Talking Business With Alan Kohler

Travis Osborne, the CEO of Mobile Tyre Shop. As the name suggests, he has a fleet of 40 vehicles that will go to a person's work or home and change their car tyres. Travis got a fair bit of publicity in 2015 when he went on Shark Tank and two sharks agreed to buy into the business. Back then his turnover was $1 million and he had a valuation of $2.5 million. The two sharks agreed to pay $250,000 for a 10% share but the deal never went ahead.  Five years later, Travis expects to have 100 vehicles on the road by the end of the year and if he achieves that the business will be valued at around $100 million. Investor David Williams has bought into the business and is Chairman. Mobile tyre businesses are very big in other parts of the work, and Michelin recently bought a 40% share in one in Europe. In Australia, the tyre market is a $5.6 billion industry so Mobile Tyre Shop only needs a small percentage to be a much bigger business. The company doesn't stock any tyres so can use any of the 7,500 types on the

Dan Ziffer covered the Hayne royal commission for ABC radio, TV, and online. He was formerly the long-time senior producer of 'Mornings with Jon Faine', at ABC Radio Melbourne, and has worked on air and in production at Macquarie Radio, as a freelance foreign correspondent based in New York City, a journalist at The Age, and as a magazine editor. In ‘A Wunch of Bankers’, Dan Ziffer bring out the colour and grit of the royal commission's proceedings, and explores broader issues raised by the testimony. A mixture of analysis, reportage, and observations, it is densely researched and compellingly written’. In addition to the book Dan discusses the changing stance of regulators, and what’s expected in 2020.

Ben is an experienced leader focused on creating value, by providing the kind of experiences that leave customers, the company and the community better off. An entrepreneurial problem solver who delights in promoting the talent of the people around him, further enabling them to make their own unique contribution. Quick to smile with a real love of learning, a speaker of 4 languages, a movie fan and an avid reader with over 27 years' experience demonstrating innovation and achievement, with a wide range of skills acquired in roles in Exhibition (Retail) and Distribution. Skilled in Leadership, General Management, Business Development, Marketing, Sponsorship, Acquisitions, Production and Sales. Also sits on various boards and was Winner of the 2017 CEO AWARD from the Independent Cinemas Association of Australia. Discusses: The Palace cinema story & What does it take to maintain a successful family business. How is Palace Cinemas adapting to remain competitive in the ever-changing entertainment industry. How

SurePayd is a cloud-based payments layer for B2B accounts receivable, an area of the business where customer experiences are often negative.Karen on SurePayd:“When it comes to enterprise accounts, this means chasing payments, sending notifications, managing disputes or running reports that require a lot of complicated, cumbersome activity. Surepayd addresses this pain point by integrating with our clients’ existing ERP, and bringing an automated, consumer-like, and customisable digital experience to B2B accounts receivable.” She explains the company provides a ‘relationship engine for the back office – a revolution in what was traditionally just a transactional process. Helps give the back office what were generally front of house resources; ease of communications, branded marketing strategies, and transparency of customer data & more. She also has comment on the merits of automation vs offshoring jobs. While fears over job losses are understandable, that same fear can lead t

Marie has been in the role as the leader of the G20’s only dedicated infrastructure organisation for nearly a year now and has great insights to share about the organisation, its key pillars and new initiatives moving into 2020. Marie was previously the head of APAC for Atkins Acuity, the advisory business of Atkins and SNC Lavalin group. Before joining Atkins in 2015, she headed the Infrastructure Initiatives department of the World Economic Forum, where she led their thought leadership activities, publishing several reports on best practices in the infrastructure sector. She led the dissemination effort of these best practices to governments and advocated to coalitions such as the B20 and the G20. Recently the GiHub launched InfraChallenge, a global infrastructure competition designed to drive disruption in the infrastructure industry – a sector that has been slow to embrace digital change. For your background, the GI Hub is a G20 initiative launched at the G20 meeting in Brisbane in 2014, and i

Curiious is a Sydney company which has created a world-first educational VR platform in which educators and trainers can directly provide feedback and change the virtual environment live. The compelling part of the story here is the company’s pivot and how they got into the VR space to begin with; they were an advertising and content agency that saw VR being underused and wanted to do it differently, so they worked on this platform in the background for many years, launching it this year and raising $2m from sophisticated investors to commercialise the product. They’re in talks with schools in the US and across Australia and have signed a few up already to use VR in education and have just secured schools in LA and New York to use their content. The veteran tech-driven Sydney visual content business Curiious – best known for its Vivid Opera House projection and the stunning visuals during the opening ceremony at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games – has raised $2 million from sophisticat

Kristina started the global Swedish design and stationery business, kikki.K in 2001 and now has 102 kikki.K stores, stocked in another 250, and sold online to stationery and design lovers in over 147 countries worldwide. She’s also a sought-after international speaker, a passionate learner, self-improver and the proud mother of two children, Axel and Tiffany, with her partner, Paul. She discusses making Australia her home & the challenges she faced starting her own business & her essentials that continue to inspire her work. She chats about the easy changes on how you can change your mind to create new opportunities & how kikki-k has adapted to the changing retail space since she first founded the company.

Star Scientific is an Australian owned hydrogen energy company working on how humanity can transition to a new energy economy. Star Scientific has created the Hydrogen Energy Release Optimiser (HERO®), which produces unlimited, affordable, safe and reliable energy – with zero emissions. In the past thirty years at Star Scientific, Andrew has driven forward the company’s research around clean energy solutions that don’t risk the sustainability of Australia’s economy. In his discussion Andrew talks to: How the hydrogen industry can support Australia’s own domestic energy crisis, rather than just the export opportunity for Australia. He also talks to the background of Star Scientific. How Star Scientific discovered HERO® through its research on Muon-Catalysed Fusion. The vision, plans and priorities for Star Scientific over the next several years & how HERO® can be used to support key energy solutions, to transition to clean energy without risking financial viabilit

Nathan founded Upstream Energy in 2013 after fifteen years’ experience in urban firefighting and emergency response with Fire and Rescue New South Wales. His leadership in focusing growth by helping customers has been the driving force behind the opportunity Upstream now presents. Nathan continues to drive the use of new technologies and an innovative approach to delivering clean energy. Upstream Energy provides complete solar systems to commercial enterprises, with the electricity produced sold to customers through fixed supply contracts over 6 to 10 years at cheaper rates to traditional suppliers. He also touches on the scalability and variability of this framework (any and all energy users can benefit and it works especially well for commercial tenants), the potential for landlords to generate income and the role renewable energy will play in the future energy sector mix. 

Tessa is the Founder and CEO of award-winning SaaS company IntelligenceBank, a business process management business that helps companies reduce their risk and manage compliance. As a former marketer herself, Tessa sought to create an easy to use platform for marketing teams that would enable them to meet the growing pressures of churning out assets fast while being compliant due to the increasing scrutiny of regulators – resulting in the launch of Melbourne startup IntelligenceBank in 2010. Tessa discusses: The story and purpose behind IntelligenceBank. Fostering a positive workspace for women in tech where she has a 46% female dev ops team. Putting aside beanbags and ping pong tables to enable employees to define what work culture is and how they’d want to interact. She also shares her views on running a 10 year old startup and how the biggest threat to scale ups is mediocrity.

Glenn has worked within the government and education industry as a senior executive, internal consultant and change agent, including operating his own management advisory business. He uses his skills and knowledge pragmatically to improve businesses, positioning them for better performance. His experience includes a primary focus on strategy, public policy, change leadership, stakeholder relations, product development, service delivery, governance and people and culture. DeakinCo. exists to equip workforces with the skills recognition required  to succeed both now and into the future. Partnering with DeakinCo. in the assessment of your workforce capabilities enables you to both recognise and retain great talent through the use of a suite of Professional Practice credentials that are powered by Deakin University. Glenn gives mention to a DeakinCo & Deloitte Access Economics White Paper, developed from a new study of ‘Premium Skills’, which suggests that increasing human skills in Australia

Sharing food has always been central to Mark Calabro’s life. Growing up in a large Italian family, Mark had a childhood of witnessing the bonding magic of food – where sharing was caring – and it gave the marketing, sales and client relationship head an appreciation for the role of good food in bringing people together. And although Mark never pursued a career in the kitchen, he has certainly entered many in the course of selling the hospitality technology he has developed over the past two decades. Co-founder of hospitality platform HungryHungry and point-of-sale (POS) technology OrderMate, Mark started thinking about and developing food and beverage payment systems while completing a five-year Bachelor of Telecommunications Engineering and Applied Science, Multimedia double degree at Swinburne University of Technology. In 2003, he and his co-founder, Shannon Hautot, outgrew the Melbourne garage they started in and launched OrderMate, a revolutionary POS system for an industry better acquai

Kylie Porter is the Executive Director of the Global Compact Network Australia (GCNA). Kylie is a sustainability expert with over 15 years of experience in corporate affairs, sustainability and strategy roles across a broad range of industries. During her career, Kylie has provided advice on responsible business and corporate responsibility practices to senior management; managed reputation risk for environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; developed and implemented sustainability and corporate responsibility strategies; and wrote and managed policies across thematic areas such as climate change, human rights, child rights and industries such as mining and metals, oil and gas and forestry. The United Nations Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, with over 12,000 participating businesses and other organisations, and growing. It is both a practical framework for action and a platform for demonstrating corporate commitment and leadership. Global Compa

Susan decided to turn her hand to creative writing after a long career in medical research, public health advocacy and the pharmaceutical industry. She holds Master’s degrees in pharmacy and biostatistics, a PhD in epidemiology and health economics, and was a National Health and Medical Research Council Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellow. She holds honorary professorships at Griffith University and the University of Melbourne. Many of Susan’s research projects have influenced health policy. For example, her early work on the use of theophylline in acute asthma highlighted its toxicity and led to an appropriate decline in its use. The ecological analysis of the effectiveness of needle-exchanges that she published in The Lancet, was pivotal in securing government support for these programs. Her major area of expertise is cost-effectiveness analysis and she has written numerous successful submissions, on behalf of not-for-profits and pharmaceutical companies, for government subsidy of medicines.

Jason is a Partner at McGrathNicol Advisory & has more than two decades of experience working with clients to help improve operational and financial performance. He specialises in operational efficiency, independent business reviews, risk management, forecasting and modelling, cash and working capital management and corporate streamlining. He discusses the business & McGrathNicol Advisory's recently released 7th consecutive annual Working Capital Report for 2019.

Anita joined LaSalle in October 2017 as a Client Executive within the Client Capital Group. She is responsible for managing and developing relationships with clients and prospective clients in Australia and New Zealand and is based in the Sydney Office. Anita brings six years of investment banking experience, most recently at Fort Street Advisors, where she provided strategic advice to some of Australia’s largest real estate firms. She also worked with clients in the retail, healthcare and general industrial sectors to execute mergers, acquisitions and capital raisings. Anita is passionate about making a positive social impact. Prior to joining LaSalle, she also founded a digital health care platform (Dokotela) to connect rural and regional patients to specialist doctors via video conference. A lawyer by training, Anita started her career at Mallesons Stephens Jaques, before moving into investment banking. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Distinction) and a Bachelor of Commerce fro

The Lend platform is set to transform the SME finance market through automating the process of matching a lender with an SME, using a sophisticated combination of AI and analytics. In addition to this, Lend has also launched LendScore – an industry first tool exclusively available to brokers through the platform which provides brokers with a score on the likelihood of their client’s loan getting an approval from a lender. Co-Founder and Australian entrepreneur Bill Baker, who has also founded various other successful finance companies including carloans.com.au and Fleet Choice. Bill believes the market is on the verge of a major shakeup both from a tech perspective and as SMEs increasingly turn to non-bank sources for loans, both prevalent themes in the business space. About Lend.com.au: Founded in 2016 by a team of finance and lending experts, data scientists, machine learning engineers and technologists dedicated to creating a seamless, efficient and fast experience for Australian business finan

Shroogle is a one-stop, fully connected personal finance hub in response to the findings of the Hayne Royal Commission into the financial services industry. The Melbourne-based fintech recently launched the first of a broad range of online financial services to provide increased access to comprehensive financial advice and related services. Justin is an experienced financial services professional having spent 12 years providing advice and gathering knowledge and experience across the broader aspects of the entire wealth management chain in both large and smaller scale business practices. Qualifications include a Masters degree of Applied finance and Graduate diplomas in Applied Tax Law and Financial Planning. Chartered Tax Adviser, Specialist SMSF Adviser and Certified Financial Planner. Member of the Tax Institute’s National Superannuation Technical Committee.He has 4 years experience in digital advice as Founder / Director of Shroogle, confirmed by some of the country's largest advice providing instit

Richard is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience in retail and finance. He joined JB Hi-Fi as CFO in 2003 and took the business through the IPO process. Prior to this Richard was an Associate Director, in the Corporate Finance Group of Deloitte. Richard was appointed to the Board of JB Hi-Fi in June 2012 and became CEO on 1 July 2014. He is currently Chairman of the Australian Charities Fund Employee Leadership Initiative, which aims to encourage Australian businesses to set up Workplace Giving Programs. To date JB Hi-Fi’s workplace giving program, Helping Hands, has 70% staff participation and has raised over $10m for its charity partners. He discusses JB’s involvement in the ‘Workplace Giving Initiative’ and seeks to encourage other businesses to be a part of the movement. He gives an overview of the JB group business and the culture & retail strategy that are keys to the success that has seen JB Hi-Fi out-perform current trends in the retail sector. 

Merrill J. Fernando was amongst the first group of Ceylonese to learn the art of tea tasting. Similarly laudable is the philosophy around which he formed his brand – making business a matter of human service. That philosophy is fulfilled in the work of his MJF Charitable Foundation which uses a minimum 10% of the pretax profits of Dilmah and its ancillary businesses, to provide nutrition, education, care and support to differently abled children, youth in marginalized communities, the elderly. Each of over 100 projects is designed around the principle of dignified empowerment, and touches the lives of over 10,000 families each year.  The global tea company began its journey in 1988 right here in Melbourne, when Mr. Fernando convinced Coles to be the first stockist of his single-origin tea. Today, Dilmah turns over more than $US500 million a year and employs over 15,000 workers throughout the world. Merrill discusses the Dilmah story, his final farewell to his involvement in the business and to shar