January 19, 2010 at 8:01 am · Filed under Globalisation, Australia
Today the export of financial services from Australia accounts for merely 3% of that sector’s overall contribution to the economy. Perhaps that strong reliance on domestic business helped shelter Australia’s finance sector from the worst of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). In the world’s list of ten safest banks, four of them are in Australia. (Bizarrely enough we have a “four pillars” banking strategy and today have only four major banks.)
Yet compare us to London – one of the world’s leading finance centres. There the global rump of business contributes 50% of the sector’s contribution to the economy. Clearly Australia has room for growth.
Prior to the full impact of the GFC, the Ministry of Finance commissioned a report to examine Australia’s potential as a global financial centre. Also included was an examination of the regulatory framework that would be required. Are we headed the way of Lehman Brothers by unravelling our rules and regulations? Apparently not, according to Mark Johnson, former Macquarie Bank deputy chairman and architect of the report, “Australia As A Financial Centre.”
“We are not trying to build a financial system on steroids with artificial inducements,” Johnson said in today’s The Australian.
What we could expect was more banking competitiveness, an increase in financial products, and a boost to financial services jobs growth.
While it is some time before Sydney overtakes Hong Kong or Singapore as a financial centre the drive to boost our country’s importance can’t be a bad thing.
January 18, 2010 at 4:15 pm · Filed under Australia
Good luck Prime Minister Rudd. He’s required to call an election this year and timing couldn’t be worse.
Jobs growth in the last quarter was higher than expected. And for the first time, seasonal workers weren’t the cause – December saw unusually high ad placements for permanent roles. The Reserve Bank already raised interest rates three times last year. They meet again in early February and everyone sees a rate rise as an eventuality.
Then today reports were printed of our exports. Hold on to your seat – nationally they rose 23% last year over the previous year. In minerals-rich Western Australia the growth was highest. Even Queensland racked up a 48.3% increase. The only decline was in South Australia which suffered due to a slump in automotive sales and wine consumption. (Beware in Adelaide of car salesmen out commiserating on cheap wine.)
At the same time the drop in new house starts over the last year means rental units are all but gone. Some suburbs report vacancy rates of 1.2%. Ask an out-of-home renter how easy it is to secure lodgings.
Amidst all this froth and bubble the government goes up for re-election.
But wait – don’t people normally vote with their wallets? If we’re doing good we figure keep the power in place, right? But what if we’re doing too good? What if mortgage rates are rising – and fuel, grocery, utility and other bills are also on the rise? What then?
It will be a tough campaign year for both parties. Each has to show they can strategically apply the brakes – while keeping the good news coming. We’re all for good news. Just don’t give us too much, okay?
January 8, 2010 at 8:12 am · Filed under America, Social Media
Funny story making the rounds on-line today.
Young man hides 12 beers in his room. His sister reports it to their parents so he’s grounded. Beware – payback is a bitch!
With all this time on his hands, brother rummages through his sister’s room and finds her “Dream Boy” list. Ten minutes later that is up on Facebook with tags to all the boys mentioned. Pretty soon all of sister’s dream boys see exactly what she thinks of them.
How did she go to school the next day? And how did the boys of “Twighlight” respond to be tagged?
Read the story here…
January 7, 2010 at 9:00 am · Filed under Investor Relations, Issues Management, Public Relations
Yesterday Jetstar announced a partnership with AirAsia that starts with joint-procurement agreements and extends to service agreements at shared airports. The deal centres on two similarly aligned organisations looking to reduce costs.
Yet by carefully crafting messages – and relating those to the company’s core values – Jetstar placed its consumers at the centre of this ho-hum corporate deal. To showcase the power of public relations, think through these two different headlines:
JetStar Alliance To Cut Cost (hypothetical)
Jetstar Deal Means Lower Asia Fares (The Australian – front page)
In the front page article, new partner AirAsia said round trip fares between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur should drop $200 to $600 per person. The ability to demonstrate an immediate consumer benefit means a lot. Consumers will support restructuring, even some job losses, if they perceive an immediate benefit.
Frequently companies seek public relations counsel to manage restructuring announcements. They’ll develop announcements with euphemisms for job losses. Downsizing. Restructuring. Business Process Reengineering. And my favourite, “Rightsizing”.
Author Don Watson developed a handy reference tool for those seeking to understand dense corporate-speak. “Weasel Words” is a collection of “contemporary clichés, cant & management jargon.” There Watson offers this definition to “rightsizing” – Job Eliminations.
When developing messages to support a restructure, think to the end consumer. What’s the benefit? Quicker call times? Lower costs? Better products? If you place the consumer at the heart of your messages you’re transactions are going to be better received.
January 5, 2010 at 4:06 pm · Filed under Australia
I never talk to my Mother about sharks. She’s highly sensitive to news flashes from Australia. If a surfer in Maroochydore gets bitten, I get a call. When anyone is “taken” (that’s Australian for killed by a shark), she’s got all the details. Last month I responded to her “surfer boy bitten” update by telling her I was more concerned about the giant shark somewhere near Sydney. Seems they pulled up a four metre (12 foot) Great White only to find a giant bite taken out of his side. Tourists were warned to stay out of the water for fear of a six metre (20 foot) beast. Now that’s a shark!
Peter Benchley once said he regretted writing “Jaws” because of the impact the film had on shark numbers. Man eats shark a lot more often than shark eats man. It’s the white fish inside many fish & chips servings. In Asia only the fins are culled for soup, whereas the shark is sent spiralling to the ocean floor to drown. Shark numbers are decreasing globally.
Here in Sydney our fresh waters still attract a fair number. In today’s The Sydney Morning Herald surfer Glenn Orgias describes how he mustered the strength to swim to shore – minus a hand. He recounts how fortunate he was to be attacked by a Great White (fussy eaters, they’ll spit out what they can’t swallow right away). A Bull Shark just attacks and attacks and attacks again. The Bull and the Tiger are the two species I fear (Tigers are deep water sharks hence their ferocity towards boat and plane wreck survivors).
When I first arrived in Australia I was so freaked out by my 1975 experience watching “Jaws” that I feared entering the water. SCUBA diving and marine life courses largely cured me. Even the advanced course on “Shark Behaviour” filled me with facts (”Why are they worried,” I say watching TV shows. “It’s just a white tipped reef shark and it’s not even displaying aggressive behaviour!”).
Today I have a great time at our beautiful beaches here in Sydney. (Surfer Orgias and his wife named their daughter after my favourite beach, Bronte.)
But when I go there, I never tell my Mother. There are too many sharks – it would freak her out!
January 5, 2010 at 8:46 am · Filed under Social Media
In 2009 social media became a part of our lives. We Tweeted updates and applauded Ashton Kutchner when he overtook CNN in the race to a million followers. We learned of the death of friends on Facebook - and even RSVP’d to funerals organised as a fan site. We became friends with people in Denmark and shared photos with Norwegians. On a mundane level, we alerted family when our kids lost their first tooth - with a YouTube video.
In all, 2009 was the year the genie left the bottle. We’ll never get it back in.
The blog “Capital Gig” has developed a list of the Top 20 Social Media Stories of 2010. I can’t find fault. Is there anything missing? US Airways crashes in Hudson? Got it! United breaks guitars? Already there! Michael Jackson’s death? Of course! And on and on and on - it is worth a careful review - click here.
Take a look. And if you haven’t see the dance entrance to Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz’ wedding, then take 5:09 minutes and watch this video. It will brighten your day. 39 million viewers on YouTube can’t be wrong!
January 5, 2010 at 7:52 am · Filed under Public Relations, Australia
Australian employers are coming back from holidays to find the return of high employment. In December job advertisements spiked – in a trend unseen before. Traditionally job ads over Christmas are dominated by casual and seasonal roles (gift wrapping at the mall, anyone?). Yet this past December recruitment advertisements increased 2.5% with an 18.5% increase in advertising and media. (See The Sydney Morning Herald.)
Dial back three years and you’ll recall the pre-crisis period. At that stage I was in a similar role at another firm (they who shall not be mentioned). I received a CV from a recruiter who enthusiastically recommended this bright candidate. She was unique and very qualified. And with 18 months experience she wanted a base salary of $75,000.
Now recruiters are human so I called and suggested the 4 key is right below the 7 key on the numeric keypad. Wasn’t this a typo?
Turns out the young candidate wasn’t the only enthusiastic one. No, the recruiter assured me, that was the salary expectation and once I met the young woman I would understand. On principle I refused the meeting.
In public relations we walk a razor-thin line. We have an obligation to provide a fair and equitable salary to our professionals. Yet clients are demanding the best services for the most reasonable fees. And after the horror year of 2008-09, we need to re-build and re-invest in technology, training and more.
Australia is also a talent pool where Asian companies love to swim. Singapore for three years? Seoul for a posting? Hong Kong for a change? With the growth in Mandarin classes even an in-land China posting is attractive to new professionals.
2010 will be a competitive year as the economic growth of Australia is compounded by the increased demand for talented people. I plan to play and play hard – but it’s never going to be a place where I’ll over-pay for 18 months experience!
January 4, 2010 at 11:12 am · Filed under Learning to Blog, more on me
I’ve learned to live with ongoing computer problems. It’s like walking with a stone in your shoe. At first you limp but then you learn to bear the pain and soldier on. It’s so much easier than calling the IT Guy.
Why is it long-term PC problems disappear the moment you call an IT person? It’s humiliating to try and re-create the annoying problem. Because the minute the IT Guy (or Gal) is over my shoulder it suddenly disappears. (And no, I don’t call them just to annoy them!)
Today I had John Cuthbertson of The Website Clinic on the phone. I’d looked everywhere to find how to edit my home page. (See that funny sidebar with my photo just to the right? Couldn’t edit that to save my life!)
John called back in under 10 minutes and directed me to the widgets page on Wordpress. Naturally. Don’t we all edit text in our widgets?
Perhaps it’s the technology link that keeps so many professionals off blogging. After all, we can afford flat-screen plasma televisions even if we can’t operate the remote. Whatever you do - don’t call the IT Guy. More than likely the date and time will stop flashing and your favourite recordings will be all lined up. Darn!
PS: Ignore this logo. It’s for my job and I couldn’t figure out how to get it over there (look right) without first uploading it here. Damned if I was going to call John back!
January 4, 2010 at 9:37 am · Filed under America, Australia
The Global Financial Crisis touched down in Sydney – and promptly left. In 2009 one quarter of economic activity experienced contraction – followed by a robust rebound. Already the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased interest rates to slow growth. Australia is faring well.
In the USA, signs of life are emerging. Yet the “green shoots” of economic growth promised by President Obama appear to be weeds in the lawns of foreclosed homes. The New York Times contains an exposé on real estate in Cape Coral Florida. There houses that once sold for $850,000 are available for under $300k. Of the 64,000 single family homes, more than 18,000 have been foreclosed. Today an entrepreneur drives an air conditioned van around with potential investors. The tour is of foreclosed homes.
Most striking in the article is the human element.
Kevin Jarrett seems a lot like me. He’d relocated for work and initially found selling real estate a good profession. (Change the name, change the city and change the profession and pretty soon you might relate, too.) He and his wife and daughter settled into a good life with a nice home and a few investment properties. But when the bottom fell out he was hit. Hard. After the three investment properties were taken by the bank, his wife left – taking their daughter. He tried to maintain his home. One day when washing his face the water was turned off. He lost his home and is on the move.
The Grapes of Wrath 2010.
Looking at the level of hardship in previously well-off communities like Cape Coral makes it apparent this recession will take a decade to heal – so long as a double dip doesn’t occur. The “floor” of this drop is a long, long way from the heights before the plunge. The way back up takes a lot longer than the drop.
Australia (again) was well sheltered. Even housing prices retained their gusto. Some outer-west suburbs in Sydney dropped by double digits. Yet by the September quarter 2009 housing starts had increased 10% nationally. Prices have increased in most Sydney suburbs. Of the major global economies, Australia was one of three to record growth (alongside Singapore and South Korea).
All that said, Australia has seen pockets of hardship – and for every Kevin Jarrett of Cape Coral there’s a similar hard luck story Down Under. Thankfully strong economic leadership and underlying demand for Australian products and services mean there are fewer of them.
December 31, 2009 at 10:53 am · Filed under Globalisation, Australia
I can’t get family to visit me. It’s not my hospitality. My partner and I are renowned hosts. We have a spare room always on the ready and a bevy of activities for newcomers and old hands alike.
What keeps family away is the journey. From the East Coast of the USA to Sydney is approximately 24 hours travel time (perhaps longer with the new security measures going into place). There’s the flight to LAX which is really a warm-up act to the 14.5 hour flight to Sydney (six movies! four meals!).
When you come to Australia you fly over the International Date Line. If you leave on a Monday you arrive on a Wednesday. What happened to Tuesday? Hell if I know. I think you lose it – forever. (Apparently you get it back when you fly to the USA as your plane lands in LAX several hours before your take-off time/day in Sydney.
Go figure.
Tonight is a lot like flying across the date line. With the tick of a clock hand we say farewell to a year – and a decade. Time Magazine called it the “Decade from Hell”. Reflect back. Enron, September 11, Paris Hilton, Lehman Brothers, George Bush (twice). Won’t go down as my favourite years.
New Year’s Eve is a bit like an Etch-A-Sketch or absolution after confession. Your slate is clean and you get to start again. Fresh starts! New thinking! Changes to the old me!
To me it’s like a flight across the Date Line. It all seems slightly artificial. I won’t drop 5 kilos tonight or have a refreshed bank balance. I’ll wake tomorrow in the same bed with the same family. And that’s really, really okay by me. It’s good.
What tonight is good for is promoting Australia. As New Yorkers freeze in winter we’ll showcase our beautiful city and its amazing displays of fireworks.
Get ready world – Sydney gets to dash first into the new year and the new decade. Feel free to follow!
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