Sustainable competitive advantages are becoming harder to find and harder to maintain. There are really only 2 ways that you can define these. What are they?

Many organisations today are under pressure in the relentless race of being ahead of the curve.

Whether it’s needing to enter new markets, achieve a sales breakthrough, expand margins, or deliver high-quality and low-cost products, businesses need to have an innovation imperative if they want to get ahead and stay relevant.

Matthew Osborne has always been on the lookout for different money-making opportunities. He had just started a family of his own, and he was earning less than $6 an hour — it just wasn’t enough to make ends meet.

And when you can’t see that ends are meeting, your observation skills suddenly become heightened.

So he did find his opportunity. And in the most unusual of places.

We recently surveyed 133 CEOs, Directors of Marketing and Sales, and CMOs to find out where companies are likely to invest for growth. 

We found that most young executives are aiming to increase investment across the board more than older executives. We also found it interesting that smaller cities like Adelaide are more adventurous in terms of virtual reality or augmented reality than Sydney or Melbourne.

The highlight of our survey reveals the key areas where business leaders plan to invest to grow their businesses this year.

So you’ve produced a great video explainer that will help your target audience easily understand what it is that you do. You’ve thought about where to strategically embed it on your website to gain traction. You had it pinned on top of your social media account. You shared the link to your team.

Now all that’s left to do is track its success.

But how do you know your message is getting across? What key metrics should you be looking at?

The Chief Financial Officer is a key player in any organisation and is someone you need to successfully engage with if you want to create positive change in an organisation. A CFO can be your biggest ally — or your greatest nemesis.

There are many different ways to launch a new brand, and any one of them can jumpstart your products from scratch. But it helps to take inspiration from some of the world’s greatest strategists because, after all, their success has been tried and tested.

Growing a business is hard in the best of times. However, in the worst of times, such as the conditions found during a recession, growing a business is next to impossible unless the right strategy is developed.

A prime example is the modern-day Great Recession where more than 170,000 small businesses closed their doors between 2008 and 2010, according to the US Census Bureau.

While the loss of over three million small-business jobs was catastrophic for many individuals, there is an opportunity to learn lessons in an effort to remain prepared should a future lengthy recession occur.

Big data has been described as the “new oil” as far as business assets go. However, a better analogy might be the Wild West. It is fairly easy for any business to now leverage BI and data to make decisions; however, the “how” still isn’t clear, and neither is the application. 

According to KPMG, when the strategy is data-driven, it helps to make sense of structured and unstructured data and applies that knowledge to a wide range of business functions. The result is that there is no more guess work, and results can become more predictable. Far more predictable than conventional forecasting techniques based on static historical financial reports.

A month ago, we had the pleasure of hosting Business Technology Futurist and Innovation Expert Craig Rispin, who gave us a glimpse of what the future holds. For instance, did you know that in 2028…

Do you know when and how disruption is coming to you?

On the Admatic stage delivering his recent keynote titled “Disruption³”, Jeff Cooper, shares the top disruptive trends that may be affecting businesses and the strategies to deal with disruption. 

Trends are emerging on our horizon, and they’re impacting businesses. In fact, some of them could be under your radar — and you just didn’t know it.

Technological advancements and societal shifts are influencing people’s buying behaviours, and ignoring this fact only means you’re giving your competitor the upper hand.

In the never-ending conversation regarding marketing budgets, you may be tempted to look for ways to cut corners. Reducing or maintaining your marketing budget heading into the next fiscal year could have a more substantial impact on your company’s growth than you realise.

Unicorns are no longer a myth. At least not in business.

With only the final few seats available, we want to give you the opportunity to tackle disruption head on by assembling your ultimate advisory board.

If you had to make a list of some of the most powerful brands in history, online retail giant Amazon would undoubtedly be right at the top. According to one recent study, the company saw $2.371 billion in net income in 2016 on the back of $136 billion in net sales — and that’s just in the United States. The company is also growing at a rate of about 27% year-over-year and currently employs more than 341,000 people. All of this is to say that the fact that Amazon has decided to make its long-awaited move into Australia should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody. 

Why does your business exist? What are you out to do?

These questions seem easy to answer. But working with different businesses all over Australia for almost a decade now, we’ve observed that not all businesses are aligned with their organisation’s purpose.

Strategy is often hard to define, which makes it all the more difficult to distinguish what actually constitutes a good strategy.

When a country’s central bank increases interest rates, it creates a ripple effect that impacts the entire economy. Even with a 0.25% increase, you have to adjust your marketing strategy to respond to the drop in discretionary income as well as the currency’s relative increased strength. 

In the fifth and final part of the interview, the managing director of the HR and recruitment consultancy, Checkside, reveals the top mistakes employers make in their hiring process.

Recall the last time you had your strategic planning with your team. Did your plans turn out to be successful? Or were you frustrated that last year’s SWOT analysis proved to be lacking?

Though many companies can benefit from a restructuring, fewer than a quarter of organisational redesigns actually succeed. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Organisations can undergo successful restructuring as long as they understand the differences between organisational structures (flat, hierarchical, matrix, etc.) — namely, their benefits and their drawbacks.

Is it time to redesign your organisational structure? Here are the things you need to know.

Find out what we've learned from working with over 100 businesses every year to create a better world for better business.

Watch our strategists discuss how to create a standout purpose statement ...

In this weeks Stump the Strategist, watch as the strategists answer a question about shifting gender perceptions in the workplace.

In 9 minutes we solve a problem on how to launch a consumer services app that connects consumers with spas and clinics in their area.

There is nothing worse than having a new entrant enter your category. But, it will happen. Here is a useful strategy to help your business survive.

Where are you at with your big ideas? These important tools and evaluation methods will help you overcome challenges and capitalise on business opportunities.

Crowd sourcing provides many different ways for your customers to participate in your business. How do you encourage your customers to get involved?