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Monthly Archives: August 2014

You must know detail about your business

I have worked with clients on their businesses and when asked about some detail like " what profit margin do you make on that product" or "how many hours do your people work on average", they don't know.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about micromanagement here - I am a firm believer in systems and procedures and a living vision that explain to team members what they do, how they should do it, and why they should do it, leaving you to concentrate on strategic matters that have impact.
However, you do need to know, nay, must know, the detail of your business model and your business functions.
When I was in my thirties, my mother developed terminal cancer and I looked after her palliative care at home because she wanted to die at home. I was assisted by an effective tertiary care medical system - home nurses, oncology visits, medical equipment supplied and so on. Her GP was also mine and once he asked me what medication she was getting and I replied "I don't know, some large white pills that the oncologist prescribed" thinking that was the affair of professionals whom I had delegated professional care to. My...
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The Vision Driven Organisation

For many years now, I have championed the value of the vision-driven organisation and vision-driven planning. And now, I see more and more examples where the principles of vision-driven planning being used in business affairs, organisational structuring, customer service, team development, and even in day to day personal living.
So what is a vision-driven organisation or business? It is the principle of aligning everything that you do and believe in, your core values, organisational structure, goals and objectives and strategies, towards the ultimate achievement of a vision.
Oprah calls it The Secret at work - I have always maintained it is about creating a corporate culture that takes the hard effort out of any organisation. The principle is based around creating a vision of where you want to be by exploring the picture from different "perspectives", where, from each perspective you ask the question, "on achievement of my vision, how will the business look from the perspective of...."
It is crucial that these perspectives are chosen as those most critical to the achievement of your vision - who or what is your vision "for"? Examples of perspectives that might be critical to the achievement of your vision are - the perspectives of the client or customer, the...
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Is your Aboriginal organisation compliant in its charitable status?

The Australia Taxation Office has released a Draft Ruling (TR2014/D5 Special Conditions for Various Entities whose Ordinary and Statutory Income is Exempt) for public comment. This Draft Tax Ruling applies to entities which include registered charities, a classification under which many Australian Indigenous corporations have registered for tax exemption. These entities have been registered as tax exempt under Division 50 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and in doing so, had to comply with a number of conditions. The Draft Tax Ruling deals with two of of those conditions, being:- 1. the entity must comply with all of the substantive requirements in its governing rules; and 2. the entity must apply all of its income and assets solely for the purpose for wehich the entity is established. While the Draft Tax Ruling in part merely confirms our understanding of the legislation, it does clarify a number of matters, including how the Tax Office will view compliance should you be subject to a tax audit. The first item that is illuminating is that the Draft Tax Ruling views the constitution or Rule Book as the main, but not the only source of "governing rules". It goes on to say that other sources of governing rules may be legislation....
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5 Steps to make your company Vision tangible

How many of us have word-smithed a company Vision Statement, perhaps even after a weekend workshop locked up with our senior managers, or we may even have paid big money to have a consultant workshop it with us and create that perfect Vision Statement? Great, I can see all those hands held up. Now, how many of us use that Vision Statement day by day to assist our companies move in the direction the Vision Statement envisions? Not too many hands up now! How many of us can honestly say our teams understand the tangible behavioral aspects of our Vision Statements to the extent they use it on a day by day basis to assess their own performance in team-working, customer relationships, objective-achievement, procedural efficiency? Too often the expensive investment in a Vision Statement stops as soon as it is typed up, printed, and framed on a wall. Your company Vision Statement is not just an idea, it must be a tangible future. Here's 5 steps to turn that piece of paper into reality. 1. You and your management team must understand what every phrase means in day to day activity. When your Vision is of a "leading sales force"...
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OTS Management