The Pending Shift in Global Relationships

In around a week’s time there’ll be a version 2 of a Trump Presidency in the United States.

One thing I’d expect to see is a much less bridled Trump presidency. The first time around a number of long standing and experienced people were around to temper and guide some of the thinking. This time around, all things seem to suggest that a reelected Trump will be much less likely to hold back and will not have the kind of experienced hands around to guide or temper some of his ideas. Thought bubbles and impulses will be less likely to be deflected, curtailed or polished into useful well structured policy.

Talks of tariffs abound. Australia should not expect to be immune from such actions. And one thing we know about tariff laden policies – it’s the consumers at home that pay the price first up – suppliers may not see any negative impact for quite some time. Until an economy completely tanks.  Another thing that often happens is that local supplier profit-opportunists, ALSO increase their prices. After all if a consumer used to paying $50 for a bucket and spade now has to pay $75 from an overseas supplier, then a domestically produced bucket and spade for $70 is a much better choice, is it not?

No, no it is not. It’s just a less worse option. Anyway, as the saying goes, ‘watch this space!’

Getting Customer Service Right – EastLink – International Year of Solutions

Jan 19, 2011

As promised, the wash-up to my experience with the toll-road operator Eastlink and what I regard as a pretty poor approach to Customer Service. However as I am treating this is the International Year of Solutions, I’m not complaining without making suggestions for improvement, which I have done   You can download the document here…

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Once the Floods are Over, then what?

Jan 11, 2011

The floods are under way throughout the majority of Queensland and now into northern New South Wales and all we can do is hang on and wait to see the impact. Unfortunately it looks like the numbers of people who have lost their lives as a result is set to rise significantly beyond the 12…

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Futurist calls 2011: International Year of Solutions

Dec 19, 2010

Reckon it’s time we had a focus on getting things done and so I am declaring 2011 to be the ‘International Year of Solutions’. Seems to me that a lot of talk fests have been gobbling up the neuronal space for a few years now with insufficient ACTION being generated – just lot of promises…

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Customer Service – why the future is BEGGING you to get it right today

Nov 24, 2010

Another stream of consciousness on the customer service theme that I come back to frequently. If you’ve ever received one of those scam emails from say ‘the past Minister of the Immigration and Business Department in Nigeria’ seeking your assistance at repatriating funds for which you’ll be paid a fortune, or those other scams claiming…

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Active TV slowly emerging

Nov 16, 2010

A shift is underway in television in Australia and it has nothing to do with digital versus analogue or the pay versus free shifts. Instead we are finally seeing the promise of TV as a medium of engagement. That promise sees a shift from the passive watching of TV (a ‘push’ approach) to the active…

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Do fairytales come true?

Oct 27, 2010

That will be the question many will be asking leading up to the replay of the AFL Grand Final this Saturday between Collingwood and St Kilda. Regardless of the outcome, the AFL have already had their fairytale come true courtesy of a drawn game which is believed to have handed the AFL a bonus likely…

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A quick plug for Google Chrome

Oct 25, 2010

Being someone who questions the value of technology before climbing on board, I’ve been perhaps a tad slow to check out the Google Chrome web browser. Mistake! Given it’s speed and ease of use, the first couple of days have impressed me greatly and I’m mindful that I don’t have all the working of its…

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What Businesses can learn from Tourism (and vice versa)

Sep 11, 2010

In preparation for work with a couple of clients in the past fortnight I’ve had to throw myself into substantially more ‘tourist’ style activities than I have for quite some time in an attempt to answer the following question: ‘How do we get more people to come here?’ Yes there’s a lot of fun to…

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Why who the next Prime Minister is might be of little importance

Aug 29, 2010

Whilst the counting of votes is over the election is yet to be completed. Right now the discussions continue between the ‘three amigos’ who are clearly maximising their time in the spotlight, and the two leaders of the major parties. And whilst the media is fixated on who ought to be, deserves to be, should…

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May we get the Goverment we both deserve AND need

Aug 20, 2010

If you’ve seen any of the media campaigns for the Australian Federal Election you could have come to the following conclusions: Julia Gillard had a fixation with hand getsures; Tony Abbott had a fixation on Boats; and the Greens had the best Television Commercial not only of this campaign but of any other they’ve had…

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