The ethanol challenge for the United States (journal article)
By Bill Caesar and Thomas Vanhoutte
from McKinsey Quarterly November 2009
"The US biofuels industry must address midstream ethanol distribution bottlenecks if it hopes to deliver next-generation ethanol in a cost-effective manner."
Contact the Library for a copy of this article.

To Be a Better Leader, Give Up Authority (journal article)
By A.D. Amar, Carsten Hentrich, and Vlatka Hlupic
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 87 Issue 12 Dec 2009, p22-24
"The article discusses a study on management and leadership that was conducted by the authors. They argue that innovation and efficiency can increase when executives relinquish some of their authority and give employees some autonomy in their jobs. Examples are given which focus on the financial performance of IT consulting services company's CSC Germany division and on the no-control management style of the telecom-component company ANADIGICS. The authors indicate that more levels of employees should be involved in the decision making at knowledge companies and at those which rely on innovation."

The ROI on Weight Loss at Work (journal article)
By George L Blackburn
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 87 Issue 12 Dec 2009, p30-30
"Workplace weight-loss programs are a win-win tool that companies can use to boost both health and wealth. The financial payoff -- for one Texas employer, about $2.50 in return for every dollar spent -- stems from lower health care costs and reduced absenteeism."

Glimpses of heaven and hell (journal article)
by Hilary McPhee
from Griffith Review, Edition 25: After the Crisis
"The news that Dubai, like everywhere else in the over-developed world, was feeling the force of the global recession was endlessly repeated. The real-estate bonanza had indeed slowed; some of Dubai's more spectacular projects were on hold, their indentured labour redeployed or returned to Pakistan and Bangladesh. But the tall tales about the end of the world rapidly assumed the shape of a manga: three thousand luxury cars abandoned at the airport, keys in the ignition, their owners fleeing to avoid jail; once-rich wives deserted, selling their bling and sleeping in the dunes in their SUVs; empty apartment buildings as far as the eyes could see; every second business retrenching staff and dishonouring contracts; not a crane moving on the horizon. And, through the cracks in the edifice, the desert sands had started to creep across the highways.
Emiratis and the professional expatriate community fought back as best they could on blogs and in interviews to Arab media, which was more inclined to listen. Dubai will not be allowed to fail, said the World Bank's Tariq Yusef on Al Jazeera. Dubai, he said, has become a model of accelerated growth for others in the region; its belief in itself as a grand hub of trade routes and ideas is an ancient one which the Arab world celebrates and intends to realise again. A failure of Dubai would be a failure of the whole United Arab Emirates."

Stupid money (journal article)
by Gideon Haigh
from Griffith Review, Edition 25: After the crisis
"In the late 1990s, when I was busily employed writing the history of a bank, one of the choicest vantage points was the foyer of its skyscraper each morning. This would begin filling with employees around seven, while remaining strangely devoid of hurry or flurry; there was a sense of deep solitary deliberation, of people already at work in their minds long before they arrived at their desks.
Although the suits were smart and the outfits expensive, there was little ostentation. The standard accessory was not a slimline briefcase but a gym bag: lunch was for wimps; running and pumping iron were preferred."

40 under 40 (journal article)
from Fortune, 9 November 2009
"The article profiles the 40 most influential people in business under the age of 40. They include Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the online social network Facebook, whose vision was of a network that emulated physical relationships. Kevin Plank founded Under Armour, now a one billion dollar performance underwear company, because he was tired of shapeless athletic wear. Kevin Warsh, member of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve, is its youngest appointee. "

Chic Is Out, Cheap Is In (journal article)
by Hiroshi Makioka
from Far Eastern Economic Review, November 2009
"Japan’s economy once again is growing, albeit slowly, but the road back from the nation’s longest recession since World War II is rocky. With the job market still unsettled and the Yen dropping in value, wary consumers are not returning to their old shopping habits. A different breed of Japanese consumer has emerged in the wake of the global financial meltdown and may be here to stay. Once known for their mass consumption of luxury goods, they now are getting a reputation as avid discount shoppers. As traditional department store revenues plunge, discount retailers are enjoying a surge in popularity. Take Wal-Mart. For the first time since it entered Japan seven years ago through its Seiyu subsidiary, the world’s largest retailer expects to generate a profit in Japan in 2009."

Brisbane Business News Young Entrepreneur 2009
by Matthew Ogg
from Brisbane Business News Vol 2.10 Nov 2009
"In a city that lends itself to enterprise and creativity, it was only logical that we were inundated with applications for the inaugural 2009 Brisbane Business News Young Entrepreneur Award. It was also no surprise that the quality of the candidates was high, but only the best could be finalists and only one company could win.
THEIR median revenue was $5.3 million last year, growth was 45 per cent and their average age is just 34 – they are Brisbane’s top young entrepreneurs."

The Next Big Thing (journal article)
by Richard Jones
from Management Today, Nov/Dec 2009
"If you are wondering what the next big thing is for business, SAP's Jeff Word believes he knows: business network transformation.... Word recently edited a book on BNT and he is convinced it is the next step for business innovation. He says BNT is not primarily related to technology and is more akin to the next generation of competitive dynamics. Word admits it is a sort of outsourcing 2.0 but, when combined with the new technological capabilities to manage relationships, it is actually a much smarter proposition. "

Working smart and small : the role of knowledge-based and service industries in growth strategies for small states [book]

Authors: Mahvash Qureshi and Dirk Willem te Velde / Commonwealth Secretariat

"Suggests how small states can reposition themselves in the global economy and move into knowledge based and service industries. It provides an overview of general factors stimulating or constraining the development of services sector and trade in services. It also identifies key trends and provides analysis. Six case study examples are presented of how some small states have promoted knowledge based and service industries in their economies (including Botswana, Mauritius, St Lucia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu). The studies cover the performance and supporting factors in five service sectors: the financial sector, information and communication technologies, education, professional services and tourism. The policy implications are also considered." - from publisher.

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The time trap : the classic book on time management [book]

Authors: Alec Mackenzie and Pat Nickerson

"Suffering from information overload? Being asked to do too much? Can't say no? If you're finding your days clogged with endless activities and responsibilities and your work life spinning out of control, it's time to employ some practical, realistic solutions to the age-old problem of 'too much to do and too little time' ... gives you more powerful methods for both maximizing efficiency and getting the most satisfaction out of your workday. ... You'll find out how to: Avoid so-called 'time savers' that don't really work; Set realistic goals and make commitments you can keep; Juggle multiple demands; Accurately estimate time needed on new tasks; Pinpoint and combat the most tenacious time-wasters [and] Protect your priorities." - cover.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

Singapore bets on casino gambling (journal article)
by Frederik Balfour
from Business Week Online, 26 October 2009
"The article offers information on the decision by Singaporean government to open two new casinos in a bid to boost up country's tourism industry. One of the two casinos, the 4 billion dollars worth Marina Bay Sands is stated to be built by Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) and will open in the first half of next year. The Country hopes that these sprawling resorts will help boost Singapore's tourism industry."

Rethinking China (journal article)
by Clinton Dines
from The Deal, November 2009
"ntil recently, the author was BHP Billiton's top man in China and has spent 30 years living and working there. He urges Australia to avoid the conventional wisdom."

INNvestment Australia
Colliers International Hotels
from Hotels and Leisure, Spring Quarter 2009
"Investors in Australian hotels are displaying a change in sentiment, with the general belief that the sector is now moving past the bottom of the market cycle. Recent results from Collier’s Hotel Industry Survey reveal that expectations for trading performance for hotel assets have now stabilised, and the majority view is that hotel occupancy is likely to have bottomed. In the marketplace, this has been reflected by an uptake in transaction activity in recent months, with several notable hotel investment sales and others currently in negotiation."

E-Trends&Analysis: Optimizing E-Learning Technologies (journal article)
By Bryan Chapman
from Training Vol. 46 Issue 8 Oct/Nov 2009, p17-17
"The key is creating a framework to assist in making choices that will introduce appropriate online learning technologies at the right place, at the right time, and for the right reasons.
One constant in the lives of learning professionals is that online learning technologies abound and making wise choices about how and when to infuse new technologies into an organizational learning strategy can be chaotic without a proactive plan of action. The model described was created as a framework to assist in making choices that will introduce appropriate online learning technologies at the right place, at the right time, and for the right reasons."

Accountability and value for money: a theoretical framework for the relationship in public–private partnerships (journal article)
by Istemi Demirag and Iqbal Khadaroo
from Journal of Management and Governance, online August 2009
"There is an implicit assumption in the UK Treasury’s publications on public-private partnerships (PPP)—also more commonly known in the United Kingdom as private finance initiative (PFI)—that accountability and value for money (VFM) are related concepts. While recent academic studies on PPP/PFI (from now on as PFI) have focused on VFM, there is a notable absence of studies exploring the ‘presumed’ relationships between accountability and VFM. ...Our preliminary interviews provide us guidance in identifying some of the cultures, processes and mechanisms indicated in our model which should enable future researchers to test not only the UK Government’s claimed relationships between accountability and VFM using more specific PFI empirical data, but also a potential relationship between accountability and performance in general. "
Please contact us for a copy of this article.

Board size and corporate performance: the missing role of board leadership structure (journal article)
by Khaled Elsayed
from Journal of Management and Governance, online 19/09/2009
"Different arguments have been introduced in the literature both for and against large and small board sizes. In this context, empirical evidence regarding the impact of board size on corporate performance is less conclusive, which means that further study is needed. Contrary to previous work, it is hypothesized in this study that the relationship between board size and corporate performance is more likely to be confounded by board leadership structure. Econometric analysis provided strong evidence for the applicability of this hypothesis and demonstrated that board size positively affects corporate performance in the presence of CEO non-duality (board leadership structure that is split between the roles of the CEO and the roles of the chairman). Furthermore, board size is shown to have a negative influence on corporate performance in the presence of CEO duality (board leadership structure that assigns the roles of both CEO and chairman to the same person). This conclusion is robust to the use of different measures of corporate performance, control variables and econometric models. Thus, these findings cast doubt on most of the existing evidence that posits that either large or small board size is always the best alternative to be followed in all organizations. "

What Keeps You Awake at Night: Top Ten Challenges Facing Public Managers (journal article)
by Jonathan Breul and John Kamensky
from Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, 9 Nov 2009
"David Letterman is not the only one with a Top Ten list! We’ve put one together as well, based on what we’ve heard from a wide range of government leaders and public policy academics. Our list is a snapshot of significant management issues facing public executives. We call it the “what keeps you awake at night” list."

People styles at work-- and beyond : making bad relationships good and good relationships better [book]

Authors: Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton

"At work, and in other spheres of life, how well you relate with others affects your ability to get things done. What you may not realize is that all people exhibit one of several different behavioral 'styles', which determine how they think, make decisions, communicate, manage time and stress, and deal with conflict. By understanding which 'people style' you're dealing with, you can establish rapport with someone more easily, become more persuasive, and avoid miscommunication and the possibility of rubbing someone the wrong way." - cover.

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Affordability Report : a quarterly update on the affordability of housing [online]

Authors: HIA Economics Group; Commonwealth Bank

"Report on housing affordability for first home buyers. Contains analysis for each state and territory, excluding NT but including non-metro areas. Report contains:
* Affordability indices for all states and territories (except NT), metro and regional
* National median incomes and minimum repayments for a median priced home
* A rolling 6 quarters of original house price data for - Established dwellings, Detached Houses;- Established Dwellings, Units;- Established Dwellings, Total; and - New Dwellings, Total."