From my days in the private sector (and running my own business) I know that our staff are one of our best assets but often, we don’t have enough spare time or resources to recognise their incredible efforts.

Parramatta Rotary has the answer – the Pride of Workmanship Awards.

They are seeking nominations of extraordinary staff members in the Parramatta area. You know the ones – their efforts at work are tireless, they go the extra mile, their work is always high quality and they are a pleasure to have around. They’re the ones your customers or clients tell you about. They’re the ones who “do it once and do it well”.

It’s my pleasure to present this program to you and I hope you have one or many staff who might fit the bill.

Thanks for giving your valuable time to considering this. Please call my office on 9689 1455 or email me at julie.owens.mp@aph.gov.au if there’s any more information I can provide about this, or if there’s anything I can do for you.

Regards,

Julie Owens MP
Federal Member for Parramatta

Western Sydney Business Connection Annual Golf Classic

Date & Time Friday 25th May 7am- 4pm
Venue Twin Creeks Golf & Country Club
478 Twin Creeks Drive Luddenham Road, Luddenham

Price Team of Four: $920 incl GST Individual Player: $250 incl GST

Secure your seat today! You and your team have worked hard so far this year, so take some time out and reward yourself with a day at the beautiful golfing playground of Twin Creeks Golf & Country Club. The 2012 Golf Classic, open to members and their guests, makes for a friendly golfing and networking day at a prestige venue. Join us for great golf, great prizes, great food and great social

Player Program
7am Registration and Breakfast
7.45am John Horler Memorial Putting Competition
8.30am Tee Off
2pm Lunch & Presentations

Registration Includes
Club and Cart hire
18 Holes- Shotgun Start
4 person Ambrose
Hot Breakfast
Refreshments On-course
Pre- lunch Beverages
Gourmet Buffet Lunch

RSVP COB Friday 18th May 2012. Click here for registration form

Never let it be said… men are poor communicators.

Males do communicate and are generally efficient in getting their message across.

Sadly, all too often the audience is themself and the sentiment is negative.

Self-talk is calculated to represent more than 90% of the time and effort expended by males in projecting and receiving messages, thoughts and ideas. Women are more inclined to share their time and thoughts with others.

However, it seems males and females alike are guilty of self-admonishment. “You idiot”, “you fool” and “wrong again” are common verbal and mental statements.

The manifestations of this reality are particularly evident in the current business marketplace. A general lack of confidence is one of the manifestations of negative self-talk, among other contributing factors. This can be a catalyst for many to “retreat into oneself”.

The good news is that there is truth in the saying: “if I could speak to more people I could sell more and do more business”.

A great place to start this positive, remedial action plan is to sit down and have a “good talking” to yourself. There is generally a good and quick meeting of the mind about who one should contact to talk business.

And a parting message for humble males, from the female fraternity:

“one thing at a time”.

THE AUTHOR

Barry Urquhart, Managing Director of Marketing Focus is a business strategist, an internationally recognised conference keynote speaker, business development workshop facilitator, author and business analyst.

Office: (08) 9257 1777
Mob: 041 983 5555
Email: Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au
Website: www.marketingfocus.net.au

Its article was aptly titled: “Pretty profitable parrots: For businesses, being good at copying is at least as important as being innovative”

History shows that imitators often end up winners.

There are several examples cited. Germany’s Samwer brothers, Alexander, Oliver and Marc, are legendary copycats. They have made huge fortunes replicating American internet models in other markets, sparking outrage in an industry which prides itself on invention. . The brothers copied the latest trends and some of their copycat efforts have actually been acquired by the original innovators themselves such as the acquisition of Dailydeal , a clone of Groupon that was sold to Groupon. One of their recent efforts is Pinspire, an online pinboard with a similar layout, colour scheme and features to those of Pinterest, the latest craze in social media. The Samwer brothers are telling young entrepreneurs that “the ideal way to make money is by copying something that works in the US, then selling it back to the original.”

Apple imitated others’ products but made them far more appealing. The iPod was not the first digital-music player; nor was the iPhone the first smartphone or the iPad the first tablet. Apple excels integrating the best features of others, give its product an elegant design and together with its brilliant marketing strategy dominates the market.

Les Wexner, the owner of famous lingerie retailer, Victoria’s Secret, has a philosophy that business should celebrate imitation. He regularly takes a takes a month off to travel the world looking for other companies’ ideas to copy.

The pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer has joined in the copycat game by starting generic-drugs businesses themselves.

Pampers stole the disposable nappies idea from the pioneer Chux.

Ray Kroc, who built McDonald’s, copied White Castle, inventor of the fast-food burger joint.

Studies showed that imitators do at least as well and often better from any new product than innovators do. Followers have lower research-and-development costs, and less risk of failure because the product has already been market-tested.

A study by Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis, “Pioneer Advantage: Marketing Logic or Marketing Legend”, found that innovators captured only 7% of the market for their product over time.

The article concluded that copying is here to stay and suggested that businesses may as well get good at it.

My take on this is that , all the successful companies cited are not pure Copycats but rather Copycat Innovators.  Their innovation signatures on their products are evident, otherwise for example,  Apple would not be consistently acknowledged as the most innovative company in the world!

The author, Dr.YKK has trademarked his 7-Step Copycat Innovation System that fast-tracks innovation with minimum risk and using the least money, time, efforts and resources. To get a 8-page report on this subject, please go to www.mindbloom.net or send an email to DrYKK@mindbloom.net

From my days in the private sector (and running my own business) I know that our staff are one of our best assets but often, we don’t have enough spare time or resources to recognise their incredible efforts.

Parramatta Rotary has the answer – the Pride of Workmanship Awards.

They are seeking nominations of extraordinary staff members in the Parramatta area. You know the ones – their efforts at work are tireless, they go the extra mile, their work is always high quality and they are a pleasure to have around. They’re the ones your customers or clients tell you about. They’re the ones who “do it once and do it well”.

It’s my pleasure to present this program to you and I hope you have one or many staff who might fit the bill.

Thanks for giving your valuable time to considering this. Please call my office on 9689 1455 or email me at julie.owens.mp@aph.gov.au if there’s any more information I can provide about this, or if there’s anything I can do for you.

Regards,

Julie Owens MP
Federal Member for Parramatta

To strengthen this movement and to generate a political impact on the world stage, the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20YEA) organizes the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit (G20 YES), a gathering of young entrepreneurs and the organizations that represent them, to convene, network and discuss the policy and regulatory changes needed to foster entrepreneurship in the G20 countries. Nearly two years after the inaugural Summit in Toronto, where the Alliance was first formed, the G20 YES now works with G20 governments to obtain official G20 Summit status and the communiqués created at the G20 YES have been received and acknowledged by G20 governments.

Jeremy Liddle (http://au.linkedin.com/in/jeremyliddle) has just been nominated the head Australian delegate to the G20 YES in Mexico commencing 2nd June 2012, which mean he has less then 3 weeks to put together a 13 strong delegation of Australia’s hottest young entrepreneurs.

There is only one problem…

Awareness about the G20YES in Australia is lackluster at best, and the delegation has no external funding for flights, accommodation and travel expenses.

Jeremy launched his first company, RioLife, at the age of 24 – which went on to be awarded Australia’s Fastest Growing Small Business in 2010 and was again a finalist in 2011. He is just about to release his first book ‘From Idea to Startup’ designed to inspire and empower budding entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into businesses, and is involved as founder, director and consultant in a diverse range of new startups.

This task, however, is a much bigger test for Jeremy than building a successful company over nearly 7 years, as there is extremely little time to arrange sponsorship, national media and government representation.

“It is embarrassing that the Australian government can spend $40 million sending politicians to the G20 summit in 2011, but Australia’s Entrepreneurs are yet to be fully represented at such an important event on the global stage” said Jeremy Liddle.

Can you help?

Please contact Jeremy Liddle for interviews and further comment
Jeremy@BuildItGrowItBankIt.com
0406 660 626

Innovations do not occur by chance and most successful companies have strategic tools to motivate and manage idea production Ideas are only effective if there are systems for selection , resource allocation and implementation. Profitable innovations can be best achieved through group collaboration and team work.

9. View Results Of Creativity By Measurement Tools.
It is possible to quantify savings or earnings based on innovation. In the example of the Best Idea Award (see No.1 above), the value of the idea of saving electricity by switching off the lighting in the robotic assembly section was easily measurable.
The American Airlines saved more than half a million dollars from a simple idea from its lead flight attendant. Her idea was to provide first class passengers with two 100gm caviar cans rather than the usual one 200gm can as she observed a lot of wastage. This idea reduced the airline’s annual consumption of $3 million by over half a million dollars.
Not all creativity can be measured but an attempt should be made to quantify its value wherever possible as it serves as a real morale booster for the staff. Of course, a portion of the value should be distributed back as incentives.

10. Encourage Free Association
Casual conversations among employees are potent weapons for making technological breakthroughs. Two engineers who had just finished their design of the engine for HP’s new laser printer were having coffee when they were joined by their other colleagues. They talked about the type of printer they would like to have if they could have anything they wanted. The consensus was to have a color printer with a resolution of at least 200 dots per inch. The two development engineers could not get this idea out of their mind. They made a connection with the way coffee percolators worked and tried heating up the ink. The result was a controlled ink explosion and they invented the highly successful inkjet printer. This would not have happened if not for the casual conversation at the coffee machine.

Such incidents of breakthroughs are by no means isolated. In fact, it seems to be the most effective mechanism for innovations and is popularly practiced in the Silicon Valley.

Nurturing a creativity culture is a necessity if companies and organizations are to survive and grow as they pass into the next millennium. It is worthwhile to remember that a bad system beats a good person anytime. Conversely, a good system provides a conducive environment for the flowering of creativity and profitability.

This article is the last of 5 parts.

This article is adapted from Chapter11 (Bloom 11 from the bestselling book by Dr.YKK: “You Are Creative – Let Your Creativity Bloom”. You can purchase this ebook at a special promotional price of US$8.10 only , at a 70% discount over the usual price of US$27.00. Goto: www.smashwords.com and quote this Coupon Code: RA86Q. This offer is valid until 31 May 2012 only.

About the author
Dr. Kam Keong Yew , popularly known as Dr.YKK, helps companies to fast-track their innovation with minimum risk and using the least expenditure ,time, effort and resources. His trademarked 7-Step structured methodology is possibly the most powerful and most effective innovation system in the world as it taps into the global brain. It has been proven to bring tangible and frequently measurable benefits to his clients in improved profits and performance.
You can contact Dr.YKK at DrYKK@mindbooom.net,  Skype : dryewkk    Ph: 61(0)438485683

Innovation needs the right cultural characteristics to succeed. It must be encouraged and nurtured within your company. You must set an environment that encourages people to think in unusual and creative ways. This is not an easy task in a structured business environment.

As a business leader, you must see your job as creating employee excitement and passion, not just as measuring employee satisfaction or financial performance.

6. Allow A Cooling-Off Period

Sometimes it is dangerous to approve an idea if it is too enthusiastically endorsed unanimously by those present at a meeting. The danger is that the meeting could be locked in a one-track thinking path. This is especially true if the originator of the idea is someone in a senior position. Robert Townsend in his book: “Down the Organization” says that if everyone agrees too readily with an idea it is probably because that is what the meeting wants to hear. The great steel magnate Andrew Carnegie had a policy that if everyone agreed with an idea, he would put off decision making to allow for a cooling-off period to re-examine the idea. He found that very often, the original idea was not a very good one after all and a better solution was found upon reflection of the original idea.

7. Train Staff In Creativity Skills
Creativity experts like Edward de Bono believe that creativity is a skill that can be taught. In fact all of us are born creative. It is the need to conform to social norms that stifles creativity. We can rekindle the creativity spark in us through training as much more is known about the brain during the last decade than the entire human civilization before it. There are specific techniques which can enhance and unleash our inherent creativity. The five steps and three primary techniques outlined in this book could be used to unleash your creativity. Training coupled with a creativity culture will bring out the best from the people in your organization.
Note:
If you are interested to having Dr.YKK to conduct a creativity/innovation workshop for your organisation, please email him  with the title: “Workshop” to DrYKK@mindbloom.net

8. Implement A Mistake Of The Month Award
Success in business comes from making the right decisions. Making the right decisions requires experience. Experience comes from making mistakes. Therefore a culture for tolerating mistakes is an essential part of business success. Moreover, making mistakes is also part and parcel of a culture for innovation.
A story was told of a senior engineer who made a $20 million mistake at IBM. He was waiting for a summon from his boss Tom Watson to mete out his punishment for the mistake made. When the engineer was finally summoned to see the boss after what seemed like an interminable wait, the engineer was prepared for the worst. Instead, Tom never mentioned the mistake to him at all. All he did was to brief the engineer on a new project and asked him to lead it. The engineer could not control his anxiety anymore and asked his boss as to when he would be fired from his job. “Fire you from the job after a $20 million experience? No way!” was Watson’s prompt response. The engineer stayed on to become one of IBM’s most valuable staff.
Another story relates to Henry Ford. One of his vice-presidents made a huge inventory error costing the company more than $1 million, a lot of money in 1920. Expecting to be fired from his job, the VP submitted his resignation to Ford. Ford read the letter and tore it up on the spot.
“Do you think I would fire you after what has just happened?” he asked. “I have just invested $1 million in your education!” The VP stayed on to help make Ford Motors into a highly profitable automobile company.

This article is the 4th of 5 parts.

This article is adapted from Chapter11 (Bloom 11 from the bestselling book by Dr.YKK: “You Are Creative – Let Your Creativity Bloom”. You can purchase this ebook at a special promotional price of US$8.10 only , at a 70% discount over the usual price of US$27.00. Goto: www.smashwords.com and quote this Coupon Code: RA86Q. This offer is valid until 31 May 2012 only.

About the author
Dr.Kam Keong Yew, popularly known as Dr.YKK, helps companies to fast-track their innovation with minimum risk and using the least expenditure ,time, effort and resources. His trademarked 7-Step structured methodology is possibly the most powerful and most effective innovation system in the world as it taps into the global brain. It has been proven to bring tangible and frequently measurable benefits to his clients in improved profits and performance.
You can contact Dr.YKK at DrYKK@mindbooom.net, Skype : dryewkk Ph: 61(0)438485683

This week I again struggled with “ what to write” .

A big part of my job is ”strategic positioning“. Ok you ask, what is that? To be honest, to me it’s about placing the BEC correctly in the market place. If I get that right, the Strategic alliances will get excited and more importantly, I will be servicing my clients.

I spend a lot of time out and about, why? simple, it is about having an outward focus and working outside my comfort zone. The further the better.

A number of people will say “what is he talking about?”. Ok , when we were young we knew no fear, as we get older we place borders around ourselves and become over cautious .

In business, from a strategic positioning, the borders stop us from being a Christopher Columbus & we miss out on opportunities like networking and developing our business. The other most important restriction is the development of you as a business person.

This week, I had the pleasure of catching up with a lady I have admired for a long time, Stephanie Dale, the new President of Parramatta Chamber .

Our paths had never crossed, however we both were aware of each other. In Stephanie’s new role, which I congratulate her on, and in my role as the CEO of three BEC’s, it is important that we are working together for the benefit of Business. This is why I work very closely with all Chambers of Commerce.

As an ice breaker, I shared with Stephanie one of my things I do each day. You may care to use this as you go about interacting with businesses.

I just love a coffee, more important, I love getting into a lift or a room where someone, that I do not know is holding a takeaway coffee ,it is called “the coffee challenge”

Immediately, I hone in on this unfortunate person and say those immortal words “ I hope you brought a coffee for yourself “ after the look that says “ what the” and before I get an answer , I follow it up with, Ok happy to share it with you. We have broken the ice and we start chatting. Best of friends

Love it when we are in a lift …..That is when I give myself the ’coffee challenge’ working in between floors. By the time the lift doors opened all in the lift are smiling .

I find this a simple strategy that helps me step outside my comfort zone and put me mentally in the positive mindset. Try it, I can assure you it works. If not, next time we catch up coffee is on me.

During the week I also caught up with Trevor Oldfield, the outgoing President of Parramatta Chamber . What an amazing man, so giving of his time to the local community and more important to the causes he supports. That is another blog.

Trevor on behalf of the Business community, a big thank you. On a personal note, thank you for being a mentor to myself.

We have been hearing a lot about Merrylands in the press. Well I can assure you Holroyd Council and in particular Di Tulloch from the Council are in tune with the local community.

Yes it was the coffee again that drew us together to talk about some joint initiatives. Oh and on the Coffee, The coffee in Merrylands is superb. Through our newsletter we will update you on agreed joint initiatives.

As you are probably aware, I am a great fan of Linkedin, In a future blog, I would love to share my journey with this platform. The interesting people I am meeting .

When I see someone in public my reaction is my linkedin friend . Again through linkedin, last week I caught up with an infectious personality who goes by the name of Thomas Preiss

This meeting took over 2 months to arrange as we just could not get those wonderful diaries to agree with each other. Well worth the wait and the outcome for my clients is bite size sales training .

I see many business operators who have a great business, product and service, however do not hit the nail on the head in the sales area. So being the entrepreneur I am, we have come up with some bite size learning interactions. Again if you subscribe to our newsletter we will keep you informed.

It has been a GWSBEC week ..I have had the pleasure of attending, at the invitation of Councillor Pemberton, Mayor of Blacktown, the Councils annual Blacktown Budget luncheon . Over 200 attended this event which was held at the world standard Blacktown International Sports Park. I must say sitting and listening to the mayor who was followed The General Manager of Blacktown, I was impressed what the council had achieved . Did you know that Blacktown’s population makes it one of the largest LGA’s in Australia?

From memory one of the largest catchments of small Business. Now can you believe this a debt free council. Well done. I must however express disappointment that small micro Business were not singled out as a separate business strategy. I left the function thinking that Nathan Burbridge, Blacktown Economic Development Manager & I had to work on this and ensure that it stood out next year. I am not saying here that Council does not support small businesses. In fact the reverse, they are very supportive of what we do as a BEC and understanding the concerns & frustration that small Business are facing.

Ok for my second blog I think I will now rest and go look for a coffee friend enjoy your week

Hear Darren’s incredible story at:
Business Networking Breakfast, Bondi and Districts Chamber of Commerce
Swiss Grand Hotel.  180 Campbell Parade, Bondi Junction
Phone (02) 9212 0555

WORK COVER EVENT BREAK OUT

Keeping Small Businesses Safe
A series of free workshops detailing changes to work, health and safety legislation will be held through June and July by the Eastern Suburbs BEC.  These workshops will convey critical business information about the new work health and safety legislation being rolled out by WorkCover.

11-06-12
Sole Trader
Clearly Business, Level 19, 323 Castlereagh St, Sydney
5.30 -7.30pm

03-07-12
Sub Contractor
2-14 Fisher St, Petersham.
9.30-11.30am

12-06-12
Employer
Ashfield Council. 260 Liverpool Road, Ashfield
9.30-11.30am

09-07-12
Sole Trader
Canada Bay – 60 Flavelle St, Concord
3-5pm

26-07-12
combined
Auburn Centre for Community, Auburn
3-5pm

19-06-12
Employer
Randwick Council, 30 Frances Street, Randwick
10am – 12pm

Media Information:Eastern Suburbs BEC. (02) 9212 0555