Garth Stewart

Another great read - thanks Gerard Smith - insights from experts help all of us move forward in the industry.  Great tips to ensure your digital transformation is a success! #industryleaders #industryexperts #digitaltransformation

16

Oh, “lightning-fast” NBN internet for Australia, is FINALLY here to take us to...what, 2010 speeds? After a decade of empty promises & $$ billions thrown around, we’re supposed to cheer now? Yeah, let’s all clap because they've managed to reach nine million properties, probably leaving out rural areas where they think kangaroos are a greater concern than connectivity. & they call it "simple to set up"—right, until you need to call the support line &] end up on hold for longer than it takes to download a 4K movie on this "lightning" network. But here’s the real kicker: they hike up the prices as if they’re offering a first-class ticket to the digital age, while the rest of the world just walks on by. Want to upload a video or do a Zoom call without freezing like a pixelated ghost? That'll be $100 a month, thank you. & let’s be real, “supercharge” sounds grand until you realize it's just putting a turbo on a tricycle, going nowhere fast. So, what’s next? Another ten years until everyone has access to this so-called “lightning”? Or maybe by then, they’ll launch “super-duper lightning,” & it’ll cost double. Dozens of Melbourne suburbs will soon have access to ultra-fast internet | 7NEWS https://lnkd.in/gbkNndcX

2

The Federal Budget headlines are here, but what truly matters to mid-sized businesses? Our latest MYOB Bi-Annual Business Monitor sheds light on their priorities, surveying 500 mid-market decision-makers (20-500 FTEs, $5m+ revenue) for the first time 👀. Key Findings: - Operational Efficiency is Paramount: Mid-market businesses are laser-focused 🔍 on overcoming cost pressures. Fuel prices (49%), utilities (43%), and interest rates (43%) are their top concerns. - Innovation for Growth: While cautiously optimistic (63% believe the economy will improve📈), they seek measures that support digitization (36%) and national security (37%). - Red Tape Reduction is Crucial: Cutting red tape (36%) is a major priority, allowing them to scale and adapt more effectively🚀. What the Mid-Market Needs: - Streamlining Operations: Incentives to tackle rising fuel and utility costs, along with support for efficient business processes👌. - Investing in Innovation: Funding for digitisation initiatives and policies that foster growth in green technologies and national security sectors💡. - Less Bureaucracy, More Growth: A streamlined regulatory environment to free up resources and unlock their full potential🔓. Read more here - https://lnkd.in/dpsVuKEd

11

Headline: When Aussie Telcos Missed the Memo on Mobile Tech (and It Cost Them Trillions) 💰🤣 Throwback to 2007, the year the iPhone dropped and my mates and I pulled off a cheeky IP heist that made Scrooge McDuck jealous. We swooped in during the US/Euro recession and nabbed some sweet 3G/4G patents from Sagem. 🤑 Suddenly, we were raking in 1/6th of 18% of every handset $$ sold globally – talk about passive income! 😉 But here's the kicker: we slyly licensed our goodies to Apple, Microsoft, and Google, giving them a taste of the big leagues. Cue the global court battles and us sipping champagne with the biggest names in tech. Cheers! 🥂 Fast forward to 2009, and I'm dishing out advice to a Aussie telco boardroom on their Apple contract. Turns out, they'd handed over the keys to the kingdom without even realizing it! 🤦‍♂️ Lesson learned: C-suite smarts don't always equal street smarts. The proof is in the pudding: while Apple, Microsoft, and Google skyrocketed to a combined market cap of $7.4 TRILLION, our Aussie telcos, Singtel and Telstra, barely budged from their $70.4 billion valuation in '07, in fact down to $66.2 Billion. 🙈 Yikes! Looks like we're not exactly breeding rocket scientists in the Aussie telco world. 🤔 And now, AI's on the horizon,promising cost savings and efficiency. But without that intuitive spark, I fear history's about to repeat itself. Memo to Aussie telcos: hire the smartest minds, embrace innovation, and stop leaving trillions on the table! #TelcoTales #InnovationOverDelegation #AIRevolution #AussieHustle

16

🏛️ Introducing Public Sector GPT 🏛️ Tuesday, 18th June 2024, the NSW State Government released their latest budget for 24-25, it's full of lots of great information if you live in NSW, Australia. I know most of us enjoy reviewing government budget papers each year, but what if you can let AI work for you and get 20x the fun! 😁 With that in mind, we thought it might be fun to create a simple ‘Public Sector GPT’ that has been trained on 20 years' worth of budget papers. Mathematically speaking, that has to be 20x better, right? Check it out here: https://hsft.au/psgpt It will be available for a week or so. Feel free to share your insights or let us know if the AI misses anything! #PublicSectorGPT #NSWGovt #BudgetPapers #Healthsoft #AIWorkingForYou #20XTheFun

26

3 Comments

Sunday musing: Over the last few weeks i've been processing my decision to resign from my last role. The overwhelming response was supportive and I'd like to say thank you for the outpouring of recognition and advocacy. Reading the comments and offers has been a validation and a huge source of inspiration to me 🙏🏼 Thoughts: Life is short and the world is wide - No one can tell you your definition of success. You make your own and if you don’t feel you can achieve them it is fine to call it and change direction. I didn’t want to let people down so I made sure I left things as well placed as possible. I want to find a challenge that is global and that will be built as such from day 1. Some people are builders - I'm happiest when building world class products with a team focused on finding something incredibly valuable that has previously been thought unattainable. These experiences are the track record I am most proud of. It’s not the pursuit of happiness it’s the happiness of the pursuit - I wish this was my quote, so does Jimmy Carr but Denis Waitley’s words resonate for me. Imagine working your whole life deferring enjoyment so you can save up a few happy years at the end, no doubt feeling utterly spent and hardly able to operate, let alone enjoy yourself. No, I have made it a mission to enjoy the journey and the pursuit. I believe in my own agency to change things. I accept not all people are built this way but at my stage of life, I have little fear of change and an awful lot of energy, expertise and experience to bring to bear on any opportunity. Value lives in unexpected places - I enjoy the work of Rory Sutherland, a creative who noticed that psychology and magic often trump logic when it comes to product innovation. There are so many products that shouldn’t work that tap into deep psychological needs, just enough to become hugely successful. Real value often relies on a trying things perpendicular or orthogonal to convention. Sometimes in re-discovering a latent truth. Invested energy takes time to transition - As soon as I departed my role, I got sick. It has taken a week and a half to process. I'm lucky, I can spend time in nature to recuperate and now I am feeling ready to go and take on a new challenge. If there’s a learning here for me, it is to pace myself a little better, you cannot be the leader people need if you have nothing in the tank. Despite my 9 live’s and many successes, I still want to build globally relevant, cutting edge world changing things and I only want to build them with amazing humans. So many people who are doing it tough right now, struggling to put food on the table so I have gratitude to be where I am. But, none of this came without hard work and so I believe that with the right mindset and knowledge that the world is a place of opportunity for those brave enough to put themselves in the arena; and so I would encourage everyone with a dream to chase it hard. Musings end. Onwards and upwards. 🙏🏼

79

25 Comments

Here’s an actual client story… A CEO of a major telco called me. He was grappling with a business-critical program that had gone off the rails. “We’ve been running this program now for over a year. It’s late. We’re in breach of contract and I have a very disgruntled customer threatening legal action.” Having witnessed multiple failed attempts to reset the program, he had lost confidence his team could turn it around. So, he asked for our help. Even with our 30 years of experience, what we found was jaw-dropping. Read my latest article for the details and discover valuable insights that could save your programs from a similar fate. #programmanagement #telecoms #riskmitigation #transformation #businesstransformation #strategyexecution #mentoreurope

16

1 Comment

Sydney siders (perhaps the rest of the country? perhaps cookie lovers’ full stop?), will have heard about the failed ‘Crumbl inspired’ pop-up store in Bondi recently, who happily charged customers around $17 for a single stale and somewhat underwhelming cookie. Read about it here: https://lnkd.in/gps9DjDs Who is Crumbl? Delicious cookies originating from the US: https://crumblcookies.com/ The pop-up store did not have any affiliation, or authorisation from the US company – which raises a number of interesting legal questions, not least whether the Bondi pop-up infringed Crumbl’s Australian trade mark registrations. The pop-up organisers purchased genuine Crumbl cookies from Crumbl in the US and then imported and sold these cookies in Australia. On its face, the organisers have a defence to trade mark infringement if they can show that it was reasonable for them to conclude that the Crumbl trade marks applied to the goods they purchased, were applied by Crumbl (or with Crumbl’s consent). This is the parallel import defence, which legalises Australia’s current position on parallel importing – (very broadly speaking, it is permitted because it promotes competition and gives Australians access to a broader range of international products at a lower cost). Based on what we know, it seems likely that the organisers could rely on this defence – meaning that they were within their rights to import and sell the cookies in Australia. From a trade mark perspective anyway…the organisers could still face other legal claims from Crumbl, such as misleading or deceptive conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, copyright infringement allegations, breach of contract (with respect to Crumbl’s own product T&Cs) and potential breaches of the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code. Thankfully for the organisers, Crumbl’s co-founder and CEO has jumped on the publicity train (or plane?), flying into Sydney last week to announce that the brand now plans to accelerate its plans Down Under. And why wouldn’t it? He expressed that Crumbl are not planning on taking any legal action against the pop-up organisers – and adopted an attitude similar to one that your mum might– it’s a compliment, not copying. All in all, it seems the pop-up organisers really did nab the good fortune cookie! 

17

A Shout Out for More Innovation in Established Businesses It is of course good news to see that Adelaide and Australia more broadly have a strong emerging startup ecosystem. (see: https://lnkd.in/gjbhbjhF?) However, equally important (if not more so), is the need for a greater focus on innovation in established businesses. The attached article is quite simple and short but aptly summarises: 1. the important difference between creativity and innovation 2. why innovation in business is important 3. some different types of innovation. Equally as important, it highlights the need for organisations to ‘learn’ and be trained to be innovative - it is a skill and a way of thinking, not an inherent ability that we are necessarily born with. And perhaps that is part of the challenge of some business communities. To see more innovation in mature organisations, however, they need more access (or awareness) of funding opportunities for both: 1. training staff about how to be innovative and its benefits, AND then 2. support for the implementation of an innovation. Innovation is critical - for all business. See: https://lnkd.in/gU_J_uJE #innovation #designthinking #codesign #maturebusiness #growthmindset #training #growth #development #ideas #creativethinking #skills #management #leadership #learning #projectmanagement #business

6

Five easy ways to drive business growth from your space Business NSW provides support to businesses of all sizes to help them become more productive, sustainable, competitive, and profitable. We are excited to partner with them to tackle the challenge of filling underutilised space and harnessing idle capacity to generate more revenue through Vennu. Organisations big and small all own underused facilities. Vennu delivers significant benefits for asset owners, including: Increasing revenue: Unlock the potential of your idle assets. Create new revenue streams by renting out underutilised spaces. Whether it's a meeting room, studio or event area, you can quickly and easily turn unused space into income. Reduce overheads: Streamline the management of taking bookings, take the stress out of payments and showcase your space and availability directly to potential hirers. Vennu simplifies processes, saves time and eliminates administrative headaches. Increase visibility: Connect with diverse and engaged audiences actively looking for unique spaces. Gain direct exposure to potential renters who might not find you through traditional channels. Put yourself in control: From setting pricing and availability to defining usage terms, Vennu gives you complete control over your listing and rental conditions. The easy-to-use system has inbuilt tools to tailor the promotion of your space to suitable hirers and allows you to maintain full control. Strengthen community engagement: Drive ESG activity by engaging with your local community and taking a sustainable approach to asset management. Enable suitable community groups and charities to use your space and support greater use of facilities in NSW. Opening your space to bookings doesn’t just drive revenue, it is how you can enhance your organisation's reputation and foster positive relationships within your community. Vennu provides the digital platform and professional services to support you in driving more revenue from your space. The innovative solution is cost-effective, customer-centric and easy to use. Become a Host and join hundreds of other owners of unique and unused spaces in delivering new revenue to your business. https://lnkd.in/ddcMJh7V https://lnkd.in/d_a3ZvRj Dan Macias, Nicole O'Donnell, Pierce Nicholson, Ramanpreet Wadhwa, Rechelle Leahy, Michael Mekhitarian, Simon Harrop, Janine Cullen OAM, Paula Martin, Gemma S.., Ruby Soeterboek, Tim Fares, Melissa Thompson, Donna Payne, Kerrie Sheaves, Shefali Pall, Kate Dezarnaulds, Kristie Atkins, Rona Morgan, Jennifer Cook, Scott Coles #businessnsw #businessgrowth #vennu #communityspace #communityconnection

38

6 Comments