AUGUST 2010 issue

COVER STORY

True leaders 2010

Staying power

In our 10th-anniversary year, we nominate the leaders who have endured. Much has changed over a decade but consistency, adaptability and vision never go out of style. View the videoPlus in Change makers we look at some emerging leaders who are agitating to shape a better world for the next decade.

FEATURES

Walking the path

A long-term community collaboration between business and indigenous leaders in Cape York aims to tackle social problems at the source. The results so far are encouraging.

Change makers

Meet eight innovators, inspirers and thinkers who want to shape a different world.

Project Turnaround

The new boss of property group Investa had to find a way to energise the company’s internal talent to navigate an industry crisis.

Off the rails

There are salutary lessons for leaders everywhere in Kevin Rudd's demise. It was a classic case of career derailment – an inevitable fact of organisational life, but not the end of the line.

Simple truths

James Strong, chairman of Woolworths and IAG, and former Qantas CEO, reflects on the value of walking the talk on management style.

Youth v wisdom

Companies are putting younger hands at the top these days. are they sacrificing wisdom in their quest for youthful vigour? Plus Looking back v looking ahead

Rise up

You want what? When it comes to integrating work and family, it’s up to us to take charge of our own lives ...

The real education revolution

If we are to prepare our youth for the workplace of the future, we need to unlearn some popularly held assumptions about the nature of effective schooling.

Power play

When push comes to shove, you need more than logic to overcome obstacles. You need the art of sway.

Editor's note

As we sat down for our leadership roundtable for this month's flagship issue of AFR BOSS, the discussion was very clearly that these times call for something more ...

BOSS REPORT

Steely resolve

BlueScope Steel’s Samantha Knight tells Catherine Fox about keeping the fires stoked in heavy industry.

Billboard buzz

On a SoHo billboard in New York, designer Calvin Klein substitutes the moody yearnings of half-clad jeans models for a giant QR code.

Thinking positive

You wouldn’t know it from the fear-based electioneering but it seems Australians believe we can have our cake and eat a bit of it, too.

Getting a complex

If you have that nagging feeling that business life is becoming increasingly complicated, you’re not alone.

Love drug

We hear all about sappy love in movies, songs and poetry, and in a time when we work longer hours and network closely with our colleagues, it’s a wonder the wheels of commerce go around at all.

Slow burn

That sound you hear is the slow grind of economic machinery as major nations creak under the weight of public debt, now that the second-round effects of the GFC are taking hold.

Guru

AFR BOSS’s a guide to the unwritten laws of the workplace.

Dress code: Bench dress

Our regular look at tribal style and the visual cues in business.

Star formation

Jackie Fairley is CEO of Melbourne-based pharmaceutical nanotechnology company Starpharma. Peter Bartels is the chairman. They spoke to Lucinda Schmidt.

24/7

Where my ideas come from Robert Care

CEO and Chairman of Arup Australasia

Book reviews

How to get ahead without murdering your boss: Six simple steps to actively manage your career | More Money Than God: Hedge funds and the making of a new elite | Cognitive Surplus: creativity and generosity in a connected age

What I’m working on

Kerrie Unsworth, Management and Organisations, University of Western Australia Business School.

iThink, therefore iAm

Early offerings for the iBook in Australia are heavy on the deep thoughts and classic lines.

What's happening

Interesting events this month and beyond.

Journals Jackpot dreams

Work's fading allure, bias in customer surveys, humanising business's aims and reassurance for HR pros. John Toohey scans the journals.

App happy

There are enough travel aides available for download on smartphones to fill a TransPacific flight. Kendall Hill has some thoughts on which ones are worth the time.

Best advice Elizabeth Proust

Nestlé Australia chairman and Perpetual director Elizabeth Proust reflects on attitudes about women over the years.