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Management

Remote work not remote control

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

REMOTE WORK is one of the great challenges for businesses everywhere. But more often than not, business owners say entry level and Gen Z workers aren’t being productive when their working productively.   

Why is this?

Tim Currie, the CEO of NOVA and veteran of the high-tech sector, said a lot of this comes down to different expectations of younger employees entering the workforce for the first time.

“Like anyone who works remotely, they enjoy the autonomy and the flexibility – but young workers, entry level workers, young workers that are just beginning their career path, they still want all the things that people experienced when they were in their 20s, or early career days,” Dr Currie told Talking Business. 

“They want mentorship, they want interpersonal relationships, they want to feel belonging and identity with something, and they also want to see a career path for themselves through what they do all day.

“And in some cases, remote work and the work given to them remotely isn’t meeting those needs.

“The difference with workers that are a little bit older and established in their career, both in their personal and social life, as well as their work life, they’re more secure, more established.

“They don’t need as much infrastructure and scaffolding as maybe a younger worker would need.”

Younger workers need more personal interaction

Dr Currie said research showed younger workers needed more personal interaction and ‘face time’ to understand the dynamism of the office, the sharing of ideas, and exposure to social norma and the way things work.

“If we’re focusing on young workers and entry level workers, there are some things that cannot be done remotely, at least to the same level and effectiveness as they had been done in the past,” Dr Currie said.

“You can do tasks remotely, you can achieve collective goals remotely, but for some workers getting mentorship, building a network of interpersonal relationships … all the relationships that were developed because you had proximity.

“Face to face interactions are absolutely paramount. I wouldn’t say it’s almost impossible but it’s incredibly difficult and it’s incredibly uncharted waters to give a younger employee, an entry level employee an enriching experience, an enriching career path, where they can see how people interact, they can see what norms are reinforced,” Dr Currie said.

“What does it mean to have an organisational culture? It’s what you see, hear and experience when you interact with peers, with management, and leadership, when you observe others.

“Observational learning doesn’t happen when you’re on a Zoom with your camera off eight hours a day.”.

Return to office regimes also 'need work'

Dr Currie said this went to the big problem of companies bringing in “return to office” regimes.

He said they were often failing to do their organisational design properly when they bring in those rules.

“There is nothing worse than commuting an hour or an hour and a half to an office where you have to zoom with someone who is working in another office, or working from home,” Dr Currie said.

“It’s the worst of both worlds. You have the commute without any of the satisfaction of any of the fulfilment of the scaffolding that comes when you work in an office.” 

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-34-interview-with-dr-tim-currie-from-nova

 

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Want better compliance on spending? Simply strengthen audit controls

EXPENSES are one of the largest controllable costs for organisations, which makes strong audit controls critical for maintaining financial discipline.

Businesses risk unnecessary leakage, fraud, and compliance failures that undermine efficiency and trust without a well-structured approach. Strengthening audit controls requires a shift from traditional, manual practices to more intelligent, technology-driven processes that deliver visibility, accuracy, and consistency, according to one organisation deeply imbedded in the field, SAP Concur.

According to SAP Concur, a practical first step is to focus audit resources on areas that carry the highest levels of risk.

Many organisations lose valuable time reviewing low-value, low-risk submissions when the real vulnerabilities often sit in larger, more complex expense categories, according to SAP Concur Australia and New Zealand managing director, Jonathan Beeby.

“Relying solely on manager approvals is a weak spot in many organisations,” Mr Beeby said. 

“Managers are an essential part of expense governance, though their reviews often lack consistency. Managers with limited training and competing priorities may only check a fraction of receipts, leaving compliance gaps that introduce unnecessary risk.

“Organisations that define clear expectations for manager involvement, combined with intelligent automation tools and stronger audit processes, reduce exposure and create a more consistent employee experience,” he said.

According to Mr Beeby, finance teams that filter out routine items for periodic post-payment checks and focus their audits on high-risk transactions have far greater impact. This approach lets auditors spend time on the expenses that matter most and use resources strategically, rather than reactively.

“Technology plays a critical role in tightening audit controls, Mr Beeby said.

“Smart finance leaders are investing in integrated platforms that centralise travel and expense management to eliminate manual errors, streamline approvals, and improve policy enforcement.

“Businesses also gain a complete view of spending patterns and remove the inefficiencies that often mask fraud or policy violations when expense data flows directly into a single system. This improves compliance and accelerates reporting and reconciliation.”

AI coming into view

Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed auditing by automating the repetitive and error-prone aspects of the process, according to SAP Concur research. AI can scan receipts, categorise transactions, detect anomalies, and flag unusual behaviour at a scale that human auditors can’t match.

This frees finance teams to focus on investigating exceptions and addressing root causes rather than processing routine claims. Combining AI with human judgement lets organisations strike a balance between efficiency and oversight.

A deliberate, risk-based framework directs high-value or high-risk claims to auditors while leaving routine, compliant claims to automated processes. Organisations that define thresholds for high-risk transactions, such as cash payments above a certain level or expenses tied to high-risk vendors, significantly improve the effectiveness of their controls.

“Visibility into exceptions is another critical factor,” Mr Beeby said. “Tracking why expense reports are rejected and capturing data on out-of-policy claims gives finance teams the insight needed to adjust policies or improve employee training.

“For example, if a large portion of rejected expenses is due to misclassification, then the issue is likely a lack of clarity in reporting categories, not compliance culture. Audit data becomes a feedback loop that informs better decision-making and reduces future errors.

“Automating compliance monitoring strengthens controls. Embedding compliance checks into the expense reporting process directly lets employees see potential issues before submission.

“Automated alerts flag non-compliant claims, reducing the time auditors spend chasing corrections. Pre-spend approvals take this a step further by aligning expenses with budgets and policies before they are incurred, minimising disputes and surprises after the fact.”

Analytics also come into play

Businesses can use analytics to deepen their ability to detect risks and improve compliance outcomes, Mr Beeby said.

Investing in platforms that integrate dashboard displays of real-time data provide a clear picture of where policies are being breached and where spend is trending. He said this empowers finance leaders to act quickly, whether by tightening rules, targeting audits, or engaging with employees to address specific behaviours.

Robust analytics contribute to building a culture of accountability over time, where compliance is understood and embraced across the workforce,” he said.

“Choosing the right partners and tools is essential to sustaining long-term improvements in spend compliance,” Mr Beeby said. “Vendors with proven expertise and scalable solutions provide more than technology; they also offer guidance on best practices and evolving risks.

“Organisations that partner with specialists can adapt their controls to changing regulatory requirements, shifting workforce dynamics, and emerging fraud patterns.”

SAP Concur’s results show that tightening audit controls creates an intelligent, efficient, and consistent system that protects resources and strengthens trust. It also helps catch mistakes and prevent fraud.

Mr Beeby said organisations that focus on high-risk areas, leverage automation, design intentional audit rules, and use analytics to inform policy will build audit processes that deliver measurable improvements in compliance and spend management.

“The result is a stronger financial foundation that supports business growth while reducing unnecessary risk.”

www.concur.com.au

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Business is changing (as always) – but can you handle the pace?

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

THE PROBLEMS and challenges facing today’s CEOs have changed.

Most notably, it’s the pace of change.

Jarrod McGrath, CEO of Smart WFM believes the big issue now is the rate of change. It’s never been seen before and surviving it is the biggest challenge, he said.

“If you look back 10 years ago, it was very much you have your financial responsibilities, you’ve got your people responsibilities, you’ve got your process, your operations,” Mr McGrath told Talking Business. 

“Today the fundamentals are the same but the rate of change is happening at such a significant pace that people are wanting instant feedback, instant response, you’ve got all sorts of technology coming at a million miles an hour.”

AI a troublesome accelerator?

Mr McGrath said artificial intelligence was a perfect example of this.

He said CEOs now need to have an “incredible” team of people around them. The team and the organisation need to be investing enough to make sure it can take on all the change that is coming at them.

He said CEOs had to make sure they had the rhythm of AI fitting their particular company and sector.

“Some organisations are on the cutting edge and they need to be on the cutting edge of where AI is going,” Mr McGrath said.

“But if you’re an organisation that hasn’t traditionally come from a technological background or that digitally flavoured way of operating, then as a CEO and an organisation, you’ve got to get yourself prepared first because you can’t just come and take the AI on without having a really good understanding of how it’s going to fit into operating rhythm and cadence.”

He said companies need people with competencies like problem solving, digital literacy, project management and emotional quotient (EQ) skills to deal with AI. Everything that goes using AI needs human vetting.

“These days there’s a set of competencies that organisations need to have to take on AI,” Mr McGrath said.

“A lot of organisations are really good at bringing these skills and competencies in, or they have them already, but there’s a lot of organisations that are really struggling with this because they haven’t been founded on what I call digital muscle.

“So it’s the organisations that are able to adapt and develop these competencies that are going to do well from AI.”

High CEO turnover is having a ‘short-sighted’ impact

Mr McGrath said one of the big problems facing companies – and CEOs – these days is the high turnover of CEOs. They don’t usually last more than five years.

McGrath said keeping a CEO in the same position for longer would improve Australia’s productivity.

“Often what happens, from my observations with CEOs, is that the CEO will join an organisation on a two-or-three year tenure to drive a certain outcome for the organisation and for the next two or three years it’s a certain outcome.

“I really wonder whether this turnover of CEOs in organisations stifles productivity.

“I think organisations would become more systemic in the way that they think and the way they develop their plans. To really drive productivity into organisations these days, it’s a mix of the old three things of people, process and technology,” Mr McGrath said.

“But these days, to really get productivity improvement, those areas need to be so well integrated, working together.

“And if a short-term objective of a CEO is to drive bottom line profit, are you losing sight of some of these longer term activities that need to take place?

“Because a lot of organisations have systems, processes and technology that are very old and built on old-skilled thinking – and these (business development activities) are multi-year programs of improvement to get these right. And, from the centre of that, stems the productivity improvement.”

www.smartwfm.com

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-22-interview-with-jarrod-mcgrath-from-smart

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Helping businesses deal with the ascendance of bullies

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

THERE ARE bullies everywhere. Whether in business, on the street, on the roads, you’ll always find them,

Why is this happening?

Personality expert Bill Eddy, the co-founder and director of innovation at the High Conflict Institute in the United States put it down to two main reasons.

First, it was the pandemic.

But second, it’s because of social media which has “shown people images of bullying over and over again all over the world”.

“Bullies are becoming role models for what gets attention. Also, social media has helped bullies find each other and encourage each other rather than discouraging each other the way community standards do,” Mr Eddy told Talking Business.

“So with social media, anybody can find their group that reinforces them being nasty. 

“We often get people who are the most aggressive, most self-centred are very comfortable with social media and putting themselves out there.”

“I think our screens in general – with the news on TV, movies, drama, seeing images of bullying gets a lot of attention – and so we’re getting shown those images more than ever before and then people are copying those images.”

Imbalance in online hostilities

Mr Eddy said while most of us don’t get hostile online, the people who are already hostile in person are getting more attention and are louder online. Reasonable people drop out of those conversations early on.

He said businesses are not prepared to handle bullies.

“People will often hope that things will settle down and the person will come to their senses but that’s not how bullies work,” Mr Eddy said.

“It’s part of their personality and that’s what seems to keep it going.

“They don’t stop themselves. Therefore, the people around them and the organisations need to stop them.

“What I’ve found is that business waits way too long. They keep giving them chances and these people don’t change – so why keep giving them chances to do damage to the organisation?”

Institute teaches conflict resolution skills

Mr Eddy said the High Conflict Institute has developed a method of coaching which teaches conflict resolution skills. So if a company doesn’t know whether or not to sack a bullying manager, the Institute will tell them to give them some coaching to see if they can change their high conflict bullying.

“Maybe half the time, coaching does make a difference and maybe half the other time, the coaching doesn’t make a difference and people just leave or they get fired,” he said.

Mr Eddy said Steve Jobs, who founded Apple, was well known as a bully. Yet his management team was able to set limits on him.

“You need to have restraints and if you surround the person with reasonable people, who cannot take personally what the bully does, then you may be able to help them succeed,” he said.

Mr Eddy said there was a higher proportion of bullies in law firms – as well as in the police force and in healthcare, ministry and counselling services.

“One thing I think we see is that every profession has some of these and people tend to protect their own,” he said.

“That’s not a good thing. You shouldn’t be protecting the bullies in your profession or your whole profession gets a bad name.” 

www.highconflictinstitute.com

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-18-interview-with-bill-eddy-from-the-high-p

 

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AI may help salespeople … but only salespeople succeed

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

SALES roles are so competitive. Everyone wants to get ahead. But what are the best ways to do this?

Aaron Tighe, a sales coach who wrote What You Already Know & Don't …The B2B Sales Playbook  knows there are some simple ways to go about this.

A lot of it would, of course, rely on the personality of the sales person, but Mr Tighe said a key strategy would be to use artificial intelligence (AI) to do research on prospective clients. “It’s a fast and efficient way of doing it,” he said. 

“What we’re seeing now is the speed of access to that kind of information. It’s incredible with the likes of AI and your ability to get that information and educate yourself before and after you meet the customer,” Mr Tighe told Talking Business.

“In boosting sales, for me it’s all about speed and efficiency. So where you might spend an hour or so doing research on a company on the web, you can do that in minutes.

“So what does that mean for sales? You can work quicker, you can work more efficiently and there are no excuses for not being prepared when you go see a customer.

“All it means is there’s an efficiency to get there quicker. If I’ve got my sales hat on, I’m going to be using that to the best because I know that can give me an advantage.”

Circuitous route to sales

How did Mr Tighe end up in sales?

He actually started out as a footballer in England but at the age of 22, as happens with a lot of footballers, his career was coming to an end. So he ended up at the Macquarie Technology Group in WA.

He started out in the accounts department.

“I always remember doing the payroll and, in the payroll, I’d see these people called sales executives and they paid them commissions and bonuses and I thought: ‘How do I do that?”  he said. 

Mr Tighe said the other great skill sales reps need is the ability to listen. In other words, they should cut back on pitching and listen more closely. They need to articulate ahead and ask key questions.

“Listening in sales and in general is just so important. You have to be intently listening,” he said.

“You have to be motivated to listen and then observe

“It’s not just what the customer is talking about. It’s about thinking ahead to: ‘What else can I go to here? What else can I do to learn and understand from that customer about what they need?

“You might need to dig for that a little bit and go two, three, four layers down to understand what the customer really wanting and needs,” he said.

“It’s super important. It’s not just listening but taking it in and articulating back to the customer that you understand.”

Questions lead to answers you need

Mr Tighe said ‘listening’ means asking questions.

There are different types of questions that can be asked. Like factual stuff -- yes or no questions.

“Certainly ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions are super to come out with,” he said.

“And there are double barrelled questions. Like ‘tell me about that department’ …”

But,of course, everyone answers questions differently. Every person is unique. 

“Again with the listening skills, you might have some who are very introverted and closed and give you shorter answers, so you have to work harder there to do that uncovering.”

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-17-interview-with-aaron-tighe-sales-coach

Creatives earn from Promeet’s blockchain ‘monetization’ of online events

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

IMAGINE a company that is revolutionizing the creator economy by developing a platform that allows users to monetize their online meetings and streams using blockchain technology.

Imagine a company that aims to eliminate third-party intermediaries, reduce fees, and give users more control over their earnings.

Promeet offers a simple and frictionless experience for both content creators and viewers. With a competitive 5% fee on transactions, Promeet provides a more affordable alternative to traditional platforms.

Gadi Buch – founder and chief business officer – explained that Promeet does all these things. 

He said Promeet takes Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and other systems then combines them simply where users don’t even have to register to monetize their audience with micropayments.

The platform uses blockchain to achieve this.

“The majority of products out there for Blockchain are more about trading, trade finance, tokens and so on … no one is using Blockchain for a real time usage in today’s world,” Mr Buch told Talking Business.

“So we created a product that when you log on to Promeet with your socials, your email or your phone, we built a wallet on the back of that.

“So people using Promeet don’t know that the back office for that is blockchain and without them knowing, it gives them capability of micropayments and instant payments”

Blockchain works silently away in the background

The beauty of Promeet, he said, was that a lot of people find blockchain so complicated and that people using Promeet have no idea that they are using blockchain.

“With blockchain, you have to have a password, you have to have 12 words you have to keep and all this complexity,” Mr Buch said.

“We took all that complexity and moved it into something that nobody feels

“So basically when we generate our wallet, we put you on blockchain without all the hassle.”

He said Promeet was built for all content creators, including people who want to use it for webinars, where people have to sell tickets and send Zoom links.

“That’s a lot of back office work,” Mr Buch said. “But when you do it on Promeet, you do it instantly.

“So they pay as they come in, they pay by the minute as they stay on it. They pay for the entire session, or you have the option to pay by the minute.

“The main users can be doctors, they can be lawyers, they can be anyone who is doing anything online. Streamers, content creators. Gamers. Anything you want to do online and you want to get paid instantly without all the hassle you have in today’s market.”

Free to use, Promeet profits from user’s profit

Mr Buch said with Zoom, people had to pay a subscription if they use it for more than 45 minutes. Promeet, on the other hand, is completely free. Even for a three hour session on Zoom.

He said other platforms take 20-50% of what people make.

So how does Promeet make money?

“We are charging 5% from any transaction that’s being made on Promeet,” Mr Buch said.

“So basically we don’t make any money until you make money. And 5% compared to the market is very low.

“So that’s liberating part of the world and because we don’t have barriers on payments.

“We think if you’re going to do a live event and you’re going to charge $1 or $2 for the event and people will pay for the time spent on it, that’s a new economy that will help a lot of people.” Leon Gettler.

www.promeet.live

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-14-interview-with-gadi-buch-from-promeet

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Margo Faraci’s research counts the costs of poor leaders and managers

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

BUSINESSES around the world are caught in a vortex of bad leadership, leaders who simply aren’t up to the job. And they know it too. The result: inability to communicate with teams, falling morale and poor productivity.

It’s rife in Australia, the US and UK, according to Margo Faraci, a global leadership expert and executive.

Ms Faraci has a background in some of the largest global blue chip companies including in her native Australia – Macquarie Bank, NAB, Seek.com, Ashurst, and Commonwealth Bank – and internationally with global mega-techs such as Amazon and Coca-Cola.

Ms Faraci said bad management can mean a range of things to different people.

“But ultimately, it’s management and leadership that makes people small and misses their potential. And therefore business potential,” Ms Faraci told Talking Business. 

Self-awareness is key

Ms Faraci said much of it came down to self-awareness.

“If we’re turning up as leaders frustrated, if we’re turning up as leaders saying to ourselves” ‘Just do it for the money’. If we’re turning up not happy with our team, with the people around us, then we are probably operating from fear and there’s probably some work to be done there,” she said.

“In terms of finding out what’s going on in your team, what you realise the more senior you become is that the further up you go, the less you know what’s going on because people are really deferential to hierarchy.

“However, this means people stop telling you things so what you must do in your team is find out how people are and how they behave to you as a leader,” Ms Faraci said.

Build psychological safety

Ms Faraci said there are several ways to do this.

“The best thing you can do is be the leader admitting mistakes and asking for help,” she said.

“If you build what we call psychological safety, that’s the single biggest driver of performance.

“They’re the things you can do as a leader which will ensure people will come to you and let you know when there are problems in your team of direct reports.

“If you create the environment where people see you being open to different views and you admit mistakes, that creates psychological safety, that drives down fear.

“And performance is created when people can speak up, and people can have respectful debate and people can tell you things as they see it.”

Failing leaders cost companies

Ms Faraci said her study of managers in the US, UK and Australia showed leaders who couldn’t achieve this cost their companies heavily in terms of inadequate productivity.

Her research covered all sectors and examined emerging leaders in their late 20s and early 40s.

Ms Faraci’s research did not cover any particular industries. And it was the same across genders.

“About a third of emerging leaders are leading with what we call unconscious fear,” she said.

“That’s costing about $2.2 billion in Australia.

“If you don’t care about the impact on people, you might care about the dollar loss you are experiencing because of it.

“And we know those people who are leading unconsciously with fear are really unhappy as well. We know about half of them are unhappy in the job – so it’s not working for them either.” 

www.margotfaraci.com

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-11-interview-with-margot-faraci-global-lead

 

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