Cutting through

By guest columnist, Australian business journalist, IAN PORTER Not long ago, while working at The Age newspaper in Melbourne, I followed the evolution of a number of companies developing, and even making, safety syringes. There were four listed companies and one unlisted. Of the four listed companies, Unilife was the most controversial because of its eccentric CEO, Alan Shortall (for example, he was caught doing 200km/h-plus in a Bentley Continental on the way to a meeting with the Federal Health... (more...)

Old-world money in Europe and Asia has traditionally been of a deep, rich gold colour. Bonds, gems and the occasional thoroughbred racehorse all have their place, but the true tradition, the grand game, the natural legacy for the future generations bearing the family name, has always been gold. The new world largely turned its back on this convention, preferring diamonds and oil wells and ostentatious displays of real estate and private jet oneupmanship. Gold was something you plated your Cadillac... (more...)

We are not the sort of people to criticise our hard-working political leaders, but is Malcolm Turnbull a complete twit? Turnbull became Leader of the Opposition in Australia in September 2008 when the popularity of Brendan Nelson, the incumbent, fell to an embarrassingly low 16 per cent. In true political style, Turnbull slid a knife into Turnbull and then slid into his seat. “I do not come to the position of leader of the Liberal Party from a lifetime of privilege,” Mr Turnbull said... (more...)

Opinions are firmly divided about Google’s plan to create a computer operating system based on its Chrome browser. Microsoft has about 90 per cent of the global OS market through Windows, a dominance which is greater than Google’s in the search engine market. Microsoft’s hold is to some extent based on first-in, best-dressed status, but has been built on utility. Most of us have seen those sleek Apple Macs in shop windows and wondered what it would be like to have one, but then... (more...)

One of the more potent forces for the reshaping of social awareness is the committee room. Fill it with people on a government salary and the results can be truly astonishing. It was in one such committee room in Sheffield, England, filled with employees of the National Health Service, that the decision was made recently to increase awareness amongst school children of the value of orgasms. The result of the committee meeting — or possibly a series of them — was a leaflet, distributed to parents,... (more...)

An Australian polling group has put political issues aside for the moment and conducted a survey on something truly useful: which profession has the most sex. The poll, conducted by Galaxy, was generally aimed at discovering who has most job satisfaction, with the sex regularity question considered a major component. The result, without a word of a porky pie, was butchers. They are “the happiest employees in the workforce — and they’re having the most sex” the poll said. Seventy-six... (more...)

Can you get much lower than to be vilified by Britain’s tabloid press? How low do you have to be to annoy that section of Fleet Street which lives at gutter level? Perhaps Gordon Ramsay can give us the answer. The kitchen bully who adds expletives to every recipe has never been this low. It started with a trip to Australia where he did the normal Ramsay things — media interviews, live cooking demonstrations and generally playing the celebrity. One interview was on the Nine Network’s... (more...)

Annice Smoel, a 36-year-old mother of four girls from Melbourne, Australia, has been arrested while on holiday in Thailand and faces a maximum five-year gaol sentence. The crime for which she will be tried: stealing a bar mat. Mrs Smoel was arrested on May 2 and is now on bail awaiting trial. Her passport has been confiscated. Back in Australia, her four daughters, aged between six and 12, have made impassioned pleas to the Prime Minister, and her lawyer has claimed the Australian government has... (more...)

I just found this on the blog of a Californian company named Fisher Investments: “99% of news is produced by for-profit enterprises. This means the press has an incentive to sell more media and compete with others trying to do the same. The easiest way to consistently sell media is to make people believe they need to consume the content offered. They only way to do that is to make the content seem important — urgently important. The only way to make things seem urgent is through fear. Thus,... (more...)

A British group calling itself The Company Agency Leadership Council decided late last year to look at the issue of leadership in tough times. It spoke to leaders in business and public life about holding the reins and trying to drive over bad roads in foul weather. Respondents were asked straightforward questions about what they believed was needed to lead in a downturn. According to the authors of the resulting report, “The answers provided fresh proof of the classic definition of good advice:... (more...)