Coca Cola Versus the Public – container recycling as a branding challenge

Coca Cola, Lion Nathan and Schweppes have successfully challenged the Northern territory’s compulsory container deposit recycling scheme in the Federal Court. The scheme had seen recycling rates jump by 30% in just a few months and was widely applauded by the public as the right thing to do. Despite the overwhelming public support, Coca Cola and others chose to have the scheme over turned. In this chat with ABC Darwin’s Vicki Kerrigan we

 

look at the type of thinking behind Coca Cola’s decision, and ponder whether their brand could take a hit as a result of their strategy to go against public opinion. You canlisten to the podcost via this link: Marcus Barber and Vicki Kerrigan on ABC Darwin Cash for Containers. For those interested, you can permanently download the podcast also

‘China’s Gift’ – Why the AFL needs to Prepare for Crowd-Free Rounds

Mar 9, 2020

China’s Gift to the world, the #CaronaVirus is not yet as severe as what the US gift to the world (Spanish Flu) was, and still signs are clear that disruption to normality is the key theme. In that the light, the Australian Football League (AFL) need to plan for crowd free rounds.   Because that’s…

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China’s Gift Has a Fat Tail – Corporate Collapse

Feb 11, 2020

Potential Impacts of the Carona Virus will cascade across the globe. With deaths on track to climb quickly now that it has reached epidemic proportions of infection, the fat tail extends to the corporate sector.   With whole areas of China on lock down, factories are shuttered and with it, Multinational and local firms who’ve…

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My Personal Experience of #Covid19 (thus far)

Jan 15, 2020

Five days ago I tested positive for Covid. Here’s a bit of what the story has been like so far Tuesday was spent moving on of the offspring out of their rental property in country Vic and back down to Melbourne’s suburbs. A hot day of heavy lifting and a fair bit of driving. By…

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If that, then what? The question that unlocks almost everything

Oct 22, 2019

Decision making is an interesting field of inquiry. I’m about three months in to a long term contract with an organisation working on enabling its people to be more effective and the thought that keeps popping into my head is ‘Start with the End’ When you start with the end in mind (know your desired…

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Can GM Foods rescue the planet? – the Only way GM food can come to our rescue

Aug 16, 2019

There’s a little problem with food production in the world that not many people want to talk about.  About half the world is being starved to death whilst we are seeing a spike in obesity due to over-consumption of food. The strange thing about that issue is that both ends of the food consumption divide…

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Employee Engagement Beyond the Workplace

Jul 31, 2019

My most recent long term client contract had me specialise in Employee Engagement, something I’d done consistently at the Senior and Middle Managers level. But this client need was across the board and at a time when major changes were occuring.   With a previous survey of their staff in two states and across three…

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Social Issues Hackathon co hosted by Casey and Dandenong

Jul 25, 2019

Great to see some quality collaboration between the City of Casey and City of Greater Dandenong aimed at addressing or tackling Social Issues and importantly bridging the divide between ‘our area’ and ‘their area’ artificial boundaries. Well done to both Councils   Here’s the oveview of what they’re doing. This one looks to be an…

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Beyond VUCA – the VUCA 2.0 concept

Jul 9, 2019

Most people who’ve been involved in planning and strategy development will have heard of VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. Emerging out of the US War College in 1987, it’s come to be more widely used by consultancies aiming to at least ‘sound smart’. But that’s not the main problem with its usage   Instead…

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Is Manufacturing Output Data a Reliable Indicator of Economic Activity

Mar 19, 2019

In short – ‘No’. In days of yore manufacturing data meant jobs being done, employed people being paid, sales being made. But with robotics and off-shoring in many parts of Australian manufacturing, it’s no longer the value indicator it once was.   In the US it is an even less reliable indicator because in the…

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The Drive to Make Futures Thinking Pragmatic

Mar 13, 2019

  I’ve writen a fair bit over the years about the need to move futures thinking out of a theoretical approach and into a more applied model.   Recently I’ve come off a 6 month project working with the Asian Productivity Organisation, an entity that brings together 20 member countries and their core government policy…

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