The Christmas Crunch

As we crash towards Christmas, the work crunch is on. It’s often a bit of a whirlwind as everyone seems to have the same artificial end of year deadline as everyone else.

We’ve been hearing a bit on the grapevine about pre-Christmas redundancies (which are words that should never be said together) as well as commencing 2024 graduates being offered voluntary deferral packages. The general market is still soft so it looks like it might not be until 2024 that things pick back up.

An early Xmas gift from Ansarada…

🚨 DUFFLE BAG SWAG 🚨

Our friends over at Ansarada are handing out FREE foldable duffle bags over the next month for The Aussie Corporate fam. All you have to do is book in a meeting with the Ansarada team to have a quick chat about their dealrooms.

Check out the foldable duffle bag in frame below. Perfect for an after-work gym session or weekend away (hopefully plsfix-free).

Grab your new free duffle here!

💡 Brain’s Trust - conversations in AusCorp

I. This is your Copilot speaking

Most of the older crowd will remember the first time opening Microsoft Word and seeing Clippy, Microsoft’s own friendly “AI” paperclip. Whilst Clippy hasn’t made an appearance for a while now, Microsoft’s exciting AI “Copilot” software is about to be rolled out to all its enterprise customers from 1 November 2023.

Why is it interesting?

Copilot is Microsoft’s integrated AI solution, and will be embedded into all the Microsoft 365 apps you use at work every day - so we’re talking Word, Powerpoint, Outlook, Teams. It’s too early to say whether it will be a success, but it has a lot of potential and will definitely get people thinking about the way they work.

We probably wouldn’t be doing the new tech much justice trying to explain it in words, so here’s a hype video from Microsoft themselves:

So there you have it. Basically something like the ChatGPT we all know but it’s able to talk to and understand the word document, slide deck or spreadsheet you’re working on.

As adoption picks up, we’re expecting to hear from you Aussie Corporates about the impact that this has had on your productivity and your way of working. We have high hopes that this will make all mundane, grindy tasks a lot easier!

II. Should have been an email

In collaboration with The Happiness Concierge

How many of us have had those days of endless meetings… back to back to back, with barely enough time for lunch or a toilet break? Just brutal. With the uptake in virtual meetings, setting these things up is now as simple as sending an email invite to an empty slot in someone’s calendar.

Why is it interesting?

Between 2020 - 2022, meetings increased by between 100-600%… but were they necessary? It’s hard to tell just from the data but it probably somewhat stems from the growing misconception that work should be done in the meeting.

The Happiness Concierge recommends that most of the thinking / work should primarily be done in between meetings, and that the meeting should have a core purpose / purposes. These are either to:

• Inform e.g. a WIP, reporting or RAG status.

• Decide e.g. a strategy or sales pitch.

• Debate e.g. workshop a strategy, problem solve, give feedback, hash something out.

• Collaborate e.g. generate ideas and workshop.

• Connect e.g. to build a relationship.

Any meeting that doesn’t fit one of those categories should be seen as an opportunity for team members to think a bit more about whether their agenda items should be an email. Hopefully, by following this framework, we can reduce meetings (especially those pesky 5pms) and work more efficiently.

Want more?

Check out The Happiness Concierge’s newsletter, which contains a tonne of goodies on how to make the workplace a better and more attractive place to be (a struggle for many companies at the moment!)

📮 Postbox - DM highlight

The Circle of Life

We received an interesting Tweet about how corporate strategy decisions such as raising the prices of phone plans happens (probably). Whilst the Tweet relates to a Fortune 500 company, there’s no doubt that ASX 50 boardrooms are much the same.

Whilst we’ve shared the Tweet in its full glory below, the gist of it is basically this:

• a director has a brilliant idea such as realising that if they just increased $5 in cost for every customer, the company would generate millions more in revenue;

• the Board calls a bunch of consultants in - the bigger the company, the more expensive. So if you’re a big telco like Telstra, you probably have McKinsey in the room;

• consultants prepare a 100+ page slide deck and conclude that in order to justify raising the price, there also needs to be a perceived increase in the value of the product;

• the Partner chips in and suggests raising prices for all plans, and to just allow customers to opt-out if they don’t like it - everyone erupts in applause;

• after several months of research focus groups, slide decks and financial modelling, the idea is pitched to the Board and is met with raucous applause.

Two years go past, the idea has demonstrably failed and McKinsey is engaged again to figure out what went wrong and to propose a better approach.

🙊 Community Bantz - DMs that didn't make the feed

🩺 Health Check - health tip/reminder

Drink. Drank. Hydrate.

We all know we’re supposed to drink 4 litres of water every single day but do we actually do it? In amongst the frenzy of a busy day, it’s quite easy to forget, or even ignore cries from your body that you are thirsty.

Why is it interesting?

The human body is made up of 60% water, and literally every cell in our body requires it to function properly. Water not only helps you think better, but also keeps your skin looking great, encourages weight loss and flushes out toxins.

In fact, even minor dehydration can result in poorer concentration, increased reaction times, short-term memory issues, and negative mood changes.

Aside from over-hydrating, there is literally no downside to drinking enough water for your day. So here are some practical tips that will help you reach for your bottle:

• Keep a 1L bottle on your desk at all times - this gives you a visual reminder to drink and helps you keep track of your water consumption

• Don’t sip - just take giant gulps at a time. Scull it like you would after a long run!

• Add lemon or a teabag - there’s nothing wrong with flavouring your water if it means you’ll get more of it into ya

• Cut out other drinks - not only will you be healthier (cutting out sugars etc), but you’ll slowly become conditioned to loving H2O

• Grab water whenever you eat/snack - it’s typically easier to drink water alongside food, so this will help with your daily intake

Want more?⁠

Check out this guy who drank 4L of water everyday for a year for some anecdotal evidence and for the more academically minded, a journal article about the intake of water and improvements in cognitive performance.

👴🏻 Old is Cool - meme throwback (28 October 2022)

👍 The Nook - AusCorp recommendations

🐎 Melbourne Cup Race Day (7 Nov) - Once again, Victoria gets a public holiday for the “race that stops the nation”, and the rest of the country gets a bit of a break in the day to watch it.

🗿 Sculpture by the Sea (20 Oct - 6 Nov, Bondi) - This year marks the 25th year of the world’s largest, free-to-the-public outdoor sculpture exhibition. Check out the pieces along the 2km Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk.

📕 Green Dot by Madeleine Gray (book | Goodreads 4.1/5) - "Based in Sydney, by a Sydneysider, about an office romance."

📺 The Bear (TV Show | IMDb 8.6/10) - "Season 2 Episode 7 is the most uplifting, inspiring, satisfying redemption storyline I've seen on a show."

📺 The Feed (TV Show | IMDb 6.3/10) - "Single season show where everyone is connected through their minds via an implant (kinda like what Elon wants to do). Then everything goes to shit as the system is hacked by an activist group who disagree with the amount of time people spend on it. Analogous with time buried in phone screens, etc."

🗣 Time Twist (Podcast) - "Every episode asks: how would a person or people from the past feel about a modern idea or invention? It’s super conversational with fun topics, spanning so many different cultures and centuries. I always learn something new with every listen!"

🎶 Lahai by Sampha (album) - “Lahai is the latest album from Sampha. Amazing vocals and production.”

☕️ Precinct Espresso (Cafe, Sydney) - “This cafe has some of the best coffee and food. The staff there are so lovely and coffees are reasonably priced and always made so fast. Manager always remembers your name/order as well! Impressive as it’s in a location with a lot of customers. Can’t recommend enough!”

🍞 Self Raised Bread Shoppe (Bakery, Carlton) - “Absolutely bangin sandwiches and pastries. If you go, get the focaccia sandwich. It's heavenly.”

💻 Made in Australia - showcasing Aussie start-ups

Nanorobots rule

Coming off SXSW Sydney (a huge tech conference) last week, NanoCube Health was the winner of the conference’s pitching competition.

Cancer-busting aspirants, NanoCube is currently being funded by the CSIRO and is an industry partner with Deakin University and Australian National University in one of the CSIRO’s research programs, so it is still early days for the start-up.

What is it?

Founded in 2021 by Dr Shawn Goussous and Lisa Milani, NanoCube is based in Melbourne. NanoCube Health (the one that won the SXSW pitch comp) is a spinoff of NanoCube, and together they’re delving deep into the R&D of nanotechnology, with a specific project focus on utilising nanorobots and developing advanced diagnostics for cancer treatment technology.

The field of nanorobots itself is very nascent, and is exactly what it sounds like - microscopic machinery that carry out very specific actions.

There is a long way to go with this tech but the vision is life-saving. With the initial aim of using nanorobots for the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, NanoCube envisages a future where invasive and damaging chemotherapy would no longer be the only option for cancer patients.

The future of medicine is bright if the folks pull this one off. With nanotechnology, the possibilities are limitless as this could eventually also expand to the treatment of other diseases/conditions such as heart disease, brain disorders and lung conditions.

🚗 Under the Hood - what we're working on

🤑 November Giveaway

We’re gearing up for a huge giveaway towards the end of November, so keep your eyes peeled. Cash prize will be up for grabs!

📰 Pick & Scroll

For the eagle-eyed TAC fam, you will have seen we have been big supporters of Pick & Scroll News. We’re currently working with them to bring this IG-focused biz news publication under our wing, which is super exciting!

💼 Jobs Board

We’re continuing to talk top companies in Australia who have expressed an interest in partnering up with our AusCorp Jobs platform.

If you’d like to build your firm’s profile and get jobs in front of our community of 97,000+, send us an email!

We’re currently looking for any companies interested in sharing their finance, law, accounting, consulting or tech jobs.

✍️ Feedback Loop - share your thoughts

If you have want to provide more detailed feedback or have any topics that you want to hear more about, you can let us know HERE.