News Archive

The Business School hosted many high profile events in the first half of the year including the Women in Management Dinner with Leanne Preston, CEO Wild Child, as well as public lectures presented by Professor Vernon Smith, 2008 Alcoa Visiting Professor,  Robert Elstone, Managing Director and CEO of the Australian Stock Exchange, Professor Steven Zeff, the Herbert S Autrey Professor of Accounting at Rice University in Houston, and Professor Dan Druckman, the Vernon M and Minnie I Lynch Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.   The Mining and Energy Seminar held in June attracted a high calibre of people from around Australia.

A Candid Conversation with a ‘Wild Child'

‘Addressing injustice, living intensely and having a point of difference' were some of the insightful areas discussed in a one-on-one conversation with Wild Child CEO and Managing Director, Ms Leanne Preston at the Women in Management dinner.

Presented by the Business School along with partners Ernst and Young, more than 120 people gathered to celebrate, listen and learn of the inspirational success of Leanne and Wild Child - a company born from the discovery of having only a toxic poison as the way to eradicate head lice from her daughter's scalp.

Esteemed former journalist and business woman, Valerie Davies, discussed Leanne's historic journey from an unemployed single mother of three, to the evolution of her international business empire.

Starting the business from her home in Margaret River, Leanne explained how she now can't live without the intensity that Wild Child has brought into her life.

"Extending yourself beyond your fears and doubts is important for success.  I know that I can stand on my own with hard work and common sense and pushing myself beyond my comfort zone," Leanne said.

Leanne stresses the importance of ‘hard work' in achieving success.  "It is all about working hard.  You need to be determined.  In the early days I invited some key business people to join our board with skills I knew I didn't have - it is about being people smart."

Regarding starting a successful business, Leanne stressed the need of ‘knowing your market' and doing the necessary background research.  "I learnt early that if you don't have a point of difference don't even bother unpacking your suitcase.  And plan - if we didn't plan we would have made more mistakes."

Dean of the Business School, Tracey Horton, closed the dinner with a tribute to yet another example of the Business School's commitment to building strong business partnerships and events to ensure women support, encourage and learn from each other.

"We are proud to be working with one of the Business School's first corporate partners, Ernst and Young, to make these inspiring events happen," Tracey said.

Ernst and Young Partner, Heidi Riddell, said that Ernst and Young encourage their people to take control of their careers and make the most of their opportunities to succeed personally and professionally.  "This is achieved by providing challenging and quality work experiences.  It is also about building technical and management skills and providing flexible work arrangements and opportunities," said Heidi.

The UWA Business School and Ernst and Young took the opportunity to recognise retiring business woman and leader, Emeritus Professor Leonie Still.  Professor Still, renowned author, researcher and former Director of the Centre for Women in Business, was celebrated for more than three decades of contribution and career achievements in understanding, promoting and being a driving force behind advancing women in management.

"Leonie's long term passion for helping women, in both management and small business, has resulted in her great contribution on both a personal and professional level," Tracey said.

"Her hard work and efforts have certainly helped in advancing the Business School's vision of the role of women in management," Tracey added.

Public Lectures

Professor Vernon Smith visited the Business School as the 2008 Alcoa Visiting Professor.  He delivered a public lecture titled "How to spend a thousand to avoid losing millions: Experimenting with markets, policies and institutions", on Monday, 17th March 2008. The lecture attracted about 280 staff and students from UWA, representatives from government departments, companies and the general public.

Professor Smith also spoke at a Business Leaders' Lunch, on 17 March 2008, which was attended by about 50 senior executives from a range of public and private sectors.  He spoke on the value of fundamental research for public policy.

Robert Elstone , Managing Director and CEO of the Australian Stock Exchange, delivered a very successful public lecture as part of the "View from the Top" Lecture Series.  He spoke on "What Does the Future Hold?  Implications of Australia's Capital Markets and Financial Economy", on Tuesday, 25th March 2008.  The lecture attracted an audience of nearly 200.  The talk was followed by a private lunch attended by some members of the Business School Board and Fundraising Committee.

Professor Steve Zeff , the Herbert S Autrey Professor of Accounting at Rice University in Houston, delivered the 2008 Bateman Lecture.  Professor Zeff holds several awards awarded to him in recognition of his contributions to the accounting field.  These include the 1999 Outstanding International Accounting Educator by the international Accounting section of the American Accounting Association.  He was also inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame at Ohio State University in 2002 and is winner of several teaching awards at his own institution.  In addition to the public lecture, Steve also presented to members of the corporate and public sectors at the Bateman Breakfast, and met with several research students during his stay at UWA.  This is Professor Zeff's third visit to UWA.

In June the School also hosted the visit of Professor Dan Druckman who is here as the 2008 Alcoa Visiting Professor. He is currently the Vernon M and Minnie I Lynch Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.  Professor Druckman presented a lecture on "Intuition or Counter-Intuition?: The Science Behind the Art of Negotiation."  Findings from experiments and case studies were used to inform the practice of negotiating.  Some prescriptions on negotiation from research included:

• Discourage quick agreements by avoiding rapid concession exchanges.
• If an optimal or integrative solution/outcome is easy to discover, avoid exchanging "too much" information.  In-depth probes may reveal incompatible interests that escalate the conflict.
• Time the display of tough and soft tactics, sequencing them by presenting firm postures early, softer postures later.
• Do not use your experience or acquired skills to secure a better agreement only for yourself; use the skills to engage in log rolling and other tactics that can secure improved outcomes for all the negotiating parties.
• Negotiators generally want to settle; they also tend to approach negotiation as competitors.  A challenge is to avoid both temptations.
• Orchestrate the negotiating situation for flexibility by insulating the talks from media coverage, avoiding ideological debates, and reducing accountability to constituencies or other parties with vested interests in the outcome.
• Avoid embarrassing your opponent.  Allow them to take risks, be inventive, and give them room for flexibility.
• For third parties: Suggest compromises early to establish a reputation for fairness, but discourage actually making compromises in favor of an information exchange.
• Impasses can be useful.  When progress is stalled, take a time out to re-think the issues. Then return to the talks with new ideas that can turn the negotiations around, toward agreements.

Mining and Energy Seminar

The seminar on Mining and Energy supported by UWA Business School attracted more than 40 people from universities in WA, as well as RBA, DOIR, DTF, BHP, Rio Tinto, and SVT Engineering Consultants. There were two young researchers from ANU and the Monash University who were sponsored by FIRN.

The papers presented cover the topics of steel making cost, the usefulness of accounting data about extractive industry operations, the impact of corporate governance compliance on mining IPOs, cross-country comparisons of energy and emissions intensities, and the exchange rates and commodity currencies. The seminar provided researchers an opportunity to discuss their research and receive feedback.

Papers from this seminar are available on the Business School website at: https://www.business.uwa.edu.au/research/conferences