On 12 June 1998, just a couple of days before my 24th birthday, I had the misfortune of being the duty officer at the 1st Infantry Battalion at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville. It was a Friday, one of the worst days to be duty officer, because it meant that you couldn’t enjoy the end-of-week frivolity…
Month: July 2016
The Six Rules for Choosing the Right Domain Name for your Business
One of the first things that aspiring business owners need to do is to come up with a name for their business. One of the major factors is the availability of the associated domain name. Indeed many businesses look for available domain names first, and then name their businesses based on the availability of an…
The only state in Australia to spell ‘harbor’ incorrectly
One of the vagaries of South Australian history is that two of our best-known harbours are spelt incorrectly. The word ‘harbour‘ in Australian English follows the British model – it has a ‘u’ in it. But the Americans spell it without the ‘u’ – ‘harbor‘. Curious, then, that popular coastal holiday town of Victor Harbor…
Disrupt your own business…before somebody else does
There is a great little quote about ‘disruptive technologies’ that is regularly bandied around, although I’m not entirely sure of its origin: ‘Disrupt your own business before someone else does’ A Google search for ‘disrupt your own business’ reveals a host of articles about this topic on Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company et al. It’s…
What is a SWOT analysis?
I’ve just finished watching the latest series of Silicon Valley (series 3) on Foxtel. It’s an extremely funny comedy about a tech startup company in Silicon Valley and I recommend that you take a look. In Season 2, the earnest and often-disrespected Jared Dunn proposes that the team undertake a SWOT analysis to help evaluate an important decision. Despite…
German Words in the English Language
I’m a bit of a fan of linguistics, the study of words, and the nuances of language. At school, I learnt German; at uni, I did an English sub-major; and in the Army, I studied Bahasa Indonesia. The other day I wrote a blog post about the German word Gemütlichkeit, and it got me thinking…