The bigger the business, the less likely it is to be innovative, according to Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder. And that's no small claim from the chief of a conglomerate with some 200,000 employees. However, the Western Australian group, that began almost 100 years ago as a farmer's cooperative, has managed to keep growing and innovating across diverse sectors, including retail, resources and financial services. And its latest results indicate it's on plan to turnaround the...

Risk aversion remains rife in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, but this approach is dampening corporate competitiveness and putting much-needed innovation on the back burner. In major companies, vigilance over risk and auditing practices has increased at the expense of putting time and effort into competitive strategy, innovation and its inevitable companion, calculated risk-taking. The president and vice-chancellor of the University of New South Wales, Fred Hilmer, argues...

Entrepreneur and innovator Michael Crouch, chairman and CEO of Zip Industries, once saw a big opportunity in a small white box with red taps. By fostering an innovative spirit and daring to be different, his business created the world's first instant boiling water system. Today Zip water heaters are in service in the royal household in Buckingham Palace and numerous offices and factories across the globe. Innovation – as an ongoing process and vital mindset within organizations – has...

A country with 27,000 newspapers and 850 million mobile phone users presented a marketing challenge for the US motor vehicle manufacturing giant Ford when it decided to make inroads into the Indian small car market. But extensive research into customers' aspirations and a strong focus on value delivered cut-through for the four-wheeled Australian-designed Figo in a populous nation of do-it-yourself mechanics. Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India shares lessons...

The latest novel push by authorities to bring more international tourists to Australian shores seems oddly timed. With the Australian dollar running at record highs, some suspect it will backfire. However, Larry Dwyer, a professor of marketing at the Australian School of Business, anticipates the opposite may happen. The new marketing drive may raise the consciousness of locals to the appeal of holidaying closer to home and, with domestic holidays accounting for 75% of tourism down...

Ignorance is definitely not bliss when it comes to retirement saving. Despite the wake-up call of the global financial crisis, research shows very few people are clued up on just how they will pay for increasingly longer lives. A comparative international study shows that women and low-paid workers are most likely to face old age under-funded. But, according to Olivia Mitchell, an insurance and risk professor at the Wharton School, it's time for everyone to defer retirement plans –...

Many outstanding questions concern the accidents at the Fukishima nuclear power plant in the wake of the March earthquake, tsunami and ongoing aftershocks in Japan. Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan has criticised the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Company and its executives for their handling of the situation and in recent days the company has apologized for the nuclear crisis. But it's not surprising that top-level executive decision-making has come under scrutiny in Japan,...

It's a year since the release of the report on Australia's Future Tax System Review, headed by recently retired Treasury chief Ken Henry. The review was just the start of the Labor Party fulfilling its election promise of a "root and branch" overhaul of taxation. But one year on, not many of the review's 138 recommendations – including a resources rent tax, a 5% cut in company tax and a leap in the personal tax threshold – have been enacted. However, review panel member, John Piggott,...

The cost of the devastation from Australia's recent natural disasters is still being counted. Floods in Victoria and severe storms on both sides of the country, along with the earthquake damage in New Zealand, have impacted on the lives of thousands. Strangely enough, these events often occur in clusters which means insurers are also hard hit. But, these days insurance companies can transfer their risk to the capital markets through catastrophe bonds. With these relatively new assets...

The policy settings for productivity growth in Australia are out of whack. Fred Hilmer, one of the architects of the reforms that helped set up Australia's outstanding productivity boom that began in the mid-1990s, says current microeconomic policy has a critical missing piece – competition. To reverse the nation's recent productivity slump, more incentives for competition are needed, along with further reductions in company and marginal taxes, insists Hilmer, president and...

When you unpack the role of the chief executive officer (CEO), it comes down to five principal responsibilities. Yet, as the high turnover rate for corporate chiefs suggests, the role is far from straightforward. Part of the problem may be the vanity factor – that is, who the CEO sees when they look in the mirror – according to Steve Kaufman, PricewaterhouseCoopers research fellow at the Australian School of Business and a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. In an interview for...

A parliamentary joint committee has recommended sweeping changes to the rules governing financial advisors in Australia. In an interview with Knowledge@Australian School of Business, Peeyush Gupta, executive in residence at the Australian School of Business and co-founder of iPac Securities, discusses the new rules with Julian Lorkin.