BUSINESS SOUTH-EAST
Innovation reaps cash reward By Casey Neill Five very different Greater Dandenong businesses have been applauded and rewarded for their innovation. Mayor Jim Memeti presented certificates to the recipients of the latest round of Greater Dandenong Business Grants at Dandenong Civic Centre on Tuesday 6 December. Each will receive up to $8000 plus business mentoring and marketing valued at about $2000. SPEE3D is located in Dandenong South and builds 3D printers for production lines. Fortis Adhesives and Coatings in Dandenong South manufactures industrial adhesives and floor coatings while MISCO, also in Dandenong South, fabricates and distributes electrical insulation and switchboard componentry. Not-for-profit, community-based organisation Melba Support Services, in Dandenong, supports people with complex disabilities. In Dandenong South, Freeze Dry Australia is manufacturing freeze-dried treats and meals for pets. Cr Memeti said the grants were designed to promote and strengthen the Greater Dandenong business community, attract investment and stimulate business and employment growth. “We are very fortunate to have such a vibrant and entrepreneurial business community,” he said. “It gives great strength to our city.” He said the council had distributed 12 grants since the program started in 2014. Cr Memeti presented the first grant, which went to Thomas Street, Dandenong, business Young Uncles. “How time flies,” he said, recalling how nervous owners Bert Glinka and Brendan D’Amelio were at the time. They returned for this year’s presentation and shared their story.
Freeze Dry Australia director Daniel Schuetz with Greater Dandenong Mayor Jim Memeti. 162042 Pictures: STEWART CHAMBERS
Melba Support Services innovation and development manager David Glazebrook with Greater Dandenong Mayor Jim Memeti.
SPEE3D managing director Byron Kennedy.
Fortis Adhesives and Coatings managing director Phillip Arena and wife Yiota.
Greater Dandenong Council senior economic development officer Bill Underwood, centre, with inaugural business grant recipients Brendan D’Amelio and Bert Glinka from Young Uncles.
“I’m also a small business owner, and I actually supply your business,” Cr Memeti told them. Mr Glinka said they used their grant to buy a high-quality coffee machine to meet their strategy of selling great coffee. “As a small business owner, it’s great to get a bucket of money,” he said. “We were financially stretched at that time. “I think we fluked it, and we got it right.” The cafe has gone from strength to strength, as has the duo’s smallgoods business that inspired the eatery.
Mr Glinka said they’d just bought a factory in Dandenong to expand their manufacturing arm. “We couldn’t have considered any other spot,” he said. “The support I’ve been getting is second to none.” He said receiving the grant showed the council had confidence in the business. “That confidence has fuelled us to keep going,” he said. “It’s about keeping your head above water, a lot of the time.
“It’s good to know you have that support behind you.” Mr Glinka encouraged the newest recipients to take up opportunities the council would offer, like small business courses and alerts to opportunities. “It can really challenge what you do day to day and change your course for the better,” he said. The Journal will profile each of the successful recipients in the new year.
Go looking for change or it will come looking for you By Casey Neill SEBN is urging Greater Dandenong’s business community to “be the change” next year. Manager Sandra George announced the 2017 theme for the network at the SEBN Christmas industry breakfast at Bunurong Memorial Park in Dandenong South on Thursday 8 December. She said businesses needed to be on the front foot instead of reacting to change or waiting for it. Robert Bosch Australia president and chairman Gavin Smith also spoke about the need for businesses to be proactive. He joined Bosch in 1990, was appointed president in 2011 and was recently added to the Prime Minister’s taskforce on Industry 4.0 and made chair of the Internet of Things Alliance. Mr Smith told the breakfast that business disruption had never been more of a challenge than it was now. He said that through the Internet of Things - everyday objects having network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data - more than 50 billion things would be connected to the internet by 2022. “That creates a world of opportunities but it also creates a world of pain if you don’t understand it,” Mr Smith said. He said businesses needed to connect their factories to the internet to be competitive, and said they would be excluded if they didn’t. “People are in control of this fourth industrial review,” he said. “You are not alone. We are all in the same situation. “We can’t just sit and wait and hope it will get better. “It won’t.” Mr Smith has helped automotive supplier Bosch to overcome disruptive changes to the sector. “Our manufacturing footprint will never be what it was,” he said. “But that’s a good thing.” He said Bosch was now focused on manufacturing items that couldn’t be made elsewhere. “Our business has changed. It had to change,” he said. “If you put smart people to work and employ 30 DANDENONG JOURNAL Monday, 12 December, 2016
Rhiannon Frankas with her dad and MISCO director Henry Abraham.
Robert Bosch Australia president and chairman Gavin Smith answers questions after his guest speaking spot. new technologies you can do the impossible.” Bergent Marketing Intelligence managing partner and director and the Human Truth’s founder John Berenyi said figuring out what people really wanted was the key to good marketing and customer service. “If you don’t understand what people really want you can’t give it to them, and if you can’t give it to them, someone else will,” he said. Mr Berenyi said prospective customers often didn’t tell companies what they wanted because they didn’t want to, they didn’t know how to, or they didn’t know what they wanted. He said it wasn’t about what something was made from or cost. “It’s what it delivers from an emotional perspective,” he said. “McDonald’s is all about socialising, it’s not about hamburgers.”
In his annual update, Greater Dandenong CEO John Bennie said this year’s introduction of rate-capping had left the council with less revenue to do what it needed to do. “It causes us to be more innovative and look at new and different ways of doing things,” he said. He said VicRoads had indicated that the Dandenong Bypass segment to be built between South Gippsland Highway and the Monash Freeway was the region’s next and highest priority. Mr Bennie said he expected work to start in the next 12 to 18 months. He urged businesses to “rise up and support us in our own advocacy”. “The noise of business is very loud, very strong and very important,” he said. “We need to speak up.”
Mirabel golf is in the swing Greater Dandenong businesses will support the Mirabel Foundation through the annual Take a Swing for Charity. The SEBN golf day will take place at the Sandhurst Club in Skye on Monday 21 February, manager Sandra George announced at the business group’s Christmas industry breakfast at Bunurong in Dandenong South on Thursday 8 December. The event has raised more than $300,000 for charities during its history. Mirabel’s Miranda Purchase was thrilled that the foundation was named as the next recipient. It helps more than 1600 children across Victoria and New South Wales who’ve been abandoned due to their parents’ illicit drug use. Ms Purchase told the breakfast that she started with Mirabel as a youth worker 10 years ago. She recalled collecting four children from their grandparents in Greater Dandenong for a respite weekend in Mt Martha. A five-year-old boy started screaming hysterically as she drove but he was nonverbal, so she had no idea what was wrong. His siblings eventually explained that she’d driven past a street he used to live in with his mum and he feared she was returning him. He’d been found locked in a laundry there with another sibling and had been abused. Ms Purchase said four new families were referred to Mirabel each week and received education, respite and more. “We try to break the damaging cycle of drug addiction,” she said. She said a recent social return on investment report found that every $1 invested in Mirabel returned $6.60 to the community. “These kids live in your area,” she said. Visit www.greaterdandenong.com to get involved with the golf day.