but about options available to resolve family law issues.
coaches for their sons’ soccer teams. All of the sudden, these guys were practically best friends. They talked about soccer. They shared plays with each other. They even ended up going and scouting the competition for the other. Guess what happened? They had known each other casually for a year in a networking group - and had never done business with each other. Within three months of discussing their GAINS, they began passing referrals to each other. If they had continued with their more “shallow” relationship, they may have never passed a single referral. It’s really fun to see two people at a GAINS Exchange that start out learning about each other on a business level and then all the sudden one of them shares something – like an unusual hobby, or an unusual place they dream of travelling to see – and the conversation just takes off. I have a business associate who had always wanted to go to Greece – it was an item high on her bucket list and a very important dream to her. She had a
Reduce tanking. Take EastLink to the footy.
contact who had taken the time to get to know her, and knew about her dream of visiting Greece. One time, that contact wanted to thank my business associate for something she had done – and presented her with two gifts. One was a calendar full of beautiful photos of Greece and the other was a coffee table book about that country. Boom. The impression that person made on my associate was huge. From that point, their connection deepened, from something as seemingly simple as recognising her dream, and supporting that dream by providing a visualisation of it in a couple of different ways. It meant a lot to my associate – and that’s what getting to know your contacts is really all about. *Dr Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is founder and chairman of Business Networking International (BNI), the world’s largest networking organisation. Dr Misner is also senior partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. Email: misner@BNI.com
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One of the best ways I’ve even seen for shallow – or casual – business relationships to deepen is through a tool called the GAINS Exchange: Goals, Accomplishments, Interests, Networks and Skills. We tested it to see if this would work by putting these five elements on a paper so that two people who met for the first time – or who had met only briefly and had only a shallow relationship – could take turns learning about each other’s GAINS and writing them down. We gave the GAINS sheets to several pairs of networkers to meet and try it out. One meeting stays with me in particular. It was two men who, after being given the form, protested about how the exercise seemed silly; they didn’t need it to get to know each other better. We stood our ground and asked them to just test it out. If it didn’t work, fine. They could let us know that. As it turned out, during their conversation where they each shared their Goals, Accomplishments, Interests, Networks, and Skills, they found out they were both
October 2014 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 11
cover story: CHARLES GRIPLAS, CONNECTEAST
Road rules Words and pictures: Keith Platt
ConnectEast’s new CEO Charles Griplas measures traffic flows in proportion to the income generated for EastLink’s (mainly overseas) investors. While the constant, if muffled, roar of traffic may not exactly be music to his ears, Charles Griplas knows it is an indication that his business is running smoothly. A paying customer drives each vehicle that passes Griplas’s Ringwood office. Charles Griplas is CEO of the ConnectEast Group, owner of the 39-kilometre EastLink tollway, which runs between Seaford and Ringwood where it joins the non-tolled Eastern Freeway. Griplas took over the helm of ConnectEast Group from Dennis Cliche in August. The maritime reference is fitting as he came direct from six and a half years as head of the TT-Line Company that operates the Spirit of Tasmania vessels between mainland Australia and Tasmania. Before that he was chief financial officer with international shipping company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Oceania. Griplas sees little difference in managing vehicle movements on land to that of vessels on the sea. They are all “large capital items” and success lies in “how you manage the patronage”. ConnectEast, in a statement issued by chairman Greig Gailey, says Dennis Cliche, CEO since 2009, left the company “as a mature customer-focused high quality business” after the “early difficulties” of the global financial crisis. The same company statement said Griplas had successfully steered TT-Line through the GFC, which for shippers was compounded by a downturn in tourism and a high Australia dollar. Gailey said EastLink is “highly regarded” by the Victorian government “as a benchmark asset for public private partnership projects”. EastLink opened five months ahead of schedule in June 2008 after being constructed through a Thiess and John Holland joint venture. The listed company was sold to Horizon Roads
in late 2009 for $2.2 billion. ConnectEast describes Horizon as an investor group which comprises Universities Superannuation Scheme (UK), APG Infrastructure Pool 2011 (The Netherlands), National Pension Service (Korea), Leader Investment Corporation (China), ATP (Denmark), New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, Mirae Asset / Korean Teachers Credit Union and CP2 Limited and related entities. CP2 acts as investment manager to each investor. Griplas took over as head of ConnectEast as it marked its sixth anniversary and notched up 400 million vehicle trips on
12 | BusinessTimes| Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | October 2014
ConnectEast CEO Charles Griplas at his desk in the company’s Ringwood office, just a stone’s throw from the thousands of vehicles cloking up tolls on EastLink. Below, staff monitor cameras covering every metre of the 39-kilometre tollway, ready to dispatch crews or emergency services to any incident .
EastLink. Corporate affairs manager Peter De Luca says the more than 230,000 motorists using EastLink each work day travel at an average 93 kilometres an hour. Griplas also quotes these figures to BusinessTimes, adding that based purely on numbers EastLink is outstripping other areas of business: “It’s become an essential part of doing business.” A control room in the EastLink offices monitors 193 cameras along the entire route, including the tunnels at Ringwood.
”The cameras can be used to scan 360 degrees. They can see all of the road and there are no blind spots,” Griplas says. Although he won’t disclose the number of vehicles needed on EastLink to make it profitable, Griplas says budgets are worked out on “the long term horizon” and talks of the need to keep up with the roads continuous wear and tear. He wants more vehicles to use the road and looks to the planned expansion of the Port of Hastings as an international container terminal as a way of EastLink being used round the clock. “If the Port of Hastings comes along the capacity is there to provide a service if it’s a 24-hour port,” Griplas says, adding that development of the port has not been factored into EastLink’s projected budgets. He sees midnight to 6am were the “quiet hours” which could see EastLink benefit from trucks carrying containers to or from the port. “Business is solid and will grow anyway. We’ve seen growth in the corridor in retail and manufacturing.” The use of EastLink is “a product of different opening hours and commuter habits”. “We give people the opportunity of going on a congested road or one that’s free flowing.” He said motorists were “getting smarter”, weighing up their travel options, speed, safety and calculating the relevant costs. “It takes time to get used to paying tolls, but there is always a cost to roads.” The EastLink toll is tied to the consumer price index (CPI) and varies at the different zones along the route and class of vehicle. Zones including the tunnels are the most expensive. A car trip along the entire length of the road is $5.84 (until June 2015) weekdays and $4.68 weekends and public holidays. Light commercial vehicles pay $9.34 and heavy commercials $15,48. Motorcyclists pay $2.92. ConnectEast says EastLink has taken many motorists away from congested alternatives such as Springvale and Stud roads and helped improve traffic flow on nearby local roads. “The 400 million trips add up to over 5.2 billion kilometres travelled on EastLink, the equivalent to travelling to the moon and back 6800 times”, De Luca said. He says the more than two million electronic tolling tags in circulation (EastLink and CityLink combined) show widespread acceptance of tolling by Melbourne motorists. He says EastLink has less than a third of the rate of accidents of other Melbourne freeways “due to the fast rate of incident response by EastLink personnel, proactive policing by Victoria Police and the design of the road”. In the year to June EastLink’s incident response team attended more than 5700 incidents, including collecting more than 1600 items of debris, attending more than 1300 broken down vehicles and assisting more than 400 vehicles that had run out of fuel. Incidents can be broken down into eight main categories: debris 28%, breakdowns 24%, stationary vehicles16%, flat tyre 11%, out of petrol 7%, abandoned vehicles 5%, motor vehicle crashes 4% and other 5%.
October 2014 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 13
MOVING ON
Taking time for next move With sale of his business signed sealed and almost delivered, David Prior is deciding his next move. Nearing his mid-40s, it soon becomes obvious Prior has no intention of sitting back and enjoying the $80 million plus fruits of his labour: starting up and eventually selling his five:am yoghurt business. His immediate plans include a surfing trip to Brazil and becoming involved in his father’s Amber Plastics packaging company who’s biggest client will remain five:am, only now under the control of British-based P Z Cussons and not his son. P Z Cussons - which will keep producing yoghurt from the Carrum Downs factory owned by Prior’s family will also hand over a further $14m if 2015 profit expectations are met. A man who starts his day with a strict regime of meditation and yoga, Prior believes the sale was “a good fit”. “The business and staff will stay as they are, we [five:am and Cussons] are very aligned with values and vision,” he says. “We had several offers [for five:am] there was a better offer on the table - but I felt PZC all up was the better offer and fit. They understood the brand and my people. “It was a brand I created and cared for and I wanted to look after the 85 staff. I wanted them to be in good hands.” Prior said staff had been aware of him wanting to take five:am into Asia and that discussions to find a suitable partner were underway. Early discussions involved five:am and Cussons being partners, but Prior then let it be know he would be happy to “move on completely”. “You can’t shock people, so I kept the staff informed in an appropriate manner.” Predictably, since news of the sale of five:am spread, the cashed-up Prior has been receiving approaches to join the boards of existing firms or enter in partnerships. However, he is more inclined to look for another project, something to build from the ground up, a business that “fits with my values and beliefs”.
“It will be a new brand, a new business. It won’t be dairy food or cereal and not necessarily food, but it will be manufacturing.” Prior, who attained his MBA at Melbourne University, lists his skills as being manufacturing, branding, sales and distribution. All of which fit “a broad sphere of business applications”. “I’ll be looking to fill a niche.” He also sets himself the aim of “conducting business dealings at the highest level of ethics, and that goes for staff, suppliers and customers”. “I care for the environment on my way through as well.” Not following such values can have a negative result: You can get away with it for some years, but goes around comes around,” Prior says. He had originally chosen to make organic yoghurt because “all the business fundamentals stacked up - consumption was going up in Australia and it was a multi-national dominated industry”. Being able to go surfing before work and maybe arriving late was one of the non-business reasons to create his own brand. “I’m not really a buy-a-business guy or a passive investor,” Prior says. “I’m going to Brazil for month surfing [after ending the formal transition with Cussons] and trying not to plan too much.” Prior thinks his next business venture will be Melbourne based because that is where he lives with his wife Sallie (a
14 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | October 2014
former shoe designer “who used to fly to the ends of the world”) and their six-yearold daughter Sage. “I’ve had lots of approaches - a few a week - with offers of me being an investor, joining a board or mentoring. “I speak to everybody I can, but I’m not really inclined to be on a board or an investor. I can’t really add value. “It’s best for me to back myself and not get distracted. I’d really like to start a new business. “When I started five:am I took a year off to think about things. It then took a year setting up, followed by three and a half years of production. It was a five year project.” Prior said he does “fit the entrepreneur description”, although he thought starting up and selling five:am would have been a longer project. “I never professed to be wedded to organic yoghurt. “Sometimes it’s good to move on, but I never thought it would have been as short as this.” The negotiations - through Macquarie Bank - which led to the selling of five:am, took four months, and the weekend before Prior spoke with BusinessTimes he had decided to treat himself. Acting on impulse he went to the Gold Coast to catch the end of a large swell that had been providing a week of quality waves. “I flew up on Saturday and returned Monday. It’s not something I’d normally do.”
INNOVATION
Investors reach for the bottle
Bottled up: Jesse Leeworthy, left, and Jonathon Byrt are well on their way to producing a convenient way of carrying water.
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“Given our attachment to the outdoors and environment, we have always been disgusted with the overuse of single use plastic bottle, and developed a passionate desire to reduce their usage and their disastrous effect on the environment,” Byrt said. “Jesse in particular had a big focus on this topic throughout his university studies and put a huge amount of time into researching and designing the best reusable alternatives.” Byrt said it was frustrating not being able to fit water bottles into carry or laptop bags. “Somewhere along the line there has been a general consensus to design circular shaped bottles and from this such travel accessories as cup holders have followed suit. “Sure, there are many positives with traditional bottles in terms of manufacture and ergonomics, but while considering the impractical commuting aspects of these bottles we decided to flip the equation. “Rather than making a product that fits into this category we decided to create something that is easy to transport but still holds the functional aspects of traditional bottles. We are attempting to challenge the fundamental nature of carrying liquids. The Memo Bottle will be made from “durable, dishwasher-
friendly, BPA-free Tritan”, which has less “embodied energy” than aluminium and stainless steel products, making it 80 per cent more environmentally. Byrt says studies suggest that 1500 single-use water bottles are consumed every second in the United States, with 20 per cent being recycled. “This epidemic hits our hip pocket as well, with bottled water costing about 1400 times more than it does out of the tap and is often less regulated.” The two halves of the bottles had to be machined separately and glued together to make the prototypes. The plastic is 2mm thick for strength. “This way we could accurately represent what the final will look like and how it will perform in different scenarios,” Byrt said. “We’ve all heard those horror stories of the collapsible bottles exploding inside backpacks; this is one critical design factor that we had satisfy.” Keith Platt
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BE SUCCESSFUL, BE PATRONISED What is the number one reason Bruce Doyle* people patronise a business? It’s Business mentor/trainer an interesting question, so let’s start with the obvious answer: price. If you aren’t the cheapest people won’t deal with you. Many businesses get sucked into this and build their business around being the cheapest, which is potentially a really dangerous strategy as there is always someone that will try and be cheaper. One or both of you will probably end up going broke. Actually, in a nationwide survey price came in at number five when people were asked why they chose one business over another. So what about selection or range? This is an important area to make sure you get right, big enough to meet your clients demands but not too big that you have dead or slow moving stock that will eventually have to be discounted to get rid of. Never discount, always add value. Selection came in at number four. How about service? Yes, another part of a business that you need to get right. Awesome customer service. Make sure you are moving your clients and customers up the ladder of loyalty towards being raving fans. Still not number one though. Service came in at number three.
Quality? Yes, another area of delivery that you need to master is the great quality of your products and services. Quality came in at number two. So let’s not keep you in suspense any longer, the number one reason people patronise a business is confidence. They deal with businesses where they are confident that the business can deliver. Am I saying people will pay more if they are confident you are the right fit for them? Absolutely. Do you patronise businesses yourself that are dearer than others but you do so because you are confident they will deliver? So let me ask: why would I deal with your business? What sets you apart from the rest? What is your uniqueness? Benefits of dealing with you? Competitive advantages? Unfortunately, if there is nothing setting you apart, my guess is the price will then become a factor. If all the choices are the same then I may as well go for the cheapest. My recommendation is to own a segment of the market that is yours that sets you apart. If you don’t have one then you need to find one. *Bruce Doyle is a globally-awarded business mentor and trainer www.whateverittakesglobal.com
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16 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | October 2014
CONTRIBUTOrs
Four ways to brand social media profiles Social media is a great opportunity to Leanne Nicholson* verify your business’s key messages Marketing consultant and confirm credibility. It enhances the authenticity of your communications by humanising your brand. Social media is an extension to your online presence and therefore needs to be visually appealing and remain consistent. These four tips will help build a magnet brand across your social media platforms. 1. Use your logo as your profile picture Your logo should be the first thing that people will see when they come across your page. Having your logo as your profile picture will help your audience recognise your brand. Ensure that it fits proportionally and doesn’t get cut off. Businesses with longer logos will struggle with the standard square space. To avoid this you can use a distinctive part of your logo, such as the icon or motif. If you have a stacked version of your logo it would be your best option. 2. Add a compelling cover image Your cover image should attract attention and draw visitors to your page. You want this space to communicate your message quickly. Promote an offer, product or service and use a compelling image to encourage engagement. Get creative, use humour, show your personality and add pictures of people. 3. Use customised post images Posts tend to do better when accompanied with a great image. People connect emotionally with images and are able to process them much faster than words. Adding a short headline or tagline over the top of the image can also attract attention and prompt your audience to read on. Get creative with them and customise them to suit your brand. There are loads of apps and sites that allow you to easily customise post images for social media platforms. 4. Remain consistent across all platforms Your social media platforms should be consistent. Your profile name, profile image and the business description should be the same. Remember, this does not mean posting the same content on every platform. Give your audience a reason to follow you on all of your platforms. October offer: Get a professional, customised Facebook cover photo for $70 contact leanne@oraco.com.au and quote BT1SC. * Leanne Nicholson - graphic designer and marketing consultant - owns Oraco Marketing. She can be contacted at leanne@oraco.com.au and www.oraco.com.au
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health
Ewww ... I’ve got parasites Parasites conjure up all sorts of yucky images: silent leeches sucking your blood, yeasts and funguses infiltrating your intestines and creating systemic havoc, nasty worms making you bloat and itch, and opportunistic viruses that lurk and linger, biding their time until your defences are down. Why do parasites freak us out so much? And why has it become – in our diseasecentric society – another diagnosis de jour? Well it’s partly because we are so focused on microbes – viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi – as agents of disease. We can’t see these germs but we understand how they can make us sick. This seems undeniable, although as I am fond of pointing out, even Louis Pasteur, the godfather of germ theory, said this: The germ is nothing. The milieu is everything. The thing with parasites is, everyone’s got them. And thank goodness for that, because we wouldn’t be alive otherwise. In fact there’s every chance life on earth would never have progressed without an implicit co-operation between micro and macro species. In every cell of our body is a microscopic source of energy production – the mitochondria – which, believe it or not, is an evolved form of bacteria (Midichloria mitochondrii) that even has its own DNA. Science now believes that using a flagellum to propel itself this bacteria penetrated the walls of early eukaryotic cells and found the perfect home. Suddenly, living cells had inbuilt energy factories. You don’t get much more symbiotic than that. So our cells’ powerhouses are minute parasites. Every cell has one. Freaky. I’ve heard it argued that reproduction itself – in all species – involves a parasitic relationship – the offspring first as fetus and then as infant being completely reliant on the resources of its host (mother) until able to separate and continue its life cycle independently. (I know there’s an obvious gag here, but I will resist.) Mostly when we think of parasites it’s in relation to our digestion. Chinese medicine uses some neat imagery of the digestive tract as being like a healthy soil. As we know from our mulch pile, fertile earth is alive with microorganisms. It’s the same in our gut, where some 10,000 different microbes live happily,
Michael Ellis*
Chinese Herbalist
fermenting unused energy substrates, training our immune systems, preventing overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria, and producing useful nutrients such as biotin and vitamin K and the hormones to direct us to store fats. This is not news to most of us, as we’ve all become familiar with the term “good bacteria” referring to essential digestive microbes and “bad bacteria”, which are not so much “bad” but populations out of control for some reason (such as antibiotic use). It’s not that Chinese medicine dismisses parasites as agents of disease. In fact it has a tradition of dealing with a phenomenon it called “gu” syndrome. Like most Chinese words, “gu” has multiple meanings depending on context. One of those is “demon” in the ancient pagan sense of an entity that can invade or possess the human body.
18 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | October 2014
Another meaning was as a metaphor for hidden evil, and another was a reference to black magic that could be used to damage or kill an enemy. In the medical context, traditional Chinese medicine outlined “gu syndrome” in a way that we can recognise as roughly equivalent to modern diagnoses of parasite infestations. An observation of the Chinese was that if severe enough, as well as having the usual list of digestive and neuromuscular disturbances, these invisible “demons” could cause mental problems – depression, suicidal thoughts, volatile emotions and chaotic thoughts – and lead a patient to feel that their body and mind were not under their own control, that something else had taken over, that they were “possessed”. Funnily enough, some exotic parasites famously do this. They actually influence the behavior of their hosts in ways that benefit the parasite (usually to help it exit the body to move to another stage of their life cycle). An example is the truth-is-stranger-thanfiction Toxoplasma gondi, a protozoan present in the brains of an estimated 80 percent of the world’s population but that needs to reproduce in the digestive tract of cats. How does it achieve this? When it infiltrates the brains of mice it is able to change its host’s behaviour to remove all fear of cats. The deluded host may even “attack” a cat and hence, of course, end up as dinner. Mission accomplished. However, it is not in the interests of most parasites, including those that co-exist with humans, to debilitate – let alone kill – their hosts. That would be like setting fire to your own house. Evolution would not look kindly upon this. In Chinese medicine, when we encounter “gu” problems, we’re never as concerned about attacking and killing the microbes themselves as in bringing them under control by changing their milieu. A healthy body can and must co-exist happily with its essential, beneficial microorganisms. So next time someone tells you that you’ve got parasites, perhaps your first thought should be: “Thank you, what a relief.” *Michael Ellis is a registered Chinese herbalist in Mt Eliza. Visit www.mtelizaherbal.com
MARKETS
Iron ore: down, or down and out? If Australia once rode on the sheep’s back, we now ride on iron ore conveyors and remote controlled dump trucks.
Since only 51% of Chinese live in the cities, vast amounts of steel will be required Stock Analyst as 150-200 million more people move to the cities. The flaw in this is that the urbanisation program trumpeted The Pilbara’s iron ore represents 20% of our exports so its by the regime for decades is now losing internal support for the poor price matters, especially now that it is trending below $90 economic pay-off it is bringing as the unintended consequences pile up. and our trade balance is back to monthly deficits. The target of 70% has been revised to 60% and even that may be BHP and Rio say they are not concerned by the weak iron far too ambitious as China counts the cost of all construction that ore price, but many investors are scratching their heads. Why, has been poorly done and poorly located. they ask, are the big miners ramping up supply when China’s Many of the empty units are not only too expensive for the steel demand is soft and the price is falling? Even if their average Chinese to buy, but are not located near work, or shops or production costs are the lowest in the world, isn’t there a risk anything much at all. Provinces resumed land, rezoned it and sold it that the aggressive production back-fires. on to developers who often worked independently of planners. This They claim that as the price falls most of China’s own explains the several dozen “ghost cities” of China: empty except for domestic mines will close along with all higher cost compestreet sweepers and caretakers. tition in Brazil, India, Chile and Africa. In a textbook world China’s householders are just like us. They want to live in commuthis would work. The lowest cost producers would be left nities. They don’t want to move to high rise housing in the middle of standing and then they would be able to lift price and enjoy nowhere and often the compensation for their land doesn’t go near duopolistic profits, but it depends on a few assumptions. meeting the cost of often unfinished and poorly built apartments. First, it assumes that China will blink first and close its This is not to say that China’s steel demand will complete20 own mines to make way for Pilbara ore. That might be the ly slump. case if these mines were private and profit driven, but that’s not the case. They are mostly owned by the state owned companies which bled profusely as the iron ore price climbed above $120 a tonne. They are also highly subsidised. Reuters reports that 80% of the profits of Chinese steel companies are supported by direct and indirect subsidies even after the iron ore price fell through 2013 and this year. Cutting the costs of their iron ore production is expensive. Chinese iron ore is largely very different from Pilbara ore and low grade, requiring power to grind and separate and concentrate from 30% to plus 60% to make it fit the furnace. But since 2010 iron ore mines have been upgrading to semi-automatic underground machinery. They strive to leave the waste below ground. Even if they take losses, more local ore puts pressure on the price of imports and gives relief to the parent company steel mills. The second assumption is that Chinese demand for steel will continue to rise rather than plateau or fall. The problem here is that China is over built. One survey estimated that China has 50 million apartments sold but empty. Another survey estimated 38 million sold and empty with another 3.5 million unsold. Accurate data is very hard to collect as officials are not keen to admit to poor planning and investment decisions, but many surveys and trips have been made by China specialists to see from themselves. Construction represents 40-45% of steel demand and China’s over-capacity and over-build is endemic be it offices, housing, factories or shipyards. The third assumption shapes the second. The iron ore suppliers, especially Brazil’s Vale, are convinced that China’s urbanisation program is still young. Richard Campbell*
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October 2014| Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 19
nominated
Events organiser chases Mumpreneur success Jess Jones, of 2nd Avenue Events and Soar Collective, has been nominated for the 2014 AusMumpreneur Awards. The awards presented by The AusMumpreneur Network recognise and celebrate Australian and New Zealand mums achieving success in areas like business, product development, and services and innovation. Two months into her pregnancy in 2012, Jones decided it was the perfect time to start putting together all of the ideas “dancing around in my head for years. I wanted to start to create the life I wanted for my family and myself.” “I was about to become a new mum so I knew I needed flexibility and to work on my own terms while I launched my business.” Jones now knows the challenges facing businesswomen chasing success while raising a family. Her advice to others thinking about starting their own enterprise: you have to be clear about what you’re doing and why.
BEHIND THE CREATIVE MIND This can frustrate capital and management who see the market application and potential, who have invested to realise a financial outcome. The original concept or knowledge must undergo a metamorphosis to become commercially friendly, cost-effective and competitive, and most importantly, profitable. It is this process that can disturb the original creator/inventor, where perhaps it becomes unrecognisable in shape and form in what his or her mind has invested in. It is easy for the creator to lose identity and personal ownership, feel like the process is out of his control. This can lead to disillusionment, feelings of being abused or “taken”, and even lead to white anting of the commercialisation process albeit unintentionally. These are often undercurrents below the business waters, difficult to identify and quantify. Capital and management need to plan for and manage the “technical and scientific” input into the commercialisation process that follows R&D from the very beginning to avoid frustration and unsatisfactory commercial outcomes.
‘I wanted to start to create the life I wanted for my family and myself’ - JESS JONES
“It’s not enough to be passionate about what you do; you have to do the work and it’s hard work at times. Ask for help and don’t try to do everything yourself. “Starting your own business is not for
My concept is that there is not a commercialisation pipeline, but rather a commercialisation T intersection (blended commercialisation): creative, scientific and technical input from one side; market assessment, user and production efficiency from the other, and the product/service emerges from the T a blend of the two. And of course, sometimes the ideas just do not have commercial legs - this is a key evaluation the commercialisation marketing appraisal process must identify as early as possible. *Ken Ingbritsen, managing director of Eco-architects, builds business, marketing and production infrastructure around technology and new ideas. He is now in the Middle East working with products that impact on food security and safety.
Down ore out Demand for car manufacture is very strong, but it does mean that the current 800 million tonnes a year production is likely to be the historic high point and not the 1000 million tonnes a
20 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong |October 2014
the faint hearted, but with determination and a great support network, you’re at least on the right track.” Jones spent some early childhood years in Frankston when her father, Brian Jones, played for Frankston Dolphins in the VFA. She recently returned to live on the Mornington Peniunsula after 15 years in the hospitality and events’ industry, including a stint in New York City. Her highlight this year has been founding her second business, Soar Collective, a collaborative community for women in business. The goal of the business is to support and empower women through networking events. AusMumpreneur finalists will be selected by a public vote at www. ausmumpreneur.com with voting closing early this month. Winners will be announced at an awards event in Melbourne later this month.
year assumed by Rio’s board. There are many more airports and underground rail systems to build, but China has compressed 50-60 years of development into 20 in its rush to shake off the “backward” past. Along with that rushed demand goes waste and a level of fraud and embezzlement that beggars the imagination. Soon to go on trial is the former chief executive of China’s largest oil company. In March authorities confiscated $14 billion in assets from his extended family. This raises the wider question. Who paid for all those empty cities and empty office precincts? Who lost? Who gained? These big losses could force China to stimulate with more credit to meet growth targets, but it’s clear that the end of a period of over-investment and misallocated investment is approaching - or perhaps has already arrived.
* Richard Campbell is Executive Director of Peninsula Capital Management, Tel. 9642 0545. rcampbell@peninsulacapital. com.au
WINE & POWER
Small business power
Bittern-based Handpicked Wines has made its mark at the inaugural VIC100 Wine Awards. The 2013 Handpicked Collection Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir won two trophies at the VIC100 awards, a showcase of Victoria’s best wines. The Handpicked wine was named ‘VIC1’ – Victoria’s best wine – and also took out the regional award for Best Mornington Peninsula Wine. The wins follow Handpicked being named one of the top 10 “Best New Wineries 2015” by Australian wine critic, James Halliday, and its 2013 pinot noir winning the Best Mornington Peninsula Red Wine trophy at the 2014 International Cool Climate Wine Show, held in May (‘Handpicked for a trophy’, BusinessTimes September). Chief winemaker Gary Baldwin,
pictured, said Handpicked’s Capella Vineyard at Bittern had been chosen for its potential to produce premium pinot noir and chardonnay wines. The VIC100 winning wine was made with fruit from Capella Vineyard and three other peninsula vineyards. The 2013 Handpicked Collection Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir was the winery’s first vintage from vines at the Capella Vineyard and one of Mr Baldwin’s first wines as chief winemaker. Handpicked also owns Highbow Hill Vineyard in the Yarra Valley and Watunga Road Vineyard in the Barossa Valley. It also has relationships with growers and winemakers overseas, including France, Italy, Spain and New Zealand, as well as Australian winemaking areas Margaret River, Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Coonawarra, Tasmania and Heathcote.
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A study into the small business market in Victoria has revealed that when it comes to electricity retailers, small business owners would prefer to deal with a business-only expert. “Our market research has shown that 86% of small businesses surveyed found the idea of a business-only electricity retailer to be appealing, particularly in the current environment,” Belinda Rogerson, of national market research company Colmar Brunton, said. “Businesses are receptive to the idea of an energy partner with real street cred in the business space – someone who is only focused on this segment of the market, not residential,” Ms Rogerson said. “However, the respondents to the research also indicated that switching electricity providers all seemed too hard, too confusing and too time-consuming. The research was commissioned by ERM Business Energy to help it better understand the small business market, ERM is Australia’s fourth largest electricity retailer (by load) only caters to businesses, not residential customers. “With electricity prices on the rise and many often confusing offers in the market, what many small businesses are after is solid value for money coupled with a partner that understands their business from the outset,” ERM Business Energy sales manager SME Peter Bennett said. “With ERM Business Energy, a small business can switch online in less than five minutes, or call us and we will sort it out for them without any fuss,” Mr Bennett said. Call 134 ERM (134 376) or visit ermbusinessenergy.com.au
0408 598 767 tony@tpgd.com.au www.tpgd.com.au
October 2014 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 21
MANAGING
Communication today The last couple of decades have transformed the world of business communication so that today the speed, and quantity of business communication has increased irreversibly. Unfortunately, the quality and relevance of communication has suffered greatly through this period, to the extent that now it is a constant struggle to wade through the vast mass of information to find the few messages relevant to you. Let’s start by reviewing some communication basics. Firstly, there needs to a business message that warrants communication because it can change the knowledge and behaviour of the recipients and hence, change business results. For effective communication to take place, there must be both a transmitter and a receiver for this message, just as there is with radio or television. Unless both sender and receiver are tuned into the same frequency, then communication will fail. One of the challenges today is that there are so many messages and transmitters that each receiver struggles to be tuned in correctly at the right time and in the right state of mind to receive the message effectively. The very best method for communicating a message is to do it personally, faceto-face with the receiver. This way you can judge how effectively the message has been received and understood. Often, it is best to also have a second form of communication to reinforce the message, such as a written note stressing the main points in the message. Small businesses have a great communication advantage as it is physically possible for the business leader to have this sort of discussion with each and every team member. You just have to remember that key messages need constant reinforcement through words and behavior before people will fully accept the message. My rule of thumb is that you have to reinforce a key message about seven times before people will truly believe it. In larger businesses, face-to-face communication is still most effective, even if it is done in larger meetings. This is particularly true when there is an emotional content to the message. These meetings are clearly the best way
Hamish Petrie*
Business Consultant
to convey emotions within key strategies or current issues, because the receivers can assess both the verbal and non-verbal messages. It is important to recognise that often the main impact can be created by the non-verbal actions of the speaker. My wife keeps reminding me that my tone of voice is much more important than my actual words. Often, businesses choose to use a synthetic live method using television or other broadcast technologies to distribute a message quickly. These have become much more common in recent times, but are never as effective as live personal discussions. Written communication has been the backbone of business forever and it still plays this role today, although electronic distribution has changed the speed and language dramatically. The informality of emails has led to an increasing corruption for business language, particular for internal mail. Probably the great problem created by emails is the ease of expanding the copy list. Too often people just add recipients to the copy lists as a defensive mechanism, so that everyone who might potentially be interested gets a copy. This results in huge inboxes cluttered with irrelevant messages most of the time. Businesses can benefit from having a dialogue about the use of emails, where standards are developed for their style, distribution and retention. For example, set a standard that the absolute minimum number of people should be copied on every message. For formal communications external to a business, great care needs to be taken to ensure that customers can quickly understand your message through clear, simple and explicit wording. Technology will continue to have a huge impact on communication, particularly mass communication where information
22 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | October 2014
is put out in cyberspace for anyone to use. Social media now has so much influence that every business needs to consider how to use it to enhance their performance. This is particularly true as social media can connect you to your customers in ways that were not possible a decade ago. A recent review by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services entitled “The Digital Dividend – First Mover Advantage” concluded that IT “pioneers” were much more likely than their peers to lead in both revenue growth and market position. While this sort of study cannot establish clear causal connections, it does show that businesses that are actively using emerging technologies are much more likely to be successful across a range of business performance measures. While the basics for effective communication have not changed, technology development is driving businesses to invest more time, effort and money into new communication platforms. The key challenge is to close the loop with appropriate measures that can demonstrate just how communication systems are contributing to your bottom line.
Action Planning Questions: 1. Do you have a process to evaluate messages carefully before selecting the most appropriate communication channel? 2. Do you use face-to-face meetings to communicate important messages, such as values and strategy? 3. Have you set standards about the use and abuse of emails? 4. Are you using social media technologies to enhance your customer connections and engagement? 5. Do you have performance measures showing how social media is enhancing your business performance over time? PS: If you think that you need some education on business writing, watch the “Weird Al Yankovic interpretation of “Word Crimes”, on YouTube (www. youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc) *Hamish Petrie had a 37-year corporate career including 25 with Alcoa Inc. His latest position was VP People and Communications for the Global Alcoa Corporation based in New York. He can be contacted at hamish@nitroworld.net or on 0404345103. © Hamish Petrie 2014
Store award
Peter and Melinda Bennet-Hullin were named as the Licensee of the Year at Telstra’s annual Licensee and Partner Conference. The award recognises Telstra licensees with consistently high customer satisfaction ratings and significant sales growth, and puts the couple’s Mornington store at the top of 270 Telstra licensed stores for service excellence. The store was also runner-up in the Customer Advocate of the Year category. “We are so proud of the efforts of the whole Mornington team - it is their commitment to ensuring that every one of our customers has a positive experience when they walk through our doors that has earned us this award,” Peter BennetHullin said. “Of course no store can exist without customers and it’s because of the enormous volume of positive feedback from our customers that we continue to be successful. Customer feedback challenges, educates and inspires us.” The Telstra Store Mornington is at 107-108 Mornington Village Shopping Centre, 241 Main St, Mornington.
businesstimes
Free advice: Bruce Billson MP, Lloyd Borrett, of the Scuba Doctor Australia and Emma Hunt, PayPal at the Driving Business Online seminar.
Online advice
Information about online trading was given to businessowners at a free seminar held in Frankston by PayPal and Dunkley MP Bruce Billson, who is also the Minister for Small Business. Those attending the 9 September Driving Business Online seminar at the Frankston International Motel were told that buying online had in some sectors become more popular than physically visiting a shop. Latest e-commerce trends show that in 2013 internet retailing grew by 15%, reaching sales of $6.5 billion and, in the 12 months to 2014,
Australians are estimated to have spent $15.5 billion online. Australians are researching purchase choices online and prefer to spend their money with Australian online businesses. Those at the seminar were told it is important for businesses to have an online channel to customers. Wholey owned by eBay, PayPal allows payments and money transfers to be made through the internet, charging sellers 2.4% plus 30 cents a transaction for online sales in Australia and 3.4% for international sales plus a fixed fee based on the currency received.
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