The latest Wholesale Investor National survey, published in August 09, reveals that private investors in Australia are more optimistic, have more money and have invested over the last three months.

The quarterly survey, conducted by Wholesale Investor magazine on its database of 4,286 high net worth, wholesale, professional and international investors, revealed the following points:

Investors remain optimistic

A staggering 81% surveyed said that now is a very good, or exceptional time to invest. The more the market recovers from the financial downturn, the more this statistic will drop. Smart investors invest when values are right down, and become less enthusiastic as the market moves towards its peak.

 

Private Companies are preferred (chart - type_of_investments_sought)

59.3% of investors prefer to invest into private companies (down from 71% in May 09 survey). Investors see that private companies can be invested into at lower values, and are less exposed to market fluctuations and nervous markets. Private companies also carry less debt and are less burdened by compliance, reporting and public scrutiny. It is anticipated that interest in public companies is set to increase as the market recovers over the next 18 mths.

 

Management Team is the key (chart - most_important_deal_attributes) 

77% feel that Quality of Management is the most important investment criteria. This is followed by Proof of Concept, Sector and Exit Strategy. Many people believe that "profit" and "quality pitch" are the attributes of a deal that get investors excited. This is not correct as these attributes were listed last.

Tips for entrepreneurs raising capital – listen to what investors what!

This survey gives an in-depth insight into the investors mindset. This greatly assists companies and entrepreneurs to shape their investment offers, greatly increasing their chance to raise capital. Here are some key tips:

• ·         Focus on building a very strong board and management
• ·         Only target investors who invest into your sector
• ·         Be realistic on valuation – get it stress tested by advisors or friendly investors
• ·         Be flexible – investors today seek more than a ride when investing into private companies. They want to become actively involved so be prepared to accept this
• ·         Be investor ready! Investors in the survey highlight that 41% of opportunities they seek are not “investor ready”. Companies need to seek the right advisor, get educated on becoming investor ready, and allow enough time to do so  
• ·         Raise capital now! Investors are active right now and have cash. Don’t wait till the market recovers – as values go up – investors’ appetite for private deals, and available cash will continue to decrease

To receive a full copy of the Survey, please visit www.wholesaleinvestor.com.au and go to the Media Centre.

Steve Torso is the Founder of Wholesale Investor, which is Australia’s largest private investment platform, with over $300 million in offering available. Wholesale Investor, also publishes the highly regarded Wholesale Investor Magazine, which promotes private / wholesale opportunities to a network of high net worth, professional and international investors. www.wholesaleinvestor.com.au

Upgrading the workforce

Efforts to improve the skills and capabilities of the workforce often fail because companies don’t really know where the gaps are. McKinsey’s client work shows that one tool to reveal them is a comprehensive survey that allows employees themselves to identify the areas most in need of improvement. A targeted, less costly program—something that’s particularly valuable in the present downturn—can then be rolled out to the organization.

“Identifying employee skill gaps” (May 2009) presents the case of a manufacturing company implementing a major performance transformation program that included significant capability-building efforts. To identify specific areas for improvement, the company surveyed site leaders, middle managers, and frontline supervisors in two regions. As the exhibit shows, their needs were quite different.

Performance transformation programs may also make it necessary to challenge the way people work. “The psychology of change management” shows how companies can successfully modify their employees’ mind-sets (June 2003).

Source: McKinsey

Jeroen van der Veer, former CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, retired on June 30 of this year, bringing to a close his 38 years with the company. In this video, the latest in our interview series McKinsey conversations with global leaders, van der Veer shares his thoughts on the future of oil and alternative energies, the industry’s challenges in addressing climate change, and management lessons learned over a long career.

A video and transcript are available for the interview, which was conducted in The Hague in June 2009.

View the various thoughts from van der Veer here

Surely in our lives we have a responsibility to improve through change
and build futures that people want to be part of? If we do not, sooner or
later, we will be engulfed by the advances and be carried with the tide
into an uncertain future.

Much of business literature, and management education, training and
development, is focused on a model that effectively leaves future to fate.
Detailed analysis of the past, control and stewardship of the status quo
feature prominently. Actions are filtered by past experiences. Even the
more recent focus on disciplines such as ‘strategic thinking’, ‘learning’
and ‘leadership’ have not yet delivered against their promise, as they are
not embedded in the day-to-day running of many businesses.

But there are companies which stand out from the crowd in terms of their
capability to form their chosen futures. These companies embrace new
ideas with the same enthusiasm that others wallow in past glories and
defeat. What binds these companies together is that they firmly believe
there is one durable route to the future competitive advantage: innovation.

View the PWC survey that they report...

...explodes many innovation myths and lays down some challenges
to the management of our major enterprises.

Download Survey results here

Harvard have taken a lng look at the MBA and have made significant recommendations on how universities need to change to catch up to the 21st Century requirementsof leadership and management education...

Overview:

On the whole, MBA programs are in decline. Their value is
being questioned, and they are seen as overly emphasizing
analytics rather than skill development and experiences.
Deans, executives, and recruiters identified four main areas
where current MBA programs are falling short: leadership;
globalization; communication/presentation skills; and problem
identification in ambiguous environments.

In response, MBA programs are innovating and experimenting
to change the MBA experience, and to help business
education regain its relevance and value. They are changing
their curricula and are attempting to make the learning
experience more interactive, engaging, global, and
experiential.

View the full report here

More companies are battling employee stress with meditation... Increasingly, the overstretched and overburdened have a new answer to work lives of gunning harder for what seems like less and less: Don't just do something -- sit there. Companies increasingly are falling for the allure of meditation, too, offering free, on-site classes. They're being won over, in part, by findings at the National Institutes of Health, the University of Massachusetts, and the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard University that meditation enhances the qualities companies need most from their knowledge workers: increased brain-wave activity, enhanced intuition, better concentration, and the alleviation of the kinds of aches and pains that plague employees most.

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Many occupations can make you feel like you are losing your mind, but new evidence suggests that long working hours may actually lead to cognitive decline. Notably, cognitive impairment in midlife is already established as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. A new report from the Whitehall II Study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology finds that long working hours in midlife are associated with a decline of cognitive function, and possibly dementia. Earlier studies from the Whitehall Study group and related evaluations reported that long working hours are associated with cardiovascular and immunologic disorders

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