Laider challenges 'competition' ethic
BUSINESS and community members from around Yarra Ranges Shire braved the fog for an early morning lesson in the pros and cons of competition.
Best known for his 10 years as a top rating talk back radio presenter, Terry Laidler was a guest speaker at the jointly hosted Shire of Yarra Ranges and Warburton & District Chamber of Commerce business breakfast held at the Alpine Retreat Hotel in Warburton on 25 June.
Mr Laidler has a diverse background in strategic communication, psychology and law which includes a time as a Catholic priest, a government policy analyst and university professor.
Speaking broadly on the topic of the advantages of working collectively in a community Mr Laidler gave three guidelines inspired by the success of 'birds flocking together' in flight.
"Rule one, identify a local group and get to the center of it, rule two, don't bump into others, or any other object, and rule three, keep up!"
"Try and lead your group in a certain direction, or at least keep up," he proffered.
On the topic of competition, Mr Laider said the mistake people in business often make is to believe that all competition is good.
Telstra was just one example, he said, labelling the current government proposal to fully privatise the organisation as ridiculous.
"There is no private company that is going to want to deliver high quality services to the whole of Australia," he said.
"Just because of the fact you can make your money in Telstra just by servicing Melbourne and Sydney."
"When you look at the development of services such as education, health, the national broadcaster, electricity, roads and the original development of our airlines the lesson is that you can do both (private enterprise and government).
"We can do things together while we have a competition market place," he said.
"I reject that you can do all these things only by competition."
