I can still see the surprised looks on their faces. It was November 1989, during a three-day “Agent As A BusinessPerson” workshop MLC asked me to design and facilitate. One of the last sessions for the twenty-five accountants and financial planners had...
Every August, I spend an evening at my old school answering questions from Year 11 students as they share their post-school career options. My sessions are generally Q&A events for kids interested in small businesses. Last week’s questions ranged from what...
These are interesting times. Interesting is probably an understatement, thanks to regulatory reform, ridiculous compliance guidelines, depleted advice talent, and increasing demands from teams and clients. Advisers don’t need more hassles – particularly...
The problem with super is super. Since the 2002 Financial Services Review, there have been at least a dozen enquiries, commissions and reviews into Australia’s superannuation, insurance, investment, and financial services industries. Last week APRA and ASIC jointly...
My Dad was a radiologist. Many Saturdays, after watching me from the sideline of a sport-field, I would accompany him to his rooms as he worked his Saturday morning of patient appointments. I enjoyed these mornings working with his dark-room technician in the dim red...
Amazon Advice is coming to a screen near you. It is already happening. Wesfarmers recently bought a large telehealth business – Instantscripts – for $135m. This purchase was in addition to the company’s $1B acquisition of the Priceline Pharmacy chain...
With two good friends, Anna and I just completed a 17-day walk across Northern England – the Coast to Coast – a through-trek charted fifty years ago by Alfred Wainwright. It was challenging. It couldn’t have been better. Britain’s Right to Roam offers walkers...
Heard of Learned Helplessness? It is a condition first researched in the 1960s by a team of psychologists that included Professor Martin Seligman. A group of dogs were given mild electric shocks. Some dogs could press a button to stop the shocks, while a second group...
I’ve got the best job in the world. Clients pay me to observe and recommend paths they’ve already considered. Such as a pricing session I ran for a fast-growing advisory firm. I knew it would be interesting when I read in the pre-work that one director had...
If plumbers need new pipes, and if the cobbler’s kids need new shoes, does it follow that a lawyer needs new laws? Maybe. Michelle Levy’s three-page plea to the government to adopt her Quality of Advice Review recommendations in this week’s AFR is a...