Our corporate social responsibility has begun

A very humbling experience recently. With colleague Matthew Lang, I volunteered at the Loaves and Fishes Restaurant in Ashfield, which is part of the Exodus Foundation.



The Exodus Foundation's primary mission is to meet the immediate material, emotional and spiritual needs of disadvantaged and marginalised people. And let me tell you, the people we saw were definitely very disadvantaged… It really makes you appreciate what you have and your priorities in life.


Matthew and I were involved in serving a hot meal to over 250 people. Many of them were migrants obviously struggling with the challenges of day to day life and seeking whatever assistance Australian society would provide. We met the volunteers who are there every Thursday and assist the restaurant operate and give food to the poor. These are amazing people that simply "want to give back".

It is amazingly honourable and courageous to volunteer every week. I would certainly struggle to do it weekly, so admire the people that are able to do that. One of the volunteers is an accountant that has his own practice and has been volunteering for the past 10 years… (amazing – wow!)

Here the people are lining up and beginning to find their seats. People come in groups but really keep to themselves. And although it is very difficult, a lot seem to have their dignity, which is very difficult under the circumstances.



All in all, an amazing experience, and one I will never forget.


This is another step in Unique World’s Community Service policy. For some time, we’ve been supporting a number of charities with donations, but I wanted to encourage our staff to be able to “give back” in a more practical way.


I’d like all Sydney staff to have the experience of volunteering at the Loaves and Fishes Restaurant to see what this is like. We will find something similar for Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane staff so that they too can contribute and "give back".


For more about Unique World’s Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

What a month!

Not one, not two but THREE fantastic awards have come the way of Unique World in recent weeks, and we're over the moon.

It's always pleasing to be recognised for good work, but the most significant aspect of these awards is that they cover all aspects of our business; technical capabilities, business management and HR, and they all recognise our commitment to a collaborative culture.

The most exciting was global recognition for our work in Portals and Collaboration, a huge achievement. Unique World was awarded the 2011 Microsoft Portals and Collaboration Partner of the Year Award for its work with Telstra’s Enterprise Collaboration and Knowledge Management Portal, a collaboration platform providing end-to-end knowledge management across all core business processes.  I’d like to acknowledge Jason Sharpe and the team at Telstra Enterprise and Government for their faith in Unique World, and their vision in wholeheartedly adopting a collaborative approach to business transformation.

The other global award recognised our achievements in implementing Open-Book Management.  Unique World is the first non-US company to win an All-Star Award in the Great Game of Business (GGOB).

The GGOB and Open Book Management give our staff full visibility and understanding of all economic aspects of the business. All the numbers are shared, and everyone can see exactly how they’re tracking on the staff bonus scheme.  It’s required an enormous amount of effort by all staff to change our culture and to educate and drive awareness around the whole organisation about what we can achieve.

The whole idea of Open-Book Management really fits the collaborative, inclusive culture of Unique World, but even so, I’ve been astounded at our success in such a short period of time.

Finally, in our first year in the survey, we were thrilled to be included in the BRW Top50 Great Places to Work.  At Unique World, we’re not about perks or gimmicks for staff, we’re about creating a culture of involvement and collaboration. Part of this is our commitment to Open-Book Management.  We’ve almost doubled our staff in the last 12 months, and I think our ability to attract great staff due in large part to our collaborative and supportive culture.  

Of course, awards aren’t everything, but they have certainly caused a great buzz around Unique World.  I’m so pleased our hard work has been recognised, but we won’t be resting on our laurels.  We’ve set the bar high, and these awards will give us something to beat in 2012!

Transformative Power of Open Book Management

I’m just back from a very inspiring and exciting trip to the US where I accepted an All-Star Award recognising Unique World’s achievements in implementing the Open-Book Management system of the Great Game of Business.

A highlight of the trip was the opportunity to visit other companies, and to share experiences with playing the GGOB. It was encouraging to see that Unique World is up with the best in terms of some aspects of the Game , but I was also able to learn from how others are really good expense forecasting and mini-games, both of which I am planning in implementing over the next 12 months.

I was interviewed on internet radio (the CEO Hour) while I was in St Louis. You can listen to the interview online. I was very happy to talk about our experiences, and to encourage others to consider Open-Book Management.

Open-Book really is an amazing system. It has revolutionised our business and with it our culture. It has transformed Unique World and delivered some outstanding results.”
This Award is recognition for a lot of hard work over the last 15 months since we started to play operating open book management principles. It’s required an enormous amount of effort by all staff to change our culture and to educate and drive awareness around the whole organisation about what we can achieve.

The GGOB and Open Book Management give our staff full visibility and understanding of all economic aspects of the business. All the numbers are shared, and everyone can see exactly how they’re tracking on the staff bonus scheme. We teach all staff to act and feel like business owners.
Everyone takes responsibility for forecasting revenue, and our consultants have become very good at that. We’re now achieving results each month within 1% of forecast. That’s a phenomenal achievement and a huge benefit for the company.

The whole idea of Open-Book Management really fits the collaborative, inclusive culture of Unique World, but even so, I’ve been astounded at our success in such a short period of time. It’s evidence of the commitment of all Unique Worlders to achieving great results for our clients and for our company.

IT Fund for Kids

Unique World is looking forward to hosting staff and customers to the annual IT Fund for Kids dinners in Sydney and Melbourne this month.

Billed as the “ICT industry event of the year” these dinners are a great opportunity for the IT industry to “put back” and help kids.

The Fund was established in 2000 as a national fundraising initiative supported by Australia’s ICT community. Proceeds from employees and their organisations fund programs to improve the quality of life of children living with serious illness or disability. In the past 10 years the ICT industry has raised over $2.5 million for the Fund.

It should be a great night with corporate teams competing in a series of team brain teasers to ascertain which company is the ultimate Know IT All. It will also be a celebration of the ICT industry’s 10 year commitment to helping seriously ill, disabled and autistic children.

I’m proud that Unique World is again supporting this very worthwhile event.

If you would like to support the Fund, or attend the dinner in Melbourne (23 September) or Sydney (30 September), click on this link.

Social networking key to recruiting professionals?

$2,000 staff bonus to recruit 18 professionals in tightening labour market.

Unique World has had a great start to the new financial year (2010/11), and with the hung parliament hiatus now resolved, I’m looking forward to a great year.

As a result of recent success, we’re looking for as many as 18 new, talented professionals to work on Information Management and Knowledge Management projects with high profile clients.

With the labour market tightening, we’ve decided to focus on social networks to find these new professionals. Instead of paying recruiters, we’re enlisting the help of our staff, offering a $2,000 incentive if they help locate new hires.

I know our staff are the best reference we have, and they’re a great resource to get the message out. If they tell people what a great place Unique World is to work, it’s a much more powerful recommendation than any corporate spiel.

As these projects grow, we expect to be looking at more jobs in the near future. We’ll continue to use social networks to find them, if this exercise proves to be a success.

Check out the details - http://tiny.cc/uwhiring

If you are keen to join an exciting company with enormous growth potential, apply now and join us.

Ready to play the Game

Check out the Great Game of Business - www.ggob.com it looks like an awesome initiative for any organisation. The book is excellent with some very relevant and important areas to any company.

If you do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten!

The title of this posting has never been true then in recent times. We have had people in roles where we simply replaced them in the roles and expected a better result. After trying this 2 times and failing I think it became apparent that it wasn't necessarily the person but the role and the structure. It was almost like the structure never allowed for its success.
So thinking about this concept I am applying it to many parts of the business. So it will be interesting as to how things go over the next 2-3 years and whether the decisions made now will reap success.

You have to try new things in different ways. Keeping on doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result is probably insanity. Although its not obvious at first.