Executive Lifestyle - Balanced Lifestyle

Industrial designer Kenneth Cobonpue has dabbled in playful invention from an early age. With the encouragement of his mother, as a child Kenneth would build his own toys and create his own games in the backyard of his home in Cebu in the Philippines. His mother was an interior designer who created her own furniture for clients and Kenneth recalls, “I spent my free time watching the craftsman and artisans work behind our house, eventually learning how to make my own pieces.”

Natural fibres and craftwork of the Philippines

As a multiple-award-winning furniture designer today with a strong reputation both for his creative designs and his dedication to the use of natural fibres and craftwork of his homeland, those childhood experiences have had an enduring, inspiring impact. “I wanted my childhood to last forever so I took up design,” Kenneth states. “My mother taught me the value of being unique, original, and true to my calling. In simple terms, she taught me how to reach out and inspire others through design. She is my first mentor and will always be the most influential person in my life.”

Kenneth’s work combines traditional craft with new techniques to create fresh, modern furniture adored the world over — with clientele that includes royalty, celebrities, luxury resorts and hoteliers. He was named the inaugural ‘Designer of the Year’ at Maison et Objet Asia in 2014, as well as receiving multiple awards throughout Asia, Europe, and the US. Kenneth has worked in Italy and Germany and he graduated from New York’s Pratt Institute with high honours in Industrial Design.

From knotted and looped seating to woven rattan beds, wavy poolside recliners and colourful creations that appear as giant comfortable blooms to sit in, Kenneth’s designs are highly original works of art.

‘My clients relive their childhood through my designs’

“I love it when I see my clients relive their childhood through my designs. When they sit unexpectedly on rattan poles and sink in, when they sit on a chair made to look like noodles or when they stare wide eyed at a gigantic flower in the living room, this sense of bewilderment and enchantment is what I love. For a moment we share a language that transcends time and space — this sense of joy that design can bring.”

It’s clear that Kenneth’s initial delight in making his own pieces as a youngster has carried through in his creations. The designer maintains that child-like sense of creativity and wonder in what he does, and says he used to tell his design students the same: “Look at the world through the eyes of a child. It’s a balance of paying attention and letting go.

“I get to occasionally experience this by seeing new places when I travel and being a witness to mother nature,” he adds. “Nature’s simplest forms ultimately lead to the best designs.”

Looking at things from different perspectives, child-like or not, is important to Kenneth and he says this is where having a mentor can be useful. Aside from his mother, he names Filipino designer Budji Layug — who was the director of design collective Movement 8, which Kenneth was a part of — as a mentor. “Design is not an exact science,” says Kenneth, “and that’s why mentors are very important to help you see the world as objectively as possible, even through subjective eyes.”

Rather than adhering to a design ethos or trying to crack a ‘winning formula’, something which the designer believes would only “kill creativity and innovation”, Kenneth designs with a fluid approach according to his ever-evolving taste. “I believe that design is a living process, forever transforming in response to the changing world,” he says. “Because of that, I work hard to avoid getting boxed in a personal aesthetic. Having a singular philosophy tends to lead to repetition.”

This prolific luxury furniture designer says he is constantly inspired and always in search of new inspiration. “The mind somehow becomes more open to finding inspiration, and the ideas flow faster as a result,” he says. “I find inspiration absolutely everywhere, from the most mundane things around me every day to the most exotic locales I’m privileged to visit.”

Despite striving to continually evolve his incredible creations, it’s touching to hear Kenneth point out the one common factor in all of his pieces: the primarily handmade production process. His pieces are made by hundreds of craftspeople in his native Cebu, with the skilled employees weaving, knotting and constructing his textural masterpieces. “The inspiration I find in the strength of the human spirit is one commonality that will never change,” he says.

That I achieved a level of success in the global design community, which in turn has opened doors for my fellow South East Asian designers, is something that I feel very good about.

That I achieved a level of success in the global design community, which in turn has opened doors for my fellow South East Asian designers, is something that I feel very good about.

The designer is just as proud of creating a global brand in a little over a decade as he is of doing so while utilising the abundance of natural materials of the Philippines — fibres like rattan, bamboo and abaca — and the skilled craftsman of his country. “That I achieved a level of success in the global design community, which in turn has opened doors for my fellow South East Asian designers, is something that I feel very good about,” he adds.

Having made his mark on the design industry, not only in the Philippines but across the globe, Kenneth admits it was something he set out to achieve, if only at first because he wanted a platform to show his work. “It was a decision based on artistic pride in the beginning rather than economic sense,” he says. “In an industry not known to recognise manufacturers and their original designs, I wanted humble recognition for my creations.”

Kenneth set out to stand out from the crowd, and has rightly been applauded for doing so. Rising to the challenge to make designs that are durable, unique, affordable, and sustainable is certainly no easy task yet responsible design, manufacture, and waste-management are the norm at Kenneth Cobonpue. The nature of handmade products means the energy consumption that goes hand-in-hand with machine production is not an issue. The brand is conscious when it comes to its material use, too, with wood coming from certified mills and local green plantations; and the source of the local natural fibres being replanted, along with wood reforestation programs.

Engineering meets artistry

As an industrial designer, “half engineer and half artist”, Kenneth cites balance as the key element to good design. He also says he is proud of each of his pieces, and doesn’t play favourites. “Each design goes through a birthing process that is sometimes painful and joyful. The work is very personal to me,” he says. “There are design triumphs that are difficult to replicate, like the simplicity of the Yoda chair, the Wave table’s sculptural grace, the intricacy of La Luna’s weave, and even the timelessness of Morals & Malice (formerly Z Bar).”

“Designing for me is a discipline and an act of concentration trying to come up with a solution,” says Kenneth when asked if he ever suffers creative block. “Sometimes I spend an hour at the desk and nothing comes, and I have to try again tomorrow. It’s a discipline not unlike a sport — you have to keep on doing it to get good at it.”

As for the future of Kenneth Cobonpue, we can expect to see plenty more fantastic sustainable creations that awaken the child within. “A bamboo bicycle; an electric car; a condominium; new lighting and accessories; stores; installations; and more exhibitions,” says Kenneth when considering the year ahead. “We are continuously reinventing, developing new designs with new sustainable materials and production techniques.”

kennethcobonpue.com

A balmy sea breeze envelopes me, and a distinctly ‘holiday’ smell — sunscreen, combined with salt water and frangipani — lingers in my nostrils. This is the scent of Bali, an Indonesian island renowned as much for its intimations of paradise as for its party scene. I am here for the former; a relaxing break that takes full advantage of the region’s tropical waters, vivid coral reefs, and deep cultural history. And nowhere captures the essence of a ‘relaxing break’ more than the luxurious The Oberoi, Bali.

Located just thirty minutes from Denpasar Airport, The Oberoi boasts an intimidating list of former clientele. As I walk through the perfectly manicured garden that leads to the hotel’s reception, I begin to get a sense of what attracted them. Vibrantly coloured flowers are interspersed between rustling palm fronds and baobab trees, and the sound of trickling water has an immediately calming effect on me. The lobby itself has glossy marble floors and a high thatched ceiling. I’m struck by the way tradition melds with modernity here — statues of the Hindu God Ganesha are positioned just centimetres from wall-to-ceiling glass sliding doors — and feel somehow soothed by the atmosphere it creates.

Looking around at the patent lavishness, I can’t help but muse that I don’t quite meet the caliber of the hotel’s other guests. After all, I’m walking in the footsteps of celebrities like Julia Roberts, David Bowie, and Gianni Versace, all of whom have stayed here before, no doubt indulging in a little relaxation of their own.

My feelings of inferiority are soon assuaged, however, by a cheery and attentive staff member greeting me with a heartfelt handshake. I’m then shown to my room by a young man in traditional garb who wears a toothy grin that doesn’t abate throughout my entire stay. In fact, his smile only broadens as he leads me through the customary Balinese entrance of one of the hotel’s Luxury Villas. Furnished with rich, polished wood and embracing a natural colour scheme, the villa is indulgence incarnate. But it’s the minutiae — the attention to detail — that really has me falling in love with the Oberoi.

Laid out on my side table, innocuously enough, is The Oberoi’s pillow menu. It lists four different pillows to choose from to ensure the perfect night’s sleep. I test out the royal cotton and supreme fibre comfort pillows before finally settling on the duck down; my indecision apparently a pleasure for the jaunty housekeeping staff. Another minor detail is the daily weather forecast I receive, completely unsolicited, proving that the hotel’s staff is aware of my needs well before I am.

Of course, the room itself is something to behold. It comes complete with a grand four-poster bed, views over the Indian Ocean, a private garden and dining pavilion, and a sunken marble bathtub, which is every bit as relaxing as it sounds. In addition to the resort’s fourteen villas and sixty lanai rooms, is the hotel’s ever-popular Royal Villa. Perfect for honeymoons and wedding nights, the private little oasis is an immense 400 square metres, has its own six-metre long private pool, the option of hiring a private butler, and a fully-equipped kitchenette — not that there is any reason to cook, with the hotel’s various restaurant offerings, and 24-hour in-room dining services.

Somewhat overwhelmed by that prospect, I venture out for a pre-dinner cocktail at Kayu Bar. Sipping a mojito while perched atop a plush, velour bar stool — the crashing sound of the surf playing out as a soundscape — it occurs to me that life doesn’t get much better than this.

However, I’m proven wrong not two hours later as I tuck into a delectable meal at the hotel’s fine dining venue, Kura Kura. Including Kayu Bar, which is perfect for nibbles or a light meal with drinks, there are four different restaurants at The Oberoi, Bali. And while they are all excellent, an evening at Kura Kura is an experience to remember for a long time to come. The menu is such that I’d be happy ordering almost anything on it; the selection ranging from traditional Indonesian dishes and tasting plates, to à la carte modern-fusion dishes. After much deliberation I decide on the Asian mixed pepper and black vinegar-glazed yellowfin tuna, which comes with Kombu dashi, udon noodle, grapefruit, young ginger, avocado, and crispy nori. The synthesis of flavours is like magic in my mouth.

Having been serenaded by the lyrical sounds of the angklung (an Indonesian instrument made from hollow bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame), I slowly amble back to my villa, the waves crashing violently on Seminyak Beach in the background. Contemplating what tomorrow will have in store, it occurs to me that while Seminyak is celebrated for its beach clubs, massage treatments, and selection of good food, The Oberoi offers all of these things within its fifteen perfectly landscaped acres. No matter what I decide to do tomorrow, I will be able to do it without having to venture out of the comfort and outright luxury of my resort.

If I told you that by going to the gym every day for ten minutes you could make your biceps bigger, then I’m sure you would easily agree. But if I said that through regular meditation practice you could choose a particular region of your brain to grow bigger, then you might be more surprised.

Regular meditations shown to grow the prefrontal cerebral cortex

This science of how the brain can change itself is not new. Neuroplasticity has been thoroughly researched with hundreds of published articles and a Harvard study showing regular meditators were able to grow their prefrontal cerebral cortex, a part of the brain responsible for paying attention, emotional regulation, and sensory management (Lazar et al 2006). What does this mean for you?

Brains are your biggest assets, both your own and those of your staff. With 10 billion neurons and 10,000 synaptic connections between each neuron, the number of possible on–off combinations of the average human brain is thought to be bigger than the number of atoms in the known universe.

Brains are capable of producing incredible creativity and productivity. What if you could increase the efficiency of all the brains in your organisation by 10 per cent? Can you imagine the impact on your bottom line?

Cultivate both mental focus and emotional calmness

The distracted mind is not an efficient one and regular meditation can help cultivate both mental focus and emotional calmness.

We are living in a world of exponentially growing distractions and stimuli. We have open-plan offices with colleagues leaning over to ask questions, calendar alerts, email notifications, text messages, beeping to-do lists, plus the ability to click on any of our devices wherever we are and be taken to whatever information we desire, work-based on not.

IQ suffers a 10 point decrease when multi-tasking

Multi-tasking is a myth; what we are actually doing is flitting from one task to another and this comes with a switching cost. One study by the Institute of Psychiatry in London shows a ten-point decrease in IQ through multi-tasking — a worse effect than smoking marijuana or losing a night’s sleep.

Meditation is an attention training exercise for the brain. It involves deliberately focusing your attention on one thing at a time, be it your breath, your physical sensations in your body or for more advanced practitioners, the stream of thoughts or emotions coming into your mind. This process activates and therefore grows the prefrontal cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for your ability to pay attention. This ‘executive control function’ is the most evolved part of any primate brain and the part you really want to be developing.

Boost meta-cognition — a highly evolved brain function

Once your ability to pay attention increases, you instinctively start to notice your stream of consciousness, particularly the underlying patterns of repetitive thoughts, physical sensations, and emotions that can influence your behaviours and decision-making. This ability to be able to observe your thoughts, emotions, and sensations is called meta-cognition and is perhaps the most evolved of all human brain functions.

This skill of being able to take a step back from the mental chatter allows for greater perspective and objectivity. Decisions will be made with improved clarity of mind, better reasoning, and with less influence from inappropriate emotions or fears.

The distraction mind is not an efficient one and regular meditation can help cultivate both mental focus and emotional calmness.

Having the self-control to be able to stay focused on one challenge at a time, even if only for a few minutes, will start to deliver efficiency dividends and you will be able to solve more problems, more quickly, with greater ease. You will notice yourself being able to pay better attention in meetings, and perhaps start noticing subtleties of communication that you might have previously missed. It will also allow you to practice the art of truly listening, when so often what we do is listen with one half of the brain while thinking about what we want to say with the other half. This will lead to less miscommunications and potentially less conflict.

Set realistic expectations

Once you have set the intention to learn meditation it is important to be realistic with your expectations. It might take a while to find the right teacher, the right training, or the right method. What’s right for me is not necessarily right for you. This is brain reprogramming and it doesn’t happen overnight. Neuroplasticity has been shown to be more effective in novel surroundings, so perhaps a retreat venue with a completely different environment to your usual one would be the most effective. Don’t give in too soon though, and remember: practice makes perfect.

Whether it’s the quantity and quality of the snow; the unrivalled choice of well-groomed beginner and intermediate runs, expert double blacks, challenging chutes, and terrain parks, the lack of lift lines, or simply the Wild West experience that gets your adrenalin soaring, these winter destinations tick all the boxes. A visit to the ‘Real America’ in winter may mean getting up close to the unique wildlife such as buffalo, elk, moose, and wolves, straddling a saddle to belly up at the bar, or resting your head in an historic lodging or slope-side luxury, all with a heaped serving of supersized Western hospitality.

The scenery is equally compelling. From the mountain passes and dramatic peaks of Wyoming’s Teton range and the volcanic geysers of Yellowstone, to Montana’s rugged and beautiful Gallatin Gorge, Big Sky country, and Glacier National Park, it’s a scenic drive truly worthy of the name and as fulfilling an experience as the destinations themselves. The CEO Magazine took a memorable road trip to find out why increasing numbers of Australians are keen repeat visitors at ski resorts where the wild things are.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Jackson Wyoming

Jackson Hole has a worldwide reputation for its challenging advanced terrain, authentic cowboy attitude, and proximity to famed Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. But there’s so much more to Jackson for Australian skiers and boarders.

Jackson Hole signage

Direct flights to Jackson from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Dallas make it a seamless trip for those who want to be on the slopes the day after they leave Australia.

Revelling in the late season dump of snow bringing the year’s total to more than 762 centimetres, we trialled the brand new Teton Quad Chair Lift, which has opened up more intermediate terrain and easier access to experts-only back country. We found the extra long groomed runs a great warm up for the more challenging black (in other resorts, double diamond black) lines for which the resort has earned its reputation.

Ride the famous red Aerial Tram to the summit (and back down, if skiing the mountain is not an option) of Rendezvous peak for the views alone; and the waffles at Corbetts Cabin. The legendary chute where the most daring (or foolhardy) skiers gain serious bragging rights or retreat in fear — Corbetts Couloir — is also mesmerisingly visible from the safety of the tram.

The local wildlife is not an optional extra but something you’re more than likely to experience without trying. The US’s only National Elk Refuge, a tract of land protecting a wild elk herd numbered in the thousands is minutes from Jackson and the herd often visible from the road. We came across moose crossing the road (yes, to get to the other side, where two more moose were grazing) and a wolf running along a culvert toward the trees. If accidental encounters like these aren’t enough, half-day wildlife tours will give you a naturalist’s expert introduction to the local fauna that abounds in winter.

Food in both Jackson and on the slopes is a welcome culinary world away from the usual fare found in ski resorts. A new casual dining outlet, Piste Mountain Bistro at the top of the Bridger Gondola features healthy and locally sourced dishes; and a few metres from the base of the lifts you’ll find restaurant choices for every taste that stack up against any in the city for menu and wine offerings. Try Villaggio Osteria for creative Italian, Spur for tasty American family-style dining, or the very civilised indoor/outdoor Ascent Lounge at Four Seasons for après drinks.

The range of accommodation available at Jackson, or on snow at Teton Village, will suit any budget or preference. At the top end, the resort’s own range of lodging offers a choice of exclusive slope-side corporate houses, set front and centre to the action, or spacious apartments for families just a few minutes easy drive from both the lifts and the centre of Jackson with its bars, restaurants, and art and craft galleries. Hotel choices are many but to stay with the Western vibe, we tried the historic Wort Hotel located in downtown Jackson, an awarded small boutique lodge. Regular live music nights showcasing authentic bluegrass music in the Silver Dollar Bar attract a loyal cross section of local cowboys and girls. If you play your cards right you may just be asked to swing dance. If ski in/ski out is a non-negotiable requisite, the best choices are the top shelf Four Seasons Hotel and Teton Mountain Lodge or Spring Creek Ranch, which is a short drive from the slopes and offers seclusion and views to the Tetons.

Travelling with family members or friends who are not into downhill snow sports doesn’t have to mean they settle for a good book and a fire. Take a full day dogsled trip to the hot springs, enjoy a sleigh ride through the Elk Refuge, admire or shop for unique Western art, bespoke cowboy hats, clothes by local designers, and watch some of the US’s best country, bluegrass, and rock music at regular festivals throughout the season or in local venues.

Grand Targhee Resort, Alta Wyoming

Our next stop was an hour’s spectacular drive from Jackson over the Teton Mountain pass to the western side of the range. Grand Targhee, relatively little known to Australians, is a favourite with US locals and savvy international skiers and boarders. Often boasting heavier snowfalls and more powder than many better-known resorts, it has an excellent range of primarily intermediate terrain offering a great experience for all abilities. It is a laidback family-style resort that delivers the goods without the glitz.

Snowcat skiing is available from Grand Targhee across 243 hectares of untracked powder; or try an evening snowcat tour for a mountain sunset, stargazing and to hear about wildlife, history, and local legends.

On a clear day, the view to the Teton peaks is nothing short of stunning. Don’t miss a visit to the avalanche dogs at the top of the Sacajawea Lift. On Saturdays, the ski patrollers and dog rescue team demonstrate how they find skiers and snowboarders in the event of an avalanche. Snowcat skiing is available from Grand Targhee across 243 hectares of untracked powder, or try an evening snowcat tour for a mountain sunset, stargazing and to hear about wildlife, history, and local legends.

All the services and facilities you would expect are provided on a smaller scale in the compact but complete base village, including an excellent ski school. Accommodation from lodges and condos to hotel rooms is available slope-side, in the nearby towns of Alta or Victor, with easy mountain access for a less expensive option. Or you can do a day visit, as we did, from our base at Jackson Hole.

Big Sky Montana

The drive from Wyoming to Big Sky in Montana, located an hour from the major city of Bozeman, is about eight hours of road trip magic from Jackson Hole. It is the ideal way to combine a rest before the next skiing adventure, with a trip through one of the most diverse and magnificent American winter landscapes. Big Sky and adjacent Moonlight Basin merged in 2013 to offer a combined 2,347 hectares of terrain, only now beaten to the title of largest US ski resort by the newly linked Park City and Canyons resorts in Utah. The terrain, although skewed toward advanced skiers and boarders, is so vast that even the choice of intermediate groomers and beginner slopes appears never-ending. The resort is less well known to Australian skiers and boarders but the characteristic lack of lift lines everywhere, except at the base of the Lone Peak Tram on a fresh powder day, will make it a resort to add to everyone’s top must-visit list and, even more tempting for value-conscious families, children under 10 stay free at resort-run accommodation.

We ski much of the available intermediate terrain from the high speed quad lifts over three thrilling days and often have the unnerving experience of being the only visible inhabitants of the still untracked corduroy on the many long tree-lined groomed slopes. But if a ski or boarding challenge is what you’re here for, you won’t be disappointed. The Lone Peak Tram delivers advanced and expert skiers to a choice of narrow chutes, and steep double black diamond runs peppered with rocks, worthy of ski-porn movies, with names to match, such as Hell Roaring, Hells Acre, and Rips.

For non-skiers or as a welcome break from the downhill activity, try snowcoach or snowmobile tours to see Yellowstone National Park’s geysers, hot springs, and variety of wildlife including bison, elk, moose, and even wolves. There’s also the Big Sky zipline experience, ice-skating, sleigh rides, or snow-shoeing for a change of pace.

The three star Huntley Lodge is modest but comfortable and centrally located with restaurants, cafes, bars and lounges on the property. Other accommodation includes modern condos and apartments in the Big Sky and Madison villages, or at the base of the mountain at Meadow Village. Similarly, the people who frequent the resort vary from very well-heeled celebrities such as Kim Kardashian to families who return annually from Canada, the US and now increasingly, Australia.

Whitefish, Montana

Three glorious skiing days and one snow dump later, we thanked the snow gods and returned to the road for the last leg across the true Big Sky country of Montana to Glacier Country and the northern resort town of Whitefish. It’s another eight-hour drive but one that is enjoyable, scenic, and easy to negotiate. Although far from the mainstream resorts, in both distance and atmosphere, Whitefish is on the so-called ‘powder highway’; close to both Calgary and Fernie in Canada and accessible by Amtrak, road, or the nearby airport at Kalispell. It offers great snow, good value for families, and plenty for Aussie skiers and boarders to make a visit worthwhile.

The town of Whitefish lies at a much lower elevation than Jackson, Big Sky, and other popular US resorts and the mountain itself is lower at the peak, so it’s much easier to acclimatise to any effects of altitude.

With an elevation of more than 2,000 metres and an average snowfall of 700+ centimetres, this intimate resort is bigger than it looks, offering more than 1,200 hectares of excellent bowl and tree skiing and is evenly split between intermediate and advanced terrain, with enough steep and deeps and five-terrain parks to keep both experts and boarders happy. The local slogan, “we measure acres per skiers, not skiers per acre” says it all. It’s plenty wild too, with part of the mountain closing early each year on 1 April, to protect the grizzly bear habitat.

Hidden Moose Lodge is a 15-minute drive from the mountain. The huge roaring fire, visiting deer, and cozy western-styled decor make this a relaxing option for couples and families who want more than a hotel room and need easy access to both town and the slopes. Alternative accommodation is available in town, just eight kilometres away by shuttle, or in spacious on-snow condos at the small base village at reasonable rates.

The town has a good selection of eateries, a craft distillery, and decent coffee, which appeal to the lifestyle choice population and the huge summer visitor influx for nearby Glacier National Park. Whitefish is an attractive all-round alternative for powder hounds, families, and skiers and boarders looking for value, or to experience more than the mega-resorts on a ski trip to the US in the northern winter.

Not many people are aware of the fact that Woolloomooloo’s iconic Finger Wharf is still standing due to some incredibly passionate protestors, who, in the 90s, blocked demolition crews and petitioned the government intent on tearing it down. Back then, the wharf was completely rundown and it was deemed too costly an exercise to restore it. Luckily, the unions stepped in and imposed a green ban, Clover Moore appealed to Paul Keating (then the treasurer) and Keating took the matter to the National Trust. Today, the longest timber-piled wharf in the world recently celebrated its one-hundreth birthday, and it’s a sight to behold — a beautiful, clever blending of history, industrial beauty, and modern luxury. It’s also home to a swag of swish apartments, fine-dining restaurants with some of the best views in Sydney, and the latest addition, the stunning Ovolo Woolloomooloo hotel.

Ovolo’s 100 rooms and suites are like capsules of Australian history — their soaring ceilings, steel-studded walls, and elements of their design and decor enhancing the industrial beauty that was born of it’s former life as a working wharf. Add some quirky paintings, prints, and bright splashes of colour — a bright yellow sofa there, a funky bedhead decorated with red fish here — and tech-savvy inclusions such as curtains, lights and aircon operated with a touch of a finger, and you have a whole lot of comfort in a whole lot of wonderful space.

All rooms are spacious and luxurious, and some of the top suites are also very rock’n’roll — the INXS Suite has a mock fireplace bursting with bright lights and a small relaxation room with a netted swing to meditate in, while another loft suite has an ultra-cool wood-paneled circular 70s-style bar and a floor-to-ceiling bookcase.

Ovolo hotels are also about making people feel as though they are a guest in someone’s home, so the mini bar (that is stocked with gourmet goodies) is free, as is the wi-fi and a cute tote bag to take some snacks with you when you venture out. There’s also a self-service laundry, a 24-hour gym, awesome breakfast offerings created with top-notch produce, and even a bar in the main lobby where beer and wine, tea and coffee, and nibbles are free, all day long.

Alongside the ‘free stuff’, it’s the enormous range of quirky spaces tucked within the formerly expansive spaces that make Ovolo’s lobby so special. In fact, the main passage-like atrium of the wharf now has ceilings and petitions within the heritage-listed spaces — rooms within rooms — to create a sense of intimacy. And whether you’re working, hosting a meeting, socialising, relaxing, or escaping from the outside world, there are so many spaces, you could hang out in a different one every morning and night on a week-long stay and still not experience them all. Within each space is a carefully curated collection of art, collectibles, books and random pieces that, if you scratch the surface, all have their own little stories to tell. Stories, within stories.

There are throngs of table settings with high-backed chairs beneath large potted trees bursting with fairy lights; colourful booths with fabric-padded walls filled with cushions that resemble genteel English beer garden settings, library-like spaces where sofas, plush rugs and coffee tables make for peaceful havens, and areas that could be the lounge or dining room of a friend’s cool apartment.

Ovolo is in an enviable location when it comes to taking in Sydney’s most iconic sights and experiences — the Royal Botanic Gardens, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Sydney Opera House, and Harbour Bridge, are all within walking distance. The CBD is a ten-minute stroll, or if you’re after a more food-, fashion- and gallery-focused experience, a 20-minute walk will have you in some of Sydney’s most hip and happening suburbs, such as Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, and Potts Point. However, if you don’t want to wander too far, Ovolo’s kitchen serves up impressive gastronomical delights created from the finest seasonal produce, and just a few steps from the lobby will have you at some of Sydney’s most renowned fine-dining restaurants such as Otto Ristorante, Manta Restaurant and Bar, and China Doll.

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“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

It’s time to get serious about being fit for work.

It’s no secret. Staying physically fit is essential to provide the stamina and wellbeing required to stay at the top of your game. It also enhances brain health and function, boosting memory, cognition, and mood, reducing stress and promoting better sleep. In other words it is critical to better thinking. It's physical activity that gets business moving.

From an individual perspective, staying on the move increases cerebral blood-flow supplying essential oxygen and nutrients to the energy hungry brain along with the release of brain chemicals including BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) that nurture neuronal health, synaptic function and neurogenesis — the production and survival of approximately 700 new neurons every day.

Regular exercise has been shown to maintain white matter integrity, promoting speed of information processing, improving cognitive performance and reducing stress. Chronic severe stress reduces access to the prefrontal cortex, the executive suite of conscious thought, and is associated with loss of brain volume in the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with learning and memory. High levels of the stress hormone cortisol are potentially neurotoxic, best avoided using regular exercise.

Stand up for your brain and walk the walk

CEOs can lead the charge by encouraging the move to stand more. Walking meetings as advocated by Nilofer Merchant provides the opportunity not only to get out into some fresh air, it boosts attention, promotes more open dialogue, and is particularly useful for one on one conversations.

For larger groups standing meetings work well by keeping focus on the agenda and shorter — a bonus for busy executives seeking to maximize the value of their time spent at work.

Create new insight

Walking stimulates creativity whether inside or out. While spending time in green space is great for stress reduction, walking anywhere has been shown to get those creative juices flowing, stimulating greater insight and problem solving, thereby giving your ideas some legs.

Boost your mood

The neuropeptides of a positive mood including dopamine, serotonin and endorphins are all enhanced by physical activity. This promotes adaptability, a more open mind, and a willingness to take on and overcome challenges, as well as promoting mental wellbeing.

Give your brain a break

Focusing your attention for too long is cognitively exhausting and denies the brain the time required to recoup and reenergize. Implementing several 15-minute brain breaks across the day in addition to taking a proper lunch break away from the office, to eat and include a workout, primes your brain for improved mental performance and mood across the afternoon.

Take time out to learn a new sport

Taking up a new sport in midlife has been shown to stimulate cognitive performance. Signing up for paddleboard lessons, tennis or snow boarding is great for increasing grey and white matter because the complex thoughts required drive your brain's plasticity. It's the learning that counts, not how good you are at it.

Do the Downward Dog

If running or walking isn't your thing, yoga has been shown to boost cognitive function. Yoga’s meditative quality calms the mind and stimulates the mind-body connection. While an aerobic session will always boost cognitive performance, somewhat surprisingly a 20-minute Hatha Yoga session will produce a more immediate benefit to cognition.

From a business health perspective, encouraging all your staff to stay active will help reduce some of the economic burden of physical inactivity. A recent article in The Lancet estimated the global cost of inactivity, based on data from 142 countries, to be around US$67.5 billion, equivalent as the authors point out, to the total annual GDP of Costa Rica.

Taking the lead to incorporate greater physical activity in your business has the potential to increase productivity, performance and wellbeing and boost the bottom line.

From supermarkets and chemists to specialty health and wellbeing stores, our marketplace has been inundated with vitamins and supplements which, when taken regularly, are purported to propel us into a state of optimal health. Available in a number of sizes, shapes, flavours, and forms — capsules, tablets, powders, chewables, softgels, and liquids — these products and the burgeoning industry they represent are the subject of both accolades and disparagement. On one hand they are revered for safeguarding us from the perils of modern-day living; poor diets, sedentary lifestyles, and largely indoor existences. On the other, they are deemed unnecessary and potentially harmful.

Despite the scepticism surrounding the industry, there is no disputing that it’s on the rise. Market research company Future Market Insights calculated the global dietary supplements market revenue to be US$123.3 billion in 2015, and forecasts that it will more than double to US$252.1 billion by 2025. This corroborates information provided by the CEO of Australian-based supplement and wellness company Swisse, Radek Sali, who says: “The industry is turning over around AU$3.5 billion annually in Australia alone. That’s expected to grow to AU$4.6 billion over the next three years.”

Asked why he believes the industry is growing at such a rapid pace, Radek points to the fact that health and wellbeing has become aspirational; something that everyone wants to attain. “I think there’s a rising consumer understanding around wellness,” he says, “and wellness is something that we all strive for. Our lives are precious; we want to live as long as we possibly can, which means doing the right things for our bodies. Exercising, having a good state of mind, and choosing the right nutrition — including supplementation — all add up to better health outcomes.”

“Our lives are precious; we want to live as long as we possibly can, which means doing the right things for our bodies.” - Radek Sali

However, this is only one view in what is a very fractious debate. Dr Rachael A Dunlop, a Senior Scientist from the Institute for Ethnomedicine in the US, has interpreted the industry’s growth entirely differently. Beyond simply being drawn to the promise of wellness, Rachael believes that the industry is growing so quickly because consumers are enticed by the promise of a magic pill; a ‘get healthy quick’ cure-all that supplants the fundamental problems typically causing ill-health; things like diet and exercise. “The promises of the supplement industry are extremely seductive,” she explains. “You’ll look younger, skinnier, and have more energy; all the things many of us want. But in a time poor world, and where otherwise significant effort is involved, we’d rather take the easy way out.”

Of course, this so-called ‘easy way’ is not without risk. In many instances supplements simply don’t do what they claim to and, in more extreme cases, have been known to cause harm.

Global Standards

Fresh is best

Fast fact: The most common trends influencing supplement consumption are the ageing population, gastrointestinal health, and weight-loss.

Fast fact: The global sports nutrition market is projected to reach US$37.7 billion by 2019, according to US company Persistence Market Research.

One of the largest problems when evaluating the safety of supplements, is that each country in the world regulates its own industry. While there is an overwhelming trend for under-regulation, there are huge discrepancies from one country to the next. For instance, in the UK supplements are considered to be foods, and are consequently regulated by the Food Standards Agency and the Department of Health (FSADH). Therefore, unless a medical claim is made by the manufacturer, supplements aren’t subject to the same stringent regulatory process that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency apply to medicines.

Similarly, in the US supplements are regulated under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, a branch of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. This means that the onus is largely on supplement manufacturers to self-regulate, as they are not required to obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before marketing dietary supplements. The FDA’s website states: “Before a firm markets a dietary supplement, the firm is responsible for ensuring that: the products it manufactures or distributes are safe; any claims made about the products are not false or misleading; and, the products comply with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and FDA regulations in all other respects.”

Conversely, in Australia supplements are considered to be complementary medicines, and as such are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). However, when labelling products, the TGA divides medicines into two categories; Aust L and Aust R. While Aust R medicines include prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines, which are checked against safety and quality criteria, the majority of supplements fall into the Aust L category, which is far less tightly regulated. When it comes to Aust L products, the onus is again on the manufacturer to certify that they have only used pre-approved low-risk ingredients, and evidence is not required by the TGA.

“The TGA is known as a paper tiger because it has no teeth,” says Rachael. “Manufacturers are required to state they hold evidence for the product’s use and benefits, but are not required to present such evidence before it is licensed. Not to mention the standards of evidence can be very tenuous, such as ‘used in antiquity’, which merely requires companies to say that a product has been ‘used by the ancient xyz African hill tribe for generations’ and they get a listing for their product.

“Furthermore, the system is reactive not pro-active, relying on people to complain rather than the TGA conducting its own investigations. Often when products are deemed to breach regulations, the TGA still don’t enforce directives, because the cost to prosecute is regularly greater than the fine.”

Despite these pitfalls, Australia’s supplement regulation is heralded as being one of the best in the world. “All supplements manufactured in Australia are manufactured as a therapeutic product, so they’re subject to the same scrutiny as drug medicine,” explains Radek. “Only Canada has a similar system; the rest of the world legislate the manufacture of products under food standard. So if you’re not buying a product from a plant that’s manufactured under TGA or the Canadian equivalent, you’re going to be buying a product manufactured in a food grade plant, which doesn’t require as stringent testing and cleaning as a drug plant.”

Online Markets

The inconsistency in global standards combined with an increasingly digital marketplace exacerbates the potential risk factor of supplements. Not only are the regulatory standards of products bought online unclear, but there is also a large market for imitation and illegal products to be sold online. “Some supplements have been found to be contaminated with drugs such as steroids, or even heavy metals, and these are not something you want to be unknowingly consuming,” says Rachael.

Recently there has been a spate of health complications that have arisen from the consumption of weight-loss products containing green tea extract. In 2014, the American College of Gastroenterology released findings that green tea catechins could be toxic and cause liver failure. Despite this, weight-loss supplements containing green tea extract continue to be sold online. Earlier this year, an otherwise healthy 27-year-old man in Australia had to have an emergency liver transplant after consuming a protein powder containing green tea extract that he’d bought online.

However, as Radek points out, most retail consumption — including the purchase of supplements — is trending towards online markets, and there are legal avenues providing for the online sale of supplements. “Currently there is a process where you can sell online as long as you are registered in the original country of sale,” he says. “Swisse is the number one brand for selling online into China, and we also trade in the UK, Holland, Italy, and Singapore; and all of those countries have different regulations in place for supplements.”

"Supplements by definition are drugs, thus they are capable of interacting with other medication people may already be taking.”- Professor Rachael A Dunlop

Contraindications

The majority of people who take vitamins and supplements self-medicate, believing that there’s little or no danger in taking complementary medicines. However, there are certain people who face a higher risk from the side effects of supplements, including people taking other medications, people recovering from surgery, pregnant and breastfeeding women, people undergoing cancer treatment, and children.

“Supplements by definition are drugs,” says Rachael, “thus they are capable of interacting with other medication people may already be taking. This can either reduce the efficacy of the drug or increase it, potentially causing toxicity and adverse events. People generally self-diagnose the supplements they need and are also unlikely to reveal their supplement use to their doctor, and this can make for a potentially disastrous situation.”

Do you need them?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to taking supplements. The first is that, on account of our poor diets and lifestyles, the majority of us struggle to meet basic dietary requirements and should therefore take supplements as a precautionary measure. “These days It’s pretty hard to find someone without some sort of dietary deficiency,” says Radek. “According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 90 per cent of people don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables, so everyone should take a multivitamin in order to ensure that they’re at least getting their basic nutritional needs met.”

On the other hand, there is a strong argument that, unless diagnosed with a nutritional deficiency, the majority of us don’t require supplements. “There are certainly benefits to taking supplements if you have been diagnosed by a doctor and are being prescribed a pharmaceutical-grade product,” explains Rachael. “Otherwise, if you have a pretty balanced diet, then you’re probably just creating expensive urine.”

Fresh is best

It’s the position of the American Dietetic Association that the best nutritional strategy for promoting optimal health and wellness is to choose a wide variety of foods.

This view is supported by Dr Trent Watson, accredited practising dietitian and spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia who, in conversation with independent consumer advocacy group Choice, says: “In the western world, even those not following such great diets are usually getting adequate nutrition, and it’s not necessary to take multivitamins for general health.”

Additionally, there are several benefits that real food has over supplements. For instance, food contains fibre and polyphenols, which have been proven to help prevent degenerative diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Whole foods also contain a range of vitamins and nutrients in different forms, which are beneficial when it comes to the ability of the body to absorb certain nutrients. As an example, many forms of calcium exist in different types of foods, and — because calcium is better absorbed in conjunction with substances like proteins and vitamin D — foods remain the best source of calcium when compared to supplements.

It’s the enormous range of quirky spaces tucked within the formerly expansive spaces that make Ovolo’s lobby so special.

The historic Finger Wharf is industrial beauty at its best.

Ovolo lobby

Ovolo welcome lounge

Ovolo bar

Ovolo Bakers Gonna Bake bakery

Ovolo firepit

Ovolo garden lounge

Ovolo Glamarama

Ovolo Kissing Booth

Ovolo Pool Room

Ovolo public space

Ovolo Cityvoo Double Double

Ovolo Cityvoo King

Ovolo Cityvoo loft

Ovolo Ultraroo

The INXS Suite has a mock fireplace bursting with bright lights and a small relaxation room with a netted swing to meditate in, while another loft suite has an ultra-cool wood-paneled circular 70s-style bar and a floor-to-ceiling bookcase.

ovolohotels.com

Q&A

Q&A with Ovolo’s CEO, Girish Jhunjhnuwala

Girish Jhunjhnuwala is an entrepreneur, and the founder and visionary behind Ovolo Hotels in Hong Kong and Australia. From his beginnings, working in the family’s watch business, to the development of the first Ovolo hotel in 2002, Girish has always been about challenging industry convention. He spoke with The CEO Magazine.

The CEO Magazine: What does Ovolo do differently?

Girish: We always strive to bring the local area into the hotel, and there is no cookie-cutter approach going on with us. We inject character into all of our spaces and art and design plays a large part in that. If you are after a Hilton or Hyatt kind of experience, that is not what you’ll find at Ovolo.

What do you hope your guests experience while in one of your hotels?

A sense of being taken care of, down to the smallest of details, as the customer experience is our number one focus. From the lovely slippers to the extra USB ports, to the free beer and wine and a tote to take some snacks with you, we want guests to feel as though they are being taken care of by friends.

There are so many different, defined spaces at the hotel — why is that?

It’s all about embracing individuality. Everyone looks at things differently, and as soon as you step into Ovolo, you can be who you want. At our hotels, you don’t have to stick to a particular type of environment. Sit on an orange sofa if you like, network, enjoy happy hour, pick a spot to encourage your creativity. Basically, when you stay at the hotel, you don’t have to stay in your room as there are so many options to enjoy, whether you are working or playing. I think that’s what drives today’s modern traveller — being able to do what they want to do, while also celebrating their individuality.

In terms of hotels, Ovolo’s approach was different from the start. Did you have faith that people would embrace its quirkiness?

Good things take time, and sometimes you need to wait for what you are doing to be appreciated. I think I have always been a bit ahead of my time. At first some people said ‘Wow, that’s a bit wild, that’s really different’, and yes, there were times when I wondered if Ovolo would be embraced, but it worked. And it worked really well. People love Ovolo because it’s a hotel group that is decidedly different.

At ten metres tall, the fibreglass structure is unmistakable. Up close you can see every scale in detail, while the fins and tail have been expertly shaped. It has stood here since 1969, proudly putting Adaminaby on the map. It’s called the Big Trout and it’s perfectly placed, right in the middle of some of Australia’s best trout fishing country.

At a glance:

Price: $389,900
Power: 449kW
Torque: 580Nm
0-100kmh: 3.2 seconds
Drive All-Wheel-Drive

A huge fish isn’t the only thing in Adaminaby currently getting attention. While we’re staring at the massive trout, a mini-van slows to take a closer look at the smooth sculpture parked beside it. The driver notices the bright blue and carbon-fibre bodywork, and stops the van. She hops out, and as she saunters over, her eyes widen.

“Is that the new R8?” she says, incredulously. Why, yes. Yes it is.

The home of the Big Trout isn’t somewhere you’d expect an Audi R8 aficionado to reside, but it illustrates just how this supercar’s desirability knows no bounds. After a quick exploration of the cabin (and the obligatory selfie), the mini-van driver was on her way, and we headed back out onto the Snowy Mountains Highway, headed toward Talbingo.

Local launch of the Audi R8 V10 plus

We’ve been invited to the local launch of the Audi R8 V10 plus, and it takes in some of Australia’s best driving roads, with long, open straights, tight switchbacks and climbing sweepers. However, the Snowy Mountains also brings unpredictable weather, with fog, rain, sunshine and snow all being possible within a few hours. We’re thankful, then, for the all-wheel-drive system that is even quicker to react than the previous R8. More importantly, it can vary the torque split, with up to 100 per cent going to each axle if need be.

Audi R8 V10 plus

Under a clear engine cover behind the cabin (it’s a mid-mounted motor) you’ll find a 5.2-litre V10, which produces a staggering 449kW and 560Nm. That sonorous V10 has been given a power boost over the previous R8’s engine thanks to customer race teams who had gathered so much data on how well the V10 held up under pressure, that Audi needed virtually no R&D on the engine.

Where the Huracán reaches understeer, the R8 supplies a seemingly endless amount of grip.

And so, where the time has been spent is creating an all-new chassis and interior. The passenger cell now combines aluminium and carbon-fibre reinforced polymer that drops weight by 10kg but increases torsional rigidity by a massive 40 per cent. Inside, there’s leather everywhere, a full-colour instrumentation screen and voice control system that understands natural English phrases. Behind the seats is enough storage for a few small bags and under the bonnet is a luggage compartment that will easily swallow a small suitcase.

Quick to react

Let’s be honest, though — no-one buys an R8 for its storage. Which is why Audi brought us to brumby country. The roads are open, clear and almost devoid of traffic. With a few quick flicks of the left paddle, the car is ready for action. Right pedal? Meet carpet.

The R8 rockets off from a standstill, hitting 100kmh in just 3.2 seconds. Keep the boot in and it will hit 200kmh in just under 10 seconds, and carry on till it hits its limit of 330kmh. Being fast is one thing, but being soulful is something else indeed.

Devoid of forced induction, the V10 has a distinctive personality, with a warbling howl that only comes from natural aspiration. It sings to the mountains that it’s in its happy place, and at 8,250rpm you’ve hit peak power. Each pull of the right paddle is met with instantaneous response; the next ratio is slotted in literally quicker than you can blink. The acceleration is immense and relentless, and thanks to the R8’s carbon-ceramic brakes, deceleration is just as ferocious.

This car is like an onion — peel back the layers of luxury and you discover more and more ability. Specifically, cornering ability.

On one downhill run, the turns tighten quickly, yet the electronic brain sorts out the best split of torque, sending power where needed, while the suspension crushes the tyres into the road. The pin-sharp steering tells you exactly what’s going on underneath. Without even realising it, we’re out the other side and the car is begging us to drive it even harder.

Despite this dynamic prowess, all the qualities that made the original R8 great are still evident. The new car is still as simple to drive as a hatchback. In Comfort mode the gearbox is smooth, the engine is quiet and the magneto-rheological suspension smothers the worst of the bumps giving a remarkable ride.

Inevitably, though, comparisons will be drawn between the R8 and the Lamborghini Huracán, and it’s easy to see why. The two share the same engine, the same gearbox, the same space-frame chassis, drive layout, instrumentation screen and a similar infotainment system. But the differences are more marked than you’d expect.

The Huracán is more flamboyant. It has more drama, more volume. It wears its heart on its sleeve. The Audi is more measured in its approach. It’s quieter, more comfortable and actually a bit quicker through corners.

Where the Huracán reaches understeer, the R8 supplies a seemingly endless amount of grip. Sure, there are limits, but the all-wheel-drive system diverts all the power to the rear when the front grip has run out, tucking the nose in and bringing the tail around. Because of this, the R8 is actually more playful.

Proof that Germans haven't lost their sporting passion

Inside, though, the Audi is comparatively austere. There’s none of the flair, with simple dials and buttons, versus the Lambo’s aircraft-style toggle switches. Put simply, Huracán is Italian and the R8 is German. The Audi R8 V10 plus proves the Germans haven’t lost their sporting passion, yet it’s been combined with everyday accessibility.

The combination of the two is a very rare thing in today’s world. It has been said that, “Compromise is a word found only in the vocabulary of those who have no will to fight.” Audi clearly hasn’t given up the fight, creating a machine with both dynamic prowess and daily driveability.

To borrow an oft-used phrase, the new R8 proves you can have your trout and eat it, too.

The key to high performance is hard work multiplied by recovery. Even though these things may seem at odds, they reinforce each other. However, as most CEOs know, the hard work comes easy and the real challenge is in your ability to slow down and recover.

In order to maximise your health and avoid burnout, organise a ‘brain break’ every three months. It doesn’t have to be a big lavish getaway; a short road trip to a new destination could be exactly what the doctor ordered. Too often I see people who are either too worried about their business not being able to cope without them, or they are waiting for the perfect time to get away. The reality is there is never a good time to go, you just need to do it.

I have often struggled to take time away from my own business. However, now I get excited to go away, not only for the holiday but also because it helps me to identify holes in my business and allows me to do some of the best thinking once I remove myself from the office.

The common concern of any business leader is that they can’t disconnect, but as Jim Moffat, CEO and Chair of Deloitte Consulting, identifies: “A true leader steps back, trusts his or her people, and allows them to succeed.

Often people return from holidays feeling like they need a holiday. The key is to set some structure to completely recharge.

By taking a break from the day-to-day operations, not only was I spending some much-needed time with my family, but also I was able to focus on the bigger picture of where we were and where our business was heading”.

Often people return from holidays feeling like they need a holiday.

The key is to set some structure to completely recharge.

Walk and explore every morning for 60 minutes

Want to be revitalised? Get outdoors. Nothing beats exercising in the great outdoors with the fresh air, open spaces, and warm sunshine. Studies have shown individuals who train outdoors when compared to training indoors report greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, along with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. I also use this as time to journal my thoughts and plan out upcoming strategies.
Organise a massage

Everyone carries stress in different ways, and studies have found that a single 45-minute massage can lead to a reduction in the level of cortisol, a stress hormone in the blood, a decrease in cytokine proteins related to inflammation and allergic reactions, and a boost in white blood cells that fight infection. Another study found that even a 10-minute massage reduced proteins associated with inflammation in muscles that had been exercised to exhaustion, speeding up the recovery of athletes. Everyone has different needs, so find a masseur whose style suits you. You want to feel loose, refreshed and relaxed after your massage, not like you have just gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. I prefer a deep tissue style of massage, whereas my wife prefers the Swedish aromatherapy type of massage.
Get some water therapy

For centuries, water has been used as a therapy for improving psychological and physical disorders. According to Hippocrates, water therapy ‘allays lassitude’ (releases physical or mental weakness). When humans take a cold swim, once over the initial shock of the cold, it is usually very invigorating. This is because wet and cold causes our surface vessels to vasoconstrict (tighten up) making blood move from the surface of your body to the core, as a means to conserve heat. Not only does it conserve heat, it also reflexively bathes the brain and vital organs in fresh blood. This movement will bring nutrition, oxygen, and also help gently detoxify the area. Warm water will make the vessels vasodilate (relax), and that will bring blood up to the surface. This helps blood move back, away from the core, cleaning out the core. Medical research also supports the use of hot and cold baths. Decreases in stress hormones (like cortisol) have been reported with bathing. It has also been shown that bathing may also help the balance of levels of the feel-good neurotransmitter, serotonin.

As American high performance coach and author Mark Verstegen says, “For you, every day is game day!”

In real life and in fiction, Champagne is often catapulted into the consciousness from characters as diverse as Winston Churchill, James Bond and even into the realms of rap with Kanye West and his cohorts all endorsing the sheer joy of sparkling wine.

Australia is now one of the biggest importers of Champagne globally, and we are embracing the effervescent liquid with an unquenchable thirst. We are now one of the world’s fastest growing Champagne markets, only just behind China and Russia, making us the sixth largest importer in the world.

In 2015, we imported 8.1 million bottles of Champagne — an increase of 24.31 per cent on the previous year’s figure of 6.5 million bottles. That looks set to rise again in an increasingly competitive market that sees supermarket chains like Aldi sell their own label Champagne for $25 a pop. It seems that everyone likes the taste of fizz in an increasingly democratic sparkly universe.

Closer to home, local sparkling wine styles have never looked better, all helping to spread the allure. In fact, the champion wine at the recent Sydney Royal Wine Show was the Arras Grand Vintage 2007 from Tasmania. This follows the same wine, just weeks earlier, being awarded the same plaudit at the Royal Queensland Wine Show. It’s rare that a sparkling wine is hailed as a champion wine at any wine show (let alone two) and that goes to show how far we have come in the development of the style. The chief of judges said that the Arras “was up there in terms of quality with many of the great Champagne houses.” The maker of Arras, Ed Carr, is now celebrated as being Australia’s best Sparkling winemaker and someone who has championed the terroir of Tasmania to ensure it is taken as seriously as those from the hallowed soils of Champagne itself.

What’s in a name — the ingredients of Champagne

The champenoise have guarded the name Champagne, and rightly so. This means that anyone outside the region making Sparkling wine does not have the right to call it Champagne.

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The Spanish have Cava, the Italians have Prosecco and we have Sparkling wine, which sadly does not have the same romantic sounding label — but to be honest, it’s made in exactly the same manner.

The process of Méthode Champenoise sees three grape varietals — Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier — blended using base wines (still table wines from multiple vintages) or in the case of vintage Champagne, the wines from one exceptional vintage can be used. Once the still wine is blended it goes into bottle to undergo its secondary fermentation where the bubbles are formed. The bottles in the caves of most Champagne houses are stored underground for a minimum of 12–15 months on a riddling rack where each day they are turned. This turns the dead yeast cells (often referred to as lees cells), which helps to enhance the complexity of the resulting wine. The dead yeast congregates in the neck of the bottle as the riddling racks hold the bottles at an angle.

Finally, after anything from fifteen months to ten years, the bottle is ready to be disgorged. During this process, the neck of the bottle is frozen and the yeast cells removed before the wine undergoes what the French refer to as ‘dosage’ — the addition of sugar to the wine. This depends on the individual Champagne house, according to the style they are famed for. Some prefer no sugar, whereas others will add more to make a more commercial style. The bottle is then corked and sealed in the famed muselet (wire cage) that is so distinctively Champagne and the cause for so much trepidation the world over as people struggle to open a bottle.

A celebration at every turn…

If you think about it, there’s no more convivial drink than Champagne. It’s drunk at weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, is synonymous with victory, and elicits more joy than any other beverage. Of course we all know it’s too easy to drink on it’s own, but paired with canapés of smoked salmon or any delicate cured fish it’s a real winner. It’s one of those drinks that you could have an entire meal with due to the cleansing acidity and differing levels of complexity. It can also be a useful foil for cheese with one of the great pairings being Parmigiano Reggiano just served on its own — a match that will have you bubbling with excitement.

With a long history of exposure to entrepreneurship, philanthropy and innovation, Vashti Uys possesses all of the qualities of a smart and successful business leader. While earning her degree in education and teaching at Auckland University, Vashti also worked her way up in the street fashion industry, learning the ins and outs of the business and assisting in the setup of two retail stores. Throughout the years that followed, Vashti sustained productive careers in both recruitment and teaching, becoming National Account Manager of a top recruitment agency and even co-founding an English school for children in Japan.

Remarkably, though, her prospects reach much further. Combining her prime entrepreneurial abilities with her creativity, originality and eye for fashion, Vashti, with the help of her husband, gave rise to her own unique and prosperous international business.

MOOI was born in 2012 following Vashti’s creation of a single handbag for herself while living in South Africa. Having selected the hide, shape, and design on her own, the inquiries of the origin of her bag and consistent compliments she received signalled an opportunity for Vashti to turn her hobby into a blooming enterprise.

Since then, MOOI has met with vast success and popularity in the industry. Although — like with any business — the entire journey has not been smooth sailing, Vashti has found that the company has only grown through overcoming these obstacles. As a brand based devoutly in high quality standards, many of these challenges have simply involved maintaining MOOI’s top value and excellence. “With every MOOI bag individually handcrafted and our extremely high values of quality and consistency, getting the productions team to ‘buy-in’ to our brand values took some time,” explains Vashti.

“But it now works seamlessly.”

Ensuring this calibre in her products has proven to be an ongoing challenge. As a result, Vashti works closely with her suppliers to ensure products are made with the proper grade, colour and quality of material to meet her high standards of production. One glimpse at the stunning and reliable nature of MOOI products, however, proves that the time and energy invested is well worth the result.

Another difficulty for Vashti has been navigating international markets to discover cultural differences and the best approaches to marketing and communication. “It is almost like I need to start each marketing plan with a clean slate, a blank canvas, and work out that market’s intricacies and differences,” she says. “This is a challenge, but one that I find exciting, and love to conquer!” As a whole, all of these experiences have only pushed MOOI to reach new heights. “These challenges have become learnings,” Vashti declares.

In addition to supplying top-grade products, MOOI also recognises that the process is equally as important as the product. The company has adopted sustainable practices by sourcing materials that are bi-products of the economic food industry, for example, by utilising the hides of animals already culled for meat. In this way, MOOI works with local famers and tanneries in order to support sustainable farming practices.

“If you have a dream to start a business, it won’t happen unless you make it happen.” – Vashti Uys

Furthermore, the business has also lent a hand to disadvantaged people in South Africa by offering employment opportunities to those with little-to-no training at the Uys family-owned factory, Indigo. Now creating as much as 80 per cent of the company designs, Indigo allows new staff to gain experience in different roles and work towards a permanent position in the company.

Even the name ‘MOOI’ itself reflects the brand’s pure and genuine values. Meaning ‘beautiful’ in Afrikaans, MOOI was originally meant to represent the elegant and unique crafts Vashti had come across in her travels. However, over time the name came to symbolise so much more. “When we started working with the team in Cape Town I quickly realised that the depth of talent and design application from South Africa would be all consuming for me,” she explains. “I wanted my business name to resonate this talent, craft and design. I wanted something that would encapsulate the beauty of this art.”

In terms of her own values, Vashti certainly exhibits the drive and ambition of a true leader. While creating her signature handbags, Vashti has been known to name her designs after family members and women that she knows. According to her description, a handbag named after herself would contain all the qualities that have shaped her into the successful entrepreneur she is today. “The Vashti would be strong, versatile and hardy!” she describes. “Not very sexy. Sorry!”

In terms of providing advice to other women hoping to start their own business, Vashti believes in taking a leap of faith. “If I waited to have the perfect idea and the perfect business model, I would have never begun,” she states. “I look back at our first website, business cards, and merchandising material and chuckle. Put your product or service out there — the market will let you know where to from here.” As MOOI’s success has shown, the reward is well worth the risk. “Just start!” she exclaims. “If you have a dream to start a business, it won’t happen unless you make it happen.”

www.mooistore.com

As our sleek AStar AS350 helicopter swoops down like a bird of prey into the twisting river valley, I half expect to hear Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ blasting from its onboard speakers and the pilot shouting maniacally about loving the smell of napalm in the morning.

Thankfully this isn’t Apocalypse Now and Robert Duvall’s infamous character, Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, isn’t at the controls. I’m heli-skiing, Canadian style, in one of the largest tenures that North America has to offer — over 7,800 square metres of wild and pristine backcountry deep in the Skeena Mountains east of the historic northern British Columbian town of Smithers. Snowfall is reliably heavy up here and the dry powder plentiful due to a fortuitous confluence of coastal precipitation, interior dryness and a cooler northern climate. Best of all, the variety of terrain is massive: steep and deep vertical slopes with intimidating names like Eye of the Tiger, powder bowls feeding into pillows and chutes, and tight trees alternating with acres of open, sweeping glades. All surrounded by some of the most spectacular alpine scenery the cradle of heli-skiing has to offer.

My companions — eight middle-aged Australians and a peripatetic young Italian advertising executive on a round-the-world ski sabbatical — are clearly having the time of their lives judging from their whoops, wide-eyed grins and triumphant high fives at the end of every breathtaking run. Most are first time heli-skiers bedazzled by the grandeur of these mountains and thrilled to be realising many a resort-bound skier’s ultimate fantasy. As one of their number, a hulking construction contractor named Pete Roberts, shouts to me after one particularly breathtakingly long run, “Mate, this is as bloody good as it gets. I can’t believe we’re actually here.”

Glamping gone wild

This isn’t the first time I’ve boarded a whirly-bird for a multi-day dose of backcountry bliss. A veteran of several heli-skiing adventures in the province where the sport was born over half a century ago, I’m nonetheless intrigued by Skeena Heliskiing’s uniquely immersive fly-in fly-out concept called Base Camp. Entering its third season of operation, Canadian heli-skiing’s first foray into glamping is erected at the start of each ski season and accepts guests for just a brief six-week window before being struck when the snow melts come April.

Guests have an AStar AS350 helicopter at their exclusive disposal.

Canadian heli-skiing’s first foray into glamping.

Two-person winterised tents equipped with thermostat-controlled heaters.

The Skeena Mountain range offers the largest heli-skiing adventure playground in the world, covering an area of 9,525 km2.

Located in the Kuldo Valley, Base Camp comprises one spacious communal geodesic dining tent nicknamed the ‘Freedome’, a hot shower tent and five two-person sleeping tents equipped with thermostat-controlled heaters and rustic log beds covered in cosy sheep-wool duvets. Waste products are flown out and compostable toilets are used to minimise environmental impact. Designed as a ‘no-frills’ option to pricier packages, Base Camp appeals to heli-skiers more excited about close proximity to the best runs than Jacuzzis, wine cellars and après ski in-room massages.

“It was our goal to provide something new to heli skiing, an all-inclusive package that is truly a wilderness experience,” says lead Skeena guide and company co-owner Giacum ‘Jake’ Frei. A former professional ski racer and guide in Europe with over a decade of experience heli-ski guiding in British Columbia (BC), Jake is as experienced as they come.

Base Camp may be a more authentic wilderness experience than most heli-skiing accommodation, but it still offers amenities like gourmet food, hot showers, ski boot dryers and all the beer and wine we can consume after a hard day in the steeps. Best of all, our very own helicopter is parked just yards away, waiting to sweep us up into our private powder playground each morning. And what it may lack in luxe creature comforts, our remote retreat more than makes up for in authentic BC backcountry ambience. Irradiant under gentle snowfall on evenings when you can faintly hear wolves calling to each other across the valley, its constellation of white tents resembles a cross between frontier outpost and a moon base.

Bonding in the bush

At Base Camp everything slows down, except the skiing and socialising. Designed as an intimate environment where everyone can feel a part of a memorable adventure skiing experience, its setup fosters authentic backcountry bonding and is perfect for groups.

I make fast friends with the Aussies, mostly blue-collar types who grew up together in the same small town near Sydney. They’re here to celebrate one of them reaching the mid-century mark, saying that Base Camp’s more rugged appeal was exactly what they were seeking. Back for a second tour of downhill duty, Nico the Italian assures me that he wouldn’t trade Base Camp’s spontaneous camaraderie for the more posh creature comforts of nearby Bear Claw Lodge, a palatial five-star fishing chalet located in the nearby Kispiox Valley only twelve minutes away from us by helicopter. Skeena Heliskiing leases Bear Claw for the entire winter season to accommodate guests who would rather be pampered after hours than trek through the snow for midnight bathroom breaks.

Guests congregate in Base Camp’s spacious ‘freedome’ for gourmet meals and evening socialising; Gourmet meals are prepared by a private chef; Guests gather round a riverside bonfire to celebrate another epic day; Skeena Heliskiing’s private helicopter in flight; Snow boarding through powder; With plenty of powder to play in, conditions are perfect for heli-skiing in BC’s Skeena Mountains.

A healthy addiction

During our week at Base Camp, we experience the full gamut of northern BC weather. On sundrenched blue sky days we effortlessly slice our signatures into glistening glaciers. On snow-squall punctuated low visibility days the woods beckon, lovely dark and deep. On the occasional morning or afternoon when inclement weather prohibits flying, Jake’s hyper energetic brother, Schimun, the camp handyman and self-appointed entertainment director, organises impromptu axe-throwing and Mölkky (Finnish bowling) competitions in the snow.

Schimun is also in charge of stoking nocturnal riverbank bonfires where we gather after hearty dinners to swap ski and war stories. On our final night together gathered under a full forest moon I step away from the flames for a moment to take it all in. Miles from nowhere a small group of like-minded adventurers have bonded over our love of the great outdoors, our healthy addiction to backcountry adventure, and this once in a lifetime heli-skiing experience made even more memorable by the knowledge that we’re camping — ok, call it glamping — in the heart of the some of the most mind-blowing heli-skiing country on Earth. That notion doesn’t smell like victory. It smells like snow.

As the Bard once noted: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” I believed that somehow, even though spin classes terrify me, newfound greatness would be thrust upon me if I threw myself into a four-day mountain biking trip in Queensland’s Great Dividing Range.

Though I’ve now returned to the relative safety of my day-to-day life, nursing bruised legs and ego, I’m very aware of the fact that I didn’t achieve such greatness — but that doesn’t mean there was no greatness to be had. In fact, the spectacular outdoors adventure has left me hooked on cycling, and I’m itching to get back on the trails, albeit something a little less advanced to kick off with.

The new Hidden Peaks Trail eco-adventure tour hosted by Spicers Retreats follows the diverse and historic landscapes of Queensland’s gorgeous, and often overlooked, Scenic Rim region. Not to be confused with the Spicers Scenic Rim Trail, a popular guided hike, this relatively new 110-kilometre cycling journey created by Graham ‘Scroo’ Turner and his wife Jude is not for the weak of heart (or buttocks), despite the comfort of the eco-luxury accommodation provided over the three nights.

While it’s recommended upfront that participants require a decent level of fitness, the true recipe for success here also includes a history of recreational cycling, and at least a pinch of mountain biking expertise. A keen appreciation for local flora and fauna also wouldn’t go astray as the trails wind up, down and across some uniquely Australian terrain, including enticing gum woodland, golden grassy fields, and ancient Gondwana rainforests. But let’s start at the beginning.

Hitting the trails

It’s a Friday morning and my new cycling buddies and I are enjoying the air-conditioned comfort of a Mercedes Benz shuttle bus as it transports us from Brisbane through the sun soaked Lockyer Valley. Our driver, Sam, is a tall and ginger-haired outdoors enthusiast who doubles up as one of the trail’s guides, and would later that day regale me with stories of his best ‘stacks’ while bandaging the fresh scrapes on my leg.

After arriving at the beautiful Spicers Peak Lodge in Maryvale, our sunny spring morning turns grey and drizzly, and we seek comfort in the warm foyer of the main Lodge. We change into our active wear — a variety of colourful tights, sensibly padded pants and red lycra — and the group enjoy tea and coffee while looking out at the great views surrounding the Lodge. Nearby a roaring fire crackles and we can’t help but ask somewhat seriously if we can just camp here with a book for the weekend. A rugged looking guide with a warm grin, otherwise known as Al, laughs away the glib request before directing us back out into the cold to introduce us to our bikes.

Presented with our own helmets and backpacks, complete with water bladder and cycling gloves, I nervously cosy up to a medium Merida 140 dual-suspension bike. The beast has twice the suspension and thrice the gears I’ve ever seen on other bikes — starting with my good friend the ‘granny gear’ for the steeper hills, to a maximum thigh burning setting that I avoided using for the duration of the trip.

After a few basic circles around the Lodge, my Merida and seem to be hitting it off, and I keenly roll with the group through a cowpat-ridden paddock towards the practice circuit. We’re led through it by our spirited guide for the next three days, a young competitive mountain bike racer named Karmen, who tells us how to master leaning into the many ‘berms’ (raised tight corners) and ‘whoa-boys’ (dirt embankments) dotted throughout the course.

No sooner had I commenced the circuit did I realise that enthusiasm alone wasn’t going to be sufficient for today’s fairly technical twenty kilometres. We set off down the nearby Brumby Trail, with no signs of the actual brumby that resides in the area, but with plenty of steep hills and loose soil for the group to cut their teeth on. Karmen advises me that the trickiness of the early track can be off-putting to beginners, but that it should level out soon.

Soon enough, I start to enjoy longer stretches without needing to dismount and walk, whizzing past gum trees and trusting the bike to handle the sustained bumpiness of the rugged terrain. I soak up the warm eucalypt air, while the sharp song of whipbirds and the yowl of cockatoos egg me on. The trail leads us down to a hidden gorge, only discovered five years ago, where we continue on foot and try to spot an endangered brush-tailed rock wallaby. No such luck, but we appreciate the breather sitting atop lofty basalt walls, while the stream swirls and bubbles below.

Back in the saddle, we are greeted by more beautiful surrounds, winding inclines, and my new nemesis — the single track. As I struggle to keep my bike wheels within the narrowing trail, I’m advised to keep looking straight ahead rather than succumb to peeking at the nearby shrubbery, giant rock, or hill edge, lest the bike decide to follow my gaze. Naturally, I now clumsily gawk at each potential obstruction, and much shrieking and tyre skidding ensues. More experienced riders glide along ahead with relative ease, soaking in the gorgeous dappled sunlight and lush forest.

As we pedal towards our lunch spot — the historic emptied out Cummins Hut — my inexperience catches up with me. Tiredness worsens my coordination, and I experience the first of numerous ungraceful tumbles. Not long after, two of my fellow travellers tip their bikes and also become acquainted with the forest floor, but in doing so they teach me how to avoid the worst from a fall (“just roll with it!”).

Despite falling behind, I eventually manage to re-join the others at the designated lunch spot where we enjoy a picnic of wraps, fruit, tea, coffee, and much-needed Gatorade in the peaceful bush setting. After replenishing our electrolytes, the group then makes the steady ascent to the broad ridgeline, before making our way down into the unspoiled valley, the grass glistening gold in the warm afternoon sunlight, as we arrive at our first night’s accommodation — Canopy Eco Lodge.

Standing majestically, as though they were a regiment saluting our efforts, are ten safari-style tents decked out with wooden floors, personal robes and king-size beds. I kick off my muddied shoes, and marvel at the breathtaking views of rolling hills and ancient volcanic plateaus. After a glorious shower, fresh bandages, and a decadent three-course dinner, I join the others basking in the relaxing glow of the fireplace, sipping wine on pillowy couches and discussing everything from puppies to macroeconomics.

Exhausted, I slip away to my own personal glamp-site where I discover a hot water bottle has been placed under-sheet during dinner. Shortly after I doze off, a rainstorm erupts outside, causing the tent walls to pulse and snap; but curled up in my large soft bed I still feel safe and warm from the tempest raging just beyond the canvas. The next morning the rainclouds have cleared, and while many others remark that they had a rough night, I feel glad that I am at least skilled at something — sleeping.

During a hearty cooked breakfast, Karmen and Sam explain that the weather has rendered elements of today’s twenty-kilometre trail unrideable, as our wheels would immediately be caked in inches of mud. We swap our Meridas for a bumpy four-wheel drive journey along the World Heritage Listed Spicers Gap Road, and then walk 150 metres along an historic cobblestone trail, through grand old gums and she-oaks, up to the Governors Chair lookout. We pause there for a while and snap the view as the vast majesty of the valley unfolds before our eyes.

Then it’s back to the bikes for the six-kilometre gravelly descent that gives way to a delightfully flat bitumen road. We follow along the trail, conscious of incoming cars despite the considerable cow-to-car ratio, before turning off onto a grassy shaded track leading to the gates of our next stop at Hidden Peaks Eco Camp. We jump off the bikes, yelp as we rub our bruised backsides and relax by the communal outdoor fireplace in the most high-end beanbags I’ve ever melted into.

As we tuck into a lunch of meat pies, Sam and Karmen hurriedly prepare our six charming red gum cabins, each with bunk beds, ensuite, and personal fireplace. Showers are taken in strict five-minute intervals, and the mandatory use of environmentally friendly Spicers soap leaves the cabins smelling of lemongrass and myrtle. After a rustic dinner of barbequed burgers, we sip wine on the verandah under a blanket of stars; each raising various items of clothing to reveal our respective battle scars from the past forty-eight hours.

Exchanging impressed nods and empathetic “phwoars”, I half expect the group to burst into song like the iconic Jaws sing-along with Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss (“Show me the way to go home!”). Eventually we retire to bed, the next day’s sixty-kilometre ride serving as our own great white shark. Come daybreak, we stir in our sleeping bags as the sun creeps through the cabin windows and surrounding birdsong eases us into wakefulness. The serenity of this place in the early morning is second to none; not even the grass stirs.

For a moment, as I sit out on our personal verandah with my first steaming cuppa, my mind is as effortlessly silent as the atmosphere — a miracle for any busy Sydneysider. The peaceful feeling remains throughout eight invigorating hours of bike riding across the glorious Bicentennial National Trail, traversing the quiet bitumen hills and dirt roads at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. Suddenly it becomes clear where the Scenic Rim got its name as we follow magnificent panoramic hills along the horizon, while whistling kites and wedge-tailed eagles circle overhead.

Day three is a long day, during which backsides beg for mercy, but with less technical difficulty, and I soon gain greater confidence along with firmer quadriceps, and a swish new riding glove tan. The main challenge comes around sundown as we wearily turn off onto the neighbouring fields to our next accommodation. Undulating hills attach themselves to longer, larger hills, and exhaustion can easily take hold — lots of sugar and water is advised. One final spin through the trip’s penultimate single track gets a bit hairy, with a few twists, vexing hillsides and obnoxious rocks, but waiting at the end are the lovely self-sustaining Hideaway Cabins.

Here day three draws to a close with T-bone steaks, a cheeky Shiraz, and another deep sleep. The most rustic of all the stops, Hideaway Cabins combines similar yet smaller duplex-style log cabins with bunks, and a communal bathroom block. Out here, each sunset seems to produce swathes of new stars twinkling overhead, the silence of space perfectly complementing the tranquil Australian outback.

The last morning provides a light continental breakfast to save room for the afternoon’s gourmet lunch at the Chef-Hat awarded Homage restaurant. So for now, it’s tea and toast, while a nearby wallaby basks in the warmth of the morning sun. With a slight wince, we set our bruised derrières back onto the bike seat and finish off the trip with twelve kilometres through the famous Hidden Vale Adventure Park in Grandchester.

Trails with names like The Ripple Effect and Plane Sailing take the group winding through bumpy single tracks and past the wreckage of an old plane crash, until the journey concludes in Spicers Hidden Vale. We celebrate with Champagne and lunch under the shade of a large blue gum before boarding the shuttle for the journey back to Brisbane. After four days of outdoor adventure, luxury accommodation, and challenging moments, I leave with a hardened resolve to get back on the bike, tame my monkey mind, and master those single tracks.

The writer travelled courtesy of the Spicers Hidden Peaks Trail.

Countryside arrives quickly beyond Rome. Yellow villas stand on hillsides surrounded by the exclamation marks of cypress trees. This is a rich land, where sunflowers bloom, wild horses wade in marshland, and truffles grow in oak forests. Olives and vines were brought here by the ancient Etruscans.

Early morning view over Perugia.

Medieval towns sit on tufa outcrops, proud little city-states of leaning houses and terracotta-roofed chapels. It’s a landscape shaped by two-and-a-half millennia of human effort. Naysayers knock it as the poor man’s Tuscany, but Umbria is rich in history, gloriously beautiful and a gourmet’s temptation. Take your time, and its pleasures are revealed.

Naysayers knock it as the poor man’s Tuscany, but Umbria is rich in history, gloriously beautiful and a gourmet’s temptation.

Orvieto comes first if you’re heading north. It’s just over an hour from Rome, and appears in a tangle of railway lines, petrol stations and supermarkets. But look above: Umbria’s old towns are crag-clinging and haven’t been spoiled by the modern infrastructure that, of necessity, lies below. In Orvieto, visitors ascend in an elevator through rock and find themselves in an old town dense with medieval buildings. Plunge in among old towers, Gothic palaces, and shops selling earthenware. Patterned cobblestones lead towards the chief sight: the improbable zebra-striped cathedral.

The food entices you to linger. Local farmers arrive at the market in Piazza del Popolo with eggs, rosemary, red beets, and flowers; try a nibble of the strange local herb called rooster’s foot. Then investigate the alimentare. Orvieto is one of the leaders of Italy’s slow food movement, and its delis are bulging with fennel-flavoured porchetta, salami, cheeses, and crespolino pancakes with leeks in a béchamel sauce. Then indulge in gelato; look for a sign that says produzione propria (homemade) and you can’t go wrong. Even the simplest scoop is exotic and splendid: mellow mango, tangy tangerine, jasmine with a hint of cinnamon.

Fast fact: The worldwide Slow Food movement was founded in Italy in 1986 to promote traditional, regional cuisine and sustainable farming. Orvieto, Todi and Castiglione del Lago are noted for their slow-food ethos.

From here you might head to Perugia, which sits high on another hill, eyeballing rival Assisi across the valley. The wide main street of the old town, Corso Vannucci, is lined by buildings in pale pink stone. Gothic Palazzo dei Priori, built in 1297, is one of Italy’s great public buildings. It’s actually several buildings, including a meeting house for lawyers studded with heraldic crests, two guild houses with elaborate woodwork, and the home of one-time moneychangers, decorated with superb Renaissance frescoes.

Yet Perugia is very much a living town too, and surprisingly cosmopolitan thanks to its university, where foreigners come to study all things Italian. The town has good jazz bars and a lively atmosphere. At Osteria a Priori, you’ll find a compact restaurant and food store that has only Umbrian-sourced food, wine, and beers. Elsewhere, locals dine on hand-cut pastas, homemade ragù, pork loin flavoured with Umbrian truffles, or the local speciality, roast suckling pig.

Early morning view over Perugia.

Spello offers a quieter alternative to the tourist trail.

An Umbrian cheese shop.

Norgia cheese wheel.

Local salamis on sale in an Orvieto shop.

The regional delicacy, truffles, for sale in Orvieto.

cin Perugia.

Of all the Umbrian hill towns, Assisi across the valley is the most ‘touristy’: nearly 6 million people arrive each year to visit the hometown of St Francis. His tomb lies at one end of town, St Clare’s at the other. Among the holiness there’s plenty of history too. Assisi’s old town square has ancient Roman columns from a Temple of Minerva, and the hillside is a cascade of cobblestone streets topped by a papal fortress. The valley below is a spread of sunflower fields and olive groves like a vision of heaven. Heaven too is found in numerous pastry shops, filled with marmalade-sharp ‘mother-in-law’s tongues’, cannoli and almond biscuits.

It might be four o’clock before you stumble out into the afternoon, but what’s the hurry? This is Umbria.

For those seeking a fine alternative, Spello is only 14 kilometres down the road, yet a tourism world away. Only locals sit in the bars, and the streets are pleasingly quiet, but Spello still blends impressive art with history and good food. It has an Ancient Roman gateway, sixteenth-century church frescoes, and buildings of pink marble that blush as the afternoon progresses.

Cannoli pastries on sale in an Assisi café.

At first encounter it appears an aloof, in-bred sort of place, with enclosed squares and secretive, narrow streets and houses so close together on the hillside they’re locked in an eternal stone embrace. Then you notice the homely details: plant pots by doorways, neighbourhood women chatting from wooden chairs dragged into the street, kids skipping in alleys.

Settle in for an afternoon of indulgence at Il Molino. The restaurant is housed inside a medieval mill and even has some Roman-era walls. It has arched roofs and a vast fireplace where lamb is cooked over coals. The menu features creative modern dishes using local produce such as black truffle, Norcia ham, mountain asparagus and porcini mushrooms. It’s a feast enjoyed in slow time: a flan of pear and melted pecorino cheese, gnocchi with fresh tomato and pancetta sauce, and filet of pork in potato crust with walnuts. It might be four o’clock before you stumble out into the afternoon, but what’s the hurry? This is Umbria, and life’s to be enjoyed.

Fact file

Where to stay

Black-truffle capital Norcia is home to Palazzo Seneca, and member of gourmet-focused Relais & Châteaux brand. Its restaurant has a Michelin star for its light, updated Umbrian dishes. relaischateaux.com

Palazzo Piccolomini in Orvieto offers luxury in a renovated sixteenth-century palazzo decorated with considerable contemporary chic. palazzopiccolomini.it

What to do

Ristorante Zeppelin in Orvieto is run by Led Zeppelin enthusiast and chef Lorenzo Polegri, who runs one-day cooking classes, culinary weekends, and various other gourmet-minded Umbrian tours. ristorantezeppelin.com

How to get there

Umbria has a regional airport, located between Perugia and Assisi. The larger, better serviced airports of Rome and Pisa are each around two-plus hours by train to the Umbria region.

More information

italia.it

It was one of those names that made it impossible to ascertain the gender of the sender. As our emails bounced to and fro I convinced myself that the correspondent was female, so was taken by surprise at our first meeting to find myself shaking the hand of a bearded person who was most definitely male.

As humans we are all biased and prejudiced. Bias are those beliefs and attitudes we form based on our background, our culture and our experiences. They help us to make sense of our world providing filters that predetermine our world-view. And with over 150 biases to choose from we are never short of bias apparel on any given day.

Given we are all biased do we need to be concerned?

We make assumptions, pass judgment and develop our personal preferences, which is fine except sometimes we can be completely wrong.

The reason we have so much bias is to provide us with mental shortcuts to reduce cognitive energy expenditure and keep us safe.

The brain is bombarded with over 11 million pieces of information in any given moment, of which we can only process around 40 and pay specific attention to perhaps 5. Bias helps us to aggressively filter this data overload.

This all happens very fast at a subconscious level and we become programed to respond to a given situation making our decision based on what the brain tells us will be safe, familiar and useful to us.

This can trip us up in the area of inclusion and diversity. We veer towards those we consider "like" us. Our closest friends will be the least diverse of all our acquaintances which is why it can be a good idea to ask some one outside your trusted group for their opinion and avoid the hazards of groupthink.

It can be useful to identify the more common biases such as the halo effect - where we see only the good about a person based on personal affinity. The perception bias is the one used to categorise or stereotype people and the confirmation bias is where we look only for those aspects that align with our pre-existing beliefs.

The implication is that we have to assume that in all our judgments there will be at least one element of bias present and to acknowledge the need to differentiate between being right about our beliefs and believing we are right.

Bias awareness alone is not enough

While it helps to build awareness of what bias is and how it influences decision-making, that in itself does not lead to any significant changes in behaviour apart from increasing acceptance of the fallibility of our thinking.

Develop a strategy to help mitigate bias.

Choose to challenge or double-check your first impression or choice.
Slow down your thoughts. Our tendency to "jump to conclusions" or grab the thought that "just crossed my mind" is often an indicator of subconscious bias at work. That’s why it's not always good to trust our instincts or go with that "gut feel" until we have completed the background checks on our thinking.
Mind your language. Check in on the words used in conversations, and question your thinking and beliefs.
Include others. This can be helpful for consistency, feedback on the decision making process and to grant permission for bias to be called out and recognised. Judges on the reality T.V. show The Voice can only listen to the person's singing without the bias provided through visual cues.

Is there anything that really works to reduce bias?

The only strategy identified in the literature so far that led to a reduction in age and race bias was undertaking ten weeks of mindfulness meditation.

Bias is everywhere. What matters is building bias awareness and putting in place those strategies for work-related processes to help mitigate its effect that will lead towards better decision-making.

Passion brands are unique beasts. They are more highly valued than the run of the mill company and for good reason. The job of a brand is to bring in more and more customers. If current customers help you to do that at no cost then the cost of customer acquisition falls. There is something about passion brands that resonates with consumers who then feel compelled to go out into the world and tell all and sundry about said brand. This is “word of mouth” marketing and a value cannot be put on it.

Most passion brands don’t in fact start out with that goal in mind. Steve Jobs certainly didn’t and yet Apple’s fans are famous for their off the charts level of passion. Harley Davidson is the same. When it started 112 years ago, the US-made motorcycle’s primary goal was to make great motorcycles. And yet today, some people choose to brand themselves with a tattoo of that company’s logo. And some of those people don’t actually own a Harley Davidson. Tesla is a more recent example of this. The early adopters are ravenous for the next new thing coming out of Tesla’s factory.

So how can a passion brand emerge when becoming a passion brand isn't their stated goal? My company had an experience of this when we first launched 11 years ago. We had a customer very early on who approached us and said that she was a big fan of our brand but she didn't really believe any company’s websites and she thought that a Yahoo User Group would be useful for us. This was before Facebook and well before the ultimate demise of Yahoo. She offered to moderate it. Moderating is hard. Managing varying opinions on a message board can be very complicated. We happily agreed to this customer moderating our online group but were not totally convinced that it would gain any traction. What did we know? Membership quickly grew and peaked at about 6,000 parents (mostly Mums) exchanging around 6,000 messages a week.

It was remarkable.

And completely unplanned. When Facebook launched, the group migrated to that platform and today we have approximately 200,000 parents. Of that group, a sub-group have become advocates for the brand, writing blogs, attending consumer shows and doing anything they can to help us.

Even though this happened to us, I still didn't understand why it had happened until I read Simon Sinek’s book “Start With Why” and watched his TED Talk. Then the penny dropped and I realized that any company can transition into a passion brand. They just need to do one thing.

The core premise of Sinek’s work is that people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. Passion brands start with the WHY then lead to the HOW and lastly WHAT. Most companies do the opposite. They start with WHAT their offer is. Then they get to the HOW and many never make it to the WHY.

Sinek illustrates this very well using Apple’s positioning. If Apple were like any other company their positioning would read:

“We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. Wanna buy one”.

The order is therefore:

What
How
Call to action in the hopes a sale can be made. (No Why here!)

Apples actual positioning reads as follows:

“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. And we happen to make great computers. Wanna buy one?”.

The order is now reversed:

Why
How
What

It is the very opposite of the norm and the result is a true passion brand.

2 implications for Apple are:

Because they started with their “why” from the outset and because it was not product specific, it has allowed them over the years to go well beyond computers and move into music, phones and watches while staying absolutely true to their “why”: challenging the status quo. There is no need for a different brand. It all fits under the Apple logo.
Because they start with the “why”, they do not have to compete on performance or price. Apple’s phones are inferior to Samsung’s phones for example. The camera quality and battery life are simply not as good as Samsung’s camera quaity and battery life. But that has not hurt sales at all. Similarly, Apple’s laptops are one of the most expensive on the market but sales remain strong.

For our company we realized after the fact that our “why” resonated with consumers and that’s what drove their behaviour. For your company, discover what the “why” is, lead with it and watch the passion grow.

Technology has helped us grow our companies from local enterprises to global endeavors. From the telephone, the telex and the facsimile of yesteryear to mobile phones, messaging platforms and Skype today, we can communicate globally in real time.

Yet technology alone cannot bridge all the divides between cultures. An understanding of the multitude of cultures is needed, and it takes more than bits and bytes to make a global company work.

Prior to launching my company, I spent 15 years in the entirely unrelated world of Japan. I majored in Japanese at university, pursued a post-graduate degree in Japan, became a qualified translator and worked for Japanese companies in the financial markets. It is difficult to find a more different culture. A rare monoculture (98.5% Japanese), 127 million Japanese live on an island a quarter the size of Queensland. More than half the population lives on just 2% of its land. The Japanese are famously backward in coming forward with an opinion; decisions take time and one is never sure who is in fact able to make the final decision. This is why Japan is not a hot spot for entrepreneurialism.

US vs AUS: The culture clash is real

After a complete immersion in this very different culture, moving to the US to launch a company 11 years ago seemed like a far easier assignment. I was pretty confident that the common features of the US and Australia would far outweigh the differences and would pose no impediment to progress. How wrong I was!

Surely a 1970s and 1980s upbringing based on a healthy diet of Happy Days, The Brady Bunch and later on Friends was all that was needed to make the switch from suburban Sydney to Portland, Oregon. But while the language is pretty close, the culture is deceptively different. The brash, self-confidence of some of our American cousins contrasts with the laid-back, slower pace that Aussies can present. The former can come off as arrogant, the latter lazy. The result? A dog’s breakfast. Of course these are all generalisations. After my first months in liberal-leaning Portland, I thought I had America down pat and believed the 2004 Democratic candidate Al Gore was a shoe-in. Heading to Ohio to meet our manufacturing partner for the first time, alas, I realised that America wasn’t all bespoke cafés, street cars and bicycles, as Portland had suggested.

After my Canadian-born wife and I built our American team, we spread our wings to the UK and EU and built a team there. This is where things got really interesting. As a US-headquartered company with a UK office, relying on a not-great Skype connection, and an early morning-late night time difference, the challenges emerged. The UK office felt like second-class citizens at times, playing second fiddle to the US. The US team felt aggrieved that the UK office needed more resources than they felt reasonable. Sometimes the UK was right. Sometimes the US was right. What was guaranteed was dysfunction.

Recognising the potential for clashes

On reflection, I see the following factors contributing to the culture clash issues. It is here that clues to a better approach lie.

According to the US State Department, only 36% of Americans hold a valid passport. With minimal exposure to overseas cultures, miscommunication is inevitable. I experienced that first-hand on my first trip to Japan. Only 24% of Japanese hold a valid passport.
The power dynamic between HQ and satellite offices exacerbates the issue. A concerted effort is needed to bring the entire organisation together virtually and in-person regularly to remind the group that this is one team.
Time zones can kill culture. In spite of all the advances in telepresence technology, time zones still need to be negotiated. If one team is always being asked to do early morning calls, that wears thin after a very short while. Share the burden.

Overall, the two skills required to succeed across cultures are self-awareness and awareness of others; in essence, emotional intelligence or EQ. If you can walk in another person’s shoes for a day, many of these issues dissolve and the power of collective intelligence can emerge.

Australian public policy think-tank the Grattan Institute has released a report recommending the government introduce a tax on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) “to recoup some of the costs of obesity to the community”.

The institute considers the best course of action to be an excise tax of 40 cents per 100 grams of sugar on non-alcoholic, water-based drinks that contain added sugar. This would exclude fruit juice and milk-based drinks, on the basis that while these have some nutritional value, soft drinks and other water-based sugary drinks do not.

Why not a tax across the board on all products containing added sugar?

Why only sugary drinks and not lollies, biscuits, cakes or chocolate? For some products, the same argument applies. Most yoghurts and all ice cream, for example, contain added sugar, but there’s an argument to be made that the calcium content provides nutritional value. And why not lollies? To answer that, you need to compare the sugar content in a lollypop, or a standard serve of lollies to the amount of sugar in the average soft drink.

In Australia, 70% of children between the ages of 4 – 19 exceed their recommended daily sugar intake.

A Chupa Chup contains 10g of sugar. Two Allen’s lolly snakes, a standard serving size, contain 11g of sugar. An original Tim Tam contains 8g. Compare that to a 375ml can of cola that contains a whopping 40g of sugar and it’s easy to see why SSBs are a problem.

The WHO recommends adults get only 10% of their daily energy requirement from added sugar, which works out at about 55g. So, an average can of soft drink provides nearly the entirety of an adult’s recommended sugar intake, while a 600ml bottle contains more than the recommended amount at 64g. That’s 16 teaspoons of sugar in one go.

Recent research from the University of Sydney shows that 55% of adults and 70% of children between the ages of 4 – 19 in Australia exceed their recommended daily sugar intake. For children, a third of that sugar comes from SSBs, while for adults the proportion is around 25%, so SSBs are an even bigger issue when it comes to childhood obesity.

Another problem with SSBs is that many people don’t view them as a treat or ‘sometimes food’. Soft drinks are often viewed as part of a meal, while sports drinks, flavoured waters and fruit drinks are seen as healthy, even when the evidence is clear — they aren’t.

It seems like a natural step to take to introduce a tax that encourages people to limit their intake of SSBs. It worked with cigarettes and petrol, so why not?

Is a sugar tax a sensible first step to combat obesity?

There’s no denying that something needs to be done to combat the growing problem of obesity. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 63% of Australian adults, nearly 2 in 3, are overweight or obese. And 25% or 1 in 4 Australian children are too. Obesity is the 2nd highest contributor to the nation’s overall burden of disease. The Grattan Institute estimates that obesity costs Australia $5.3 billion every year, which includes both the cost of health care and the loss of productivity cost, as obese people are less likely to be employed or pay taxes. And this might be a conservative estimate, when you consider that a 2015 PWC study put the cost in 2011-2012 at $8.6 billion.

63% of Australian adults, nearly 2 in 3, are overweight or obese. And 25% or 1 in 4 children are too.

The Grattan Institute is the first to admit an SSB tax is not a ‘silver bullet’ fix for obesity. The report’s authors, Stephen Duckett and Hal Swerissen say “that would require a suite of new policies and programs”. In a 2014 McKinsey Global Institute economic analysis of obesity, an SSB tax was only one of 74 interventions that were recommended to tackle the problem. The analysis also concluded that “no single solution creates sufficient impact to reverse obesity: only a comprehensive, systemic program of multiple interventions is likely to be effective”. And more recently, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) released a position statement on obesity, in which a ‘sugary drinks tax’ was just one of 17 recommendations.

Ideally, the revenue raised by an SSB tax, which the Grattan Institute estimates would be around $500 million a year, would go towards some of these additional recommendations for tackling and preventing obesity. In which event, the SSB tax would better enable the government to put in place other new policies and programs to create a multipronged solution to the obesity epidemic.

And if SSB manufacturers want to avoid the tax, they can, by reformulating their products to contain less sugar. After it was announced that the UK will be introducing a sugar tax on SSBs in 2018, Tesco decided to lower the sugar content in its own brand soft drinks.

Or is it nanny state nonsense?

Barnaby Joyce certainly thinks so. The Nationals leader and deputy prime minister called the idea of a sugar tax “bonkers mad”, adding, “If you want to deal with being overweight, here’s a suggestion — stop eating so much and do a bit of exercise. There’s two bits of handy advice and you get that for free.”

It’s not surprising that the Nationals leader would come down hard against a policy that might negatively impact sugar cane farmers. However, the Grattan Institute says that 80% of the sugar produced in Australia is exported, meaning the impact on the industry would minimal.

The Australian Beverages Council says there’s no evidence that SSB taxes have had any impact on obesity rates in countries where they have already been introduced.

In a statement released by the Australian Beverages Council, CEO Geoff Parker says SSB sales are already declining in Australia and there’s no evidence that SSB taxes have had any impact on obesity rates in countries where they have already been introduced. And he says, “Soft drinks can absolutely be enjoyed in moderation. Food and beverage consumption is a personal choice, not a revenue raiser.”

This is an argument echoed by opinion columnists everywhere; that such a tax imposes on our personal freedoms — and moreso for the poor. As the ABS shows, lower income households spend more money on sugary drinks than higher income households, so our low income earners would be hit the hardest by such a tax.

A moot point anyway?

With outspoken resistance from the deputy prime minister, Australian sugar cane farmers and the soft drink industry, it looks like anyone attempting to introduce a sugar tax in Australia would have a real fight on their hands. The sugar lobby may be too strong to overcome.

Australian Health Minister, Sussan Ley, has said the government does not support a sugar tax, but will continue to consider the evidence, while Treasurer Scott Morrison hasn’t ruled it out, saying that, for now, his focus is elsewhere.

On the other hand, Greens leader, Senator Richard di Natale, says if the government doesn’t act on the Grattan Institute’s recommendations, the Greens will put forward their own private members bill.

A sugar tax might not be the best solution to the problem. And it’s doubtful that it will make much of an impact on obesity in isolation. But it’s a good first step to combat the problem, especially if the money raised is reinvested into the creation of further public health programs. One point that everyone agrees on is that something needs to be done to combat obesity, because the standard advice – “eat less and exercise more” – isn’t working.

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The order is therefore:

The order is now reversed:

2 implications for Apple are:

US vs AUS: The culture clash is real

Recognising the potential for clashes

Why not a tax across the board on all products containing added sugar?

Is a sugar tax a sensible first step to combat obesity?

Or is it nanny state nonsense?

A moot point anyway?