Stories by Brad Howarth

Alicia Tillman was only two months into her role as chief marketing officer at German-based enterprise software maker, SAP, when she found herself in front of the company’s executive and supervisory boards.

The ability for artificially intelligent (AI) systems to generate recommendations quickly from vast amounts of data is seeing them applied in tasks ranging from customer scoring to detecting the presence of melanoma.

You may never have heard of New Era Cap Co, but you have probably seen its products, given they have been worn by celebrities and sporting luminaries from Jennifer Lopez to Babe Ruth.

When your company is credited with creating a product as enduring as blue jeans, it might be easy to rest on your laurels. But despite it being almost 150 years since Levi Strauss patented his iconic trousers, his eponymous company is continuing to innovate both in product and service.

Analytics is often thought of as a discipline based in numbers. But Sandra Hogan is taking a very human-centric approach to her role as group head of customer analytics at Origin Energy.

When you have more than 100 different products on offer, how do you decide which ones to focus your market efforts around? You can promote those that have the highest margins, but doing so might come at the expense of higher sales volumes from lower cost products.

Few airlines are lauded for their levels of customer service. Fewer still have customers who tattoo the airline’s logo onto their bodies.

It was the death of close friend, Dwayne Lally, by suicide in 2013 that led Casey Lyons and Sam Webb to come together in business. Neither had been aware of the extent of Rally’s battle with depression and bipolar disorder.

A true data professional is often described as someone who can balance technical competency with business know-how and the softer skills or being able to listen and communicate effectively. It’s a rare requirement, but one the UK-based Data School is striving to instil in its graduates, including the first cohort who were recently welcomed into Data School Australia.

​It’s not uncommon for a person to leave their house without their loyalty cards. It is also not unheard of for person to leave home without their phone. But no one has yet to leave their home without their face.

There is a lot of talk about how improving the diversity and inclusion of leadership teams can be a driver of greater innovation. But when Belinda Tumbers stepped up to become the managing director at Kellogg Australia in April 2016, she did more than just talk.

The online world has delivered massive benefits to Australian corporations and consumers alike. Well, most of them.

We’ve long known consumers hate bad ad experiences. It also turns out marketers do too. But while marketers are aware of the problems bad experiences cause, it may be that little will change until marketing team structures change.

In the late 18th century, Wolfgang von Kempelen amazed the world with his chess playing automaton, the Mechanical Turk, as it defeated worthy opponents including Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.

While the reputations of Australia’s financial services companies might be copping a hammering right now at the hands of the Royal Commission, they might take take heart from the knowledge that no matter how bad things, there is usually a way back. Most of the time, at least.