MBS Media coverage

Giving back: What’s in it for you?

Australian Women’s Health , pg 99, 08 March 2010
Dr John Armstrong, philosopher-in-residence at the Melbourne Business School, and author of 'Love, Life, Goethe: How to be Happy in an Imperfect World', says these two kinds of happiness (hedonic pleasures vs a deeper, lasting kind of happiness) are barely comparable.

Rate rise necessary

ABC2 News Breakfast , 03 March 2010
Melbourne Business School’s Prof Paul Kerin joins the program to speak about the RBA rate rise and why it is necessary given inflation forecasts. Kerin says NAB and Westpac may lift rates above the RBA, but not this time.

How can recovery efforts best help teens?

6PR Perth Nightline , 01 March 2010
Jill Klein, Professor of Marketing, Melbourne Business School discusses her research which investigated how aid teams fared in the recovery efforts in Thailand a year after the tsunami disaster. Klein says teenagers were more of a challenge when it came to deciding what they would need.

Employers work hard to attract talent

Australian Financial Review, pg 31, 15 February 2010
The one-size fits all graduate development program is no longer enough. For the past two years BHP Billiton has won the gong for best graduate development program in the AAGE awards. BHP’s two-year program was custom built for the mining giant with input from experts at Mt Eliza Executive Education at the University of Melbourne’s business school.

Net promotion score set to take off

Investment and Technology , pg 37, 12 February 2010
As Mark Ritson sat in the first annual net promoter score session at Melbourne Business School last October he has one overriding thought: this is one of the year’s highlights.

Something for the weekend

FT.com, 12 February 2010
Everyone it seems is loyal to their hairdresser. Research by Melbourne academics has found that women are faithful to a particular stylist and when a stylist leaves a salon their customers are also likely to vote with their feet and go elsewhere. “Keep hold of your good staff and you are far more likely to prevent the customers you can’t afford to lose, from defecting,” says Lester Johnson, professor of marketing at Melbourne Business School Read the full article.

Invest in retaining staff to prevent loyal customers defecting when their favourite worker leaves

HR Magazine (UK), 11 February 2010
When one staff member leaves a company in the service industry, it can suffer a 30% drop in customers, according to new research from Melbourne Business School. Read the full article.

Where will blue chips be in 10 years?

Australian Financial Review, pg 30, 10 February 2010
A company with a strong culture has the greatest chance of reinventing itself to sustain a competitive advantage and can overcome the clumsiness of its large size, points out professor of strategy at Melbourne Business School Paul Kerin.

A golden opportunity for developing countries

University World News, 07 February 2010
"A professor from the Melbourne Business School in Australia has proposed an innovative plan to create a multi-billion dollar fund to provide financial assistance for carbon reduction initiatives in developing countries. Professor Gary Sampson has touted the plan as a positive version of "creative accounting", because it exploits the difference between the International Monetary Fund book value for gold and what can be earned by selling this precious metal on global commodity markets." Read the full article.

How Creative M.B.A. Programs are Overcoming Bad Times

Forbes.com, 05 February 2010
A few imaginative winners stand out in a tough season for business schools, writes Matt Symonds for Forbes.com Read the full article.

Salon customers who are a cut above the rest

Australian Financial Review, pg 50, 02 February 2010
Owners and managers of hairdressing salons should keep their best workers happy and introduce their clients to other hairdressers in the salon if the want to avoid losing profitable customers. The strategy was suggested by Lester Johnson from Melbourne Business School who, with Liliana Bove from the University of Mellbourne, recently published the results of research on what drives customer loyalty and how to keep profitable clients.

Time to drive the carbon cowboys out of town

Vivienne Groves, The Age - Business Day, pg 8, 28 January 2010
Green bags - are they effective in helping to reduce our landfills, or are they simply a ''get out of jail free card''? CITE researcher Vivienne Groves investigates. Read the full article.

Life after the degree

BRW, pg 30, 21 January 2010
MBS’s annual alumni dinner attracts 500-700 people, and its women-in-management dinner is one of the best attended in the country. The school also has weekly events for students that are open to alumni, covering topics such as marketing and leadership tips from top-notch chief executives. Last year’s speakers included Westpac Banking Corporation's Gail Kelly and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s Mike Smith.

Investors frankly deserve more credit

Paul Kerin, The Australian, pg 19, 19 January 2010
Many companies don't distribute franking credits as fully and/or as quickly as they could. With few exceptions, this costs shareholders. The way we evaluate/reward boards and chief executives is to blame: it distorts incentives against distributions, writes MBS Professor Paul Kerin. Read the full article.

It's Ok to be wealthy - the trick is to also be worthy

John Armstrong, Australian Financial Review, pg 55, 18 January 2010
John Armstrong, MBS Philosopher-in-residence compares senior executives to electricians when it comes to providing good value for money and questions whether it is morally acceptable for some people to have so much more money than others irrespective of the legitimacy and reasonableness of the process by which that wealth was acquired. Read the full article.

Confidence makes a difference

ABC News Breakfast, 07 January 2010
Melbourne Business School's Paul Kerin talks about the release of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ November retail data. Kerin notes that retailers had a good Christmas this year because of an increased consumer confidence. He says that confidence makes a big difference despite no stimulus money this year.

Experts take stab at future trends

Sunday Territorian , pg 18, 03 January 2010
Melbourne Business School’s Paul Kerin was one of four economists asked to take a stab at what the future holds in 2010. Professor Kerin thinks interest rates will rise to between 5.5 per cent and 5.75 per cent. "We will move away from the emergency level of interest rates as the economy rises," he said.

Gold gains can finance the carbon pollution fix

Gary Sampson, Australian Financial Review, pg 47, 21 December 2009
Bullion provides a ready source of funds to break the Copenhagen impasse, writes Gary Sampson Read the full article.

Christmas Spending

ABC 612 Brisbane , 07 December 2009
Melbourne Business School’s Dr Jody Evans notes that people are being cautious this Christmas but also that they are looking for a feel good factor by spending after interest rate rises and the global financial crisis. Evans discusses how sales and discounts can drive shoppers, and examines the strategies of retailers.

Mortgage switch no help in punishing banks

SMH, pg 3, 05 December 2009
Professor Joshua Gans, of Melbourne Business School suggests that an ideal for customers looking to switch home loan providers would be by accessing an online platform. Customers would be able to simply log onto a website and switch, the way they can for mobile phone providers.