Business and Finance

SSON: How did you become involved with ANZ’s shared services program?

Nicola Stokes: I was appointed General Manager Shared Services in 2005. There was probably about two-thirds of the organization that exists today in place when I got there; the organization was all based in Melbourne at that stage. I think the most striking feature for me when I arrived was probably that the people didn’t really understand why they were all put together in a shared service; each piece was run quite separately, and was very much a cost-driven service-delivery focus.

SSON: What functions are in place now?

NS: Basically as ANZ Shared Services exists now, we are responsible for HR Operations such as recruitment, remuneration, learning and development, pension/superannuation; Finance processes such as payroll, accounts payable, reconciliations, indirect taxes, information and reporting; Strategic Sourcing (IT and business services); and ANZ Environmental sustainability program and system. We’ve expanded quite a lot over the last couple of years. We have a team of 400 now, half in Melbourne, and the other half are in India, in Bangalore with our captive center there. The clients are based in various geographies, Australia, New Zealand, India and SE Asia. The headcount for ANZ is about 35,000, and the 400 of us service all of them.

SSON: That does sound like a major expansion. So was this planned when you came in, or was it as a result of your own strategy formulated after your appointment?  Read more...

If you’ve ever considered starting your own business, perhaps you’ve considered the pros and cons and found yourself feeling a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of creating a successful business from scratch. With many business ventures requiring a pretty hefty investment, it can be a tough decision to really go for it and start the small business you’ve always wanted, but many of the cons of a traditional business can be tackled by choosing a small business franchise that suits your taste. With the hard work of market analysis and crafting a strong business plan and the proven success shown by companies that choose to franchise, a small business franchise can offer you the freedom of a small business with much less risk than starting your own business from scratch. If you’re still on the fence, consider the following Top 5 Reasons To Start A Small Business Franchise.

Work from Home

With many small business franchises conducting business through the internet and through house calls, you’ll be able to work from home in a variety of businesses that would have previously required commercial office space. Being able to work at home not only frees you up to work when and however long you want to, but also saves plenty of money on commuting costs, office space leasing and commercial storefronts. You can take the money you would have spent on setting up a retail space and pour it back into your business every month, giving your business some extra momentum and ensuring much more profit for you and your partners. Unlike many home business opportunities that rely on supplying you with products that you direct-market to consumers, a small business franchise is a real business in fields ranging from computer services to education to travel and everything in between.  Read more...

It is never too early to teach kids about personal finance. Many elementary schools are coaching children about money. They encourage students to set up a store of their choice and allow them to ‘do business’ with one another. Fake money and creative imaginations have gone a long way. These children see the results of how quickly their fake money disappears from spending too much or from making bad business choices. In kindergarten, these lessons begin by teaching needs versus wants.

The days of the old Home Economic courses are coming to an end. Learning to sew, bake or jigsaw woodcarvings just does not cut it any more (pardon the pun). Instead, home economics is being converted into personal finance courses and are being taught at many high schools around North America. The Council for Economic Education feels these courses are extremely important, so much so, that thoughts of implementing them as mandatory for high school graduation is being considered.

These early economic lessons include managing credit, balancing a budget and buying large items such as a first car or home. Many experts feel that the current recession’s length and impact could easily affect a student’s future financial behaviour in the same manner the Great Depression affected their grandparents.

The fact is that the life skills required for the 21st century are dramatically different from the current generation’s high school days. It’s imperative the upcoming generation learns to avoid the financial pitfalls that we have all recently fallen into. It’s imperative they understand the repercussions of overspending and accumulating debt.  Read more...

NCO Financial is a collection agency. They work with financial services, healthcare, utilities, education and more.

They have been in business since 1926. They do both first party and third party collections.

They are located in 9 different countries with over 140 operation centers. They are headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

They claim to be customer oriented and committed to integrity, teamwork and quality.

NCO Financial is able to use credit reporting. This means they can make a negative listing on your credit report which will cause your credit score to go down.

You can have a listing from NCO Financial removed. There are two ways of accomplishing this.

1. Directly dispute the listing with the credit bureaus.

This is accomplished by sending a credit dispute letter to the credit bureaus or you can hire a credit repair firm to dispute the listing for you.

If you do this yourself you must send a dispute letter to each credit bureau disputing the validity of the negative listing. Common reasons for a dispute are: the account has been paid, not your account, the listing is inaccurate and etcetera.

2. You can pay NCO Financial. I would recommend disputing the listing first and then if that is unsuccessful consider paying.

Do not settle for the full amount of the outstanding debt. You can negotiate the amount to settle. I recommend starting at 50% of the balance.  Read more...

Last week we discussed how to effectively manage “missing the mark” when it comes to your new product, advertising campaign, and general innovation and growth portfolio. This week we will talk about how to effectively manage product/service rollouts in order to obtain the maximum ROI from your campaign.

Manage Your Rollouts Effectively

Strong companies will take a look at the average ROI on products and services that they introduced over the last period and make judgments based on what they discover. Often times, they will discover that, although their average ROI was high enough to keep them profitable, they weren’t realizing maximum benefits due to the rollouts of too many unprofitable products. A good marketing executive will look at the products and services available and realize which have the most potential for the least cost.

Far too often, executives will attempt to introduce too many products or services to the market but find that the project bottlenecks at the “resources” level. Before introducing a product or service, research must be done on the market, available supplies, etc. Research and development are also costly upfront costs when creating a new product. Manufacturing, shipping, advertising – all of these involve money that must be spent before the product can even hit the market, before a single dollar in profit is realized.  Read more...