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The details on Australian companies, which are adopting information technology tools to boost business success, are presented.

The details on business success of chief executive officers of companies such as Medtamic, who adopted strategic planning, are presented.

The likely trends in the consumer electronics and information technology industry in 2006 are discussed. These industries are bringing changes in workplaces with their gadgets and iPods. Business enterprises in Australia are now adopting new technologies to retain younger staff that is well-versed in these technologies.

An overview on the growth of top 10 best Australian companies such as Ethan Group, which made to Business Review Weekly Fast 100 list in 2005, is presented.

The advantages of mobile devices for sales executives of small and medium-size enterprises are examined.

Business enterprises often confront situations where they have to take tough decisions, which, if not taken could mean the death of the organization. Such tough decisions call for compromise in ethical values but are still inevitable.

The consequences of running a Lake House restaurant together by a couple, Allan and Alla Wolf-Tasker, are described. The strengthening of the emotional bond is suggested to be one of these consequences.

Frequent business travelers face big challenges when it comes to maintaining a work life balance. It is suggested that visiting a hotel gym or turning towards sports related activity such as mountain track could avoid stress related to travel.

The opinions of chief executive Geoff Garrett on $14.7 million revenue deficit for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, and managerial issues, are presented.

A profile of the Australian company InvoCare is presented with details about its security ratings in the stock market. The company's business strategies of buying funeral parlours around the country is attracting wide criticism.

The personalities of Peter Fogarty of smartcard company ERG and Sam Chisholm of Foxtel, who escaped death and bounced back to do their businesses, are examined.

The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) principles of good governance have raised the demand for good internal audit services from many companies. The conflict of interest around internal and external audit is also benefiting many mid-tier auditing firms.

Women are joining the profession in record numbers and demanding an end to the inflexible culture that has held them back. Accordingly, female partners are arguing for some radical changes, such as child care at work, a bus to take children to and from school, child care or after-school activities, and home help for cooking and cleaning.

An extended break from work could revive a flagging career, or even inspire one to get into a new one. Career break and sabbatical can both change an overriding need to rediscover the person who is not consumed to work.

Mid-tier accounting firms are becoming more specialized by spending more time talking to clients and cutting compliance costs. They are facing difficulty in communicating their range of services, brand names and convincing clients about their competitive expertise.

The key criteria for achieving efficiency, productivity and profit are revealed by the top accounting firms. The financial planning of the most productive firms contributed to only 1.8 percent of the revenue when compared to a 4.9 percent average for all firms and 9 percent to the 10 least productive firms.

The details on finance and insurance sectors, which are adopting information technology tools in order to enhance business performance and customer base, are presented.

The chief information officers (CIO) have to work harder and longer as the companies increase their investment in technology to refresh their systems. Rising expectations make the job of CIO's tough.

Small companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange are of the opinion that the new corporate governance rules being imposed post Enron and HIH insurance instances are likely to consume resources like time, money and entrepreneurial skills and will in effect be expensive to implement.

Focusing on customers and entering new markets carefully, new breed of leaders have successfully countered the technology melt and lead the technology companies to rise from the ashes.

Most of the accounting firms in Australia attribute their success to the information technology that they have incorporated in their businesses. From providing services to customers to virtually everything, every aspect of their business is technology driven. One criticism these firms face is their slow usage of technology. The different reasons firms cite and various technological innovations they have incorporated are discussed.

The image of a brand depends equally on the content and language of the its written document. Lawyers across Australia are now helping companies to communicate to customers in an easy to understand language. This in turn will reduce complains from customers, the cost of paying staff to answer back customer queries and increase staff productivity when documents are written clearly.

The management styles of Ernst & Young's chief executive, Brian Schwartz, and chief executive-elect, James Millar, are evaluated. The corporate governance struggles and sensitivities faced by the company under Schwartz's management, and the experiences thus gained to help in reinventing the strategies to be adopted by Miller are discussed.

The big four accounting firms-Pricewater-houseCoopers(PwC), KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte are determined to raise capital by listing on the Australian Stock Exchange. The firms are doing this by increasing resources in their corporate finance divisions to compete against investment banks and act as advisers in the transactions.

Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will use a provision of tax act to force the professional accounting bodies to provide full details of their membership databases. The main targets of the ATO are the accountants who have worked outside the taxation system.

Accounting software development firms, Solution 6 and Advance Professional Solutions (APS) are competing each other to get a major share of the market. According to Brain Armstrong, chief executive of APS, Solution 6 is engaged in concerted effort to drive out their competitors by slashing prices.

Stockford's idea of successful companies having a strong internal culture and core ideology along with long-term ambitious aims and strong non-financial values are described. But Stockford has none of these principles and it never established a 'people first' motto, which is important for a successful company.

Giam Swiegers, the chief executive of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu undertakes many challenges, as his company is the smallest of AustraliaEs Big four accounting firms. Swiegers has many ideas about how to expand the company by improving the performance of Deloitte's partners and accounting professionals.

Accounting bodies are lobbying the Australian Taxation Office for simplification of tax compliance rules. Many accountants are also finding their own methods of reducing workload, such as streamlining processes and using technology.

The Australian Taxation Office is coming under fire by accountants. Specifically, accountants say the staff of the ATO makes inconsistent decisions and are poorly trained.

According to a BRW survey, one of the top priorties of accounting firms is to increase profitability through internal efficiency. Some analysts believe that one way to do that is to use practice-management software, which quickly provides accountants with necessary information electronically. These practice-management systems also help businesses feel more confident about billing clients the full amount of time spent on a job.