At Sydney Business Insights, we aim to further informed research and critical thinking on major issues and trends as they impact on the future of business.
At Sydney Business Insights, we aim to further informed research and critical thinking on major issues and trends as they impact on the future of business.
We believe in open and honest access to knowledge. We use a Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivatives licence for our articles and podcasts, so you can republish them for free, online or in print.
We are far from defenceless against the rise of robots, although they'll take many of our routine jobs. Our special strength is our ability to apply rules that don’t exist.
Unlike a car, you can’t just stick a battery-powered engine in a plane and expect it to fly. Despite that, small planes might be the future of electric flight.
Marketing to audiences of a million or more Australians has long been the ambition of many brands.
There is fake news, fake videos (deepfakes) and even cheap fakes.
When is an invention not innovative, how do innovation ‘hubs’ kill the very spark they seek to flame and why women may have the best innovative mindset.
Social media has offered a new weapon to brands, the influencer.
There are plenty of barriers, but if we really want to we can feed the world on plant protein (largely from legumes).
Is FaceApp amassing a database of user-submitted images for political purposes, under the guise of a light-hearted game?
The Australian Competition Consumer Commission (ACCC) released its report into digital platforms and their effect on traditional media, and it’s good news for Google and Facebook.
With 25 per cent of Australian searches now being done via voice, the search battlefield is shifting from typing to talking.
How a black rap artist TikTok’d his way to the top of the country music pops…
The idea of CRISPR as scissors ignores an entire ecosystem of moving parts that are crucial for understanding the awe-inspiring, crazy thing scientists are trying to do when they attempt gene editing.
The Greater Sydney Commission has proposed a 40-year vision of a metropolitan region formed of three “cities”: the Eastern “Harbour” City, the Central “River” City, and the Western “Parkland” City.
One of Facebook’s founders says the company is too big and powerful. Kai Riemer speaks with Kia Handley on ABC Radio Newcastle.
AI is creating digital people – will they (be) like us?
A rigorously applied systematic approach will produce a better decision every time.
“From a customer point of view consolidation is not actually such a bad thing.”
Australia scored a victory over the tobacco giant Philip Morris in the High Court in 2012. The court held that Australia’s plain cigarette packaging laws were legal and did not constitute an unjust confiscation of trademarks and intellectual property.
Your future is not yet written. Here are some ideas currently being tested that aim to put people at the centre of discussions about a better AI future.
Associate Professor Eric Knight, the University of Sydney’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (research enterprise and engagement), explains why disruptive business education models are originating from academics sensing opportunities beyond the classroom.
Each year the Macquarie Dictionary Committee choose a new word that represents the year gone by. Drawn from a short list, the words selected are both innovative and highly topical: so it’s no coincidence we have delved into some of the issues underlying these evolving words.
In 2018 we looked at the future of food from the soil it will grow in to the spectre of a global shortage in just 10 years. So much food for thought.
The thin layer of soil on our planet’s surface ultimately sustains us all, but it’s a finite resource. With a growing global population, perhaps it is time to start looking for alternatives.
Dan Ariely eliminated conflicts of interest in insurance, restored trust, and made money. Banking Royal Commission, take note.
Governments’ lack of response to rising inequality is not a problem of knowledge or public support.
China’s rise as a global power is driving new flows of people, ideas and capital between China and Australia. Australian cities need to adapt to this new geopolitical reality.
If the reward for employee efficiency is job loss – what’s the incentive to improve jobs and organisations? Let’s take a look at Amazon
Is privacy now a luxury only the rich can afford?
Central City 2048 proposes one new rail line, three metro lines and almost 300,000 extra jobs for the new CBD, one of three proposed for metropolitan Sydney. Clearly, the investment needed is massive. Part two in this series by University of Sydney’s Dr Tooran Alizadeh.
The Greater Sydney metropolis is envisaged as having three CBDs by mid-century, but an assessment of the proposed Central City around Parramatta shows how much work is needed to make that a reality.
Humans are poor at remaining vigilant over time. That’s bad news for the safety of partially automated cars, which sometimes need the person behind the wheel to quickly take over control.
Women in investment management face sexist treatment and no accommodation of parenting responsibilities. That’s bad news for a sector critical to all Australians’ economic security.
Virtual museums: indestructible, shareable, the way of the future. Why not?
Scientific ideas can get lost in forests of words that lack structure and overuse complex language. Just like Sleeping Beauty, they need rescuing.
Brazil has set itself a target of restoring almost 50,000 sq km of the Amazon rainforest by 2030. But it won’t get there without changing its policies and how it engages with local people.
Are we heading into a future where workers will have their daily work practices dictated by an algorithm?
When the flat hierarchy workplace philosophy with no bosses turns out to be complete bull.
WeWork declares meat is off the menu at all of its company events.
In the 70s, Whitlam tried to build new, big cities. But this was too costly. Now the most viable solution for Australia’s population woes is to make existing cities bigger.
Celebrating 100 podcasts by Sydney Business Insights.
Personal data is sold, bought and traded among companies all the time. But what if the companies profiting from your data had to pay you a share of that earning?
Having cities of all sizes will increase people’s choices of where to live and work.
Perhaps it’s time we looked at alternatives to the traditional ways in which we incarcerate people.
Experts call for regulation of avatars and artificial intelligence.
People find data difficult to own – and things we don’t own, we tend not to protect.
What crimes are Swedish thieves up to now that the banks are cashless?
We have distilled the arguments for and against UBI into five schools of thought.
Can Google’s new talking AI assistant, Duplex, pass the Turing Test?
By choosing to deal with companies with better data protection policies, Australian consumers can create pressure for change in how personal data is handled across the board.
The old rules do not apply to deep learning artificial intelligence.
