Business innovation is generating and successfully employing new ideas within your business. This can be in the form of creating and bringing a new product or service to the market, or a series of smaller innovations, for example, finding a more efficient way of working to become more profitable.
Innovation is generally a creative process and many business ideas need significant time, energy or money in order to develop and become commercially viable. Developing a culture of innovation in a business can be vital to its long-term success and profitability.
There are several reasons why the generation of new ideas can be critical to a business’s success. Although every organisation will have its own priorities and specific issues to balance, businesses that fail to innovate may ultimately lose market-share to their competitors, lose key staff, or simply be operating inefficiently. Innovation can often be a key differentiator between market leaders and their rivals.
Innovation can help businesses discover what opportunities exist now, or are likely to emerge in the future. Successful businesses not only respond to their current customer or organisational needs, but often anticipate future trends and develop ideas, products or services that allows them to meet a future demand rapidly and effectively. Innovation will help companies to stay ahead of their competition as markets, technologies or trends shift.
Innovation is not only about developing a new product or service to promote, but it can also look at existing business practices to improve efficiency, develop new customers, reduce waste and increase profit.
Continually improving business practices and seeking to innovate is also likely to help you attract better team members and retain more of your existing staff – something which can be vital to the long-term performance of your business.
Consumers often view innovation as something that adds value to a business or to its services and products. Executed well, innovation can give businesses a commercial advantage – especially in saturated or readily evolving markets. Studies show that consumers may even be willing to pay more for well-designed, novel and innovative product or service offerings, rather than choosing a cheaper, but less interesting rival.
We are delighted to announce that we are launching the Return to Sender™ range of coffins to Australia. Return to Sender are New Zealand’s leading designers and manufacturers of contemporary coffins, catering to the growing number of people looking for less traditional, aesthetically designed coffins with an environmental focus.
Return to Sender’s award-winning coffins are designed to ensure families are able to express what was important to their loved one through their coffin choice. Each coffin is handcrafted with care, from natural materials; made with the environment in mind; and allows for the expression of individuality and values.
What makes Return to Sender different?
Return to Sender believe in using design principles in support of the environment. A family that values beauty, design, creativity, integrity and nature will find a Return to Sender coffin is the perfect departing vessel.
Return to Sender use natural materials as much as possible – water-based colours, natural finishes, wool fleece instead of synthetic fabrics, corn starch and leather in place of plastic. Material use is kept to a minimum and clever design features such as timber locking mechanisms, reduce the need to non-decaying fixings.
Furthermore, Return to Sender coffins are part of our Memorial Tree Program, whereby a native tree is planted on behalf of the family when they choose one of these coffins. This becomes a living legacy of families’ loved ones and helps in our quest to reduce our environmental footprint.
The Wayfarer design coffin
A lightweight modern coffin design, with a contemporary shape.
Constructed from laser-cut plywood from sustainably harvested forests.
Beautiful real leather handles and lid fixings.
Ultra-lightweight but very strong – a minimal elegant form.
Part of the Memorial Tree Program.
Internal dimensions L x W x D (cm): 191 x 56 x 29
Optional extras for the Wayfarer model:
Australian wool fleece mattress & pillow
Bamboo blanket
Nameplate
Crucifix
Contact us for more information
Return to Sender’s award-winning coffins and accessories are available across Australia exclusively through Ashtons. For more information contact your state Account Manager or call us on 1300 263 346 (1300 COFFIN)
You can download the Return to Sender catalogue from our website’s Resources section.
There a several common mistakes that funeral directors can make when cleaning or polishing a coffin, and we explain what these are and how to overcome them in our new video called, ‘How to polish a coffin for a funeral’.
In this new video we show you how to properly remove dust and polish a coffin. The video outlines the correct techniques and materials your team should be using to make a coffin or casket looks its best at a funeral.
This video can be found in our exclusive Resources section. Simply click on the Resources menu on the top of the website and login or register as a new user.
Ashton clients have exclusive, free access to our website’s Resources section, which contains:
Useful articles
Our product catalogues
‘How to’ guides
Educational videos and more.
Registration is required to access this section. Simply click on the Resources link at the top of the website and follow the prompts to register as a user.
Australian’s are getting older. Australia’s elderly population (officially defined as those over 65 – I hear you saying that’s not that old!) is expected to more than double by 2054-55.
When the baby boom generation kicked off in 1946, their life expectancy at birth was 66.1 years for a male and 70.6 for a female. That’s only 1.1 years and 5.6 six years in retirement respectively. Fast forward, and the life expectancy of a male born in 2015 has increased to 80.3 years and 84.4 years for a female¹ (Figure 1). It is no wonder the government is progressively increasing the retirement age from July 2017.
There are only six other countries worldwide where both men and women have a life expectancy over 80 years. Joining Australia are Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Iceland, Israel and Sweden.
We’re living longer as a result of more healthy lifestyles and advances in medical treatment, better education, rising wealth and improved public safety. The last point is worth reflecting on. No doubt we’ve felt at times the “nanny state” has taken over and the Australian ethos of “she’ll be right mate” has been suppressed, but just think how many lives have been saved because of the introduction of seat belts in cars and random breath testing, not to mention better workplace safety measures.
When the first of the baby boomers reached the retirement age in 2011, it was clear that this group was more educated, opinionated and wealthy than any previous generation and they were set to redefine what it means to be in retirement.
The baby boom wave entering retirement over the past five years is a mere trickle compared to what is coming over the horizon.
Within ten years, Australia’s population will be approaching 28 million, up from 25 million now and double the population in 1975. By 2055 when Generation X (those born between 1963 and 1980) enter retirement, the population is forecast to increase to circa 40 million².
In 2025, there will be 4.9 million Australian’s aged over 65, 600,000 of which will be aged over 85. The over 65’s will represent 17.4% of the population (Figure 3). At the same time, the 0-14 year olds will represent 19% of the population. By 2055, 22.6% of the population will be over 65 (17.7% aged 65-84 and 4.9% aged over 85).
Back in 1975, the over 65’s represented just 8.7% of the population, while the 0-14 year olds represented a massive 27.5% of the population.
What are the ramifications of an ageing population? The two most critical being: 1) the changing composition of our workforce and 2) the increase in costs of servicing the growing demand for health and aged care services.
The ratio of working age people (people aged 15 to 64 years old) to support every person aged 65 and over is shrinking. Back in 1974-75 there were approximately 7.3 eligible workers to every retiree, by 2014-15 this had fallen to 4.5 and by 2024-25 it is expected to fall to just 3.7 (Figure 3). Look ahead to 2054-55, and it is forecast to be a mere 2.7.
Despite the headline ratio numbers declining, recent employment numbers show that Australians, whether because they are healthy and have an active mind, or want to generate extra income (for many, compulsory super came late in their life and as a result they may not have saved enough to fund their retirement lifestyle), are opting to stay in the workforce longer – even if it is on a part-time or casual basis.
According to the latest employment data³, participation in the job market of the 65 years and over is 12.3% – a record high (Figure 4). The number of Australians aged over 65 still working totals 456,000, of which 198,300 are working full-time and 257,300 are working part-time. By 2054-55, Treasury expect the participation rate to increase to 17.3%.
Australia’s growing elderly population is set to drive up health and aged costs as a result of higher utilisation of health services and the cost of providing aged care services – both accommodation and home care.
According to the recent Federal budget, health costs are expected to increase from $69.1 billion to $79.3 billion by 2019/20 – a 14% increase, while aged care assistance is forecast to increase from $60.0 billion to $73.0 billion – a 22% increase°. The principal drivers of the substantial increases in aged care costs comes from income support for seniors (the pension), which is forecast to rise from $43.2 billion to $51.9 billion – a 20% increase, and payments for aged care accommodation support which is forecast to rise from $10.7 billion to $13.5 billion – a 26.1% increase over the next four years.
An ageing population won’t be without its challenges. But, we cannot afford to let the considerable experience, skills and wisdom of older Australian’s go to waste. We should embrace older Australian’s as being more active and productive than previous generations rather than ‘a burden’ upon society. Also, the sheer number of retirees coming through will increase demand for a range of service industries including tourism, financial services, aged care, and personal care services to name a few.
Article by Adrian Harrington who is the Head of Funds Management at Folkestone. Folkestone is an ASX listed (ASX code: FLK) real estate funds manager and developer providing real estate wealth solutions. For more information visit their website folkestone.com.au.
Sources:
[1] ABS Deaths, Australia, 2014 – Cat 3302.0 and https://www.aihw.gov.au/deaths/life-expectancy/
[2] 2015 Intergenerational Report: Australia in 2055 – Federal Treasury
[3] ABS – 6291.0.55.001 Labour Force, Australia, Detailed – April 2016
[°] Budget Paper No. 1: Budget Strategy and Outlook 2016-17 – Federal Government – May 2016
The Supanova pop culture expo is a fan convention which focuses on science fiction, fantasy films, television, comic books, anime, gaming and all things collectable. It is held annually in the Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and our own Gold Coast.
We decided to take our Expression Coffins along to the expo and show a new demographic our amazing superhero-themed designs.
We had a super fun time at the Supanova festival on the Gold Coast. The response to our superhero Expression Coffins was absolutely amazing as you’ll see in the video.
As of the 31st March 2025, Ashton's Head Office QLD will be changing office hours to the following: Monday - Thursday 8am - 4:30pm, Friday - 8am - 2:30pm
