It’s easy to batten down hatches until the financial storm passes, but be careful cutting back on creativity and innovation – you could end up with a defunct business. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to hear there has been a noticeable slow down in innovation investment, particularly in the experimental stage of product development.

The emergence of Android and iPhone in the mainstream is a signal that the mobile web revolution has truly begun.
More Australians carry a 3G mobile device than own a fixed broadband connection at home. In fact, now that roughly nine million Australians use 3G – mobile broadband – they’re increasingly likely to want to use their mobile device to access your company’s online information.

A downturn in the economy certainly makes people think creatively and from our observations, there’s been a definite resurgence in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). We know CRM isn’t new and companies have been collecting and managing customer data for a long time, indeed an effective CRM has been the driving force for many businesses

Social media have come of age and companies across the Australian online and marketing industries are starting to hire social media strategists. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that in the current climate we’re seeing more companies put time and effort into social media because it’s a relatively cheap channel to customers.

This month’s focus is on mobile phones and marketing trends and what’s going down in the mobile underground.  We know mobile marketing isn’t new and people have been using sms and mms as part of their campaigns for years but with the launch of the likes of iPhone and Android, we can quite happily say, the mobile revolution has truly begun!

The Rudd Government has introduced new workplace relations legislation titled the Fair Work Bill, which will replace the Howard Government’s Work Choices legislation. On close examination, it seems the Government has brought into place a more balanced system to create a safety net for workers in these troubled economic times.

Small businesses face turbulent times. Some companies are more recession-proof than others but most companies will be looking to tighten their belts in some form or another. At the risk of showing my age, I’ve been around for, and survived, a number of recessions. In the 1980s, I leapfrogged from Thatcher’s economically depressed England to the Australian recession ‘we had to have’ in the early 1990s.

This well-known cliché has been continually abused for many years. At best, management pays lip service to the idea that people are an asset. At worst, they are downright hypocritical. Managers talk values, write mission statements, create intriguing tag lines alluding to the fact that their employees truly matter.

Ever heard yourself say, ‘it’s easier to do it myself’ or ‘I can’t trust this to be done right’? Small business owners in particular often fall into the trap of finding it hard to delegate.  Remember, there is only a limited amount you can do. However hard you work, there are only so many tasks you can complete or people you can help.

Not all recruiters are sharks, but there are plenty of them out there with pointy teeth. Employers often assume that engaging recruiters on a success-fee basis and putting the role out to many firms at once will produce the best results. In fact, this creates conflicts of interest and forces recruiters into a strictly transactional approach, which is one of the major complaints many employers have about the industry.