Contents

About the author

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Carpe diem

Chapter 2: Jobs for the boys

Chapter 3: Fysh and the Santaro chips

Chapter 4: Fysh to fellow earthlings

Chapter 5: Believe, belong, behave

Chapter 6: Everyone loves a road trip!

Chapter 7: One Earth, one belief, one hell of a day

Chapter 8: Make your heart sing

Chapter 9: Galactic Bastion

First published 2010 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

42 McDougall Street, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

Typeset in Berkeley LT 12/15pt

© Simon Hammond 2010

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design by Marta White

Cover illustration by Boris Silvestri

Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based upon the information in this publication. This book is a work of fiction. Certain characters, while based on public figures, are fictional. No public figure mentioned in this book endorses the views, attitudes or opinions within this book, which are the author’s alone.

There are four humans I live for, who inspire me to keep finding new ideas, push new boundaries and be better every day—and to whom I dedicate this work:

Oscar, the young warrior who stands for what he believes in; Hunter, the caring braveheart of the family; Georgia, with her sheer force of unbridled spirit; and Rob, who shows me heaven while grounding me on Earth.

About the author

For more than two decades, Simon Hammond has pushed the boundaries of traditional thinking to provoke creative change within Australian business and society.

Hammond’s social insights have made him a sought-after social commentator and motivational speaker and his BE Branding philosophy has become a studied benchmark in brand positioning.

His telling observations of mainstream behaviour challenge many accepted conventions and throw new light on the disconnection between society and business today.

He targets the fear of increased political correctness, complex corporate governance issues and the information explosion as enemies of customer loyalty. His provocative views have contributed to his latest offering to the business world — a theatrical rock show, which has already been performed nationally to packed-out business audiences. A former newspaper, radio and magazine journalist, Hammond has left his mark in many aspects of the Australian media and communication industry: news reporter, magazine editor, columnist, radio host, playwright, author of three books and four-times communications agency founder, including his latest venture, Bastion Brands.

Acknowledgements

This book began as a rollicking imaginary tale about a gen Y upstart who stumbles across an opportunity of a lifetime to create the ultimate brand.

It finished up as a piece of work I am genuinely proud of thanks to the vision, generous collaboration and sheer hard work of two of the brightest people I have had the pleasure to work with: Katherine Drew and Ilaria Walker.

Together we have travelled the universe, tweaking alien characters, changing the world and completely altering reality.

Without Katherine this project simply would never have happened. Without Ilaria’s patience it would have been a lot bloody harder! Without the dedicated Wiley team it wouldn’t be in your hands right now.

Also, since the last book a small bunch of individuals have believed passionately in me and made life amazing: Matt, Dunc, Seages, Kate, Gideon, Jo, Hugh, Jim, Ferg, Andrew, Strachan, Liana, Mum and Dad. Thanks.