PAUL RAFTERY

Black Swans: Crisis → Opportunity Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic can lead to seemingly impossible financial situations -strong economies have always historically recovered— but these troubled times offer opportunities and challenges that should be confronted head-on, strategically and looking to fortify your company for the future. Here are some finance recommendations for living with Covid -19. 1)       Review your business plan & financial models: As a “Black Swan” event, Covid-19 caught us all by surprise and its financial implications will run for at least three to six months. 2)      If you work in the information economy be aware that mass retrenchment is not the answer: a)          It is very expensive and drains cash immediately b)        People who understand our business are difficult to find and grow c)          We will need those same people to help us rebuild d)         Rebuilding will probably commence in 8 to 10 weeks, so we need to manage cash

CLICK HERE AND LEARN MORE At the time of writing Australia is bunkering down to deal with the inevitable impact of Covid-19. Sunday it was announced that all people entering Australia from overseas would need to go into 14 days compulsory isolation. New Zealand had earlier announced, with the exception of some Pacific Islanders that anyone returning coming from overseas will need to go into 14 days mandatory isolation. South Korea, Italy, France and Spain are in self-isolation with the US blocking flights from the UK and the EU. Effectively each closing the country to the world. This has already occurred in parts of South America. Singapore and Hong Kong are braving the world but unfortunately is not business as usual. Each day we hear of more countries closing their borders to prevent the spread of the disease they feel they cannot control. In Latin America, In the case of El Salvador, this is because it could not afford an outbreak and many of the countries surrounding them

Background The Liberal / National party coalition had been in power, in Australia, since 2013. Tony Abbott’s Views on energy policy cost him his job as Prime Minister in 2015 to Malcolm Turnbull and then caused Turnbull to lose the top job to Scott Morrison in August 2018. Abbott had a very clear vision of Australia remaining a low-cost energy country using the vast reserves of high-quality coal which the country has. Turnbull had almost the opposite view of the world wanting to transform Australia into a new low carbon high-tech economy. Scott Morrison emerged, almost like a character out of the BBC’s Yes Prime Minister, as the compromise candidate who sat in the middle and could heal a party after the philosophical wars between Abbott and Turnbull. The problem is, no decisions have been made since August 2018 despite Morrison receiving an unexpected healthy victory at a national election in May 2019. Yes, he and Minister Angus Taylor have held lots of consultations – but no

AUSTRALIA: SINGED AND SOGGY; BUT NOT SCORCHED AND DROWNING Let´s talk resilience in the time of floods, bushfires, and virus Living in Australia you are not exempt from what happens in the environment. Australia is a vast land, exceeding 7.6 million km²; it is a land of droughts and floods, but also rich, diverse and strong. This year we had unprecedented bushfires and unprecedented floods. Yet we Australians pride ourselves on winning against the odds and adapting to extreme weather. That is who we are; that is what we do. Also, this year the world lives with CorVid-19. There is no need to go into the details of the ramifications and political, economic, social, and human effects this will have on all of us. Yet, we are fortunate because when it is winter in North Asia it is summer in Australia, and as such the life of the virus and a chance of infection is less. Also, we are lucky to have top-notch scientists working on a cure; it was an Institute at the University of M

This morning Richard Carter challenged the participants and his networking event with how would we manage our businesses if we were forced to work from home for two weeks because of the implications of Covid-19. The participants were drawn from small service-based businesses. Remarkably, the group seemed to have all considered this issue to some degree or another yes somehow contingency plans formally written and others had done felt with the issue in recent times having returned from China. It was clear that the majority of people would continue to run the business in much the same way as they do now. As with the Projects RH business today the vast majority of our communication with clients, and prospective clients, as well as strategic alliance partners and service providers is by telephone, email and videoconferencing. By and large only the venue would change. Both Projects RH and Tabatinga, based in Singapore, deal with clients whom we cannot see on a day-to-day basis.