Strategy is an abused word in Australia as it is often confused with tactics. You can be regarded as strategic even if all you do, is vary the price of your products.

Strategy is all about choice, choosing to do something or choosing not to do something.

Michael E. Porter puts it like this:

" the essence of strategy is choosing a unique and valuable position rooted in systems of activities that are much more difficult to match."

Porter's HBR Article can be found here.

Getting to the strategic purity of Porter's is difficult for most companies as the hardest thing is to say no to some customers. However I have run across one Australian company that does not have that problem. ASP Plastics of St Marys in Sydney run by managing director Paul Brennan has a clear idea of what they do and don't do:

• They do NOT take business from their competitors. They do NOT compete on price.
• They DO find new niches and exploit them. If exploiting the new niche requires new skills, they find them.
• They do NOT get emotionally attached to any product. If its attractivesness falls, they walk away.

This is a simple list of "What we do and What we don't do" but it is working for ASP as parts of its business are growing at 300%!

Yes, the Cormack Awards are on again with design students from the leading universities competing for one of the most practical design competitions in Australia.

Students from the University of Technology Sydney, the University of New South Wales, the University of Canberra and Monash University are this year busily creating designs to meet the brief for the Cormack Award.

The Cormack Award is regarded as one of the most practical awards, as the competition criteria and judging is done by people working in FMCG, beverage and pharmaceutical companies, the same people that one day will be commissioning designs from these students.

The awards culminate in the Presentation Night which this year will be held in Sydney in October. Past winners of the award include Tim Bird and Frag Woodall who are both working with Cormack.

Cormack Packaging has won the prestigious Western Sydney Industry Award for Excellence in Innovation.

The Western Sydney Industry Awards are an initiative of the NSW Government's Office of the Minister for Western Sydney, in partnership with the Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board and the NSW Department of State and Regional Development.

The awards, now in their eigth year, are one of their biggest of their type in Australia and showcase the innovation and diversity of Western Sydney businesses, especially the manufacturing sector.

Manufacturing is the dominant industry and large employer in Western Sydney, contributing over $30 billion annually in sales and service to the region, Minister for Western Sydney, Barbara Perry, said.

The annual awards were judged by former ABC science correspondent, David Ellyard together with Dr Judith Bennett and Mr Walter Suber.

Cormack Packaging won the Excellence in Innovation award in the innovative product or service category for its new Swing Cap.

This new beverage cap has an attractive ergonomic mouth piece, a protective cap that when open remains away from the face when open, is tamper evident and presents no choking hazard.

Cormack's Managing Director, Mathew Cormack, said the Swing Cap has proven popular with consumers and is part of the above-forecast success of the beverage that it is first appearing on.

"The Swing Cap was commissioned by a leading international beverage company who regard it as a ground breaking design," Mr Cormack said.

Cormack defeated stiff competition from other local companies supplying products and equipment for applications as diverse as the A380 airbus and semi conductors for Blackberry devices and mobile phones.