MBS Media coverage

Business confidence down

ABC News Breakfast, 04 March 2009
Melbourne Business School’s Dr. Sam Wylie speaks about the national accounts figures. He says that the Reserve Bank has seen the figures and has not increased rates. He notes that business confidence is down and inventories are up.

Out of work executives chase jobs in the Smart State

Courier Mail, pg 9, 04 March 2009
Melbourne Business School associate professor Ian Williamson has advised employers not to cut ties with "existing employees". "While the state of the economy is fuelling the increase in workforce reductions among organisations globally, employers need to think more broadly about their social capital during this time," Dr Williamson said.

Measure up

PSF Journal, pg 21, 02 March 2009
Demonstrating the effectiveness of your marketing activities is the best way to shore up your budget in uncertain times, which means you need appropriate metrics in place. According to research conducted by Melbourne Business School marketing academic Dr Don O’Sullivan, measuring marketing performance is generally seen as a priority among marketers.

Surviving workers carry extra burden

Daily Telegraph, pg 43, 02 March 2009
As mass retrenchments become commonplace in Australian workplaces bosses should spare a thought for those left behind. Organisational psychologists warn that clumsy and mismanaged retrenchments are causing anxiety and guilt among remaining workers. “New responsibilities are assigned to workers after job cuts and management does not offer adequate training,” Melbourne Business School program director Carol Gill said.

Compulsory saving reduces national savings and investment

Paul Kerin, The Australian, pg 25, 02 March 2009
Last week I advocated scrapping superannuation compulsion and subsidies to improve individual citizens’ lives. But super advocates also play the ‘national importance’ card, which relies on two assumptions: that boosting national savings is vital and that super boosts it. Both are myths. Indeed, super harms national savings and investment Read the full article.

Manufacturing Dissent

The Age - Insight, 28 February 2009
Australia is reeling from a spate of job losses this week. Many industries are crying out for federal and state governments to do more to ease the pain of the economic crisis. Melbourne Business School associate professor Ian Williamson sees innovation as the future for Victoria’s clothing firms.

National Banks change priorities

Weekend Australian, 28 February 2009
Even conservatives ponder the benefits of interim public ownership. While it remains true that not one taxpayer dollar has been spent propping up an Australian bank, events in this crisis have proved very hard to predict. “We are constantly being surprised by bad news,” says Melbourne Business School professor of management Joshua Gans. “So I wish I could dismiss the possibility of something happening to one of our major banks but I can’t. I think that we’ve only touched the surface in terms of the fallout".

Rethink job cuts

Sky News, 28 February 2009
Clothing company, Pacific Brands is considering a request by the Federal Government to rethink its job cuts. The Weekend Australian newspaper reports that Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research met with the company to request all or some of the jobs be retained. Melbourne Business School’s Jill Klein comments.

Think carefully before making jobs a casualty

Radio National Saturday Extra , 28 February 2009
Melbourne Business School Professor Ian O. Williamson speaks to Radio National presenter Geraldine Doogue about job cuts. Williamson says that business leaders are caught between competing demands and must respond to market conditions and investors. Williamson says layoffs are the first sign of broader problems and could be related to cost or structure.

Inflation targets make sense

Mark Crosby, The Age, pg 14, 25 February 2009
The US Federal Reserve last week took strong steps towards adopting a formal target for the inflation rate of between 1.5 and 2 percent. It follows many other major central banks, including the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in adopting inflation targets. This is a sensible strategy and supports economic recovery in the US.

Let people choose: Scrap compulsory super and subsidies

Paul Kerin, The Australian, pg 25, 24 February 2009
The Hawke/Keating government's super paternalism never sat well with its many great reforms that gave citizens more choice, says Paul Kerin, MBS Professorial Fellow. He claims Rudd's neo-paternalism is constraining choice further, and advises that we should abolish super compulsion and subsidies and let citizens make their own saving and investment decisions: then stand ready to directly assist retirees without adequate nest eggs. Read the full article.

Business Class

Silk Road, pg 49, 20 February 2009
An MBA can be an investment in your future especially in time of financial uncertainty. This article profiles MBS alumnus Denny Ho who used his MBA to ‘leap from his small business past to a big corporate future’.

No Quick Fix

Leo D'Angelo Fisher, BRW, pg 51, 20 February 2009
Most companies are downsizing in a bid to sustain earnings in a starker economy, but Critical Management Group’s Marc Stigter warns there are inherent risks: ‘Companies risk terminating employees who are key to informal networks.’ Stigter, who is also with Mt Eliza Executive Education in Melbourne, adds that surviving employees feel vulnerable and less creative after job cuts - ‘not an ideal situation for companies trying to endure a recession.’

Emotive opposition arguments make no financial sense

Joshua Gans, The Age, pg 10, 19 February 2009
Propose a stimulus package and the standard political response from any opposition is that it will generate a debt that our children will be forced to repay. It's a nice emtional argument, but it doesn't make political sense, according to MBS Professor Joshua Gans. He says that the Whitlam and Fraser debts were paid back in the 1980s, and the Keating debt of the early 1990s, was paid back by the end of the 1990s. Arguing about debt burdens is meaningless. Instead he advises the Coalition and others should argue the pure cost-benefit for each and every element in the stimulus package. Read the full article.

Six degrees of separation

HR Monthly, pg 24, 19 February 2009
This article investigates the complex world of social network analysis (SNA). Phill Boas, director of design and learning methods at Mt Eliza executive education, a part of Melbourne Business School says that SNA comes into its own when there’s a problem with how decisions are made.

Dreaded D Word Is Heard More Often

Gareth Costa, West Australian, pg 64, 17 February 2009
The US-centred global financial crisis has been deepening for almost two years now, and the question remains, how will it affect Australia. Professor Mark Crosby from MBS was joint author of a paper in 2005, "When the US sneezes, do we need to catch a cold? Historical and future linkages between the US and Australian economies." The conclusion, helps to predict that in Australia the economy may begin to recover late this year.

Major port in Gaza will solve political problems

Annie Hastwell, Radio Adelaide (National Australia), The Wire, 13 February 2009
At the moment Peace in the middle east is a more distant prospect than ever. The violence in Gaza has been followed by an election result showing that Israelis have moved distinctly to the right. Not the time you would think for a bright business idea which would have Israel helping Palestinians get on their feet economically. But Professor Dan Peled is an optimist. He's just arrived in Australia from Haifa University in Israel and he's currently visiting fellow at the Melbourne Business School. He thinks that a lot of political problems in the Middle east could be solved if Israel built a major port in Gaza.

Profit from loss

Nelson Daniels, BRW, pg 51, 13 February 2009
Employers should take advantage of staff turnover, as well as minimising the damage, says Melbourne Business School associate professor, Ian Williamson. He says, traditionally, companies have employed a defensive and retaliatory approach to staff turnover. Yet, there is a third approach, Williamson says: a relational approach. He cites Microsoft, KPMG, BearingPoint and Accenture as examples of companies adopting and being successful with a relational approach. These companies benefit from a mutual goal of improving business. Williamson says: ‘Instead of the old war-for-talent mentality which frames turnover as a win-or-lose scenario, companies should adopt a more holistic perspective'.

New Foundations

Catherine Fox, Boss, pg 38, 13 February 2009
Managing in this unprecedented turbulence requires advice from some of the world's best thinkers. MBS dean John Seybolt says, "What business schools should be doing is helping our students ask the right questions and they don't come from any one discipline. That way they're more prepared to focus for chaos in their sectors."

What ceiling for jobless rate?

Mark Crosby, The Age, pg 8, 13 February 2009
The Government must do more for the unemployed writes associate professor at Melbourne Business School Mark Crosby. He says that with unemployment having risen from a low of 3.9 per cent a year ago to 4.8 per cent in January, the obvious question is how high will it go? By historial standards 4.8 per cent is still very low. But with the economy very weak and likely to stay that way this year, there is little doubt unemployment will continue to rise. Read the full article.