We have arrived at a moment in time where the political system is so out of whack with the people it purports to represent that it makes increasingly less sense to the average person. The election campaigns of Julia Guillard and Tony Abbott appear sanitized, stage managed and designed solely to ensure the attainment of power as an outcome.
If I hear another cop-out excuse citing the customer reaction to the “Global Financial Crisis” as an explanation for crap performance by a retailer in this country I think I’ll puke. The GFC did not, is not and will not affect what customers do, but it sure as hell has affected what retail businesses do – despite the fact it never really touched us. During the last 2 years Australian households have continued to spend in record dollar amounts.
In the age of anxiety the world is fuelled by 24/7 sound bites. Technology has opened up efficient ways of distributing information and led to the advent of 24-hour news channels, mobile information services and more. And what the advent of 24/7 surround sound demands is content. News channels today are not only constantly looking for content, they are very often generating it themselves.
Mark McInnes is a man with a lot of problems. The courts of law and the ultimate judge will sort fact from fiction and determine guilt and punishment. But what has many people concerned about this high profile case are the ramifications from both the media and legal fallout of this episode regardless of guilt or innocence. We live in an age hamstrung by risk aversion and political correctness.
A colleague of mine recently shared with me the story of “The 5 monkeys”. Some of you may already know this story, but please bare with me for a moment while I share with you the version of this story I heard. Some years ago, scientists placed 5 of our nearest evolutionary relatives in a glass cage.
Every year I am lucky enough to travel the world and – like a voyeuristic sponge – soak up new knowledge from the best (and worst) the wonderful world of retail has to offer. Of particular interest over the many years of retail gluttony I have indulged in is the study of department stores because they affect the competitive context for so many categories.
