The world is changing, but so what? Is Australian business poised to take advantage of the wave of opportunity, or is it frozen like a possum in the lights of an oncoming truck? Futurist Glenys McLaughlin spells out the challenges. Kirsten Lees puts them to business.
Scientists sequenced HIV in 15 years, and SARS in 15 days. It took 70 years for the telephone to get the number of users the internet attracted in 15. iPhone sales hit one billion in nine months. Every form of communication technology is doubling in bandwidth and performance every 12 months, and costs are plummeting.
It’s not just tools and technology that are changing. Behaviour across every facet of life is being transformed. Where we go for fun, friendship, advice and education, how we do business and where we take our custom are undergoing radical shifts. One in six higher-education students is enrolled online. Fifteen percent of Australians who formed serious relationships in 2009 met on the web. Online product reviews are the most trusted source of advice before buying, after family and friends. We are spending more time on the internet than in front of the television. All of this was inconceivable even three years ago.
What does it mean for business? Not those looking at the big picture, but the people who sit at the coal face (solar array?), making the decisions that will determine the health of their organisations tomorrow, decisions that may shape the future for all of us. Well, we asked them.
Ken Kanofski, Chief Executive Officer, WSN Environmental Services
‘In our industry, people consider what has been happening over the past decade as significant and exciting change. I don’t think we have. We are still a labour intensive, old technology industry. There will be incredible change to the processing of waste, as recycling becomes more sophisticated. We are becoming less a waste management and more a materials management industry. Technology will drive this change.
We are users of technology, not developers. Our biggest challenge is to decide which technologies to adopt and when to make the leap. There are risks in moving too early, or too late.
There remains enormous scope to create renewable energy from waste. This will be the significant area of emerging technologies for us. We already create 40 megawatts a year capturing gas from landfill and processing. But this scratches the surface of what is possible.
Our biggest human capital issue is the shift associated with a crossover from a logistics and transport business, to a technologically sophisticated workplace. We need to manage and motivate a workforce that straddles the two. It’s is easy for a tribal culture to emerge and we must meld together a workforce with very different skills and characteristics.
Our customer relationships are evolving as more and more of our business-to-business customers look to us for a sophisticated and tailored approach to waste and recycling. It is an exciting field with dramatic results. The nature of the issues are complex. For now social media is not part of our marketing armoury.’
Tony Sutton, National Head of Retail, Myers
‘The retail environment is always evolving and it is important that we are not only up with the latest trends but using them to our advantage. Myer has a presence on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to communicate quickly and directly to customers. We use SMS alerts and email to ensure that customers are to date with what’s available and we will continue to build on this, learn and evolve. Our website is always expanding allowing customers to purchase products, read catalogues and view live fashion launches.
We have created an iPhone app enabling our customers to view promotions, obtain store information including location and have access to exclusive offers.
That said, we have a very large volume of highly valued MyerOne members who we are able to directly learn from and communicate to. Through detailed analysis of their behaviours we learn more about their shopping habits: patterns, frequency, preferred merchandise categories, and the like. For example, from our data we can ascertain that a customer who likes to buy Basque women’s apparel also likes to purchase particular types of fragrance.
From this we are able to target different customer segments with relevant offers and communications. This is a more personalised way of giving our customers information that is meaningful. We are learning more about this every day and have conducted several trials measuring results.’
Neil Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer, Lawrence Creative Strategy
‘Social media can dissolve barriers between marketers and people marketed to. It’s a useful tool if used correctly. It allows a directness and immediacy of contact. The focus on my work has been political. The Kevin 07 election was the first digital election, although there was no Twitter.
However, people get very taken with a new medium. There used to be a creative arrogance about television, now there is an online arrogance, but you have to keep it in perspective. Mass media is still powerful. With Kevin 07, our most viewed YouTube video was 135,000 views. A well-placed television ad can still get two million views.
Yes, there are hundreds of new ways of sending out your message – but that can mean hundreds of new ways to waste your money.
The fundamentals stay the same: begin with no bias, work out your strategy, be clear about your message, then decide the most effective way of disseminating it.’
Ross McEwan, Group Executive, Retail Banking Services, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
‘We lead in technology in replacing our core banking system. The new system is based on flexibility. Flexibility will allow us to meet customer needs in terms of product solutions, and service offerings no matter how they emerge.
The key challenge will be teaching staff how to use the improved technology and customer management system to analyse requirements and package up appropriate solutions. Ensuring staff have the time to spend with customers to understand their financial needs will be a driver of success. The options they have today goes from a focus on product sales, say five products to fulfill the customers’ needs, to something that is not a product – but a range of feature options, tailored to each individual.
We focus distribution channels that fit how a customer wishes to interact with us, from a branch experience through to an online experience. Most branches have online banking facilities, so that staff can hand-hold customers through the process. However, we also offer a differentiated service offer to match customers’ needs. For example our Sydney University branch offers iPod and iPhone touch technology. We also match branch staff to the demographic of the customers in any given area.
We were one of first organisations to go online with a home loan product. I closed this down after we found most customers found the process too complex and they wanted to talk to someone. It’s the biggest financial transaction that many people do. A level of advice is needed.
There is a generation coming through that is more comfortable doing everything online, but it’s still interesting that a lot of people want to talk to somebody about their financial position.
We have a team of people working on making complex transactions simple, with tools like click-to-chat. We will make the transition over a long period of time, at the pace customers are willing to go.
In terms of the future, our focus will remain on the customer. The strategy is, first make it easy for customers to do business with us, second, focus on their needs not ours. Most of the answers we need are sitting right there with our customer’s needs and preferences.’
Matthew Ayres, Global Head of Strategy & Innovation, Lend Lease Corporation
‘Engaging in social media reduces business risk. Companies that are confident and willing to listen have access to a rich source of alternate views that may challenge huge parts of how they operate. To refuse to join the dialogue is to expose the business to future risk.
It’s an old world fixation on process (‘but this is the way we do things around here’) that prevents some businesses embracing challenging and fertile conversations with consumers. It used to be ‘process first, behaviour second’ but it’s time to flip the lens and think what are the new consumer behaviours and how can we change our processes to deliver to them?
This can be incredibly uncomfortable. When you truly interact with a customer and allow them to influence the outcome, it means you don’t necessarily know what the outcome may be. Companies have a choice: become facilitators, mentors, trusted participants and embrace the uncertainty, or say, ‘It’s too much I want to keep control.’
The opportunity to experiment in business is the opportunity to learn what does and what doesn’t work. By its nature, experimenting means some failures, and large companies don’t always see failure as valuable. Indeed, it is traditionally penalised, yet the seeds of future success may well lie in the experiments.
Older generations argue, ‘I’ve have the answer from experience’. Younger generations counter ‘I have the answer from technology, and I know how this all works.’ Each is just as flawed as the other. It’s not about having an answer, it’s about deep listening: ‘I can hear the arguments and I can determine the underlying truths. Based on those I have the confidence to move forward.’
