DRAFT Eligibility

"Showcase" businesses for the "Innovation in the Desert" project must:

  • Have 100 employees or fewer;
  • have been in operation for at least 24 months by the close of entry date on 26 June 2003;
  • have a major office or presence in desert Australia;
  • have the majority of its staff working in desert Australia;
  • derive the majority of its revenue from operations based from or in desert areas;
  • be more than 60% Australian-owned with the owner(s) responsible for making the key management decisions.

Your business will not be eligible if it is:

  • a listed company;
  • more than 50% owned by another business;
  • a club, co-operative or non-profit organisation;
  • majority Government funded or a Government agency; or

Note: The NIAS steering committee suggested that contrary to the Telstra eligibility criteria, businesses which fall into the categories of 1) a franchisee or franchisor or 2) part of a larger group with significant buying power should be eligible for the project.

DRAFT Questions

Question 1: The Business

Q1.1 A brief history of your business

  • how and your the business started;
  • your business location(s);
  • an overview of your market(s), products, and/or services; and
  • how you have developed and grown your business.

Q1.2 The three key factors that have led to your success

What the three factors that have led to your business's success and what influence have they played in the success your business currently enjoys?

Q1.3 Your vision for the future

Please provide snapshot of how your business could be at its full potential.

Question 2: Your Customers

Q2.1 Why do your customers want to deal with your business and how do you differentiate your products and/or services from those of your competitors? In particular, please outline:

  • your business's approach to market segmentation, and to identifying relevant customer expectations and needs;
  • how the results of customer surveys have contributed to improving your business; and
  • what your competitive edge is in the marketplace and how have you achieved it?

Q2.2 How do you attract and retain your customers? In particular, please outline:

  • promotional activities which your business has undertaken;
  • how you respond to enquires, orders and complaints; and
  • how you make it easy for customers to do business with you?

Q2.3 How do you measure customer satisfaction? In particular, please outline:

  • what indirect and direct measures do you use to measure customer satisfaction;
  • your established customer service standards; and
  • what improvements have arisen as a result of any gaps between planned and actual performance levels.

Question 3: Personnel

Q3.1 How do you retain and develop people? In particular, please outline:

  • the values that underpin desirable and acceptable employee behaviour across the various aspects of your business;
  • how you ensure and maintain appropriate skills and competencies of all people across your business, both now and into the future, including leadership and training opportunities; and
  • your approach to ensuring a workplace that is safe and conducive to all employees achieving their best.

Q3.2 How do you recognise and reward people in your business? In particular, please outline:

  • how people's roles and responsibilities are communicated;
  • how the performance of people in their role is measured; and
  • in what ways people are encouraged to contribute to the achievement of your business goals and objectives.

Question 4: Planning

Q4.1 How do you determine the strategic or longer term direction of your business? In particular, please outline:

  • how you determine business direction and what steps you take to ensure plans are in place for achievement of goals and objective;
  • how people within the business are involved in the planning process; and
  • how risks to the business are identified, assessed and managed.

Q4.2 What measures are in place to monitor actual performance against planned performance? In particular, please outline:

  • your actual performance measures;
  • your approach to monitoring and actioning planned performance;
    and
  • how performance is communicated throughout the business?

Q4.3 How do you plan and implement improvements to your business? In particular, please outline:

  • how people are involved in business improvement;
  • how improvement is promoted within your business; and
  • how your business ensures improvements become implemented and standardised.

Question 5: Technology

Q5.1 How have recent changes in technology enabled your business to improve productivity and/or offer new levels or new types of products or services? In particular, please explain:

Q5.2 How do you envisage technology (including information technology and telephony communication) impacting on your business over the next 12 months.

Question 6: Financials

Provide provide the following ratios for your business from 2000/2001 and 2001/2002.

For 2002/2003, provide either year-to-date ratios or full year estimates ratios. Please note that we require ratios only.

You are not required to disclose actual financial data:

  • Profit to Sales (%) - calculated by earnings before interest or tax (EBIT) as a percentage of net sales.
  • Turnover Growth (%) - calculated by net sales increase year-to-year expressed as a percentage.
  • Productivity ($) - calculated as EBIT divided by the total number of days worked (total number of days worked = FTE* x 210 days)
  • Current Ratio (%) - calculated as current assets over current liabilities

FTE or full-time equivalent staff = total casual/part-time hours worked per week ÷ 38 + total full-time employees. (Please include all owner(s)/ proprietor(s)/ director(s)/ partners who are active in the day-to-day running of your business), whether full-time or part-time equiavalent). Please note that full-time equivalent staff (FTE's) provide judges with a common basis for assessing the number of staff involved in generating business activity. NOTE: If applicable, proprietors should add back all salaries and wages prior to calculated profit.

Question 7: How has your business demonstrated desert innovation?

Questions 1-6 are from the Telstra Small Business Awards, entry questions. URL http://www.telstra.com.au/smallbusawards/entry.htm


Question 7 is additional for the 'Innovation in the Desert: Telling the Stories', project. This project is managed by CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in conjunction with Desert Knowledge Australia.