Knowledge is power – especially in challenging times like these.

British statesman Winston Churchill once said, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The dramatic changes in world economic circumstances that occurred in 2008 proved, once again, that history repeats in unexpected ways.  

The very fabric of the US economy unravelled and business people around the globe desperately tried to stitch in time to save their businesses.

Some iconic and once-admired Queensland businesses have disappeared, or are about to. It’s a sad thing to witness, no matter how deserved some of those failures may have been, owing to the greed of their leadership – and some to the greed of their financiers.

We live in an age when assets and prizes so cherished just a year ago are now written down to an embarrassment and are for sale to the highest bidder – any bidder, at times.

It’s easy to get despondent – and with the sheer volume of debilitating economic news in the newspapers, on radio and television it’s especially easy to become despondent unnecessarily.

We at Business Acumen take a very different view to most media.

We have always been overwhelmingly positive about business – especially in Queensland – and we see no evidence that justifies being otherwise. We don’t cover political fights, but we do cover political resolution.

We have recently been making the rounds of Queensland business, gauging the market from its engine room, the small-to-medium enterprise sector. Over the past weeks we have visited many Chambers of Commerce as part of a program to offer their members something of a ‘pep talk’, with the help of one of Australia’s great business motivators, Brisbane-based Sergio Carlo Maresca.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive – as it always is to Sergio’s invigorating, reality check presentations – but it has also been overwhelmingly positive for Business Acumen magazine and the way we are shaping our future direction.

Sergio Carlo Maresca plays and advocates the contrarian in business, from experience, and at this time he saying it is time to get active, accelerate, drive forward and innovate … when everyone else in the marketplace is standing still or retreating.

It’s the way we have always been at Business Acumen magazine.

HOW BUSINESS ACUMEN CAN HELP YOU IN 2009

How is Business Acumen moving forward? By doing more of the same, in some respects – adding more to our magazine, aiming to give our readers more of what they cannot get anywhere else.

But we are also doing something unprecedented in Queensland business, industry and educational circles through our business news web portal. More about that later.

Some new aspects of Business Acumen are unique, such as our international business feature series.

In November last year we covered Queensland-Japan business development links and we circulated 2000 copies of Acumen, and our Japanese language business newsletter, to business leaders in Japan.

This year, we plan to look at Hong Kong-Southern China, the UK and Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates.

We are also covering South Korea in 2009, especially now that Business Acumen has been confirmed by the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Office as the print media sponsor for the Asia Pacific Cities Summit being staged in Inchon, Korea, September 15-17.

Why are we covering Queensland’s business links with these international destinations? First, it’s interesting and we believe our readers find it so.

Second, we have experienced people who can do it effectively.

And third, we all know there are a great many successful Australian businesses that could be even more successful internationally – but for a host of reasons they do not head in that direction.

We believe a build-up of knowledge about international business, and how others have done it, will make enticing reading. We also aim to help open up opportunities for overseas organisations to invest and do business with Queensland.

How does our business case stem from that? Simple, the more interested readers, the more subscribers. The more subscribers – and in our case, most readers are leaders in businesses of all shapes and sizes; decision makers; people who make buying choices for their businesses and for their own lifestyles – the more advertisers are interested in reaching them.

It’s a virtuous cycle, as more financial support for the magazine allows us to produce bigger editions and offer much more in the way of knowledge.

ANY PORTAL IN A STORM

Which brings us back to the Business Acumen portal.

For many years, Business Acumen has collected a much greater volume of stories than we actually have room to publish. Some articles have a fascinating amount of supporting material that, we believe, can be very useful to business.

With the portal we can present far more material for open viewing.

Everyone will have access to more, but the real winners will be our subscribers, who we value highly, and who can now access our Business Acumen archive dating back to February 2004. This archive is now word-searchable – great for research.

Along with daily business news, we are now loading up large volumes of background information that is steadily becoming available to subscribers only. This Yearbook is being loaded on the Acumen portal and – as you will see from the directions added to articles in this Yearbook – much more information follows on our web portal.

Coming soon to the Business Acumen portal is the capability for our business partners and allies to load their own news and announcements in a dedicated area of the site.

There’s lots more to come in terms of what we can offer online, as the year progresses, ranging from industry forums to online surveys to online promotional campaigns.

What we hope is that Business Acumen becomes part of your regular search for business news and knowledge.

We hope you will subscribe to our magazine and online resources and Business Acumen joins your daily routine of driving your business forward.

We encourage you to add businessacumen.biz to your web favourites or, better still, as one of your home pages.

Join the progressive Queensland business community that actively seeks market knowledge through Business Acumen.

Winston Churchill again had something vital to say on the subject: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Use your Business Acumen and make this a time of opportunity. ♦

www.businessacumen.biz

THANKS FOR JOINING US

We thank all the progressive businesses and organisations that have joined us in producing this Business Acumen Queensland 2009 Yearbook, which circulates to 50 countries. You are helping to create new business opportunities for Queensland. ♦

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