Stories by Brad Howarth

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.

Discussion of the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace today inevitably leads to questions about the role it will play – and what might happen to those people who previously performed those roles.

Digital transformation projects are normally pursued for their ability to improve engagement between an organisation and its customers. But there is much to be said for their ability to boost staff engagement levels too.

​Financial services companies have long feared the world’s technology giants would start coming after their customers, and it appears those fears are not without foundation.

It’s long been known happy employees are more productive and less likely to leave. It is also now becoming increasingly understood employee happiness and engagement play a key role in customer satisfaction.

Few companies of the digital era are as synonymous with the concept of great customer service as Zappos. Continuing to keep customers happy is a key focus for the group’s head of customer research, Alex Genov, who is speaking at the forthcoming CX Innovation & Tech Fest in Melbourne.

Lego is a brand synonymous with play. Indeed, its name is derived from the Danish words for ‘play well’ – leg godt. So it is perhaps not surprising to hear senior global director at Lego Group, Lars Silberbauer, uses similar language when referring to his own job.

Machine learning has become one of the hottest topics in marketing circles in 2018, as organisations strive to understand what it can do and how it works. But as with most emerging technologies, there is limited experience in market against which to make decisions.

​It is often said smell is the most evocative senses, readily resurfacing memories and feelings. But with marketers generally limited in their ability to reach the olfactory organs of most consumers, other senses can still be used to great effect.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that conferences were jammed with sessions on how techniques and ideas from the world of electronic gaming were revolutionising marketing.

As the CMO at a company focused on helping clients make better technology decisions, it’s no surprise to Forrester’s Victor Milligan that much of his time is spent providing that same service to marketers.