Where have all the designers gone?

For many years we have heard the call for more design professionals and, importantly, more recognition and certification within the sector. However, the recent global financial crisis has had catastrophic effects on the availability of design resources. Typically, significant downsizing has occurred and design and development professionals have been the first to go. In an effort to save money many companies have adopted a strategy based on extending current product life cycles, as opposed to stimulating depressed markets with new products. Some commentators are suggesting that the downturn has gone as low as it will and the upturn is just around the corner. \u27Just hold on for a few more weeks,\u27 may be the message to businesses, but on the upturn, what will differentiate one organisation from the other? The simple answer, as always, is design, but critical questions are now being framed, because there is concern that many of the classical models of business, supply and availability of resource may not apply in the new world economy

Reconfiguration of Operational Relationships Post the Current Global Economic Crisis

It is likely that classical models of strategic alliances may not be applicable moving forward into the new world economy post the current economic crisis. Traditional business models have considered each part of the business process in isolation, typically finance is remote from new product development, product development is remote from supply chain and operations etc. Prior to the economic crisis it was not unusual to see typical traditional silos within an organization never meeting, posing the question that if internal relationships were never fully forged how could a strong external strategic alliance be built and maintained? Furthermore, this silo based approach seems to have been more prevalent in government and not for profit organizations where clear lines of departmental demarkation have remained the mainstay of management practice throughout the generations of stewardship. This article discusses the principle models of dip dynamics and sustainable dependency interaction in the light of developing strategic alliances within the new world economy. Furthermore, the article will argue that it is in everybody\u27s best interest to maintain an environment of fiscal and environmental well being. By drawing on global research, a new roadmap is offered for all parties involved in the reconfiguration of their strategic alliances

An identification of the current constraints of knowledge business modelling as a strategic decision making tool

Business models are widely used and it might be argued, have an important role to play in assisting users to develop, plan and analyse their organisations better. Typically, many business models are however poorly understood and executed by their users. This often leads to inappropriate decision making and the wrong strategic direction being implemented. There are complex and interrelated factors for the poor execution of business modelling, however, some of the key influencing factors include, lack of training, a disassociation of the graphical representation from the narrative, and the lack of formal rules in the use of the business models. Current work has focused on establishing the first principle of novel knowledge business models, where it is proposed that a rules based system, can be employed to deliver stronger and more meaningful outcomes for users. This paper represents a current work in progress and discusses the current constraints on the establishment of knowledge business models, and it also discusses the first experimentation into the development of three-dimensional business modelling as a possible means of overcoming some of the constraints

A comparison of theory and practice in market intelligence gathering for Australian micro-businesses and SMEs

Recent government sponsored research has demonstrated that there is a gap between the theory and practice of market intelligence gathering within the Australian micro, small and medium businesses (SMEs). Typically, there is a significant amount of information in literature about 'what needs to be done', however, there is little insight in terms of how market intelligence gathering should occur. This paper provides a novel insight and a comparison between the theory and practices of market intelligence gathering of micro-business and SMEs in Australia and demonstrates an anomoly in so far as typically the literature does not match what actually occurs in practice. A model for market intelligence gathering for micro-businesses and SMEs is also discussed

A comparison of theory and practice in market intelligence gathering for Australian micro-businesses and SMEs

Recent government sponsored research has demonstrated that there is a gap between the theory and practice of market intelligence gathering within the Australian micro, small and medium businesses (SMEs). Typically, there is a significant amount of information in literature about 'what needs to be done', however, there is little insight in terms of how market intelligence gathering should occur. This paper provides a novel insight and a comparison between the theory and practices of market intelligence gathering of micro-business and SMEs in Australia and demonstrates an anomoly in so far as typically the literature does not match what actually occurs in practice. A model for market intelligence gathering for micro-businesses and SMEs is also discussed

An analysis of the restrictions on the competitive readiness of Australian businesses due to their lack of formal quality management systems

Small to medium sized enterprises (SME) employ 95% of the Australian workforce. Most of the organisations, employing most of the workforce, do not have any formal quality management systems. As such, Australian businesses, particularly SME’s, have remained somewhat isolated in terms of operational and competitive readiness compared to their peers in other countries. Based on research conducted in 2010, using a series of structured focus groups of logistics and supply chain professionals from a diverse spectrum of industries across a pan-Australian base, it has been determined that over 85% of the participants in the focus groups had no formal quality management systems within their own organisations or indeed within their immediate supply networks. Interestingly, most of the participants of the focus groups indicated that they thought formal quality systems would have a limiting factor on their operations. Further investigation into organisations who were outsourcing products and services from Australian companies indicated that, post the Global Financial Crisis, there has typically been a change in policy, and most organisations are now precluding once qualified local suppliers because of their lack of formal quality systems. This decision is typically based around issues such as risk mitigation and further moves into more comprehensive corporate social responsibility. This paper discusses this recent research and the implications of the widening gap in Australian supply and demand based on the lack of formal quality systems in a significant percentage of the supply base

A comparison of supply integration and end-to-end communication theory and practice - an Australian perspective

The concept of supply chain integration and end-to-end communication are well established in supply chain theory. Typically, because of the depth of publications, an axiom has developed that all supply networks are fully integrated and have end-toend communication protocols. Recent research into Australian supply networks has highlighted a somewhat different scenario, where many networks are fragmented and lack the connectivity that would be expected. This paper offers a comparison of theoretical supply chain management and the actual practices found in Australian businesses. As a result of this grass root research, a scenario is offered that suggest there is a significant gap between the theory and practice of supply integration and communication that in turn, generate risk in these supply networks

Multivariate statistical approaches for wine classification based on low molecular weight phenolic compounds

Background and Aims: Phenolic compounds influence the colour, flavour and astringency of wines. These compounds are extracted into the wine during grape fermentation and maceration and thus the winemaking process is the main factor affecting the phenolic content of wines, besides the varietal factor. In this work, we aimed to apply self organizing maps to investigate the relationships between the profile of phenolic compounds and grape variety of wines, as well as the changes in the phenolic profile resulting from the malolactic fermentation. The results are compared with principal component analysis, and variation partitioning. Methods and Results: A reversed phase liquid chromatography/DAD method was used for the analysis of major non-flavonoid phenolic compounds in wines. The method employed allowed to evaluate the impact of malolactic fermentation in low molecular phenolic compounds in different wine varieties: Trincadeira, Aragonez, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alfrocheiro, Castelão and Touriga Nacional. The malolactic fermentation process was also study in Trincadeira variety using indigenous bacteria and two different commercial lactic bacteria. The impact of malolactic fermentation and grape varieties on the phenolic profile was evaluated by different multivariate statistical approaches: principal component analysis, variation partitioning analysis and artificial neural network. Conclusions: Principal component analysis allowed to explain 86.5% of the total variance among samples, without any additional information. Artificial neural network showed a significant clustering of samples according to grape variety, and confirmed that malolactic fermentation has a minor effect on wines phenolic profile. Variance partitioning enable to extract more information about the data since it allow to identify explanatory variables responsible for variability among samples. In this study, it was possible to identify grape variety as the main responsible factor for explaining total variability (63.6%) being malolactic fermentation responsible only for 4.0% Significance of Study: The results obtained from each of the three multivariate statistical approaches showed clearly ways of analyzing and handling large chemistry experimental data sets. When explained variables are available in the data set, the variance partitioning method could be considered as a step forward in the data analysis, providing a more solid and complete information concerning the variability on the sample system allowing a more objective result not possible by PCA and neural networks alone