AGL defies pollies and pushes ahead with Liddell power plant closure

Big stick approach to Australian energy policy hasn’t scared AGL’s  Brett Redman as the Liddell coal powerplant planned closure goes ahead. See AFR letter by Macquarie University Professor of Environmental Finance Martina Linnenluecke.

Can Lehman crisis happen again?

The Lehman 10-year anniversary. Macquarie University bank risk expert and Associate Professor Elizabeth Sheedy joins a panel including former Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan and The Economist‘s Tom Eaton with Fran Kelly on ABC RN Breakfast

Call out discrimination

When is discrimination bad behaviour, and not unconscious bias?  See article in The Conversation from Lucy Taksa, Macquarie University Professor of Management and Associate Dean of Research.

You’re back at your desk … what now for 2017? Any thoughts about your personal profile?

You’re back at your desk. It’s the start of a new work year. What will 2017 bring?

What are your aspirations?  Will you get that promotion?  Will you be considered for partnership in your firm? How about that board position you’ve been coveting? Will you be included on the next government roundtable? The next media organisation roundtable?

But there’s probably one thing you haven’t thought about. Read More

Where social licence had its beginnings, and how the McHugh report changes everything

Social licence is a hot topic right now. Malcolm Turnbull this week warns banks that they operate with a social licence for the people. This follows the banks’ refusal to pass on the full rate cut.

Also this week, we have seen the Baird Government’s greyhound ban legislation pass in the upper house. It will be enacted later this month – all on the back of the industry’s inability to meet its social licence obligations.

You see, in this instance, the community just doesn’t accept animal cruelty, or greyhound killings or ‘wastage’ (a much more palatable term), or live-baiting.

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Fraud is on the rise so don’t be complacent, KPMG

If you think we live in a country relatively free from the fraud and corruption that plagues many parts of the world, a new KPMG survey might shake you up a little. Our six-monthly Fraud Barometer* shows a large rise in number, and especially the value of frauds being committed in Australia.

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Discrimination is bad behaviour, not unconscious bias

When is discrimination bad behaviour, and not unconscious bias?  Has unconcious bias training gone a step too far? Starbucks recently responded to the scandalous discrimination against two African-American customers in Philadelphia by closing all of its 8,000 stores in North America to provide training for its employees to address unconscious bias.

Should StarBucks have called out the manager in question for discrimination instead?

Unconcious bias training seems to be all the rage in organisations both in the United States, and Australia.

Lucy Taksa, Macquarie University Professor of Management and Associate Dean of Research, and Louise Thornthwaite, Macquarie University Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing and Management, say unconscious bias is a ‘get out of jail free card’ allowing people to deny that they engaged in intentionally discriminating and exclusionary illegal behaviour.  See their article in The Conversation

Australian companies must guarantee supply to keep Chinese customers: New Monash Business School study

New Monash University research reveals Chinese customers want reliability and guarantee of supply when choosing Australian brands. The ABC (Australian Brands in China) Index 2018, which examines the ‘health’ of Australian brands in China, reports Coles, Crown Group, Qantas and Weet-Bix as the top four of the ABC Index’s most reliable Australian brands category, while health and baby formula brands were among the lowest ranking in the list owing to supply glitches and their limited availability of product stock.

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KDK Bulletin 7 December 2017 – 5 hot topics

See KDK Bulletin 7 December 2017 for Paul Lyons on managing volatile team members, changes to competition rules from Minter Ellison, ACOSS on Electoral Funding Bill 2017, and a matter of opinion is by Hall & Wilcox on gender diversity in the insurance industry. This week’s expert is Mathew Herring from KPMG.

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