bosses limber up for - amazon web services...60 business daily saturday september 3 2016...

ADVERTISER.COM.AU SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3 2016 BUSINESS DAILY 59

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The market ended the week with a third consecutive fall, as weakness in health and financials offset gains by Rio Tinto and Newcrest Mining.

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Harvest jobs roll out at Viterra

EVERY TUESDAY

Alibaba cellar door openin ChinaAUSTRALIAN wines are setto get a big boost in China frome-commerce giant AlibabaGroup’s latest venture.

An online “flagship store”featuring Australian wine hasbeen launched on Alibaba’sbusiness-to-consumer plat-form, Tmall.com.

Alibaba’s online retail sitescater to 434 million Chineseconsumers, and the group gen-erates half of China’s onlinewine sales.

The new store on Tmall,supported by Wine Australiaand operated by Chinese on-line retailer Vinehoo.com, willinitially stock 10 brands fromeight Australian wine regions,followed by another 20 brandsin coming months.

The first brands to be fea-tured include Brokenwood,Coriole, John Duval, Pikes andVoyager Estate. Wine Austra-lia does not select the brands.

Wine Australia chief execu-tive Andreas Clark said Aliba-ba was a significant player inChinese e-commerce.

“The muscle they can bring,potentially, to further increas-ing Australian wine sales is vi-tally important,” he said.

Mainland China is nowAustralia’s second most valu-able export market after theUS, but fast catching it.

Total Australian wine ex-ports to mainland China in thepast financial year rose 50 percent to $419 million.

ASX sweats on US jobsTHE share market ended theweek with a third consecutivefall yesterday, as weakness inhealthcare and financials off-set gains by Rio Tinto andNewcrest Mining.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 0.79 percent to 5372.8 points, as 17 ofthe top 20 companies finishedin the red, leading to a fall of2.6 per cent for the week.

Investors were waiting forthe release of a US jobs reportlast night that could sway fore-casts of the timing of a US in-terest rate hike, CommSecmarket analyst Steven Daghli-an said.

Bosses limber up for flexible workplacesSOUTH Australia’s top execu-tives will embrace flexiblework practices and measuretheir organisations’ perform-ance and progress towardsgender equality this year aspart of an “action plan” to beunveiled next week.

The four-point plan was de-veloped by the Chiefs for Gen-der Equity – a group of seniorbusiness leaders working toadvance gender equity.

It was devised through lis-tening forums, which encour-age staff to share their views onthe issue, within their organis-ations and at other events.

The chiefs will grow their“leadership shadow” – wherethey assess their actions, wordsand priorities to boost genderequity – and develop a tool toassist local businesses, andhold forums.

Added emphasis will also beput on promoting flexibleworking arrangements formen and women, starting fromthe top.

Chiefs for Gender Equitymember Matthew Salisbury,regional director SA & NT atWSP Parsons Brinckerhoff,said the focus needed to be onoutcomes rather than attend-ance.

“Achieving a work/life bal-ance has become an issue foreveryone, not just women,” hesaid. “Being bound to yourdesk isn’t necessarily pro-ductive. It’s about giving peo-ple some autonomy indeciding how and when theywant to complete their work.”

He said flexibility would in-evitably translate to a happierand more engaged workforce,improving business outcomes.

“The most important thingthough is making sure seniorleaders set an example. If gen-der equity is important to yourorganisation, make it your pri-ority and demonstrate it your-self in the way you work.”

Mr Salisbury said he triedto fit work around what hewanted to do in his personallife, including packing lunchesand participating in activitiesrelated to his daughters.

“My team knows about it,”he said.

“As long as productivity isnot impacted and goals arebeing met, men and womencan both benefit from flexiblework arrangements.

“Our listening report indi-cates this will make it easier forwomen to stay in the work-place, progress further in theircareers and reduce the paygaps, while men would havemore opportunities to take oncaring responsibilities.”

The other two targets werereducing unconscious bias inthe workplace, includingthrough training, and prepar-ing an accountability reportingmatrix that enables the chiefsto measure their performanceand progress.

The strategic plan and thelistening forums report will belaunched on Equal Pay Day onThursday by the state’s EqualOpportunity CommissionerDr Niki Vincent.

“In spite of so many greatgender diversity innovations inthe last few years, the situationoverall – for women and men –is changing very little,” Dr Vin-cent said.

“There has been a massiveshift of women into the paidworkforce, but almost no shiftin the opposite direction.

“While I believe parentingshould be an equal responsibil-ity between both parents, thereality is different.

“Many women in the paidworkforce are combining theircareers with a second shiftwhen they get home.”

She said organisations thathad embraced flexible ar-rangements had seen a pay-offin productivity.CONTINUED PAGE 60

VALERINA CHANGARATHIL

Achieving a work/life balance has become

an issue for everyone, not just women.

Being bound to your desk isn’t necessarily

productive

M A T T H E W S A L I S B U R Y, C H I E F S F O R G E N D E R

E Q U I T Y M E M B E R

BALANCE: Matthew Salisbury with daughters Scarlett, 8, and Ivy, 4. Picture: TOM HUNTLEY

1. Lead by exampleAs head of the business, set an example – don’t be afraid to take a few hours off to attend a child’s concert or work part-time during school holidays. Modelling a healthy work-life balance shows it is acceptable for everyone.2. Say what you meanIgnoring a flexible work policy

won’t make your business more productive, but keeping staff happy will. 3. ListenTake time to listen to the team about what’s important and what they’d like to change to improve gender equity. Then take action. 4. Build a diversified teamThink carefully about who you

are promoting and why. For example, is there any reason why a manager can’t be part-time?5. Support younger women.Consider providing more work experience opportunities for female university students, offer scholarships, build partnerships with universities, and mentor young entrepreneurs.DETAILS: EOC.SA.GOV.AU

HOW YOUR BUSINESS CAN BOOST EQUALITY

60 BUSINESS DAILY SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3 2016 ADVERTISER.COM.AU

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ERIN JONES

Farmers will start to see some light at the end of the tunnel

W A T T L E R A N G E M AY O R P E T E R G A N D O L F I

don’t have a job. TCO tries toconnect them to businessesthat understand their need forflexibility and are willing towork with it,” Ms Carrocci said.

In SA, listening forumswere undertaken by Bank SA,Finlaysons, KPMG, ParsonsBrinkerhoff, PIRSA, NewsCorp, SA Power Networks andSantos.

Listening forum partici-pants called for leaders to dem-onstrate work practices such astaking flexible leave, imple-

FROM PAGE 59“SA businesses must under-

stand that with an ageingpopulation we will need toraise the participation rates ofwomen in the workforce.

“How we attract and retainmore women and reduce paygaps across all sectors will havea huge impact on growth andour competitiveness in the fu-ture,” Dr Vincent said.

The national pay gap isdown, at 16.2 per cent this year.South Australia’s pay gap is 11per cent.

Founder of consulting firmThe Collective Organisation,Laura Carrocci, runs a recruit-ment service for professionalwomen “sitting outside schoolgates” with no choice but tostep out of the workforce be-cause of inflexibility.

“These are accountants,lawyers, town planners, who

New SE milk plants dairy good news

GEARING UP: Blue Lake Dairy Group's operations director Ryan Zhang with fellow employees. Picture: DYLAN COKER

menting equal representationin decision-making positionsat all levels, introducting cul-ture changes and removingstructural barriers includingnon-inclusive language in sys-tems and policies.

There was also a call to“stop judging performance” onthe basis of “visible” workhours spent in the office andchange the perception that in-dividuals who took parentalleave were not serious abouttheir careers.

TWO new milk processingplants in the state’s South-Easthope to instil confidence andallay financial difficultiesamong the region’s dairy farm-ers by next year.

The Blue Lake DairyGroup, near Millicent, lastmonth produced its first sam-ples of infant milk formula andother speciality powders, aspart of the project’s $15 millionfirst stage.

The company is weeksaway from starting full pro-duction of 20,000 tonnes ofpowder for the internationalmarket each year.

By late 2017, the company

will need to source about 130million litres of milk annuallyto make its own milk-basedpowder, as part of a $50 millioninvestment in stage two.

“We’re a new company whowill be demanding a largequantity of milk in the future,particularly in the secondstage, so we believe being herewill give dairy farmers moreconfidence,” said assistant op-erations director, Sarah Bar-nett. “The reason we chose this

location was that we can seethe Limestone Coast and Wat-tle Range Council area has alot of potential in the dairy in-dustry.”

And Victoria’s MidfieldGroup will have an annual pro-cessing capacity of 220 millionlitres of milk a year once its $70million plant, near Penola,opens in July.

The plant, in a formerMcCains potato factory, willproduce milk powder for the

domestic and internationalmarket.

The South-East invest-ments come at a time the dairyindustry battles devastatingmilk price drops by MurrayGoulburn and Fonterra.

Wattle Range Councilmayor Peter Gandolfi saysmore than 100 long-term jobswill be created and farmers willwelcome the moves.

“I think when Midfields andBlue Lake Dairy start to seekcontracts for milk, farmers willstart to see some light at theend of the tunnel,” he said.

“One of the advantages isthat the milk processing willoccur in the region, which low-ers transport costs.”

TPG eyeing SingaporeINTERNET provider TPGTelecom has made the firstmove towards becomingSingapore’s fourth mobilecommunications operator.

Australia’s second biggestfixed-line internet providerhas submitted the necessaryexpression of interest to takepart in the bidding process formobile spectrum.

Singapore’s Infocomm De-velopment Authority is con-ducting the auction and willannounce the result later thisyear.

“The auction represents anopportunity to establish inno-vative and exciting mobiletelecommunications prod-ucts,” TPG said yesterday.

The move by TPG – led bymedia-shy founder DavidTeoh – could be the first step ina wider regional expansion.

How we attract and retain more women and reduce pay gaps . . . will have a huge impact on growth and our competitiveness N I K I V I N C E N T, E Q U A L O P P O R T U N I T Y C O M M I S S I O N E R

Limbering up for flexibility

Travis Adams, adviser with Baillieu Holst

WOOLWORTHS (WOW) – HOLDWoolworths’ result showed improvement in operating met-rics for food retail but a big offset from the writedowns on Masters. In try-ing to match it with Coles and new entrants in retail staples, financial risks remain to the downside.

Woolworths is likely to be pressured to conduct further asset sales and continue a dilutive dividend reinvestment plan to improve credit metrics.

Earnings changes are mainlydue to the annualising of a

$400m impact from product price reductions and operating expense increases taken in the second half of 2016.

We anticipate sales growthaccelerating through 2017 and into 2018.

$28

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20SEPT 2015 MAR 2016 SEPT 2016

■ Consumer staplesMarket cap: $30.6bn. 12-month price target: $24.50. Year high: $28.03, on 26/10/15. Year low: $20.30, on 6/7/16.

SPEEDCAST INTERNATIONAL (SDA) – BUY

SpeedCast is a leading global provider of satellite-based communication networks and services.

It operatespredominantly with Very Small Aperture Ter-minal (VSAT) networks and has a dominant presence in the Asia-Pacific re-gion. SDA reported first-half 2016 revenue up 41 per cent and underlying EBITDA up 34 per cent on the previous corre-sponding period. SDA contin-ues to win contracts across all sectors and drive synergies

from integrating acquisitions. This will drive strong earnings growth. We believe SDA is goodvalue at current levels, with 20 per cent-plus earnings per share growth forecast over the next few years and a P/E of 14.

$5

4

3SEPT 2015 MAR 2016 SEPT 2016

■ Telecommunications servicesMarket cap: $530m. 12-month price target: $4.85. Year high: $5.19 on 27/10/15. Year low: $3.34, on 28/6/16.

MITULA GROUP (MUA) – BUY

Mitula Group is a vertical search engine com-pany spanning three core mar-kets; automo-tive, real estate, and employ-ment. It oper-ates 51 websites covering 38 countries.

MUA repor-ted its first-half 2016 results with revenue and adjusted EBITDA demon-strating growth rates on the previous corresponding period of 53 per cent and 84 per cent respectively. Cash flow gener-ation and conversion of clicks to sales was strong and sup-

ported a net cash position of $22.2 million, which we expect to be a key enabler of merger and acquisition activity. MUA is trading on a PE of 15.2 with 45 per cent earnings per share growth expected for 2016-17.

$1.20

0.95

0.70SEPT 2015 MAR 2016 SEPT 2016

■ Information technologyMarket cap: $234m. 12-month price target: $1.35. Year high: $1.25, on 26/8/16. Year low: $0.77, on 16/5/16.

■ Any tips given here about companies, their prospects and valuations are gen-eral advice only.For specific advice, please see a financial adviser

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