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Management

Australia’s strongest small businesses are designing for constraint, not scale

VIEWPOINT  I  By Elise Balsillie >>

FOR A LONG TIME, growth in Australian small business has been sold as a race towards scale. More customers, more staff, more locations, more complexity. Growth has been treated as expansion in every direction at once.

What I am now seeing across Australia is a quiet shift. The small businesses growing with the most confidence are not chasing size for the sake of it. They are designing their businesses around constraint and they are doing it deliberately.

Constraint has become a strategic advantage. 

Small business owners are operating in a market where pressure is constant. Skills shortages are structural. Costs remain unpredictable.

Customers expect fast responses, seamless communication and consistency every time. In that environment, growing without boundaries is not ambitious, it is unsustainable.

The strongest businesses I work with ask a different question early on: what should remain constrained even as the business grows?

Growth breaks when everything expands at once

Most small businesses do not fail because they lack demand. They struggle because too many parts of the business grow at the same time.

Marketing ramps up before operations are ready. Sales increase before cash flow systems can support them. Teams grow before processes are clear. On paper, the business looks bigger, however in reality, it becomes more fragile.

I often say that growth does not break businesses. Uncontrolled growth does.

When businesses design for constraint, they grow with intention. They choose one or two areas to expand and keep everything else tight. That focus creates stability rather than stress.

Constraint forces better decisions

Constraint also has a way of cutting through noise. When time is limited, priorities become obvious. When resources are finite, inefficiencies surface quickly. When teams are small, clarity matters more than hierarchy.

The businesses growing strongest right now are not doing everything. They are doing the right things consistently.

They know exactly which customers are worth pursuing. They understand which services drive repeat revenue rather than one-off wins. They focus on the marketing channels that convert rather than chasing the next trend.

Constraint exposes the truth faster than expansion ever will.

Why systems matter most when you stay lean

There is a common belief that systems are something you invest in later, once you have grown. I see the opposite.

Systems matter most when you are intentionally staying lean. When a business is designed around constraint, every system has to work harder. Bookings, payments, customer communication and marketing cannot sit in silos. They need to connect seamlessly because there is no spare capacity for inefficiency.

This is where many Australian small businesses unlock their next phase of growth. Not by adding more tools, but by connecting what they already use.

When systems are connected, business owners gain visibility. They can see which enquiries convert, which customers return and where time and money deliver the strongest return. Decisions become calmer, faster and more confident.

The strongest growth comes from businesses that can see clearly before they act.

Constraint creates better customer experiences

Customers feel the difference when a business is designed with intention.

Businesses that grow within constraints tend to communicate better, respond faster and deliver more consistent experiences. Not because they are larger, but because they are more focused.

They are not chasing information across platforms or juggling disconnected tools. They know their customers, their history and their next step.

It is that consistency which becomes a powerful growth engine. Customers reward businesses that feel easy to deal with, reliable, are authentic and personal.

Redefining what growth actually means

Constraint-led growth also changes how we define success.

Growth is no longer just about revenue or headcount. It shows up in stronger margins, predictable pipelines and business owners who are no longer stuck in constant firefighting.

It shows up in businesses that can absorb shocks, adapt quickly and make decisions without panic.

Real growth gives you control. If growth takes control away, something has gone wrong.

The opportunity ahead

Australian small businesses do not need louder advice or more hustle culture narratives. They need smarter ways to grow in a constrained environment.

The businesses that thrive over the next decade will not be the ones chasing scale at any cost. They will be the ones designing businesses that grow within clear boundaries, supported by connected systems and confident decision-making.

Constraint is the framework that makes growth sustainable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elise Balsillie is head of Thryv Australia and New Zealand, a company that has developed ‘everything small business owners need to manage their work’ in a single IT package. The Thryv system offers more than 20 industry customisations available in a fully mobile interface – technology previously reserved for big businesses – that Thryv now places at the fingertips of small business owners nationwide. Thryv’s related brands include Thryv Data, Thryv Agency, Yellow Pages, Yellow Pages Print, White Pages Network, Whereis and True Local.

www.corporate.thryv.com.au

 

Staff flexibility becomes major employment issue says Beverakis

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business  >>

FLEXIBILITY has become a huge management issue now across businesses of all sizes.

Companies like Uber and Disney have put in demands for employees to turn up to the office no matter.

There have been so many studies that show half of Australian workers favour flexibility. On the other hand, a study by Forrester found that four out of 10 organisations were now trying to back out of flexibility arrangements.

Dino Beverakis, who was the managing director for Avaya for many years, said companies now cannot go back to the way things were.

“You know, the clock on, clock off syndrome and those L-shaped corner desks with the high partitions, I think now we have to find a blend,” Mr Beverakis told Talking Business. 

“I think the onus is going to be on us as leaders to provide the digital tools that give our workforce that flexibility to collaborate everywhere, and it’s seamless.

“It’s going to be role-based now as opposed to one blanket rule that fits all.”

Consider remote workforce consequences

Mr Beverakis said organisations now seeking to reduce their remote workforces needed to consider the consequences.

He said flexibility is now a huge issue with Gen Z employees.

“One of the questions I get asked in the interview process is do you have a flexible work arrangement,” he said.

“So it is something that’s top of mind.”

Mr Beverakis said a number of companies were taking innovative approaches to this.

One example, he cited, was Microsoft in Japan which had implemented a four-day work week and their productivity had risen by 40%.

“There is no one solution so we’ll have to work diligently as leaders and look at the roles and the impacts that the changes are going to have,” Mr Beverakis said.

“It’s going to be across the board and leaders have to be cognisant and really pay attention to staff well-being around that flexibility as well.”

Most breaches ‘unintentional’

On the question of compliance breaches, Mr Beverakis said most were committed unintentionally by staff inside organisations using a third party app to exchange confidential information.

“You know, when something didn’t work and the multiple applications they had didn’t provide them with what they needed,” he said.

“That overwhelming of staff with multiple apps can slow them down and so they go looking for a secondary option and that opens the opportunity for a compliance breach.”

Mr Beverakis said the important thing for company leaders to do to address these compliance breaches is to educate staff.

“It’s very important to call out something that doesn’t feel right, something you feel isn’t the right thing to do and that’s employee engagement, that’s through education and understanding the compliance policies that your organisation has work within,” he said.

“It starts with the leadership forum, understanding the compliance policies, educating the staff be it visual or otherwise, presentations, sit down sessions, lunch and learns, just really covering what those policies are making sure your team is engaged.”

And boards would have to be involved too.

“It starts at the top, you incorporate the board in that conversation,” Mr Beverakis said.

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-38-interview-with-dino-beverakis-from-avaya

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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

ends

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

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