Every day we’re exposed to an average of 3000 commerical messages on TV, radio, cinemas, billboards, magazines, newspapers, T-shirts, cups, public transport and the INTERNET. Have you wonder how advertising works and how it works on us? Check out ABC’s Gruen Transfer.
The Gruen Transfer hosted by Wil Anderson where a number of advertising agencies experts provide insights to the industry in lighthearted and funny panel discussion setting. These panel guests take part in weekly challenges, exercise and games to create ads for the unselliable (For example, “Making celibacy sexy!”)
Don’t forget to try the Consumer’s Revenge, where you can mix and match your own beer/ bank/ beauty cream ad!
Are you fed up with the bloatware called Adobe Acrobat Reader (22.4MB Download) and regular updates? If you looking for a fast and responsive alternative to open and print PDF, download Sumatra PDF (1.13MB) today!
I installed Sumatra on my personal machine and I love it’s fast response speed.
Clever global manufacturers have learnt how to save billions by following the Toyota method of lean production, perfected by the Japanese car maker over decades. Peter Day finds out why the service industries seem to be far behind.
During the discussion, Peter spoke to James Womack (President, Lean Enterprise Institute) and uncovered scenarios that could benefit with lean manufacturing thinking. He quoted examples of Circuit City misguided use of contingent staff in critical customer facing roles to reduce wage bill. In the long run, the company suffered higher cost of revenue and dissolved itself from the important customer dialogue and feedback.
When a company removed itself from direct customers dialogues, the company would not be able to make the right strategic decision to maintain customers’ relevance and retain their patronage. Along the way, the company could end up making expensive and wasteful decisions, detriment to their obligation to shareholders - to deliver on-going and long term value.
Next time if you are conducting business travel in Australia, I would recommend Astra Apartments (serviced apartment between Sydney and Melbourne) and Fat Free Fone Company (mobile broadband internet) services.
Astra Apartment (Chatswood)
During my recent stint back in Australia, I stayed in their Chatswood apartment. The location was close to Microsoft office (North Ryde/ Macquarie Park) area and conveniently located among the Chatswood shops. The apartment was generally well maintained and decorated in a sensible and modern fashion. Their charges were reasonable (compared to long term hotel rates) and staff member was generally responsive and helpful.
Fat Free Fone Company offers fixed line, mobile phone and mobile broadband rental services in Australia.
I needed Internet access after office hours and during inter-state trips and found their services fairly reliable. It cost 200 AUD p/ month for 4GB of data (caveat: upstream and downstream usage INCLUSIVE) per month. It works out just under $7 p/day, much cheaper compared to hotel internet charges, accompanied with the flexibility of a short term nationwide mobile broadband rental.
I am not in any commercial arrangement with the above mentioned companies. These are my personal comments and should not be transmitted beyond my blog.
This blog referral post is about effective use of email. If you are looking for tips on how to reclaim your inbox or how to obtain a work-life balance, find a nice white friend and talk about it over coffee.
Treat all of these tips as short experiments and adapt it for your own situation
1. “Batch” email at set times.
2. Send and read email at different times.
3. Don’t scan email if you can’t immediately fix problems encountered.
4. Don’t BIF (before I forget) people during off-hours.
5. Don’t use the inbox for reminders or as a to-do list.
6. Set rules for email-to-phone escalation.
7. Before writing an email, ask yourself: “what problem am I trying to solve?” or “what is my ideal outcome?”
8. Learn to make suggestions instead of asking questions.
In the latest “All Men are Liars” blog entry, Sam De Brito blogged about the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) latest bullsh**t corporate slogan -”Determined to be different” and offers his opinion how CBA can be truly different.
Generally, the fees banks charge in Australia are an absolute disgrace. They charge you a monthly fee to use your own money, some limit the number of transactions you may use to access your own money, make a killing off your deposit and drown you in a schedule of fees and charges. I used to bank with CBA until I got so fed up with their poor and unreliable customer service and highly uncompetitive and customer unfriendly financial products and switched to ANZ (the lesser of the Big 4 evils).
ANZ charges a higher monthly maintaince fee but their service quality is a world of different. Each time I ring up the bank, my call is received by a staff based in Australia in less than 1min! Their internet banking portal is quick and generally easy to use. And finally, their retail banking slogan makes sense - More convenient banking. Now
During my recent trip, I found PseudoLocal to be a great easy reference guide to get to know Beijing. It’s packed with lots of information and RECOMMENDATIONS (absolutely important) of restaurants, essential services (eg medical), and maps. The information are mostly compiled other Beijing expatriates.
If you are going to spend some time in Beijing, remember to add PseudoLocal into your favourites.
If you are looking for premium bubbly and quality boutique wines in Australia, North Sydney Cellars should be your first choice. The shop is spacious with a wide range of selection and the staff members are knowledge and friendly. Best of all, their pricing is very competitive.
I’m doing all my Christmas bubbly purchase with them.
