It occurred to me recently when I was under duress to make decisions concerning our technology needs, that TRUST was the element I was grappling with.

WHOM TO TRUST FOR ADVICE when making decisions across various technology platforms such as equipment, software, web site design etc? Technical people come with different perspectives, knowledge, customer skills and vested interests. As our requirements grow, the technology is often supplied by different companies for e.g web site modification, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) installation and upgrades, email campaigns, analytics and reports, equipment upgrades (we recently installed a server with  3 times the speed and x4 thecapacity of our old one), not to mention setting up Facebook,  Twitter, Flickr and Blogs. The cost of these services and the software to make it all work is considerable.

Without CONSIDERED and TRUSTWORTHY advice, making good decisions can be very difficult. We are learning and adapting to change daily- even the experts.

My solution is to choose one person in this network to be my guide. Someone who understands our business and culture, our expertise and what we need to do to deliver wonderful products to our customers.

See a blog I have found – Trusting Digital marketing

http://elenaibanez.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/digital-marketing-trusting-the-experts/

Lunch at Aria on the Quay with a few words from the chef and Larke, before Sue introduced Kylie Charlton (in pink shirt)

In 2003, after more than 10 years in conventional investment banking, Australian Kylie Charlton set out to use her background in global capital markets to solve some of the world’s most challenging social and environmental problems.

This included arranging US$100M for microfinance institutions in India and $300M for microfinance institutions and social enterprises across Asia.

In the following six years Kylie lived in the UK and then the US, joined the international not-for-profit, Unitus Inc, in Seattle and established a team that arranged capital for microfinance institutions around the world, advised banks and investment funds on their microfinance investment strategies, and developed and raised capital for specialised investment funds.

In 2008, Kylie co-founded Unitus Capital which has since arranged more than US$100M for microfinance institutions in India and is actively raising capital in excess of US$300M for microfinance institutions and social enterprises across Asia.

While “impact investing” has little profile in Australia, in the US and Europe it is forecast to grow to US$500B in 10 years. And the global financial crisis did not curb the momentum with the top 10 microfinance investment funds growing by 32% in 2008.

Kylie returned to Australia last year to focus on the development of social investment in Australia through her Heloise Waislitz Fellowship at the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy at Swinburne University and this year through her position as Social Investment Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact.

For more about Kylie and how investing can change the world, please click here

www.unituscapital.com