Weekly blog round up

• Leigh Householder, The Worst Focus Group is You, Advergirl
  "You may simply be too close to the brand. After years of being a marketer / customer / advertiser, you hold certain core beliefs about the brand(s) you represent. If there is a change in the marketplace – or, even in your core customer – you may be too close to see it without an outside perspective."
• Tiffany Monhollon, Multitasking vs. Time Management, Employee Evolution
  "It turns out, multitasking may help us do more things at once, but it doesn’t help us do them well – or even quickly for that matter. In fact, it slows us down."
• Sean Silverthorne, HBS Cases: How Wikipedia Works (or Doesn’t), Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
  "From the outside, Wikipedia may look like chaos barely contained. 'When people look at these sorts of phenomenon at Wikipedia, they misread the anarchy,' Lakhani says. 'All these people, thousands of people, there must be no rules! But there is a very ornate and well-defined structure of participation.'"
• Todd Rogers and Katy Milkman, Understanding the ‘Want’ vs. ‘Should’ Decision, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
  "We predicted that online grocery shoppers would order healthier groceries when ordering for delivery in the distant future (i.e., 5 days from now) than when ordering for delivery in the more immediate future (i.e., tomorrow). This is exactly what we found. ... people are more likely to rent DVDs in one order and return them in the reverse order when should DVDs (e.g., documentaries) are rented before want DVDs (e.g., action films)."
• Nora Barnes and Eric Mattson, The Game Has Changed: College Admissions Outpace Corporations in Embracing Social Media, Robin Good's Latest News
  "This research reached out to the 'marketing teams' (i.e., the admission departments) of over 2,000 accredited four-year colleges and universities nationwide [USA] to learn how they were using these exciting new technologies. ... Interestingly, admissions departments feel that social media is 'very important' to their future strategy in almost a 2:1 ratio to Inc. 500 businesses that feel the same way (51% compared to 26%)."
  

How to prepare a business plan

The assigned reading on business plans for the Entrepreneurship & Strategy course has been so popular that we've decided to list some of the other books on business plans which we have in our collection. Why not make the most of these excellent resources and visit the Library today!

1) Harvard business essentials: entrepreneur's toolkit : tools and techniques to launch and grow your new business. Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, c2005.
Call number 658.1/21

2) Business plans made easy / David H. Bangs Jr.
3rd ed. Irvine, Calif. : Entrepreneur Press, c2005.
Call number 658.4012/363

3) Guide to business planning / Graham Friend and Stefan Zehle.
London : The Economist in association with Profile Books, 2004.
Call number 658.4012/329

4) How to prepare a business plan / Edward Blackwell. Rev. 4th ed.
London : Kogan Page, 2004.
Call number 658.4012/315

5) The definitive business plan : the fast-track to intelligent business planning for executives and entrepreneurs / Richard Stutely.
2nd ed. London : Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2002.
Call number 658.4012/386

6) The Australian business planning guide : creating a plan for success in your own business / David Bangs and Michael Schaper.
2nd ed. Crows Nest., N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2003.
Call number 658.4012/312

7) Perfect phrases for business proposals and business plans : hundreds of ready-to-use phrases for winning new clients, launching new products, and getting the funding you need / Don Debelak.
New York, N.Y. : McGraw-Hill, c2006.
Call number 658.15224/33

Tell us which of these books you found the most useful for the course by leaving a comment at the end of this Blog. We'd like to hear from you!

Researching your assignment, where do you start?

Before you jump onto Google or one of the databases take a few moments to work out exactly what you are looking for. These tips will help keep you stay on track. 

Step 1: Take a moment
Try and summarise in a sentence what you are really looking for.
What type of information are you after? Do you need market or industry research? Some statistics? Company information?

Step 2: What words to use
Once you have clarified what you require and have written it down, identify the key words or search terms or concepts that match what you are looking for. 

Step 3: Jump online
Use the Advanced Search options in Google or the databases. This will help you to combine these search terms.

Step 4: Refine, refine, refine
Got a few things that are close? If you are using a database check what subject terms or keywords they use. Then use those search terms to refine your search. There may be a better term to use, most databases have a thesaurus, have a look at what terms they use. Some databases suggest topics at the top of the page or have a ‘Find More Like This’ link.

Step 5: Ask for help
If you haven’t found what you are looking for, or feel like you are on the right track in 10mins Ask A Librarian. Seriously, we can assist with advice on which are the best resources to use and how to use them.

Where would you go to find information on how online tourism companies make money from hotel bookings?

Weekly blog round up

• Gary Becker, The International Market for Talent-Becker, The Becker-Posner blog
  “Although outsourcing has certainly accelerated as well as reflected the international hunt for talent, outsourcing is not the only factor that has invigorated the talent market. Migration of skilled workers also is part of the competition across nations for talent.”
• Penelope Trunk, How to start a quality conversation with someone you don’t know, Brazen Careerist
  “You don’t need to be extroverted to be a great conversationalist; you need to care about other people. You need to trust that you will find other people interesting because you are a curious, engaged person.”
• Joshua Gans, Growth at a distance, CoreEcon
  Does the tyranny of distance still exist? If so, could Australia be doing anything differently to ameliorate its effect?
• Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire, Ten years on: How Asia shrugged off its economic crisis, Economist.com
  “The financial crisis can be described as having been a “perfect storm”: a confluence of various conditions that not only created financial and economic turbulence but also greatly magnified its impact.”
• Pamela Slim, Presentation tips for budding entrepreneurs, Escape from Cubicle Nation
  This is a good all-round post on giving presentations, from fundamentals such as planning and having the right attitude, to practical matters such as not having too many PowerPoint slides.
• Thomas Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne, Platform Envelopment, HBS Working Knowledge
  Looks at this issue in depth using the Apple iPhone, Windows Media Player and Blockbuster video as some of the examples.
• Gina Trapani, The art of the doable to-do list, lifehacker
  "Break it down. The best way to make yourself avoid a task like the plague is to make it a vague monstrosity."

“Attitudes to work in the 21st century, boomers, slackers and Y?”

Reading a small selection from the plethora of books describing the differences between generations, it’s easy to get caught up believing the clichés and stereotypes given to the post-war generation of Baby boomers, (those born between 1946 and 1964), Generation X, (those born between 1965 to 1977), and Generation Y, (born 1978 – 1998). Nevertheless, it’s an interesting exercise to take a snapshot of your own workplace and see if you can recognise any ‘generational differences’ manifesting in attitudes to work and interactions between your colleagues and bosses, and examine whether some of the clichés apply. What I’ve discovered is how contradictory these stereotypes can be.

Baby boomers are often portrayed as ‘toeing the company line’, doggedly working their way to the top, not questioning their ‘superiors’, and resisting change. However, baby boomers were once young rebels and have turned out to be the innovators of society. A recent issue of BRW focuses on some of Australia’s top innovators, most of whom are baby boomers.

Generation Xers on the other hand, want to satisfy their need for relationships and socialisation through teamwork, and are supposed to bring a more ‘relaxed’ attitude to work. However, Gen Xers are not necessarily the slackers described in Douglas Coupland’s cult classic Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. They’re extremely hardworking, but not without questioning the status quo. Research suggests this generation is less concerned with status and money than their baby boomer predecessors. Penelope Trunk, a columnist at the Boston Globe reports there has been a shift in work ethic taking place since Generation X became adults.

Generation Y, the youngest generation at work, want to be treated with respect and recognised for their contributions to an organisation's success. Along with Gen Xers, they got a rough deal, as, unlike baby boomers, they have never been able to expect a "job for life" at any single organisation. As a result, they are more motivated by personal growth and the opportunity for developing skills they can take with them throughout their career.

Lesson here is, don’t pigeon-hole people in your workplace according to which generation they fit into. The economic and social environment in which you were born does have a bearing on your attitudes to work, but there are no hard and fast rules. It’s more important to develop an understanding as to why not everyone’s attitude to work is the same.

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Why are some books on 2hr or 3 day loan, and where can I find them?

The books on 2hr loan are textbooks, course notes, worked exam papers or other high demand readings that your lecturer has asked to go on 'Closed Reserve'. In fact some are only able to be used in the Library.

3 day loan books are usually earlier editions of your textbooks or books recommended by your lecturer. Both types of books will appear as 'Reserve Desk' in the Library catalogue.

The shorter loan period ensures that as many of you as possible have access to these books over the term.

Where do I find reserve books & course notes?

The ‘Closed Reserve’ shelf is behind the Library’s Reference desk. The three day Reserve titles are shelved directly behind the ‘New Books’ Glass cabinet. Just ask your friendly Library staff at the desk for assistance.

Mergers and integration

There’s a difference between when a merger is announced and when it has been completed. The merger of the AGSM with the UNSW Faculty of Commerce and Economics to form the Australian School of Business at UNSW has been announced, but the integration process is still continuing.

The Frank Lowy Library is a good example of this. The Library’s user database is populated from the AGSM’s student and staff databases, but at the moment, it is not synchronized with the equivalent UNSW databases.

The Frank Lowy Library welcomes all faculty and staff and postgraduate students from the Australian School of Business who are interested in using the Library. Because the AGSM and UNSW databases are not integrated yet, the Library needs you to fill out a registration form so that you can be added into the Library’s database. This allows us to keep track of what books or DVDs you’ve borrowed, and any materials you have reserved.

The other difference is with using the Library’s electronic collection. Accessing databases and electronic journals is crucial to using a library these days. As things are today and for the immediate future, AGSM students can reach these things only through the Frank Lowy Library. Every other UNSW student, staff or faculty member needs to use the UNSW Library’s gateways for this – Sirius and the LRD (Library Resource Database).

The good news is that it doesn’t really matter whether you use the Frank Lowy Library or the UNSW Library interface to access the electronic collection, with only a few exceptions, the two collections have the same content.

As the integration process continues, it is expected that the registration forms and the different ways of accessing databases will eventually go away, but this process will take time.

If you have any questions about the merger and integration process or would like to give some feedback about it, feel free to send us a comment.