Aug 2, 2012 | Change, Personal Rant
The much waited review of the” Work Choices” legislation will be released today, after the Minister has had it for a month considering the implications.
It will be absorbing to watch and listen to the “argy bargy” and strident demands of the various union dependent officials and politicians speaking out against the measures increasingly being taken by management that have as their objective recapturing their right to manage, and to reflect the current reality in those decisions. The recent Qantas lock-out and the current noise about labor visas for mining workers spring to mind.
Overall union membership in the economy is around 18%, only 13% if you take out the unionized public sector, against figures of mid 30’s in the 1990’s, and immediately post war, 65%.
Are these noises the last gasp of the doomed?
It is hard to think otherwise than that the power of the 18% is entirely because of the formal ties with the labor party, and the compulsory voting system in this country forcing donkeys to vote. I wonder what the voter turnout would be in a voluntary voting system, and what that may do to the existing two party structure.
As an advisor to a number of small businesses, I see every day the depredations emanating from the absurdly biased regulations surrounding employment. Were they to be removed, employment would immediately increase.
There are structural changes in employment going on, specifically there are far more self employed than even just a few years ago, many would not go back to the dark side, and self employment is a disincentive to the employment of others.
At the recent ACTU congress in Sydney, while trying to absorb the reality that less than 18% of the workforce is unionised, and this number is dropping, propelled by the structural changes in the economy, dumb regulations, and the odious nature of the implications of the Craig Thompson revelations, the union officialdom stood on the podium ,collectively looking like King Canute.
It is in the county’s interest to have many self employed people they are more entrepreneurial, risk takers, they produce value, not consume it, and yet the policies being pursued seem to mitigate against contractors and the self employed.
Jul 29, 2012 | Leadership, Personal Rant
Recently my local council took a decision under extremely dubious circumstances, and against the wishes of much of the local community, and their own guidelines.
In preparing for my 3 minute opportunity to voice my disgust at the decision, and its inevitable outcomes, I broke my objections down to three components that the council leadership should consider as they imposed a decision made in isolation of the wishes of the community, for reasons that had nothing to do with the good of the community.
- Morality and legality. Just because something is legal, does not necessarily make it moral. Just because you may be able to manipulate the existing regulations to accommodate a 7 story apartment block overshadowing an area you listed as a heritage area does not make it right to do so, particularly when the financial basis of the alterations are at best, obscured.
- Transparency of leadership. Those who wish to lead, particularly those who are elected to do so have an obligation to ensure that decision-making is a transparent process. Without transparency, the leadership is compromised past repair very quickly. Look no further than the mess in Canberra for confirmation.
- Consistency of decision-making. A decision made today, must be consistent with those made yesterday, and if not, the reasons for the inconsistency must be overwhelming, and transparent to everyone affected.
Whilst my impassioned pleas did not change the decision, when I look back on it, the headings to which I spoke still resonate.
By the way, I am still angry, and with council elections now very close, at least some retribution is coming. Just a pity it is too late for to prevent the disaster emerging from the hubris, incompetence, and self interest of the those about to lose their sinecures at the developer honey pot.
Jul 1, 2012 | Management, Personal Rant
If Australia was a company, it would be a case study for the need for a coherent strategy as the basis for commercial sustainability. As it is, the place is a shambles, the Directors are held in contempt, clearly they are not listening to management, and have no ideas themselves beyond short term self preservation, and are simply wasting the proceeds of our collective good fortune.
Lets consider some of the characteristics of an enterprise that is successfully meeting the needs of its stakeholders, while building the foundations of long term prosperity.
- The board has articulated a clear, simple purpose for the business to exist, and a strategy that is well understood throughout the business, and by outside stakeholders. Where individuals, or groups have a divergent view, they see that there has been a transparent “due process” undertaken, so they do not feel, as if their voice is irrelevant, or unheard. Contrast that to Australia’s current “board” in Canberra. There is no coherent articulation of the values we hold dear, but when it suits, hypocrisy and expediency with the truth are paraded out as virtues.
- In a corporation, available resources are allocated across a portfolio of needs, from overheads necessary to keep the place running to projects that will build the foundations for continuing prosperity, and those that are needed to address more short term challenges. Contrast that to the poll driven expediency of our current board, and total lack of any management skill, project or otherwise.
- In a corporation, once priorities have been agreed, resultant activities are driven by the desire for simplicity and consistency in the manner in which the contributions to the outcomes are measured and equated. Consider the inconsistency of the introduction today of the carbon tax. The objective is to, supposedly, make a start to a carbon neutral future, give a fillip to carbon reduction technology, and so on, but at the same time subsidies are being given to the Aluminum smelter in Geelong to keep 600 jobs, while the smelter continues to take 15% of the electricity consumed in Victoria, generated from brown coal. Inconsistent??? If the logic holds, Fairfax and News Corp should be in line for massive assistance. After all, they are semi redundant industries laying off 2,000 workers, so they must warrant assistance, right? Hell might freeze over.
- In a corporation we would get the best people we could to head the functional responsibilities, and they would faced the discipline of the bottom line, and delivery of objectives. Here we get, with a few notable exceptions on both sides, political hacks, deal-doers, and “operators” who have served their time in parties whose membership is small enough to fit in a phone box, and who will do and say anything with impunity, if their skin is thick enough. As a result, Australians have lost faith in their integrity, and ability to deliver anything of value.
- Oh, and by the way, we can put directors who lie to shareholders in gaol, although they usually just get a whopping fine, and are banned from being a director again. This is not just a shot at the current prime Ministers whopper about carbon imposition of a tax, but at the whole body politic who seem to be impervious to the truth, use data in highly selective and misleading ways, and squirm at any notion of transparency and accountability. The same lot however, will legislate to outlaw their behavior when others copy them. Is it any wonder that we have lost all respect for them
Jun 19, 2012 | Branding, Communication, Marketing, Personal Rant, Strategy
The current Australian government has a marketing problem.
Their other problems, trouble with the hung parliament, zealous credit card expenditure by MP’s, inability to out-communicate the drivel of the opposition, a rebellious electorate, a failed “moral Imperative” and others, are just the symptoms.
Every useful marketer knows that success depends on a relentless focus on clearly articulated longer term goals. When focus is allowed to shift to the crisis of the day, from the “main-game”, whatever that may be in your circumstances, to responding to the day to day, the marketing effort fragments and stumbles for lack of a solid foundation.
The problem with this Government, and the Opposition as well, is a lack of any long term goal the electorate understands beyond their selfish objective of retaining/gaining power, and if the electorate cannot buy into the government of the day’s priorities for various reasons, they at least understand the “why”, as a process of explanation has occurred.
Generally the pundits say the Government has a communication problem, but it is much deeper than that, they have no idea of what it is they wish to communicate beyond the press release of the day that they hope will dose the fire started yesterday. They have a fundamental strategic marketing problem, not just a communication problem.
Jun 18, 2012 | Branding, Marketing, Personal Rant, Sales
I have been having trouble with bloody Optus, again, my exclusive supplier of communication services. They simply cannot seem to get anything right, clearly the left hand has no idea, and I suspect do not care what the right hand is doing. Their customer service does not talk to their accounts who will not talk to their technical service, who do not talk to their retailers, a real dogs breakfast. Frustrating in the extreme.
Yesterday, I got another call from some young bloke in their call centre, reading from a script telling me how he had a great deal for me because I was such a loyal customer. Pity they are not a loyal supplier!
How good would it be if they actually did care, and showed it by any one of a number of means at their disposal to make my digital life simpler, cheaper, better integrated, more transparent, and easier to manage. Allocating obviously anglo names on their call sheet to those in their call cantre whose first language was English seems a pretty logical step.
Loyalty runs both ways, and those very few businesses that make the effort to act in their customers interests, rather than just their own, usually do pretty well. There are the big ones we all know about, but there are also small businesses around that make it easy, pleasant, and “human” to conduct a transaction, so you come back for another one, again, and again.
Customers are always looking for a better deal because that is all that these dills have left them. If any of the telcos reduced the customer churn by 0.5%, a seemingly modest target, they would be way in front, because they could reduce advertising and re-contract costs, cross sell more easily, and reduce their “service” costs by doing something right first time.
Genuinely caring about the customer experience, being a bit loyal to their customers seems a pretty good way to start, a customers loyalty to a brand needs to be earned, it will not be given away to those who do not deserve or value it.
Jun 14, 2012 | Communication, Personal Rant, Social Media
Last week I was talking to a headhunter seeking to fill a senior contract management role for which I had been recommended. I had polished up the resume and sent it as requested, and he had browsed my blog and Linkedin profile, but the conversation was awkward, filling in and rehashing the detail of my long career to the exclusion of the bigger view.
Towards the end, I simply asked him what he was looking for, and the answer surprised. His response was “virtually everyone I see who I have not met before substantially embellishes if not outright lies on their resume, I am looking for the inconsistencies”.
What a conversation stopper!.
All I could say was “what you see is what you get”. No lies, no embellishments, no credit taken personally for successes of the teams I have led, no walking away from the blunders, no lipstick on the pig.
