NOW is the time to export.
This message is echoed throughout Brisbane’s business community, carrying with it a sense that while many local companies are already off the mark and running, there are always new emerging markets to be found.
It’s about finding where the demand lies so while going abroad can be one option, going online is another - and the focus of this month’s cover story has done both. On the back of cheap airfares and accommodation deals, Wotif.com is expecting 20 per cent profit growth for the last financial year, but CEO Robbie Cooke is not about to get complacent.
With a young internationally-minded team around the globe, Cooke plans to expand the Asian arm of the business and accommodate a growing market in Australia as well. As for being online his message is simple – you can’t lump all IT companies into the one hard drive.
There are a number of local businesses with productive ideas that strive towards new export markets and one of them is NOJA Power, supplying environmentally-friendly switchgear to ‘the Energexes of the world’. To put it in layman’s terms, its products are ensuring reliable electricity supplies in markets that cover every continent.
As part of this month’s export feature we also cover health and safety equipment provider Standfast, whose products are becoming an industry standard across a wide range of countries.
And for businesses weighing up their options we also speak to the experts about export insurance, bank guarantees and where the established and new markets can be found. Austrade chief economist Tim Harcourt talks about how Queenslanders punch above their weight.
We profile water treatment company Australian Innovative Systems, which has a product that makes chlorine in a sustainable way and has the potential to revolutionise the purification of water for irrigation, recycling and drinking.
For leadership, Queensland Cancer Council CEO Jeff Dunn discusses how the community has got behind his organisation to help fight the disease, as well as his campaigns against smoking in restaurants and bars. The next target – retail displays.
For HR, in a follow up to last month’s story working with disabilities, finance veteran Bill Moss (former Mac Bank chief) is adamant that more needs to be done to bridge the gap between disabled-friendly rhetoric and how ideas are put into practice in the workplace.
In news we cover the recent corporate reshuffles at the Trinity Group and Progen Pharmaceuticals, as well as the announced departure of Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey.
When you add the latest movements in Brisbane’s commercial property market, upcoming events and new appointments, this issue will keep you ‘in the know’.
As a precursor to the next edition, Robbie Cooke says the people he most admires in the Brisbane business world are those running the privately owned companies – people who get the job done and don’t make a ‘song and dance’ about it.
Camilla Westerlund
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