Category: Professionals

The open-plan office: collaborative and egalitarian or noisy and unproductive? Whatever your view, it’s a layout many Australian workers are familiar with. The open-plan office developed in the 1950s in post-war Germany and then swept across the corporate world. Its two perceived benefits are cost and increased collaboration. There is no doubt that, on paper, […]

The premise: Common sense would seemingly advise on the side of caution, but could letting your hair down and having a drink at the company Christmas bash have a positive side? Three experts give their view. You have a lot of inferred power and influence as a leader if you’re getting it right. You don’t want […]

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tops the latest Leadership Matters list for good leadership for his outspoken support for the fight against gender inequality, while Ardent Leisure gets a thumbs down for its handling of the Dreamworld tragedy in October. Justin Trudeau The Canadian PM is a self-declared feminist. In a letter to anti-poverty activist […]

Being able to network is a crucial part of a leader’s job, so how do you do it effectively? BY FIONA SMITH When the former chief executive of clothing retailer Best & Less, Holly Kramer, wanted to launch her board career, she made a spreadsheet to map out everyone she knew who could help her get her […]

Dr Christopher Clarke AFAIM, manager of corporate safety at Melbourne Water, was inspired to push his career envelope by mentor Ron Skaff FAIM, an organisational change practitioner and director at Forma & Associates. They began meeting in Melbourne at the beginning of the year. Why did you join AIM’s mentor program? Christopher Clarke: I joined […]

Blockchain technology started life as the key technical innovation of Bitcoin and now it may transform the financial services sector and beyond. What is blockchain? Blockchain technology provides indisputable proof of transactions. It’s like a network of databases that act as a shared digital ledger. Each transaction is recorded as a “block”. With new transactions, […]

The property development industry has long had a reputational problem. AIM chief executive David Pich checked in with Dean Ind, managing director of Invest Property Solutions in Queensland, to see how good leadership could make a difference. DAVID PICH: Tell me a little about your business. DEAN IND: I started Invest Property Solutions 17-and-a-half years […]

In the past couple of months, I’ve been privileged to interview a number of high-profile people about different aspects of global leadership. Some of these interviews took me to London, which I love visiting, but hated living there. (I couldn’t stand the long, dark months from about October to May.) But seeing London as a tourist is […]

In Hobart’s tourist hub, Salamanca, sits a shop devoted to all things fishy: whacking great whole salmon, fillets – raw, smoked and unsmoked – and all manner of associated products, even fish-shaped (but thankfully not flavoured) biscuits. This retail outlet, run by the country’s largest salmon producer, Tassal, and its sister store in Melbourne represent the […]