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Archive for category Innovation and Creativity

My Favourite Web tools Pt 2 – Goodsync

Jul 19

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, IT Dept, Innovation and Creativity, Planning, Risk Management, The Operations Dept | 1 Comment

Last week I told you about Roboform, the stress saving password encryption and saving program. This week i’m looking at Goodsync, Roboform’s first cousin.

As the name would suggest, Goodsync is a syncronisation program. It will syncronise Folders & files on a PC, Network, and the internet.

I use it on a daily basis to back up my most critical files. Everyday, I copy my accounting back up, my CRM data, my clients art files, copies of my quotes and invoices, our procedures manual, my Roboform data, and my quoting program data – a lot right? It is a lot, and frankly, if I was simply making a back up or copying all those files every day, it would take all day!

I also make multiple copies – I have the original files on my mail PC, I have a back copy on a “storage PC” on the work network, and I make a copy to my laptop (so that I have a mobile copy of the file in case of something like a fire at work). That’s how I use it, you could just as easily use a portable hard drive.

The beauty of Goodsync is; it only copies over files that have changed. This means it doesn’t get bogged down copying files that are already there in the back up destination, a big time saver.

First, Goodsync analyses the source files compared to the destination files, after the initial analysis, this takes only a few seconds.

Then Goodsync creates a list for you to check. There are default settings like always forcing the sync one way, or force the newest revision of the file to override the direction of the sync. You can either manually make the decision, or let Goodsync decide for you based on your preferences.

At the click of a button, it copies the right files to the right place super fast – the only limitation of speed is the speed of your connection. My hard wired network syncs faster than it does to my laptop through the wireless router for example. Still, it only take 3-5 minutes per day to back up all my critical files to two different locations.

Goodsync is super easy to use, A few minutes to set up the initial settings, and then once that is done the daily task takes only minutes. Take this link for a quick overview of how Goodsync works . There is also a MAC version of Goodsync, which I haven’t tried yet, but if it’s like anything Apple, it’ll be easy :-)

I haven’t used the portable version, Goosync2go, but i have used the protable version of Roboform, so I have to assume the portable version is every bit as good as the PC version.

Of course, there is a free trial of Goodsync, it has full funcionality, just a few limits on the volume, so give it a go!

Bren

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Is your business happy?

Jul 9

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, People! | No Comments

Yes it’s a serious question, is your business happy, when you get there at the start of the day are you happy about being there? Are the staff happy too…

If not what’s missing?

- Great projects to work on.

- Great clients.

- Great workspace…

One way or another things may not be quite what you want to make the business a happy place to be. Insert a happiness officer and invite them to find out how things could be happier in the workplace.

Perhaps start with the list above and see if things evolve from there.

Take Action!

Get the happiness officer and perhaps a few others to figure out some ways to break the “sad” cycle.. and get happy.

  • Try a google search of ideas for a happy workplace, make a list of a few you can implement now (at low cost).
  • Ask how to make meetings fun, then have one just for the hell of it and see if you can get people to laugh (for all the RIGHT reasons…)
  • Have a fun morning tea (no need to get elaborate just yet just have fun).

Guidelines

  • Having fun at someones expense is only short term and useless, one’s pain is NOT another’s gain.
  • Keep it cheap and “cheerful”, quick and easy… Organisation should take the shortest time possible to keep it hassle free.
  • Try moving the job about so the whole team can be the happiness person.
  • Jokes sent via email is not really a bonding option, it’s more localised but funny quotes might be a different option, sparking debate perhaps.
  • Give out laughter awards, simple and easy a great way to keep the team engaged in the whole idea and boost morale!
  • Push for creative and innovative options, you might just find some great ways to lighten the mood at work and keep things pumped and effective.

That’s it for now, let us know what sorts of things you come up with in our comments…

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Evaluating Your Small Business Strategy

Jul 8

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, Growth, Innovation and Creativity, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room, The Operations Dept | No Comments

Countless people set themselves personal goals in life, but in many cases, small business owners don’t do themselves the same favour.  Without setting time aside to consider, plan and implement a solid strategy for any business, its success can be often hindered or compromised.

In these tough economic times, owners are struggling to make their business grow, but strangely enough, there is great opportunity for companies to make leaps and bounds while the market is down.

Take a Step Back

Being in the day-to-day running of your business can alter your perception of how effectively it is run.  Take the time to look at every facet of your business to gain the most unbiased perspective.

What kind of relationships do you have with suppliers? Is there any way you can leverage the associations you have with them to gain better pricing or additional extras (like longer trading terms to increase cash flow) that they don’t usually provide?

Do employees see their position as a job or a career? One of the most difficult tasks an employer can face is motivating their staff so that they are more productive.  Try to introduce creative, cost effective ideas to improve staff morale, which will ultimately allow your business to be more successful in so many different ways – higher customer satisfaction, increased work output, less mistakes and a much nicer place for everyone to work.

What are your sales margins? Taking a realistic look at how much you are making on your products and services is crucial to allowing your business to grow.  A small increase in sales margin may not seem like much in isolation, but calculated over a year, this additional profit can make quite a difference to your bottom line.

In many cases, customers will expect to see increases in prices every few years, purely because of inflation.  If you do apply increases, be transparent to your valued clientele – it will only reaffirm why they should continue to spend their money with you.

What are your competitors doing? If they are blazing trails in your area or industry, find out why and how.  Start to follow their lead and see where you can even improve on their practises.  But another, far more powerful way to knock down competition is to find out what they are doing badly.  By being exceptionally great at what your competitors do badly, it will soon put you miles in front.

Planning – What to Consider

After all the research has been done, it’s important to spend some time planning how you will turn all of these findings into meaningful actions.  There is a fine balance between continuing to maintain a high service level in your business and being able to implement new processes, procedures and projects.  Figure out what elements can be immediately implemented into your business and what will take more time and resources. Once you’ve determined this, you can then allocate timelines to these more lengthy projects so as not to interrupt the flow of your business.  Many strategies tend to stretch over several years, so make sure you build some level of flexibility in to allow for changes in your business, the economy and the marketplace.

Implementation – Getting Your Hands Dirty

It’s all well and good to research and develop business strategy, but sometimes the hardest part can actually be doing the work involved.  The best way to avoid being overwhelmed with implementing the strategy is to break up each task and set key goals and milestones.  Once you have completed the task or project successfully, make sure you take the time to look back on what you have done and be constructively critical.  If you have an upcoming project of a similar nature, it will allow you to become more efficient in implementing your business strategy.

All in all, developing a business strategy gives you the chance to recognise opportunities and shortcomings that may not have been realised otherwise.  While each business can be very different, the foundations of a solid business strategy are ultimately the same and can be applied to most companies, regardless of their service offering or industry.

An article provided to us by one of our site sponsors – NRMA Business Insurance

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My favourite web tools. Part 1

Jul 2

Posted by Bren Ryan in Excellence!, IT Dept, Innovation and Creativity, Starting out in business, The Board Room | 2 Comments

My Favourites tools for the webThis isn’t a long list. In fact it’s only a few. However, they are products that I use every single day, and i’ve actually come to rely heavily on them, so I guess a short list of quality is better than a long list of lower quality, right? This is part 1, part 2 & 3 will follow in the coming weeks.

Part 1 – Roboform.

If you are like me, you have dozens, if not hundreds of log ins and passwords to remember.

I have several websites and blogs to manage and they each have a log in for the blog, one for the forum, one for the admin etc etc, I bank accounts, supplier sites – the list goes on. As of today, I have 212 log ins to various websites, all needing me to remember the URL, the log in name, and the password – yeah, that surprised even me :-)

I also use the web a lot these days, like most of us, for purchasing, researching, enquiring products and services. So i’m constantly filling in forms – Name, address, age, hair colour……. – very time consuming.

About two years ago, I found the very nifty product – Roboform. Roboform is a little bit of software you load straight onto your PC that securely stores all your personal info.

RoboForm’s Key Features are;

  • So Easy – You remember one password, RoboForm remembers the rest. I suggest you don’t use your beagle’s name, ok?
  • Saves Time – With ONE CLICK RoboForm goes to a website and logs you in automatically. I can log into any site on the list – no finding the site, no remembering the log in, no remembering the password.
  • Saves More Time – RoboForm also fills long registration and checkout forms with one click. Roboform will fill in just about any form you find on the web. I save lots of time when signing up for service, newsletter, buying a product, making an enquiry. I’ve found a few it wont work with, like java applet stuff, but even then you can copy and paste faster then you can type it all in.
  • Secures Your Information – Stores passwords on YOUR computer, protects them with AES encryption. Hey, nothing is bullet proof, but Roboform’s encryption is far stronger than having your browser store your passwords in the cache.
  • Strengthens Passwords – Generates random passwords that hackers cannot guess. A strong password has, letters (a mix of upper and lower case), symbols, numbers, is min 8 digits long, and is apparently random in appearance. So, a strong password looks like this – 1&xT44B! – a weak password would be – Franklin (your beagle’s name that you use for every password, banking, your blog, your facebook, the lot!) The problem is of course, how do you possibly remember a password like the strong one, let alone remember dozens or hundreds of different ones? Roboform features a password generator that you can set to generate passwords of different length, different types of digits (numbers, upper / lower case text, symbols). It will fill the forms on the fly, and copy the password to you clipboard if the form you are using won’t allow auto fill in (some more secure sites like banks won’t allow auto fill in to stop robots)
  • Fights Phishing – Phishing is when you get those emails from a bank or PayPal or some such asking you to log in and confirm your details. Often these fake sites look so real that many unsuspecting users will “log in” and hand their name and password to the thieves on a silver platter.Fills passwords only on matching web sites. Just for the record, your bank will NEVER email you and ask you to log in.
  • Defeats Keyloggers – Somewhere along the line, we have all been infected by a malicious virus. A common threat are keyloggers, simply put, a virus records every keystroke, and send a small text file to the data thief at a pre-determined time. Roboform doesn’t use the keyboard to fill in your passwords, or to fill forms (like credit card forms), so keyloggers are rendered ineffective. You can also use your mouse to fill in the master password, so even that can be kept secure.
  • Simple to Use – Just download RoboForm and learn as you go. It really is intuitive and easy to use. Even if you are very new to the interweb, you will be Roboforming like a pro in no time.

There are a few other features – you can find more details here – too many for me to detail, but the three above are the ones I use every day. In fact, i’m using it right now. I can quickly and easily skip between different sites. At the moment i’m working from home, so i’m skipping between logging into the work network, Vertical Response, the WordPress log in for this blog, and the admin for www.freepromotips.com.au. Too easy!

The good folks at Robofrom also have a portable version – Roboform2go – for installation onto a usb. You can take that with you and log in on any PC (the portable version doesn’t work on your Mac)

When you buy Roboform, you also get access to the online system, which means you can even log into your account from anywhere without Roboform2go (I find having a USB easier and more convenient myself)

It’s ready to go for PC’s, but they haven’t yet produced a MAC friendly version. I’m told that will come, but for the moment they have created a system utilising the online product, and a java applet that sits in your safari or firefox menu bar (it may work in other browsers, but I don’t know. I only use Safari of Firefox on my Mac)

If you think that sounds good, you can trial it free or buy it here.

That’s my favourite web tool.Part 2 next week – Goodsync.

Bren

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The eco friendly recruiter

Jul 2

Posted by Steve Gray in Human Resource Management, Innovation and Creativity | No Comments

.

When your business is madly intent on hiring staff, they probably do like many others and follow a formula…

Advertise  - get responses – sort – send a note back saying “we have received” – Then a “thanks but no thanks” note to the short listed ones… – interview etc… Oh what a hassle. Some of you will be saying… yeah but forget sending the letters out, I just ignore the people it’s my business and why should I care. Sorry to feel you might think this way, however a short letter can at least let the good folks know you do care and respect their time and effort for applying, after all their efforts in your business could make you extra $$.

Recently I saw something, which turned the standard formula slightly on its head. First the company asked for email responses (less paper up front.) Then they replied to the email with a letter (it makes it seem like they went to a lot of trouble and personalised it.)

The letter simply read…. “Thanks for your application, if you are required for an interview we will call you.”

Nothing more to say, no need for a second letter out, no need to say “The standard of applications was high etc.” none of that, and it saved time and money.

The other thing they did, was not ask for a whole lot of selection criteria responses… They asked for a resume and a cover letter, not pages of posturing, pushing and “look at me!”, just a straight up “this is me folks”, response.

The good thing about this from my perspective was the way they would have probably caught a heap of people off guard, those who are used to the selection criteria bit… They would have had to think outside the square.

Interesting, they saved paper, they saved time and therefore money… I feel sure there are other savings which could be had in a range of areas of business, but for now this is but one.

Are there other ways we can all recruit staff which will save us time and money and probably show a little creativity to boot? Tell us about it in the comments…

Your Guide to Creativity Development in Business

May 31

Posted by Steve Gray in Innovation and Creativity | 1 Comment

Your Guide to Creativity Development in Business
Steve Gray
© 2010+
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Research from various sources clearly indicates creativity is a great thing to have in business, and to get the edge in business you may well need it.
Research also indicates there are various ways creativity is destroyed, often unwittingly… Here is a list of some of them with some options to hopefully overcome these challenges.
1.  Apprehension?People having some form of apprehension about creativity is the number one reason creativity does not get a look in, in business (and other areas of our lives) people perhaps feel they don’t understand it, therefore they can’t use it to any advantage. Often people are not taught about creativity (even in creative subjects such as Art…) without the basic understanding of it, people are apprehensive of it’s value and how they might implement it.
Explore:             Create environments and a culture which says it’s okay to explore ideas, make some mistakes (that’s often the main way we learn,) and test the water with new options, even at basic levels in your business creativity can be useful. Learn more about it and and how it might be used.
3. Deadlines?Keep stress of performance and results out of the equation, work is work, play is play. Therefore consider making the creativity startup sessions more about play with little or no pressure of time and work constraints.
Explore:             Setting up sessions after hours where people are invited to attend, make a VIP invite for people to be there and offer some incentive (food for instance.) with no pressure to be there you will probably get the ones who are interested in exploring options, as opposed to those who don’t want to be there.
4. Be there and listen.?You are the  boss (manager, leader CEO etc…) Listen to what the creative people are saying, learn their language if you like, do your bit to be there and learn too. appreciate it’s not about getting ideas which will boost the business ALL the time, but it might just boost your people’s interest in the business and what it can do for them culturally and creatively.
Explore:            Practice listening and exploring options… try asking questions in the first part of a meeting or training sessions and take great notes, take part in creative development sessions and research ways creativity can make a huge difference to a businesses bottom line. Post some of the research on notice boards, intranet etc and encourage others to also do it.
5. Break some barriers?Some organisations have been doing things in a “set way” for so long, it can be hard to break barriers and explore fresh territory. Will you be the Maverick and lead the way, break some barriers, and forge new paths?
Explore:             Creatives and leaders probably need to explore processes and procedures and find fresh ways of approaching things. what set things could you alter, even slightly to begin the process?
6. Ownership?It’s my idea, and if I share it, someone else may claim it as theirs… I’ll hang on to it thanks! Some people do things more effectively than others and guard their methods jealously, they believe it gives them an edge. However sharing the idea MAY give rise to even better ways of doing things all round.
Explore:            Fostering the idea sharing process to see if better options arise, they might, they might not also but be willing to try it out.
7. What’s the problem??Coming up with specific creative options for a challenge means the challenge needs to be spelt out clearly.
Explore.             There are simple guidelines on goals and goal setting, do an internet search to see some of those, follow that with a search on “outcomes” and see what guidelines come up for that… Well set out outcomes can make a world of difference to the process you might undertake to get results.
8. Build a Community of creatives?The creation of a community of creatives in your organisation means you are willing to look at the collective intelligence of the team and explore other skill sets they might have. Open the creative valve and let their spirits spread the good word about creative options, rather than just keeping them cooped up in the “marketing Department”.
Explore:            Ways and options of sharing creative ideas right across the whole community of your organisation, if done well the creative virus will have a chance to flourish. Consider a creative development forum on your company intranet.
9. Do it this way…?There is more than one way to do most things. If someone wants to manage every step of “How it should be done” then it can stifle lots of process development options as well as people.
Explore:            Try defining tasks as “Here’s what needs to be done” and then searching for solutions. Great leader’s are like orchestra conductors, bringing the best from people and then pooling those talents to create a beautiful symphony.
10. Lack of Inspiration?What inspires your people to be creative, probably not much to begin with, but over times with the right support this can alter.
Explore:            Find out what inspires your people, then work from their interests out, to get the most from them. Check out “Human Motivation” by Dr David Mc Lelland as a great starting point.
Armed with this list, you now have a bunch of ways to understand and overcome the challenges you might face in implementing creative options in your business.
Here are some links you might like to check out.
http://www.schoolofthinking.org/about/
http://artstuff.net.au/?p=347
http://artstuff.net.au/?p=79
http://artstuff.net.au/?p=74

Research from various sources clearly indicates creativity is a great thing to have in business, and to get the edge in business in a competitive marketplace, you may well need it.

Research also indicates there are various ways creativity is destroyed, often unwittingly… Here is a list of some of them with some options to hopefully overcome these challenges.

1.  Apprehension – People having some form of apprehension about creativity is the number one reason creativity does not get a look in, in business (and other areas of our lives) people perhaps feel they don’t understand it, therefore they can’t use it to any advantage. Often people are not taught about creativity (even in creative subjects such as Art…) without the basic understanding of it, people are apprehensive of it’s value and how they might implement it.

Explore:             Create environments and a culture which says it’s okay to explore ideas, make some mistakes (that’s often the main way we learn,) and test the water with new options, even at basic levels in your business creativity can be useful. Learn more about it and and how it might be used.

2. Deadlines – Keep stress of performance and results out of the equation, work is work, play is play. Therefore consider making the creativity startup sessions more about play with little or no pressure of time and work constraints.

Explore:             Setting up sessions after hours where people are invited to attend, make a VIP invite for people to be there and offer some incentive (food for instance.) with no pressure to be there you will probably get the ones who are interested in exploring options, as opposed to those who don’t want to be there.

3. Be there and listen – You are the  boss (manager, leader CEO etc…) Listen to what the creative people are saying, learn their language if you like, do your bit to be there and learn too. appreciate it’s not about getting ideas which will boost the business ALL the time, but it might just boost your people’s interest in the business and what it can do for them culturally and creatively.

Explore:            Practice listening and exploring options… try asking questions in the first part of a meeting or training sessions and take great notes, take part in creative development sessions and research ways creativity can make a huge difference to a businesses bottom line. Post some of the research on notice boards, intranet etc and encourage others to also do it.

4. Break some barriers – Some organisations have been doing things in a “set way” for so long, it can be hard to break barriers and explore fresh territory. Will you be the Maverick and lead the way, break some barriers, and forge new paths?

Explore:             Creatives and leaders probably need to explore processes and procedures and find fresh ways of approaching things. what set things could you alter, even slightly to begin the process?

5. Ownership – It’s my idea, and if I share it, someone else may claim it as theirs… I’ll hang on to it thanks! Some people do things more effectively than others and guard their methods jealously, they believe it gives them an edge. However sharing the idea MAY give rise to even better ways of doing things all round.

Explore:            Fostering the idea sharing process to see if better options arise, they might, they might not also but be willing to try it out.

6. What’s the problem? – Coming up with specific creative options for a challenge means the challenge needs to be spelt out clearly.

Explore.             There are simple guidelines on goals and goal setting, do an internet search to see some of those, follow that with a search on “outcomes” and see what guidelines come up for that… Well set out outcomes can make a world of difference to the process you might undertake to get results.

7. Build a Community of creatives – The creation of a community of creatives in your organisation means you are willing to look at the collective intelligence of the team and explore other skill sets they might have. Open the creative valve and let their spirits spread the good word about creative options, rather than just keeping them cooped up in the “marketing Department”.

Explore:            Ways and options of sharing creative ideas right across the whole community of your organisation, if done well the creative virus will have a chance to flourish. Consider a creative development forum on your company intranet.

8. Do it this way… There is more than one way to do most things. If someone wants to manage every step of “How it should be done” then it can stifle lots of process development options as well as people.

Explore:            Try defining tasks as “Here’s what needs to be done” and then searching for solutions. Great leader’s are like orchestra conductors, bringing the best from people and then pooling those talents to create a beautiful symphony.

9. Lack of Inspiration – What inspires your people to be creative, probably not much to begin with, but over times with the right support this can alter.

Explore:            Find out what inspires your people, then work from their interests out, to get the most from them. Check out “Human Motivation” by Dr David Mc Lelland as a great starting point.

Armed with this list, you now have a bunch of ways to understand and overcome the challenges you might face in implementing creative options in your business.

Here are some links on creativity  you might like to check out.

http://www.schoolofthinking.org/

http://artstuff.net.au/?p=347

http://artstuff.net.au/?p=79

http://artstuff.net.au/?p=74

By Steve Gray © 2010+

Good connections

Jun 15

Posted by Steve Gray in Innovation and Creativity, People!, Planning, The Marketing Dept | 1 Comment

One of our guru lads over here is Ross Hill, on his Blog is a great piece of intriguing information I think all businesspeople and educators can learn a lot from.

He starts off talking about games and what makes them addictive… Then he goes on to show the comparison to social media (“aint” that the buzz at the moment) then I figure if you know what makes social media addictive, you could create a business that is addictive for your customers.

Imagine that people addicted to what you have, and they keep coming back to buy more… Yep the old loyal customer routine. Only now (thanks to Ross and others…) we can start to build an understanding of how that happens, so lets do it for business. Oh I mentioned educators as well, in a stale classroom, sit down, shut up, take down these notes… a fresh perspective on what engages people has got to be useful!

I’m going to cut to the chase here… The five central elements of Game Mechanics are: 

  • Collecting things.
  • Earning Points.
  • Getting/giving feedback.
  • Exchanges/Gifting.
  • User Customization.
In looking at the game mechanics and the social media link up to it there are plenty of things that make these points work, If you ever played pinball, getting the high score was way cool, in the latter day digital gamers world collecting things to give you more power, gifts, tokens etc was way cool too. then in a connected world being able to give feedback via facebook, twitter etc became a big buzz. then they allowed “games” of giving flowers, plants (virtual etc…)
Lets go across to:
Business…
  • Collecting things – Tokens in adverts.
  • Earning points – Buy five things get the sixth one free or at a discount (loyalty card ticked off.)
  • Getting/giving feedback – Hello – how are you – query form.
  • Exchanges/gifting – For every $10 you spend we give $1 to charity…
  • Customisation – if you have an online store they can personalise in some way then that’s useful.
Education…
  • Collect and bring things for show and tell.
  • Get points for good behaviour.
  • Discussing progress – giving feedback on what they liked in class.
  • Exchanges of information in group sessions
  • Customising by selecting which type of final assessment device they want to choose.
These are a few examples of possibilities, I’m sure there are plenty more, the thing is making sure you can provide enough to ensure your service is the one they are addicted to.
If you are still not sure about any of this check out Mc Donald’s and think about their happy meals for kids… you get a toy to collect, while the parent is there they probably buy something too, so even just having a single part of the formula in place can be highly valuable. Now put on your thinking caps and come up with a few ways you can use this information to your advantage.
I’m almost excited about the prospect of saying AND… lets add in our target market personality types, motivators and Drivers it would really assist us to be able truly effectively hit them between the eye’s solid targeted information they want to act on… but perhaps I better leave that for another day…

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Are you Yammering?

Apr 22

Posted by Steve Gray in Human Resource Management, IT Dept, Innovation and Creativity, People!, Planning, The Operations Dept | 2 Comments

https://www.yammer.com/

This is like Twitter, but just for your organistation. If you have a bunch of people with intra company email addresses, they can connect and chat, just like twitter does on a global scale. It works on the premise of “what are you doing now?” as the main question. Then as people use it they find others working on things similar to them, or they may have an answer or a resource for someone else where working on something.

Productivity tools just got a kick in the backside folks!

Conservative or smart…

Mar 26

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Finance, Innovation and Creativity, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

As more companies go down, and an unrepentant writhing takes place as people follow the sense of fear pervading workplaces, I am left to ask… Were these big companies not smart, or perhaps should they have been conservative?

Ok a boom is a boom, bust is what it says and no one wants to go bust. So how then do you even out the ride and make things settle down into a form of business which can handle the tougher times. Get conservative, get smart.

There is heaps of info on business smarts, same probably for being conservative (chat to your accountant if you don’t follow…) the idea is to put in action plans to ensure  you cover your butt. Meaning put some cash away for a rainy day. If you have more than enough then you can invest some of the rainy day money (preferably into things which you can sell and turn back into cash readily.) then as the investments grow you might be in a position to take on some longer term assets which return an income (read rental property)

By taking this sort of stance you make sure your business has a back up plan and a solid foundation to build security with.

I guess it all comes down to the aim of the business, do you aim to be in business for the long haul and reap it’s various rewards, or simply take risks and live in the fast lane for a while… Conservative or smart, perhaps it’s both.

Bushfire innovation

Feb 12

Posted by Steve Gray in Innovation and Creativity, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

For many this might seem like a curious title but I hope it makes sense as you read on.

For many the horror of the Victorian bushfires will be an ongoing battle as they come to terms with personal loss on an unimaginable scale. For those watching from a short distance they are living the horror with some degree of distance from direct involvement but perhaps with some knowledge of friends or relatives affected in some way… Then there are those further way from involvement but still seeing and hearing about the issues those on the “front line” are facing.

Each time a bushfire of any magnitude does it’s thing various changes take place in policies and procedures at various levels of government. in the 1936 fires they created the CFA (Country Fire Authority) then with the Ash Wednesday fires in the 1980′s they got better at disaster and fire management. This time around I feel sure there will be changes yet some of the things that could have been done are really simple and no brainers, let me explain.

In many of the fire areas houses were old and made of timber with metal roofing, over 1,000 of these were burnt to the ground.

Over 800 people have died, having no where to run when they could not fight the fires.

Both of these challenges could have been dealt with.

  1. There are earth houses, these are simply structures cut into a hillside, then a “shape” is formed out of concrete slabs or poured forms with windows across the open slope of the hill, on top they put about 1 metre of dirt to cover the structure. the dirt forms a great insulating layer both from the std elements as well as the extremes of fire.
  2. A few people survived the ravages of the fire by having a cellar or basement to retreat to which was made from concrete and provided protection. Simple structures like a concrete style tank made for this purpose could provide relief similar to a panic room built into some modern homes for security conscious people.
Both of these options do not suit everyone, of course! However they are existing devices which have been proven and could be very useful in the future.
What it boils down to is having the ability to innovate, think creatively and develop a range of options to suit our situation, so living in areas where this level of risk is apparent can be minimised. Perhaps it will provide a business opportunity which can revitalise the building industry as many builders will be kept very busy re building. Hopefully the haste to re build will not force people to build unsustainable structures, which will cause difficulty when the next fire comes along.

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