Under new management: Will a new NSW government have any new ideas?

25/03/11: If Saturday night pans out as predicted, the Coalition will be back in power for the first time in 16 years in NSW. That's an extraordinary length of time to manage anything — let alone a state. After all, in business the average tenure of CEOs is between three and four years. Corporate governance on boards encourages tenure for between five and six years — some put a maximum of 10 years' service.

So how easy is it in reality to stay fresh, in any environment, after 16 years at the top? And what does the forecasted outcome this Saturday promise to give us?

Whatever your political leanings, a change of state management should bring new ideas and an opportunity for a fresh start. Management change, love it or hate it, brings with it new pledges, new opportunities. It's a chance for a change, maybe with renewed confidence in new beginnings.

As with any change management, let's hope the winning party uses commonsense and communicates to allay fears and demonstrate clearly what this next term looks like.

Personally, I'm hoping for less red tape around business and to make running a business easier. I'm hoping for an environment that encourages business to boom — both large and small — so we can get the economy back on track for the future of my business and my children's job prospects. I hope it's easier for my manufacturing friends to export overseas and continue to supply Australia. I hope for more incentives to grow, encouragement to hire and create jobs, encouragement to train staff, bring in skills from overseas where necessary and incentives to pay more into superannuation.

I'd like an environment that helps to make running my business easier and I don't want to have to hire lawyers to check new legislation through. I'd like reduced payroll tax and continued support from the ATO to work with us transitioning back post-GFC. I'd like tax deductible childcare and support with my programs to hire more working mums, young graduates and mature, experienced workers.

While I was thinking these things through today and writing my wish list, I had a debate with my younger team members in the office about the election and what the implications were with each outcome. We did a quick test to see if they knew what each party stood for — and if they didn't know, could they quickly find the parties' promises on the internet. It wasn't easy. Oh for political parties to present policies in ways that appeal to their varying audiences.

What the team did find, in a nutshell, is that in relation to the two parties' policies, both parties haven't placed a huge focus on SMEs. We found we had to search deep to find the respective policies. There was a major focus of both parties to cut payroll taxes for small businesses.

The ALP promises to invest up to $23 million in programs to support SMEs and the Liberal party promises to establish a small business commissioner with a mandate to advocate for small businesses in NSW, similarly to what has been done in Victoria.

The ALP promises infrastructure to support jobs and the Liberals offer support in the form of managers to support small businesses. On one hand the ALP require large investments of cash to get such campaign promises off the ground and on the other the Liberals promise is the implementation of people and manpower to provide ongoing support.

According to news reports and his website, Coalition leader Barry O'Farrell has been busy fostering relationships with the main business lobby groups Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and the Sydney and NSW Business Chambers. His minister for small business is MP Don Page.

We found both parties have made better strategic use of social media platforms to communicate this time round and each party has at least attempted to upload their social pages to keep us informed about current policies and activities and provide links for further information.

Watching the buzz, drama, accusations and excitement in the lead-up to the election campaign this weekend and while the debates are coming to a close as I write, I will be election partying with friends on Saturday night to watch the opportunities unfold.

We may not be watching for long according to the polls. But whatever the outcome, NSW needs to pick up its game. Watch this space — you never know. It could be time for change, new focus and restored confidence in our leaders and our economy.

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