Opinion

Business and sport share many things in common when it comes to achieving targets and goals.

A lack of preparation is the death knell for a successful sales pitch.

The Palmer United Party is proving that success in business doesn’t equal sense in politics.

The high-cost, low-price environment has put the squeeze on iron ore miners.

Spending a few days in Port Hedland meant we spent a few days longer than most travellers, and it also afforded an opportunity to get some insights into the town’s development.

Opinion polls have always presented a dilemma for political leaders, with the temptation to comment when they are favourable almost impossible to resist; but polls can be fickle.

Bank bashing is a national sport in Australia, often played for good reason; but the latest round of kicking banks, which started this week with the release of a report by former Commonwealth Bank boss David Murray, could not have come at a worse time.

If Tony Abbott and his ministers had stuck true to their word they would not find themselves so unpopular with voters, after less than a year in office.

Australian beef producers are facing competition in emerging exports markets from low-cost Indian buffalo production, according to the Australian Bureau of Agriculture Resource Economics and Sciences.

Diverse boards include people from a variety of backgrounds with a range of views, and women are an essential component of that mix.

There’s a whole lot more to networking than turning up to an event with a pitch and a business card.

Consumer behaviour plays out in business much as it does in the political sphere.

The move by Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest into beef production may ultimately be more about the land they own than ‘feeding China’.

Driving up the Great Northern Hwy from Midland to Port Hedland, you can’t help but marvel at the number of trucks on the road – and be concerned about what lies ahead for wheatbelt communities after the closure of the ‘tier 3’ rail lines.

WA Labor’s road to reform got off to a good start at last week’s annual conference, but the momentum must be maintained.

Losing one contract is not the biggest problem confronting locally based education provider Navitas, even though Macquarie University’s decision to end a near 18-year relationship wiped $800 million off the value of the stock yesterday.

The appearance of mining magnate Clive Palmer with climate campaigner Al Gore in federal parliament’s great hall still has many scratching their heads.

Most economists would rightly view the official employment figures each month as something of a lottery, but what lies ahead is a fairly safe bet: inadequate jobs growth.

Capitalism per se isn’t the problem behind wealth disparity, but rather governments’ failure to act in the interests of workers and the middle class.

There’s a whole lot more to networking than turning up to an event with a pitch and a business card.

A good few months of deal flow is offering hope for a better year.

The banks are at it again, and the ducks are close to lining up for a re-run of the GFC.

For many business people the current conditions seem very challenging.

While unchallenged as premier and Liberal Party leader, Colin Barnett has to go sometime.

No financial result will be more carefully watched when annual reporting season kicks off in a few weeks than that of Qantas, a business some critics have dubbed the ‘Kodak of the aviation industry’.

The development of a coal-to-liquid fuel sector could help insulate Australia from global upheaval.

Concern over the effects of the housing ‘crunch’ on the broader Chinese economy was the main topic of discussion at a recent Institute of International Finance China Economic Forum, held in Shanghai.

Mistaking experience for ability is common among board appointments, highlighting a strategic weakness in the way business decisions are made.

However good your product or service is, the client needs to be sold on you first.

Eight instalments of Rising Stars offer plenty of data to analyse.

Shell’s move out of Woodside has opened up a range of scenarios as major players jostle for a stake of WA’s LNG riches.

If the many different winners of the Rising Stars award have anything in common it is that all won the ability to choose their future – whether that be a trade sale, an ASX float or organic growth.