Productivity and effectiveness, not just more resources, are the key levers for improving the Australian public hospital system. The relative performance of private and public hospitals provides further evidence that public hospitals are the major underperforming component of the Australian system.

Online retail in Australia is growing fast. An efficient pricing strategy is key to success in e-commerce and prices need to be managed in a dynamic and flexible approach.

The current approach to biospecimen storage in NSW is ad hoc, compared with collaborative approaches in Victoria and WA, but really requires an Australia-wide approach given the greater utility of larger datasets.  

With strong agricultural outputs returning, improving weather and the emergence of industry restructuring, Australian Agri-Businesses are looking to a period of change and renewal.

Despite the comprehensive NHHRC review little seems to have changed in the health debate. While its goals were laudable, we seem to be sliding inexorably into a consensus that its all about more money, despite evidence that pumping cash into an unreformed system is doomed to fail.

Reforming health is hard, and will only be delivered by thousands of initiatives to drive performance improvement not big ideas or spin. Done right using management tools common in other sectors, this can deliver improved health outcomes with no increase in delivery costs.

Ambition is a condition for business success. Concepts such as 'Stretch' and 'Blue Ocean' push the thinking 'outside the box'. But, how often do these visionary ideas remain visionary? And what unintended risks do they invite? For example companies that trail their ambitious vision set themselves up for a spiral of increasingly risky bets.

We commend the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) for producing a comprehensive review of the issues and options facing the Australian health system. While we support the overarching themes of the report, we would like to provide feedback on selected reform directions. 

Though it takes 5-10 years for manufacturers to start delivering carbon sequestration through reforestation, tree based carbon suppliers are anticipating a surge in demand in the next 12-24 months, following greater clarity over carbon price paths from the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009.

Pacific Strategy Partners assisted The Cancer Council NSW (TCCN) develop a business case to reduce liver cancer via the pilot B Positive Project and a broader Australian intervention. TCCN is funding a pilot program in South-West Sydney that aims to reverse the exponential rise in liver cancer by targeting the prime driver, the incidence of chronic Hepatitis B infection amount Asian-born Australians.

Each year 40,000 lives are cut short and many others are profoundly disrupted by cancer. One in three Australians is likely to be diagnosed with cancer in his or her lifetime. Our discussion paper, Cancer Prevention in Australia - Strategy for 2020, reveals 45% of this $81 billion cancer burden is preventable by addressing just six factors and a further 4% could be avoided by increased screening for common cancers.