Ancient Chinese secret? Feng shui gets down to business.

• Position: Opener - Brief Article

Having cash-flow problems? Better call your accountant. Customers not paying on time? A collection agency could help. Suffering from creative block? Perhaps you need a vacation.

Or maybe you should call Vera Marie Kostelnik, feng shui consultant. What is feng shui? "In a nutshell, it's putting balance into your life," says Kostelnik, who lives in Hobart.

Pronounced "fung shway," it's an ancient Asian philosophy that literally means "wind and water," she says. It's all about promoting living and working where the winds are soft and the waters calm, figuratively speaking. In Western practice, it's known as the "art of placement," putting various things in their proper places.

If it sounds like interior design, you're right. It can also be applied to landscape design. Though it's some four millennia old, the practice has been gaining increased acceptance on this side of the world in recent years, at home and in the workplace.

For many followers, feng shui is a collection of sensible design concepts: avoid narrow pathways, make sure lighting is of good quality, don't block spaces with posts or beams, choose smooth over sharp edges. For some believers, it's a lot more--the freeing up of the life-force energy known as ch'i. Careful students of Asian culture will recognize that manipulating ch'i is also a central tenet of acupuncture.

What does this mean for the operation of your business? More than you can imagine, according to Kostelnik. When she's called in to do a feng shui analysis, she quizzes business owners about anything that's going wrong, from creative block to slow accounts receivable. She also consults the "bagua," a traditional, octagonal diagram that can be used to identify which parts of the office influence certain elements, such as wealth, knowledge, career and fame. "I'm looking for blockages."

Take creative block, for example. This could be a major problem...