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Further information: www.mcme.com.au  michael@mcme.com.au

As part of the Friends of Tourism Australia, Amanda Blair shared her feelings about her trip to Cape Tribulation in North Queensland. This was featured in The Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday.

At Corban & Blair we encourage partnerships with customers and suppliers. It could be this interview with Amanda, or sharing expertise and resources, supporting new strategies with other businesses, providing gifts and give- a-ways as well as sponsorship. It could be as little as listening to others ideas or charting their risks. To us these collaborations are important and the essence of keeping fresh and relevant for all of us.

Corban & Blair outings this week have included:

The Power of 100- an event at the MCA sponsored by Westpac to celebrate the 100^th Anniversary of International Women’s Day. The Power of 100, a 128-page book, was jointly launched by writer/editor Ita Buttrose, Westpac Group CEO Gail Kelly and the federal Social Inclusion Minister Tanya Plibersek. It honoured 100 Australian women who have made a difference past and present. It was a great night- friends and new connections.

http://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/sustainability-and-community/international-womens-day-lp/

Ad:Tech Sydney- Digital Marketing Conference and Expo. We went to a few sessions that explored the digital marketing landscape. The take-away message for me was about being really relevant when communicating with customers – and that conversations matter. Of course there are a myriad of clever ways to do this across many platforms.

http://www.ad-tech.com/sydney/adtech_sydney.aspx

Qantas Mentoring Program- an event for mentors and mentees to support this program for women at Qantas. The 2 main speakers were Sally MacDonald CEO Oroton Group and Jayne Hrdlicka Qantas. They shared their inspirational stories of corporate success. Journeys fuelled by hard work, attention to detail, risk, drive, energy, intelligence and learning. They shared where their passions came and the challenges they faced while being thoughtful, generous and true to their personal values. They were wonderful- I just wish some of the young women I know had been in the audience – and my son for that matter.

Chief Executive Women & Westpac Leadership Forum- where a panel of business leaders discussed how businesses could best facilitate, an increase in the number of women at senior levels.

Once again a stunning group of people including:

Alison Watkins CEO and Managing Director of GrainCorp Ltd. Elizabeth Bryan Director Westpac Banking Corporation Richard Lee Chairman Australian Institute of Company Directors & Chairman Salmat Belinda Hutchinson AM Chairman of QBE Insurance Group and a director of AGL Energy, St Vincent’s Health Australia, the Salvation Army Eastern Territory Advisory Board and the Centre for Independent Studies. Belinda is also the President of Chief Executive Women.

With MC Naseema Sparks Non-Executive Director Naseema sits on a number of company and not-for-profit boards including Blackmores Ltd, PMP Ltd, Chartis Australia and Sydney Dance Company. Naseema’s executive career was as Managing Director of M&C Saatchi and she was one of a small number of global equity partners.

Issues we need to address as a community- men also have to understand why as well.

http://www.cew.org.au/

This week I gave a conversation type session for managers at the Cancer Council NSW.  The subject was CHANGE.

I am not an expert, but we have been in business for over 20 years and have continued to evolve.

To me, change is about adapting as soon as possible to circumstances, being relevant & fresh, having strategic goals to stretch to, constantly evolving, although sometimes a sharp turn is required while also being innovative about all the bits and pieces that you do- people, processes, implementation, systems, products, services, technology.

At Corban & Blair we believe the following are important to maintain a focused motivated workplace.

• All RELATIONSHIPS matter

• An organisations VISION needs to understood and respected (walk the talk)

• Passion breeds energy and ideas

• Respect for all people on all levels

• Learning every day is an active responsibility of all employees & owners

• Risk taking- innovation comes with risk

• Problem solving -not blaming

• Having knowledge beyond your workplace or expertise – for inspiration & new ideas

Change is inevitable

Denial makes things very painful

Learning everyday is essential

There is no set recipe for success

Smart people always find the BEST solution- not just a solution

Perspective & clarity beyond your discipline/business helps see the big picture

Apart from talking about our business experience and how we have changed over the years, I used 2 of our products to explore the topic.

Innovation Cards (initially designed for BRW magazine) I selected a number of questions that I knew would stimulate discussion. People were from different functions within the organization so it enabled them to share in small groups, ideas and also experience the ideas and attitudes of others.

Understanding how others think, and who they actually are in “real life’’ is also important. At the end of the session I used our very successful cards WYS Conversation Cards to stimulate conversation and connections between the individuals in the group. Knowing people better means communication is likely to come more easily. These cards were designed to use with families but I was delighted to see how well the worked in a professional setting.

I have mentioned these references before in this blog, but if you want to stimulate your imagination the following books and links I have found extremely useful.

The Three Laws of Performance bySteve Zaffron & Dave Logan

What would Google Do?  byJ eff Jarvis

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

Drive – by Daniel Pink

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Groundswell -Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, by Charlene Li.  Josh Bernoff

Websites

http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/02/demystifying-mentoring.html

http://www.lowyinstitute.org/

http://www.ted.com/

http://wheelercentre.com/

What can we buy on-line? (almost) everything and why? often, because is saves time, is cheaper, a wide range is available at your finger tips & it is easy.

For businesses selling products on and off-line this is now a huge competitive challenge. Westfield has added to their mall portfolio with an on-line Mall launched 2 weeks ago. http://westfield.com.au.

Corban & Blair have a shop on this mall. It is early days. There is a wide range of merchandise available. See below the Corban & Blair shop front.

This book by Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi is the third book in the series and really worth a read if you haven’t read it – or a re-read.  It offers insightful management styles to use with staff, suppliers, customers or even on the home front.

“ One Minute Manager goes straight to the heart of management as it describes the effective, adaptive styles of situational leadership. In clear, simple terms it shows why “nothing is so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals” while it teachers how to become a flexible and successful leader. The authors describe why you must fit your style to the needs of the individual; how to diagnose a situation correctly so you know when to delegate, support, or direct; how to contract with your people for the leadership style that suits them best and get the best result for your organisation.”

“When The Best leader’s

Work Is Done,

The People Say

We Did It Ourselves”

This is a great read for those interested in what is really going on- the rise of collaborative consumerism.

“A groundbreaking, original book that explores the rise of “Collaborative Consumption” — a cultural and economic force transforming business, consumerism, and the way we live.

The recent changes in our economic landscape have only exposed and intensified a phenomenon: an explosion in sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping. From enormous marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist, to emerging sectors such as peer-to-peer lending (Zopa), ‘swap trading’ (Swaptree) and car sharing (Zipcar), Collaborative Consumption is disrupting outdated modes of business and reinventing not only what we consume but how we consume.

While ranging enormously in scale and purpose, these companies and organizations are redefining how goods and services are exchanged, valued, and created — in areas as diverse as finance and travel, agriculture and technology, education and retail. Travelling among global entrepreneurs and revolutionaries, and exploring rising ventures as well as established companies adapting to these opportunities, the authors outline in bold and imaginative ways how Collaborative Consumption may very well change the world.”

Rachel consults, writes, and speaks on the power of collaboration and sharing through current and emerging peer-to-peer technologies, and how it can transform the way we live.

Roo is a serial entrepreneur with five successful startups currently in the marketplace. He is currently the director of Redscout Ventures.

http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/events-and-speaking/

We exhibited last weekend at a festival held at ‘Tusculum’ home to the Australian Institute of Architects. It was a great venue – interesting things going on in the institute and lots of specialty and coffee shops at easy reach.

It was fun-filled day of architectural activities for the community.

Activities:

• Launch of The Archi-Text Salon – a new series of talks about books on design and architecture presented by the authors
• Archi-Info Talks about what architecture is and what architects can do for you
• Great Designs – A series of presentations from clients & their architects discussing the design process and outcome of their custom-designed homes
• ArchiText Book Bazaar discounts on books and magazines
• The Institute Collection – An exhibition of some of Max Dupain’s architectural photographic records of Sydney
• The Dulux Kids Drawing Corner there were lots of great prizes as well as their gorgeous ‘DULUX” dogs- (see photo)
• Building Blocks Hands – demonstrations by Sydney’s leading architecture model makers.
• Food There was plenty to eat and drink during the day with a sausage sizzle, wine tasting and coffee spot
• Emergency Architect’s  “Love, Eat and Give” They were communicating “Constructive Aid”.  to raise funds for their newest project “improving children’s health” – Toilet Construction/Training in Maliana, East Timor.
• Corban & Blair- exhibiting our design and presentation products to let people know the range of products and customers we design for.

For more information see ‘Tusculum’, 3 Manning Street,  POTTS POINT NSW 2011. Phone: 02 9246 4055 Fax: 02 9246 4030. Web: architecture.com.au/nsw

Recently I managed to hear the end of a talk given by Jon Bird CEO of IdeaWorks. He had collected some of the latest retail ideas from around the world. Below is his blog post about inspiring retailing in Japan. This promoted me to read his blogs. See an example of one below.

The Future of Retail is already here

by Jon Bird on June 28, 2010

“The future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.”

So said science fiction author William Gibson. And he could have been talking about retail.

On the recent Westfield World Retail Study Tour, our first stop was Tokyo. And after spending a couple of days there listening to experts, and visiting stores and malls, it occurred to me that Japan provides a pretty useful crystal ball on where retail is headed in Australia.

One significant reason is Japan’s aging (and shrinking) population. Around 22 per cent of all Japanese are aged 65+ (including one in four of all women), while about 13 per cent of Australians are at retirement age or older. We’ll reach Japan’s percentage of oldies around the middle of the century according to the ABS. (As an interesting aside, Japan’s population is declining so rapidly that one pundit quipped that if current trends continued, by 2250 only 1000 people would be left!).

Changing demographics drive a different retail mix. At the Aeon mall outside of Tokyo, we saw a precinct called ‘HAL’ = “Happy Aging Life” Solutions. Amongst a number of retailers there, the Hal area contained a contact lens shop called Eyecity, an Anti-Aging Mall filled with masseurs and physiotherapists, an ASICS Walking Store and a Nana’s Green Tea shop.

We will also need to think about more appropriate retail offers for an older Australian consumer. (And as observation researcher Paco Underhill often observes, we’ll need to make sure that the price tickets in store have type big enough for them to read!).

An aging population means fewer children. So the Japanese fill the void with pets and they pamper them like no other race on earth. Hence in the same Aeon mall, we saw a 1500sqm space devoted to animals. There you could purchase any number of pet services, from pet grooming to a hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment (I kid you not), plus innumerable products like pet handbags (Paris Hilton-style) and pet strollers. The concierge and deli in ‘Pecos Pet City’ were of the standard you’d see in five star hotels, except they were dedicated to dogs. Watch this space – we will see this trend emerge in Australia, and sooner than you think.

Smaller households also result in different product requirements. In one supermarket we saw that customers were not forced to buy a whole loaf of bread; they could if they wanted buy two-slice packages. That’s convenient and smart.

While on the subject of nourishment, the Japanese are highly concerned about food safety and security. Hence you see tactics like “QR codes” on fresh produce in supermarkets, which when scanned by a mobile phone take the customer to a website detailing exactly where and how the food was grown. As the environment deteriorates and the global population grows, we too will become more interested in the source and state of the food we eat.

The way that the Japanese embrace technology also provides a window into the future. McDonald’s Japan has 17 million registers of a system called “Edy” (an acronym for Euro Dollar Yen), which allows customers to pay for their order just by tapping their phone against a terminal. Watch traditional wallets disappear in Australia over the next five years.

Add to all this the number of cutting edge retail fit-outs you see in Japan today, that will filter through to Australia tomorrow, and a visit to the Land of the Rising Sun is incredibly worthwhile. It’s the future. And it’s only a 10 hour flight away.

* Jon Bird is CEO of specialist retail marketing agency, IdeaWorks (www.ideaworks.com.au).

Email jon.bird@ideaworks.com.au.

http://www.insideretailing.com.au/Latest/tabid/53/articleType/CategoryView/categoryId/75/Jon-Bird.aspx

Chris Anderson (author of the Long Tail) has written another insightful book “it is a brilliant exploration of a brave new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods. It explains why some companies profit more from giving things away then charging for them, who the winners and losers are, and what the future holds for all of us”

A must read for people running businesses.

See Chris Anderson on this You Tube Video

Note: Ipad users video will not display yet!
Read more about the notion of a FREE economy

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free