Although some business trends come and go, there are some are some that have proven timeless. For example, doing what’s right for the client will never go out of style, and the same goes for treating employees well and putting the company in a position to succeed. As companies experiment with different processes and report on their successes or failures, others may adapt them as a part of their own policies in order to improve internal or external business operations.

Here are 10 trends for CEOs and business leaders that various experts and writers have explored for 2016.

1. Customer Experience

The explosion of online commerce and marketing via social media has increased the already high-demand for excellent customer service. Laura McLellan discusses this in her article about marketing trends for 2016 on Gartner.com, saying that businesses must “look to new sources of differentiation.”

“Most companies expect to compete primarily on customer experience in the next two years,” she explains. “In 2016, customer experience will garner the highest level of marketing investment; it is one of three areas in which CEOs’ expectations of CMOs will increase the most; and bleeding-edge technologies to improve it will be the top innovation project marketers undertake. Marketers will lead the customer experience cross-functionally across all touch points in the majority of companies by 2016.”

2. Benefit Changes

When major companies make a big change to their benefits policies, like Netflix did in 2015 with its extended parental leave, it tends to make headlines. This trend should continue in 2016, as this story on ExecutiveForum.com explains, and serve as a recruiting tool.

“In order to compete for top talent, organizations will start looking at the overall competitiveness of their comp plans and identify the flexibility of paid leave time as an easy concession,” the story states. “The number of companies offering paid maternity leave now is disturbingly low, and paternity leave has been virtually nonexistent. But tech companies are quickly adjusting their leave policies in an attempt to retain their already limited female workforce, and that is creating a larger conversation in organizations across the U.S.”

3. Focus on Connecting Customers

Writing for Forbes, contributor Ian Altman describes “a connection economy,” which focuses on “building relationships and creating connections, rather than building assets by industrialism.” His examples:

• “Uber is the largest ‘taxi’ company — yet they own no vehicles and excel at connecting riders with drivers.”
  
• “AirBnB is the largest provider of accommodations — yet they own no real estate.”
  
• “Facebook is the largest media company — yet they create no content.”
  
• “Crowdfunding businesses like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are expected to surpass venture capital for funding in 2016 — yet they have no funds to invest.”
  

“Whereas it used to be sufficient to sell a product and receive revenues, customers now seek to connect with other like-minded individuals to get the most value in the long run,” he writes. “… If you want to build something that stands the test of time, you’ll connect your customers to each other and to valuable resources that extend beyond the sale.”

4. Big Data

This trendy phrase may still be vague to some, but the use of analytics in determining a business’ direction and outlook will continue to grow and become an important step in 2016. Tim Crawford, CIO of AVOA, explores its evolving role in information technology in a story for Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

“We’ve been talking about Big Data for a while, but what most people call ‘Big Data’ today is actually tiny data compared to what’s coming down the road,” he says. “More importantly, the term ‘Big Data’ alone doesn’t capture the full scope of its real impact on IT. CIOs and their teams can’t simply focus on managing the technical complexity of exponentially growing data in their data centers. We must become more data-driven and analytical in all of our decision-making and strategies, because that’s what’s happening throughout the organization. Don’t mistake data analytics for a marketing trend. Almost all company decisions — whether about mergers and acquisitions, growth markets, or new opportunities, products, and services — are increasingly made based on data.”

5. Innovations in Marketing

Innovation is one of those concepts that should be entrenched in any list of business trends. As McLellan writes in her Gartner piece, CEOs and CMOs should have a sharp focus on new efforts and directions with marketing in 2016.

“For the second year in a row we found that marketers are setting aside more than 9 percent of their budget for innovation,” she writes. “Leading a culture of change and company-wide innovation was the third-highest ranked increased CEO expectation of CMOs. More marketing executives have innovation in their title. An increasing number of CMOs manage product development as well as product management. Digital business transformation is causing many industries to shift their business model and offerings to digital vs. physical, putting marketing squarely in the middle of such innovation.”

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from Business2Community here and was written by David Kiger. 

Traditional and Digital PR are rapidly converging. A new Holmes report lays out five areas where digital changes are likely to intersect with, and have an impact on, Public Relations this year.

1. Earned vs Paid Content: Publishing content is one of the core aspects of Digital PR. In December 2015 the FTC laid out guidelines for paid content in an effort to prevent consumers from being misled by native advertising. It’s no longer enough to label the content “promoted.” Disclosure now has to be above the content. One of the ways this affects PR is working with the media and influencers. The ability to identify the right influencers – in both traditional and social media – and provide them with content they value so that you get earned media coverage will become highly prized in 2016.

2. Audio & Visual: There seems to be no end to the demand for immediate, visual content. Original images, smart infographics and engaging videos certainly capture the attention of your audience and are now important Digital PR skills. Then we have live-streaming video. The catch here is the skill needed to produce excellent quality visual material. It might be easy to write an engaging tweet, but taking high-quality photos on a smart phone or making a consistently interesting live-streaming video is not so simple.

Despite this appetite for the visual, podcasts are still very popular and are a way to reach and engage your audience – a core PR function. They’re much easier to produce than video, they’re easy to digest and can be listened to while multi-tasking.

3. The Shrinking Social Media Landscape: Facebook is now in its 12th year and shows no signs of slowing down. What we do see is a concentration of content and brand activity on the major social media platforms. PR pros need to hone their research skills, so they know exactly who is on which platform and what messages need to be posted where for best result. (Which means you have to understand data and analytics, another core Digital PR skill)

If you have a Millennial audience it’s vital to be familiar with SnapChat, WhatsApp and Line. Line is going after disenchanted Facebookers as much as it’s hoping to woo Skype-calling addicts. And it would be wise to keep an eye other platforms coming out of Asia, like WeChat, QQ and QZone.

4. Social Media at Work: LinkedIn cornered the market for business networking online. While still a major HR play, LinkedIn has also worked hard to make its platform appealing to journalists – and so it should be a priority for PR pros too. There are other apps making headway for internal comms – like Slack, which already has a large user base and has been valued at $1 Billion. Facebook at Work is a new product currently in beta for the work environment. If you are responsible for internal communication programs you need to be on top of these new services.

5. There’s an App for That: There does appear to be an app for pretty much everything today. People are using apps in a more personal way – many of them health related. And the success of these health apps, along with the Internet of Things – opens the door to other brand engagement opportunities. Smart PR pros will investigate how their brand (or clients) could tap into this trend. There are tons of opportunities for engaging content that can not only entertain, but make the world a better place.

This article was originally sourced from Business2Community here and was written by Sally Falkow. 

Disastrous events. We’ve all had them. I remember standing with my boss behind a pillar at an event in 1999, as he was unable to look at the room we had set for 700 with the 50 attendees. My attempts to promote the event as having a better-than-expected speaker-to-attendee ratio fell a little flat.

That’s why so much energy for every event is spent on thinking about how to get “butts in seats.”

A good place to start is with the trusty “4 P’s” of marketing, first espoused by Phillip Kottler (often called the father of modern marketing) in 1967. It’s funny to see how many lessons from his 4 P’s—product, price, promotion and place—still apply in the Internet and social media age. Particularly when you consider that this photo represents the state of the art in computing the year that Kottler wrote his seminal textbook “Marketing Management.”

So what would Kottler say about events today?

Product: Here’s the cold, hard reality. The market does a really good job of separating out good events from bad ones. And the event market is more competitive now than it has ever been. I look for four key elements in creating a client event:

1. Content: Whether it’s the right speakers or the right opportunity for audience interaction, you can’t spend enough time thinking about the agenda for your event. As you do, remember that the approach to content over the years has shifted. For example, the days of ninety-minute keynotes have given way to shorter, punchier TED talks. I’ve blogged about this before.
   
2. Packaging: I spend a lot of time at client events looking at staging and appearances. These items are far from superficial: they have a significant impact on people’s perception of an event. Walking into a room and saying “Wow!” helps attendees feel that an event is more than just an association meeting—it’s a happening.
   
3. Networking: People come to events to meet people. Be sure you’re giving them that opportunity—not just by having the time on the agenda, but by facilitating it with tools like mobile apps.
   
4. Fun: Whether it is an off-the-beaten path speaker, a theme at a networking reception, or a clever opening video, look for an opportunity to make your attendees smile. That’s where impressions are made.
   

Price: The pricing strategy on events is one that requires careful consideration, as it will often be a key consideration in people’s ability to attend.

Here are a few rules of thumb:

1. Free is costly: A mistake I’ve made in the past is the “free registration/sponsor-supported” event. You need to remember that for attendees, price connotes value. I’d rather give someone a “courtesy registration” to an event priced at $595 than have an event be priced as free.
   
2. Be competitive: People have nearly limitless opportunities to attend events. Be sure to do your market research to take a look at how comparable events are priced.
   
3. Cover your costs: Being a “non-profit” doesn’t mean that you need to lose money. I typically look for a pricing model that enables sponsorship to cover the hard costs of the meeting with registrations serving as the profit margin.
   

Promotion: With a strong product at the right price, it’s now time to start promoting.

1. Personal invitations: Tip O’Neill used to say you have to ask for every vote. And similarly, you have to ask for every registrant at a meeting. Be sure your promotion strategy includes personally inviting past event attendees to register—they should be a solid base from which you begin.
   
2. Return to sender: When I have scores of emails to sort through, I typically start by seeing who sent them. That’s why it’s so important that your promotion strategy start with attention to the sender line. Who is the message from? If your message is from a generic “events” address or an unknown staffer, it won’t cut through the clutter.
   
3. Go social: Of course, social media is a key part of your promotion strategy. Understanding what has worked and is working for other similar industry events and meetings, and applying it to promotional messaging testing is crucial. Don’t set one message up to one defined audience without providing variants of images and calls to action. This allows increasingly sophisticated delivery systems like Facebook Ads to more effectively target your message to not only your target audiences, but their specific tastes!
   
4. Set goals: Remember, not every meeting has to break attendance records. Sometimes exclusivity is what you’re going for—and a big attendance goes against your goals. Be sure you have a set goal for attendance success.
   

Place: It’s not quite what Kottler meant by “place,” but when it comes to meeting success, location matters in driving attendees. Worry about the “ABC’s” of location.

1. Access: Be sure you have solid access from airports and multiple airlines. I’m not always crazy about the Grand Hyatt DFW, but it sure is easy to get to.
   
2. Budget: Consider the budgets of attendees. They’ll need to put the event on their expense accounts. Don’t book a Four Seasons for a group that is on a Ramada Inn budget, and be careful about locations that could be perceived as a “junket.”
   
3. Cachet: Consider locations that have some perceived “cachet” that are still within your budget. Here in Boston, for example, colleges and universities are a great venue—unused classroom space is affordable and having a major university name as the location provides some cachet for the event.
   

So will doing all the strategies above guarantee solid attendance? Of course not. But some careful consideration of the “4 P’s” can save you from the dreaded “fifth P”—the pain of an event gone wrong.

This article was originally sourced from Virtual here and was written by Andy Freed. 

With so many different communication channels – including websites, blogs, emails, newsletters and social media – communicating with your stakeholders in 2016 can seem like a daunting task.

Kivi Leroux Miller’s annual Nonprofit Communications Trends Report helps non-profit staff and volunteers understand how similar people in similar roles have been communicating in the past, as well as their plans for 2015. This year’s edition has compiled data from 1,534 non-profit staff from USA and Canada on their communication goals, preferences and habits.

Here are some highlights:

• 57% of respondents said that “Engaging Our Community” was their most important communication goal.
  
• 81% thought that their website was the most important communication channel and 92% thought podcasting is the least important.
  
• The respondents reported that Facebook updates took the most time in a typical week.
  
• Facebook is still no. 1 in social media - 96% of respondents have a Facebook page.
  
• Respondents ranked the “lack of time to produce quality content” as “very challenging”.
  
• 62% will send an email newsletter at least monthly.
  

If you’d like to check out all of the insight the report provides, you can download the 2015 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report here.

This information was sourced directly from the Wild Apricot website here. 

The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) have launched a new intensive training program specifically for female mortgage and finance brokers.

Partnering with recognised leadership developer Gillian Fox, the six-month WIMBN:SOLD Leadership Development (Advancing Women) program has been launched with the aim of improving women’s ability to become more successful business owners.

“Many female entrepreneurs work extremely hard yet are not always achieving their goal to make their value visible when it comes to differentiating themselves and continue to grow their business,” Gillian Fox said.

The program includes four workshops and two individual sessions which will equip women with the tools and practical information needed to accelerate their operational growth. The course also includes guest speakers and will challenge participants to create a career development plan for the future.

With many brokers operating as solo business owners, the chief executive of the MFAA, Siobhan Hayden, said the intensive program will help female brokers leverage their position in the mortgage and finance industry.

“Promoting conversations about priorities, establishing new referral partners through influencing and decision-making on business diversification are all top of mind for brokers. A lot are solo business owners and I believe that the program will help them to achieve their professional goals,” Hayden said.

As the mortgage and finance industry is beginning to be represented by more and more women, Fox said opportunities like this are important.

“I see more women in leadership in the finance industry growing. The aim is to create more opportunities for women to expand their influence within the sector.”

This article was originally sourced from Australian Broker here and was written by Julia Corderoy. 

Internet Australia has criticised the government over the launch of its Data Retention Grants Program, reiterating that $128.4 million allocated to the initiative falls "well short" of the total costs incurred by ISPs.

The Grants Program, introduced last week, involves a single funding round to assist eligible telcos and ISPs with the cost of retaining a range of customer data for two years under the Data Retention Act.

There is a significant gap between government funding being provided and the expected cost to the telco sector of implementing data retention, according to the peak body representing Internet users, which also expressed concern over the late release of the program.

“Internet Australia welcomes the release of the Data Retention Grants Program. However, we are concerned that it has taken so long for this to occur. Our ISP members have had to incur considerable costs without knowing what, if any, compensation they might receive,” the organisation said.

In September, the Internet society called for “urgent clarification” around data retention funding to cover the introduction of the Data Retention Act on October 13th, with CEO Laurie Patton warning ISPs could go out of business if they were not adequately reimbursed.

In the 2015-16 federal budget the government set aside a total of $131.3 million over three years for implementing data retention; which included the cost of administering the grants program, providing technical guidance to the telco sector, and the development of data retention standards.

A government-commissioned PwC study estimated that the capital cost of implementing the data retention regime would be between $188.8 million and $319.1 million. The government's funding package is therefore "less than half the amount the government itself estimated as the cost to industry when the data retention bill was presented to parliament," said Patton.

Internet Australia believes the shortfall will be passed on to the consumer. The PwC study pegged the average cost to customers over 10 years (without government funding) would equate to between $1.83 and $6.12 per annum, with a median price of $3.98 per customer per annum.

The Grant Program will operate over three years from 2015-2018, managed by the Attorney-General’s Department. Applications for funding close at 5pm on 23 February, and telcos have been encouraged to read the Program Guidelines prior to applying.

This article was originally sourced from the CIO website here and was written by Bonnie Gardiner. 

Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Australia will be renamed Good2Give in late April 2016 with a new identity to drive $300 million in donations to charitable organisations by the end of 2020.

The not-for-profit organisation was established 15 years ago to make it easy for businesses and donors to connect with the causes they care about. Building on this commitment, Good2Give sets out an ambitious target to significantly grow giving and build low-cost donations through workplaces for charitable organisations.

Good2Give remains affiliated to the CAF Global Alliance of organisations that supports charities and not-for-profits in over 100 countries, while positioning itself to leverage opportunities that will inspire and enable giving across Australia and New Zealand.

Good2Give’s game-changing software for workplace giving as well as its work in managing corporate foundations and their grants programs has supported businesses and donors to give $140 million in the past 15 years. More than $14 million was received by over 1500 charitable organisations in the past 12 months alone.

Today Good2Give sets the ambitious target to reach $300 million in donations within the next five years by continuing to invest in and leverage software to deliver ever more efficient ways for business and donors to support the charities they care about.

Lisa Grinham, Chief Executive Officer of Good2Give, said: “We’ve made extraordinary progress since our establishment 15 years ago. Today, as Good2Give, we see an enormous untapped opportunity to scale our capacity and make giving as a part of normal working life.

“Our purpose-built software solutions are having great outcomes in significantly increasing donations across workplace giving and corporate grants programs. Both of which are providing critical support for the charity and not-for-profit sector.

“Our new name embodies this commitment. It’s about Good2Give making it easy, efficient and rewarding to give to the causes we all care about. We know it’s good to give, we know how great it makes you feel – and we are excited to help make this a part of people’s everyday lives.

“Being part of a global family of organisations spanning Britain, the United States, Canada, Russia, India, South Africa, and Brazil is integral to our heritage. We’re continuing to work closely with our CAF colleagues, and look forward to building our expertise to ensure maximum impact in Australia and New Zealand in the coming years.”

This media release was directly sourced from the Good2Give website here. 

For more information contact:

Lisa Grinham

Chief Executive Officer

Ph 02 9929 9633 / 0419 922 700

E: lgrinham@cafaustralia.org.au

Elena Mace

Marketing Communications Manager

Ph 02 9929 9633 / 0421 484 261

E: emace@cafaustralia.org.au

AMA President, Professor Brian Owler, said today that the Government’s MYEFO statement is another chapter in the Coalition’s consistent health policy since being elected – cut health funding and shift costs to patients.

Professor Owler said the axing of the bulk billing incentives for pathology and diagnostic imaging services will increase the health cost burden for Australian families, with the poorest and the sickest being hit the hardest.

“These measures are simply resurrecting a part of the Government’s original ill-fated co-payment proposal from the 2014 Budget,” Professor Owler said.

“It is yet another co-payment by stealth.

“The Government is continuing to retreat from its core responsibilities in providing access to affordable, quality health services for the Australian people.

“Cutting Medicare patient rebates for important pathology and imaging services is another example of putting the Budget bottom line ahead of good health policy.

“These services are critical to early diagnosis and management of health conditions to allow people to remain productive in their jobs for the good of the economy.

“The AMA strongly opposes these measures, and we will be encouraging the Senate to disallow them.”

Professor Owler said the AMA welcomes the belated introduction of new MBS items for sexual health medicine services and addiction medicine services, which were recommended by the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC).

“These new items will provide better access to these services in the private sector, where currently most people need to wait for these services in public hospitals,” Professor Owler said.

Professor Owler said the health sector needs some detail and explanation from the Government on other unexpected cuts.

“The Government has announced savings of $146.0 million from redesigning 24 health programs covering population health, medical services, eHealth, and health workforce,” Professor Owler said.

“And there is a further $31 million in savings over four years for public hospital services, again without explanation.

“All up, MYEFO has delivered another significant hit to the health budget with services and programs cut, and more costs being shifted on to patients.

“Continuing a worrying pattern, there has been no consultation with medical and health organisations about the nature and extent of these cuts.

“It does not fill us with confidence about the Government’s ongoing range of reviews, including the MBS Review, the Primary Care Review, and the review of the private health insurance sector.

“The Government is repeatedly cutting away at the Health budget despite there being no evidence of a health funding crisis.

“It is folly to frame health policy on the basis of outdated spending projections from the Commission of Audit,” Professor Owler said.

Other key MYEFO measures include:

• the abolition of the National Hospital Performance Authority (NHPA) and its highly valued health reporting arrangements;
  
• the abolition of the National Health Funding Body and Funding Pool (the death of activity based funding?);
  
• on the plus side, there is extra money for the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program, which supports clinical training in rural areas; and
  
• $93.8 million is flagged for an integrated medical training pathway for rural areas, a concept lobbied for by the AMA.
  

This media release was directly sourced from the Australian Medical Association website here and was written on 15/12/2015 . 

Taxing superannuation at marginal rates then offering a rebate would be an administrative nightmare and leave too many people worse off, the peak body for super funds says.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) on Thursday joined the Financial Services Council in warning the government not to raid super to fund changes elsewhere in the tax system.

The groups, which represent super funds, said taxing contributions at marginal rates less a 15 per cent rebate would diminish retirement savings and increase reliance on the age pension for 80 per cent of Australians. ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said such a system would require either the ATO to administer rebates or employers to calculate extra withholding tax and remit that to the ATO.

"The administration costs of putting this in place are going to be significant, both on the tax office and on superannuation funds," she said.

"There could also be unintended consequences for members. For example, you could be waiting months to get your rebate, which means you have less in your account and therefore a lot less benefit through compound interest."

"Once you start applying marginal tax you move away from the fundamentals of what the system is about," Ms Vamos said.

"It's about encouraging people to save; you're going without wages today to save for the future. [The FSC] are trying to dissuade the government from going down this path and we agree."

Because their members' businesses depend on it, both the FSC and ASFA want the government to compel workers to put more money into super, not take extra out in tax.

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from The Australian Financial Review here and was written by Joanna Mather. 

The ABS today released housing finance figures for November 2015, showing that total lending activity increased during the month, but still remains below the high point reached in August of last year, said the Housing Industry Association, the voice of the residential building industry.

“This is a positive update for Australia’s housing sector, showing that lending activity remained healthy toward the end of last year,” commented HIA economist, Diwa Hopkins.

“Looking at the detail, lending activity among investors is still below what appears to be the cyclical peak back in April last year. More strength is evident in the owner occupier segment of the market, with the latest level of lending activity on par with recent highs.”

The value of investor lending increased by 0.7 per cent during the month of November, but was 7.7 per cent lower than a year earlier. The value of owner occupier lending, net of refinancing was up by 1.7 per cent and is some 22.8 per cent higher than a year earlier.

“Today’s figures also highlight that owner occupiers remain active in the new housing market, with the value of lending to those purchasing or constructing a new dwelling up by 0.7 per cent during the month to be 8.8 per cent higher than a year previously.”

“These signals from housing finance are consistent with other indicators pointing to very healthy levels of activity in the residential construction sector in early 2016,” said Diwa Hopkins.

In terms of new home lending to owner occupiers across the states and territories, six out of the eight experienced annual increases during November 2015: New South Wales (+9.7 per cent), Victoria (+8.2), Queensland (+2.3 per cent), South Australia (+6.3 per cent), the Northern Territory (+96.6 per cent) and the Australian Capital Territory (+8.2 per cent). New home lending to owner occupiers in November 2015 compared with a year earlier was lower in Western Australia (-15.9 per cent) and Tasmania (-10.7 per cent).

This media release was directly sourced from the Housing Industry Association website here. 

For further information please contact:

Diwa Hopkins, Economist on 02 6245 1308