Our Brand - The Ancestral Boardroom

The longhouse is traditionally the one consistent dwelling found throughout the Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas that has symbolised cultural and social solidarity since at least the 15th century. It was a place where people spent many hours of their lives, and a place where community vision, and strategy were discussed and communicated daily. Sound familiar?

The parallels between the traditional community longhouse, and the structures of today's major corporations, and governing organisations cannot be understated. The intimacy and physical organisation of these dwellings were believed to reflect fundamental social and political values, and today the longhouse remains a symbol of the persistence of culture which is  one of the strongest forms of communication today.

Extending from this, Longhaus take its company vision from the cornerstones of industry that underpin all business; common goals and better results; infused cultural commitment; unified corporate performance; visible and actionable communications and strategy.

Finally, our logo represents the strength and simplicity of a foundation column, symbolising the centuries-old resilience of the international longhouse.

Corporate Social Responsibility 

According to the Corporate Social Responsibility Index (funded by the Australian Federal Government) the World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines corporate responsibility as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce, their families and the local community and society at large.

More than goodwill, corporate community involvement or strategic corporate philanthropy, corporate responsibility is a genuine attempt by a company to build meaningful relationships between the corporate sector and the rest of society. As an advisor to Australia’s corporate sector on the application of technology in business, and a recognised brand for ICT research Longhaus takes its profile and therefore participation in CSR activities very seriously. An overview of the range of key initiatives include:

• Sponsorship of socially responsible awards such as the YAA Business Skills Program;
• Provision of personal care and hygiene products to the Royal Children’s Hospital through a Ronald McDonald House program designed to provide support for out-of-town families whose children require extended stays for medical treatment;
• Participation in CSR charity initiatives such as Movember for the support of men’s health;
• Pro-bono advisory support to the Queensland Australian Computer Society Special Interest Group for Green ICT;
• Pro-bono participation in industry development programs such as the ICT Leaders Summit in Queensland;
• Pro-bono participation as independent judges for Awards including the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, the Queensland Pearcey Awards, and MIS New Zealand Hot 100 Vendors; and
• Participation in Catholic Community School Sponsorship Program.

The Environment and Green ICT 

Longhaus is actively involved in advising its ICT technology vendor and end-user clients on the applicability of Green ICT solutions for large enterprise in the Australia and near-shore region. In this way Longhaus is taking a leading role in awareness and education of the environmental performances of ICT. Furthermore, Longhaus has implicit environmental policies built-in to its business practices as outlined below:

• Where possible, the Longhaus Research Centre operates as a paperless environment;
• All lighting, air-conditioning and computer equipment is turned off at the end of each working day;
• Longhaus chooses to support the carbon-neutral policy of QANTAS and Virgin Blue through the offset ticketing emissions fee for each flight within Australia and Internationally;
• Longhaus provides all of its research reports in an electronic format unless otherwise requested by clients;
• Longhaus estimates the environmental savings for paper consumption alone on the quanitity of freely downloadable reports at:
  • 240 boxes (1,200 reams) of paper per year for publicly downloaded reports and materials.
  • Equating to savings of 6,531 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions.