Monthly Bulletin - May 2020

Tuesday, 5 May 2020

A big thank you to Scholars who contributed their thoughts on Covid-19 for last month's Bulletin.

In This Bulletin

1. What are ILF Scholars thinking?

2. Quiz Competition – win a bottle of wine

3. Email sent to almost 400 potential grant applicants

4. EverEdge Online Seminar

5. Help to Access International Markets

6. Coming Events - Cocktail Function with Robert Gerard AO

7. Scholars in Focus - Dr Richard Stewart (ILF2015)

8. Scholars in the News

What are ILF Scholars Thinking?

The CEO of the ILF is often asked what our Scholars are thinking about various business related issues. To help me give accurate answers I propose to seek your thoughts through questions in the bulletin.

The first question is:

Do you think Covid-19 is predominantly a threat to your business or more an opportunity?

Please email Suzi@industryleaders.com.au with either “Threat” or “Opportunity” in the heading.

Quiz Competition - Win a bottle of wine

As a follow up to all those helpful and entertaining Scholar comments in last month’s bulletin, a Scholar has suggested we conduct a quiz competition. First ten correct answers received for questions 1 and 2 and for the other questions the most accurate answers will receive a bottle from the winery of a Scholar. Results will be published in bulletins as they become available.

To be eligible you need to email all your answers to Suzi@industryleaders.com.au by 5.00 pm Monday 11 May.

Will China agree to the holding of an open and transparent international inquiry into the source of Covid-19 by 31 May? (yes/no)
Will an international inquiry into the source of Covid-19 commence by 31 May? (yes/no)
Predict the CPI change for the June Quarter to the nearest decimal place, measured by the All Groups Index for Australia (March 2020 quarter actual: +0.3%).
Project the Australian Industry Group seasonally adjusted Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) to the nearest decimal place as at 31 August 2020 (March 2020 actual 53.7, April 2020 actual 35.8). Note below 50 equals contraction, above 50 equals expansion.
For further information refer to AiGroup Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index.
Predict the Commonwealth budget deficit, to the nearest billion plus one decimal point, projected for 2020/21 to be announced when the budget is handed down in October (Dec 2019 MYEFO forecast: surplus $16.3bn).
Predict the highest peak seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment percentage to the nearest decimal place in SA between now and December published by the ABS (March 2020: 6.2%).

Details from Business Schools sent to almost 400 potential ILF grant applicants

Introduction

Do you know someone who should apply for a grant. If so please advise Suzi and she will email you a personalised copy of the material below so you can send it to them. Alternatively please provide their name and email and we will send it mentioning that you suggested we do so.

What we sent

You will be only too aware that Covid-19 brings increased risk, danger and opportunity to business. Investment Advisers are saying the pandemic is a Once in a Decade event and some Actuaries are saying it could be a Once in a Century occurrence.

If your business is to sustain the least damage and gain the maximum advantage from this rare opportunity you will need the best leadership possible. An Industry Leaders Fund Grant can assist you to achieve your goals.

Danger and risks might decline over time but opportunities will likely continue to appear for a more extended period.

ILF Scholars report they are at least 10% more efficient on course completion generating a time payback ratio of 10 times, an outstanding investment return. While the improved efficiency continues to pay dividends forever the real benefit is the improved quality of their decisions.

The formula for success is study early, become more productive, make better decisions and capitalise on the special opportunities presented by the pandemic before they eventually disappear.

No matter how busy you are right now, it is arguable there has never been a better time to improve your leadership abilities.

The ILF offers grants to reduce the financial cost of your course and we also offer assistance to choose the best course. This year we are providing brief details from the business schools that would have participated in the information evening that had been arranged but is not able to be held.

There are qualification criteria so best to clarify eligibility before applying. If you have any questions please call me, Geoff Vogt, on 0457 900 202 or reply to this email.

The ILF does not recommend any particular business school or course because the right course for each grant applicant will differ depending upon your business circumstances, your background, your experience, your aspirations and your current role. The business school details are provided in alphabetical order and we recommend you read through the entire list to ensure you make an informed decision.

Read full email sent with details of business schools

EverEdge Webinar held 22 April

Those who attended the seminar provided generally positive feedback.

Geoff made the following notes.

The seminar had four speakers with the most powerful content delivered by Paul Adams. Paul’s main message was businesses often have data that is worth a lot of value and don’t understand that value or how to reap the benefits of it. He gave examples including Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas which failed during the GFC and was liquidated. The business itself sold for 4 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation). Fortunately someone asked whether the many years of data about patron’s gambling habits might be of value. That data sold for 32 times EBITDA.

Paul explained that if you are going to sell data you need to evaluate the return vs the cost vs the risk. You need to be sure you own the data, whether you have the right to use it and where it is located amongst other things. You need to identify who are the potential customers for your data and he listed four categories of buyer giving examples including Amazon, Zara, Equifax, Neilson, and Google. You also need to consider how much it will cost to prepare the data to a standard that it can be brought to market; it needs to be cleaned, prepared and trusted. You need to consider the ethical issues of selling the data and the potential reputational risk. Paul explained how EverEdge use what they call a daisy model to evaluate all the variables.

Other speakers explained more of the mechanical detail and how they might assist. I did not get a lot out of their contributions. On reflection my biggest takeaway form the last half of the webinar was that the big advantage of webinars is you can always quietly disconnect at any time.

To assess if the ILF should continue to provide advice about sessions such as this, I would be interested in the thoughts of Scholars who joined the webinar and have not yet provided feedback.

Help to Access International Markets

Help to access international markets - Grab an early mover advantage in the new climate

Right now could prove to be one of the best times to start exporting or expand your current penetration of offshore markets. The Aussie dollar is at relatively low levels and there are increasingly strong calls around the world for greater diversity and less reliance on a single country as the major source of supply. Expanding or breaking into these markets will be harder for all potential competitors due to the ban on international travel and limited airfreight links. Those who quickly discover new ways to work around the restrictions will likely gain a significant competitive advantage and will be harder to beat than those who don’t make time to understand. If you are interested in exploring this option and gaining first mover advantage help is available.

The State Government has announced a new Export Fundamentals Program to be run by Ai Group in whose building the ILF is situated, and by Hydra Consulting. Hydra has a large team of specialists including Dr Darren Oemke who has provided a number of first rate presentations seen by Geoff Vogt who reports he has always been impressed. Others Geoff knows include Robin Shaw who was CEO of the Adelaide Hills Wine Region about 5 years ago and was instrumental in raising the profile of the area and Geoff Thomas who has many years of experience in venture capital and is sought after as a corporate adviser and board member.

The Export Fundamentals Program aims to help emerging and existing exporters successfully market their products and services, and drive local jobs growth. It will give exporters the tools, connections and confidence to make the move into international markets.

An anticipated 400 companies will benefit from the program over the 24-month delivery period.

For more information and to register for upcoming sessions in May, visit the Department for Trade and Investment website

COMING EVENTS - Date to be determined

ILFSN Cocktail Function

Speaker - Robert Gerard AO (Gerard Industries Pty Ltd)

This event will be hosted by Morgan Stanley.
Further details will be provided after Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

SCHOLARS IN FOCUS

DR RICHARD STEWART (ILF2015)

Introduction

Richard co-founded Ziltek to take environmental clean-up technologies from lab to market. He thrives on the challenge of weaving through the maze of uncertainty in a start-up culture to create great products. Richard believes that building an A-grade team and practising constant innovation and dogged determination are the key ingredients for commercial success. Helping to clean up the world for future generations adds to the reward.

The Ziltek Company

Richard co-founded Ziltek in 2008 to commercialise two technologies under licence from the CSIRO;

 RemScan®, a hand‐held infrared detector for the rapid infield measurement of oil in soil; and
 RemBind®, a powdered product for the remediation of organic pollutants in soil.

In 2011, Ziltek raised capital from four local angel investors to take the technologies out of the CSIRO laboratories for inhouse development and commercialisation. At the time, CSIRO researchers said that both technologies were “basically ready to sell”. How wrong they were! It would take a further 6 years to fully launch the products on the global market. Turning bright ideas into high performance products that will be adopted by the large global customers is always the hardest part of the commercialisation process. It is only when you get repeat sales from these customers because they are. 100% satisfied with the product, that real growth can be achieved.

Today, RemScan is being used in all corners of the globe including in Nigeria, Italy, Qatar, Malaysia, China and the Arctic Circle. The client list includes oil industry giants Chevron, Shell and Total. The United Nations uses RemScan regularly during the demobilisation of refugee camps to ensure that no petroleum leaks are left behind. Other applications include contaminated site characterisation, emergency spill response, and validation of the clean-up process.

Read full story

Scholars in the media – Forging ahead in a challenging environment

The following articles are also available on the ILF website. Please send us your news for inclusion in the bulletin – copies of news, articles published in papers or magazines or MP3 recording of live interviews preferred.

SA Mushrooms

Nick Femia (ILF2017)

Sunscreen made from mushroom waste may help create sustainable industry, researchers say.

ABC News 2/4/2020