Geographic markets in which businesses sold goods or services

Just over eight in every ten businesses sold goods or services within the Local area. Although in total, 9% of businesses sold their goods or services to Overseas markets (representing approximately 63,000 businesses), half of these businesses (approximately 30,000) employed 0-4 persons.

By industry, businesses in Mining were more likely to have sold goods or services to Overseas markets (26%), while those in Construction were lowest (2%).

Market share of businesses

The majority of businesses (64%) reported their market share as being Less than 10%. Businesses with 0-4 persons employed had the highest proportion of businesses reporting Less than 10% of market share (72%), as opposed to 36% of businesses with 200 or more employees.

At the industry level, 80% of businesses in Financial and Insurance Services reported having Less than 10% of market share. Businesses in Accommodation and Food Services were most likely to report a market share Greater than or equal to 10% and less than or equal to 50%. Market share of Greater than 50% ranged from 4% for Construction to 18% for businesses in Transport, Postal and Warehousing.

Main source of business income

Just under half of all businesses reported the Australian General public as their main source of income, with Small and/or medium businesses or organisations within Australia as the second highest source of income (38%). Businesses in the 200 or more person employment group reported their main source of income being from Large businesses or organisations (44%).

Businesses in the Accommodation and Food Services industry were most likely to report the Australian General public as their main source of income (86%). Overall, 2% of businesses reported Overseas sources as their main source of income. This was most prevalent for businesses in Mining (13%).

Reliance on clients, customers and buyers

Just under half of all businesses reported a reliance on a small number of clients, customers or buyers to generate a significant proportion of their income, with the proportion decreasing with each successive employment size range.

Of the businesses that reported relying on a small number of clients, customers or buyers, 44% indicated there would be a Moderate to large impact on business income if one of these clients was lost. An Extremely large impact was reported by 14% of businesses.

At the industry level, businesses in Construction were most likely to rely on a small number of clients, customers or buyers to generate a significant proportion of their income. Of these, 49% reported that they would have experienced Little or no impact on income if they lost one of those clients. Businesses within the Administrative and Support Services; and Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services industries were the most likely to experience an Extremely large impact on their income in the event of losing one of these clients.

The prospect of losing one of these clients would be more likely to have a Moderate to large impact on innovation-active businesses (50%) than non innovation-active businesses (40%).

Number of competitors

Almost three quarters of businesses reported having three or more competitors. No effective competition was reported by 14% of all businesses and was most prevalent in businesses with 0-4 persons employed, at 18%, twice the proportion of large businesses.

Three or more competitors was the most common selection by businesses across all industries, ranging from 56% of businesses in Transport, Postal and Warehousing to 82% of businesses in Wholesale Trade. Businesses in the Manufacturing industry were most likely to report having One or two competitors (20%), compared to 6% of businesses in Financial and Insurance Services.

Non innovation-active businesses were more than twice as likely than innovation-active businesses to have operated in an environment with no effective competition.

Nature and size of competitors

Just over six in every ten businesses with at least one competitor, reported their competitors as being both Similar in nature to the business and About the same size as the business. This combination of nature and size was the most commonly reported, followed by competitors Similar in nature and Larger than the business (52%) and competitors Different in nature to the business and Larger than the selected business (33%).

Similar in nature to the business and about the same size as the business was reported by 70% of businesses in the Accommodation and Food Services industry, the highest among all industries.

The survey covered three areas, namely: foreign ownership, franchising agreements and collaborative agreements.

In terms of foreign ownership, the study found that regardless of the employment size group, the majority of businesses reported being Wholly Australian owned. Proportions ranged from 72% for businesses with 200 or more persons employed to 98% for businesses with 0-4 persons employed.

The Mining industry recorded the highest proportion of businesses with Greater than 50% foreign ownership, followed by Wholesale Trade at 9%.

Innovation-active businesses were almost twice as likely as non innovation-active businesses to have some degree of foreign ownership. For example, in the Information Media and Telecommunications industry, 12% of innovation-active businesses had some percentage of foreign ownership compared to 6% for non innovation-active businesses.
and/or provision of multiple responses, refer to Explanatory Notes 17-19.

With regard to franchising agreements, 5% of businesses surveyed responded as having involvement in a franchising agreement.

Businesses with 20-199 persons employed were the most likely to be a Franchisee (10%). The proportion of businesses operating as a Franchisor was highest for businesses with 200 or more persons employed (4%), compared to rates around 1% for businesses within the other employment size ranges.

The industries with the highest proportion of Franchisees were Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services along with Retail Trade, both of which were the only industries to record proportions above 10%.

The proportion of businesses reporting any type of collaborative arrangement increased with each successive employment size range. Joint marketing or distribution was the most prevalent, with 5% of all businesses indicating this type of arrangement.

At the industry level, the highest proportion of businesses with any collaborative arrangements was Mining at 19%. By contrast, the Construction industry reported the lowest proportion of businesses involved in any collaborative arrangements at 4%. More than half of all industries reported rates of involvement in collaborative arrangements of 10% or more.

Innovation-active businesses, at 16%, were more than twice as likely to be involved in some type of collaborative arrangements than non innovation-active businesses (6%).

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has recently released its third series of Business Characteristics Survey (BCS).

The BCS is an annual survey on the following topics: business structure, business performance, business use of information technology, business innovation, business finance, business markets and competition, and barriers to business activities or performance.

The ABS uses an economic statistics units model to describe the characteristics of businesses, and the structural relationships between related businesses.

The sample design for this survey covers collection of data based on a random sample of approximately 9,700 businesses using a mail out questionnaire. The sample was stratified by industry and an employment based size indicator.

According to ABS, all businesses on the ABS Business Register identified as having 200 or more employees were included in the sample. The reference period for most of the business characteristics items included in the 2006-07 BCS is the year ended 30 June 2007 with financial data relating to the most recent financial year ended on or before 30 September 2007.

We will present in the following series of pages of 8 parts summary information of the BCS.

The series are Business Structure and Arrangements, Business Markets and Competition, Business Finance, Business Use of Information Technology, Business Innovation and Barriers to Business Activities or Performance.

We checked the pages of those who participated in the McAfee exercises, and we noted the amount of spams their mailboxes have collected.

We don’t know how these guys did it, but from what we read in their blogs, one guy has reported receiving something like 694 emails in one day!  See http://www.mcafeespamexperiment.com/au/?p=70

Our own experiment did not yield the kind of outcome we were hoping to achieve. We know that there is so much spamming going around. It is possible that we took a different route. Or, perhaps - knowing our own objective - we were only too extra careful that we were already filtering out the websites we were visiting and submitting our email address to.

So far, after four months, we had  received only one spam in the new mailbox we opened specifically for that purpose. Not that we want to receive spam in our mailbox, but we thought we close this matter with this report. #

PM Kevin Rudd in his opening address to 2020 Summit participants 19 April 2008

The initial report of the 2020 Summit held over the last weekend, 19-20 April, is now available for download at the 2020 website.

It is a 39-page report, but it is easy reading. Written in “plain English”, the report also contains some very interesting ideas.

One part of the report we like best is that of “Shared Priorities” which in a way provides the common thread among and across the ten streams or agenda set out for the Summit.

There are four key issues that find common grounds among the ten discussion groups. These are: dealing with a climate change, the need for a consistent national approach particularly in economic policy, the push for a national strategy that will best use the skills and ingenuity of Australians, and the need to strengthen civil society ie, the urgency of redressing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage.

That these issues would come out as top priorities was perhaps expected. But what we found interesting is the report’s candor.

For example, we find these paragraphs interestingly simple that nothing was really left to the imagination:

“It is striking how often through the Summit concern arose that Australia has not been sufficiently clever in using the skills and ingenuity of our people. Early childhood services and education are obvious starting points for building capacity, but many argued a broader case for investment in a healthy population with access to necessary social support.

“For a number of streams, this focus on developing our human capital led to wider issues – migration, skills shortages, participation of women, access to child care, family leave, support for disabilities. One strongly held view was the need to enhance creativity and innovation in our communities. People find meaning in their lives through expression, and our nation benefits from innovation. These can happen spontaneously, but many argue for an education system which encourages and trains for creativity, a community willing to accept risk and failure in pursuit of the new, and governments rethinking how and why they support creative Australia.”

We could be mistaken. But somehow, we thought for awhile we were reading a similar report about the Philippines circa 1970s where priorities were set out inappropriately.

The 2020 report is a “must read” especially to businesses and to community leaders. #

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in opening address to Summit participants. Photo courtesy of the Australian Government, Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. URL: www.australia2020.gov.au

*** Posted at TheFilipinoAustralian.com, 23 April 2008

But unlike the McAfee experiment, I will not be using a clean laptop without spam protection. What I will do instead is to monitor the spam emails that I would receive in my new email address, and will report the results. I will keep logs of my usage of my new email address as well as details of site and their promotion offers.

Whether or not the spam emails I will receive have been correctly identified by my email service provider as spams will also indicate the effectiveness of my email service provider in filtering out spam emails and the sites who are parties to spam as well as their spam-related activities.

The McAfee’s S.P.A.M (acronym for Spammed Persistently All Month) will run for the whole month of April with participants from around the world - ranging from homemakers, government executives, and students to retirees - who will surf the web, make online purchases and register for promotions.

The participants, as reported by CNN, had been been provided with a clean laptop without spam protection and a new email address. The participants will blog about their experiences daily at http://www.mcafee.com/spamexperiment.

The experiment is to prove the link between spam and cybercrime and to show the devastating effects of spam.

S.P.A.M. Experiment participants are from ten countries spanning the globe, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

McAfee McAfee, Inc. is based in California and is the world’s largest dedicated security technology company.