Pots n Pans Turns 1!

2 years ago Small Giants ventured into Vietnam and began a partnership with KOTO, a wonderful organisation providing hospitality training to disadvantaged young people. KOTO has been around for more than 12 years and has now got cafes and training centres in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Our journey with KOTO led to the opening of the Modern Dining restaurant Pots n Pans in Hanoi in March 2012. Pots n Pans employs KOTO graduates and provides a “post-graduate” training experience for these inspiring individuals. Excitingly we’re about to turn one year old, and we’re celebrating with a feast befitting such an important milestone!

See below for full details:

Celebrating One Year of Culinary Excellence

Hanoi’s own Pots ‘n Pans, is excited to announce its first Anniversary on the Friday 29^th March, 2013.

Opened since March 2012 as a partnership between KOTO (who works with street and disadvantaged youth), Small Giants (an Australian Impact Investment Group) and a dedicated group of KOTO alumni, we have truly enjoyed creating wonderful dining moments for the last 12 months. It’s time to celebrate in style!

This year Pots ‘n Pans have the great honour to host the internationally acclaimed, Michelin Star Chef Felix Eppisser accompanied by Chef Marco Mehr. The two inspiring chefs will present a four-course gala dinner paring with wines at Pots ‘n Pans to mark an important milestone to the unique Pots ‘n Pans Culinary Experience.

Chef Felix Eppisser’s biography

The renowned Michelin Star Chef Eppisser, with his wife Lucia operate the most prestigious restaurant in Myanmar, Le Planteur. After a brilliant career in the Fine Dining business, the highly decorated chef has set the bar in modern European and Indochine Fine Dining in Myanmar and globally. Their property in Zürich, the hotel & restaurant Rigiblick belonged to the top addresses of Switzerland and was internationally renowned.

Chef Marco Mehr’s biography

Marco has joined Felix at Le Planteur to further develop his skills he has earned as the private Chef of the German World Cup Ski team. Since working with Felix at Rigiblick in Zürich, Marco has a wealth of experience including the Stamford in Singapore, Burj al arab and Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. Marco has already been awarded a number of competition titles including the All-over winner at the Culinary World Cup (world championship) in Luxembourg.

For more information, please contact Amy Ngoc at ngoc@potsnpans.vn or +84 162 6370 882

Small Giants is looking for a Bookkeeper!

As we grow and take on new projects, we are finding ourselves in need of a bookkeeper to help make our dreams happen! If the thought of trawling through excel spreadsheets and bank reconciliations still has you keen to join our team, then keep reading!

Contract: 2 days/week or equivalent (0.4)

Wage: $50,000 pa (pro rata $20,000) + super

Start: Immediately

The Job:

Small Giants requires a bookkeeper based out of our St Kilda headquarters to support the CFO in accounts processing and administration across several Small Giants companies. The key responsibilities of this role include:

• Accounts Payable/Receivable (weekly)
• Bank Reconciliations (ongoing and monthly)
• Accounts maintenance and filing (ongoing)
• BAS preparation and lodgement (monthly and quarterly)
• Payroll management and processing (monthly)
• Staff expense reimbursements

This role will also work closely with the CFO on tasks such as cash flow management, budgeting and Month/Year End Reporting. Small Giants uses Xero to manage its accounts, so experience with Xero, or another cloud based accounting system, or a willingness to try new things is a must!

Our dream bookkeeper will be:

• Determined to be the best in their field
• Detail oriented
• Mature minded
• A skilled multi-tasker
• Comfortable with new technologies
• In love with Excel
• A clear communicator with a high EQ

Please send applications to simon@smallgiants.com.au with ‘Job Application’ in the subject line.

Baking for Nepal (and Snow Leopards)

This holiday season one of our friends here at the White House (Stu from DesignFlow) is heading to Nepal with his family. This weekend he and his kids will be holding a bake sale, raising money to buy some English books for a primary school in Langtang Valley and to donate to a World Wildlife fund for the protection of Snow Leopards in Nepal!

We feel that this is not only a brilliant cause, but a fantastic way for Stu to make a tangible connection between fundraising and it’s real effects in the developing world! And I am yet to pass up an opportunity to bake!

So if you feel like getting into the kitchen, baked goods are welcomed, and if you are in Hawthorn this Sunday pop down to show your support for Nepal and your sweet tooth!

Details:

WHEN: Sunday 25th November, 10am to 12pm

WHERE: Stu’s lane way, off Roche St, Hawthorn (see map below)

Download the flyer here

View Larger Map

Announcing The School of Life in Melbourne

We’re so proud to be launching The School of Life in Collingwood, Melbourne on Friday 25 January 2013. This will be the first international School to open its doors.

Dedicated to distilling the best ideas from the ages to enrich everyday life, The School of Life is the brainchild of writer Alain de Botton.  Since its London launch in 2008, more than 50,000 people have taken part in its programs, and its innovative approach to lifelong learning is now globally renowned.

In January 2013 the School of Life Australia is launching Summer Term: a 10-week project offering a selection of the UK’s most popular programs, led by Australia’s innovative thinkers, and held in a purpose-built space in inner-city Collingwood.

“We are thrilled to launch The School of Life in Australia. There couldn’t be a better country in which to open up, Australians being exceptionally intellectually curious and adventurous. We can’t wait to start receiving our first guests,” says Alain de Botton.

Summer Term will include a diverse range of classes, workshops and other special events held every Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 25 January and 31 March.  The Conversation Café onsite will serve up a daily conversation menu, light food and, of course, delicious coffee.

In addition, The School of Life will host a series of ‘secular sermons’ in surprising spaces around the city.

“There has been a growing need amongst Australians to reconnect with the big issues in life, topics like love, work, creativity, money, nature and death.  The School of Life Australia will provide a space for us to explore these subjects, and meet other intellectually and socially curious people in the process,” says Sara Tiefenbrun, Project Director of The School of Life Australia.

Program details for The School of Life Australia’s Summer Term will be announced in December 2012.  For more information sign up to our mailing list at:www.theschooloflife.com/world/australia. Updates will also be shared regularly on Twitter @theschooloflife and Facebookwww.facebook.com/TheSchoolofLifeAustralia

Dumbo Feather Issue #33 Launch Party

Becoming a B Corporation

On the eve of my departure for the States to attend the B Corporation Champions Retreat with Aimee Marks, founder of TOM Organic (one of the Small Giants Family of companies and Australia’s third B corp), it seems fitting to reflect on why Small Giants decided to become a B Corp in the first place.

Making the choice to be B (pun very much intended – thanks Bec McHenry for the wonderful tag line) was an easy one for Small Giants, as an organisation always trying to ‘be the change we want to see in the world’, the values of the certification were a natural fit.

The benefits and value of becoming a B Corp to companies are many and varied (especially in the States, where the community has exponentially grown in the short time it has been around). These include a differentiated brand, strengthening mission, wonderful promotion and marketing opportunities, and the benefits of joining a strong and supportive business community.

But, for us, it was about more than that. For us it was also the fact that the B Corp certification accounts both for the “what”and the “how” of good business.

Let me explain what I mean.

The mission of B lab (the not for profit behind the B Corporation certification) is to harness the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. This mission has resulted in a community of companies (over 700 strong) that are doing things like reselling old books and reducing land fill, producing organic non toxic products and reducing chemicals and pesticides sprayed into the air or making green wine bottles. This, of course is wonderful, these businesses are exemplars of the way business can solve environmental and social problems and this is fantastic.

That said, however, equally important to the B Corp certification is “how” these businesses do this. B Corporations are also great places to work, they treat their employees with respect and enable them to take ownership through enlightened policies, they partner with suppliers who share their values and implement environmental and other policies. In short, B Corporations do good things in a good way!

The certification is thus available to any type of company (with the exception of those whose raison d’etre is to harm the environment and society) who wants to operate according to these values.

It is this holistic approach to good business that so impressed us at Small Giants and is one of the key reasons why we made our decision to become the first B Corp in Australia and catalyze the B Corp community in our region. Here at Small Giants we want to see a thriving Australian B-Corp community, bringing together inspiring companies to learn, leverage skills and networks, and to create a movement for better business. We also see incredible potential for advocacy around legislative shifts to create a more fertile environment for social entrepreneurs, social finance and responsible business. Together with many other like-minded individuals and organisations, we see it as our role and responsibility to drive this movement and to create the world we want to live in.

Big Ideas to Change the World One Step at a Time

Small Giants CEO, Danny Almagor was sitting in an aerospace engineering class when he had a life-changing moment.

The university student, more interested in the side of engineering that directly affected people, found his course had drifted almost solely towards technology.

”By the third year I was just like, ‘why am I doing this?’,” says the now 35-year-old.

See the full article at:  http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/big-ideas-to-change-the-world-one-step-at-a-time-20120923-26f0z.html#ixzz281tAvJhO

Dumbo Feather Conversations presents an evening with Joel Salatin

Radical farmer Joel Salatin in conversation with Dumbo Feather

Joel Salatin, the most famous farmer in the world, is joining us for the fourth event in the Dumbo FeatherConversation Series on Tuesday 23 October.

“For the folks who say farming can’t be profitable or enjoyable or that farming inherently destroys the ecology, I look forward to opening your eyes to a brand new world of opportunities.  I heard an old saying, “If someone has done it, then it can be done”.  I encourage anyone whose spirit resonates with these goals to come and join in the conversation,” says Joel Salatin.

Joel will chat with modern day hunter-gatherer Rohan Anderson (Whole Larder Love), who is featured in our current issue.

“Joel is a beacon of hope for so many in the agricultural industry looking for something real, and more natural. He’s an inspiration for all of us as food consumers, to question our daily food choices. To have been invited to host the conversation with Joel is a real mindblowing honour for me. I can’t wait to sit down and chat.” says Rohan Anderson

The pair will discuss Joel’s radical farming methods—which have revolutionised the way thousands think about animals, produce and life. Having authored seven books and countless articles, Joel has empowered farmers the world-over to control their produce from paddock to plate.

WHAT:       Joel Salatin in conversation with Rohan Anderson

WHERE:    Community/Linen Room, The Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers Street,    Abbotsford

WHEN:       7:30pm, Thursday 23 October

HOW:          Tickets $25 ($20 students) at Eventbrite

CLICK HERE TO BOOK NOW FOR AN EVENING OF GREAT, LIKE-MINDED COMPANY, SOARING CONVERSATION, GORGEOUS GOURMET NIBBLES AND DRINKS. TICKETS ARE LIMITED.

How Social Mission Drives Business Success

Recently our Small Giants CEO, Danny Almagor was interviewed by Glenn Burr of the international Small Giants community. The Small Giants International Community is made up of small business leaders all over the world who define success by more than just their financial bottom lines, but also by their contributions to their communities, a dedication to great customer service and the creation and preservation of workplaces cultures of excellence.

Check out part 1 of the interview here:

http://www.smallgiants.org/Article/comments/sgc_interview_how_a_social_mission_drives_success

And part 2 of the interview here:

http://www.smallgiants.org/Article/comments/how_the_social_mission_drives_business_success_pt._ii

TOM Organic – Head of Operations