Sara Jane Oakeshott, mum of three with one on the way does not take the limelight very often. She tells FOCUS about her busy life behind the scenes … raising a young family and being the glue that keeps this busy family together.
Some exciting news recently when the Australian Marketing Institute announced a world first resource that will enable marketers to demonstrate the accountability of marketing and its role in value creation. www.marketingvalue.com.au provides frameworks and tools to explore and develop marketing metrics systems.
A key feature is an interactive dashboard development system that provides a list of key metrics, based on a straightforward question and answer format. The project is the culmination of years of work by the AMI. The site has been tailored to accommodate the different perspectives, needs, and skills that marketers and others have in their use of metrics.
AMI chairman Roger James said, ”A key objective is to get more people thinking about marketing metrics, but of course there’s more to it than that. It’s about encouraging enterprise wide orientation to marketing, and to show this we wanted to show that investments in marketing will produce both tangible and long lasting financial returns. The site provides frameworks and resources for marketers to do just that.” For example, if you had to cut 25% from your ad budget, how could you minimise the impact on sales yielding activities? If you are interested in learning more about understanding the return on your marketing investment, then call me and we’ll find a way to help.
Did you see the report about Sydney traffic, indicating that the average speed has declined from 29 kph in 2004 to 23 kph along Victoria St Gladesville (a typical major city bound route)? Kind of makes you wonder what the cost to business is of employees spending more time in the traffic. Suddenly the Oxley Highway looks like a superhighway, don’t you think?
From the local to the global. Did you see news of the OECD saying that the recession is likely to be deep and long and cause widespread unemployment … that is, in most countries except Australia. The report indicated that some financial effects will be felt here, but the Australian economy is in good shape. With petrol prices returning to civilised levels, lower interest rates and Federal Government bonuses around, what more could we want?
Stockland’s Managing Director was quite blunt recently when he was asked about the possibility of an economic slowdown. He replied by saying, “There are three things you can do – the first is to run away. You might feel better, but it’s not an honorable thing to do. Secondly, you can put your crash helmet on and do the best you can do, and thirdly you can develop some foresight into what the world will look like in a few years’ time and then reinvent or change what you’re doing to adapt to the new circumstances.” Now that’s leadership for you.
Good on you, Bob Charley. Released the new subdivision at Blue Wren Court in Innes Peninsula on 16 November and by time of writing, 9 have been sold. Who says the property market is slow?
Congratulations to Peter Kuhn, formerly LJ Hooker Commercial, recently appointed Development Manager at the Stevens group. This role will take Peter to places all over Eastern and Northern NSW, looking after their clients’ building interests.
A report in the Fin Review (28 Nov.P7) caught my attention about the working habits in the public service. According to the Annual State of the Service Report for 2007 and 2008, 50% of the senior executive were putting in more than 50 hours per week. During the last fortnight in June 2008, 32% put in between 37-40 hours, 21% worked between 40-45 hours, 6% worked between 45-50 hours and just 3% worked more than 50 hours. I can’t help think that many business owners would just love to put in so few hours in a week. Perhaps the public servant was right when answering his son’s question, “How many people work at your office?” and he replied, “About half of them.”
An organisation reaping the rewards for shaping their own future is the revitalised Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Robert Turner, which is now enjoying greater relevance and increasing membership numbers. After years of drifting in the wilderness, it seems there is finally a sense of strategy communication and a new found maturity.
I am nervous about the Chamber’s acquisition of the BEC, but if the point of difference is maintained, the Chamber’s reputation as the premier business lobby group will be enhanced.
We are all about to be hit with a big campaign from the television broadcasters to promote their new digital signals under the FREEVIEW umbrella brand. The campaign to be seen here on all our free to air stations will be quite an event, promising to revolutionise our viewing experience. Who know if it will achieve this, but certainly the campaign will assist the household penetration of HD televisions, currently standing at 28%.
What for in 2009?
Consumer trends don’t change overnight, but opportunities do. That’s why Trevor Sergeant and Rob Oakeshott should be knocking on Kevin Rudd’s door to snag some of the $16B being made available for infrastructure. Not only will it be good for employment, but consider the flow on effect for property values, migration. Imagine another 6 projects the size of the new commercial wharf and the impact starts to have real meaning.
A lawyer and a doctor had a collision on a local road. Seeing that the doctor was badly shaken up, the lawyer helped him from the car and offered him a drink from his hip flask. The doctor having a good couple of long gulps was very grateful for this and handed back the nearly empty flask. “Aren’t you having a drink”? asked the doctor. “Sure will,” said the lawyer, “as soon as the police leave.”
