The Futurist - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs

The Futurist

This blog is the crystal ball of SmartCompany. Deciphering the future is lead writer Dr. Colin Benjamin, chairman of independent Melbourne think-tank Marshall Place Associates and director general of Life: ‘Be in it’ International. Colin has a professional doctorate in business administration at the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship and is widely known in marketing circles as the author of the Roy Morgan Values Segments.

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What’s up?

Author: Colin Benjamin on 12 March 2010

Last week's blog produced an all time high response from SmartCompany readers. It highlights the conundrum of all forecasting systems, posed thousands of years ago by Heraclites - the only constant is change itself.

Better buy now

Author: Colin Benjamin on 5 March 2010

There is a general agreement that house prices are going up dramatically, unemployment levels are coming down and casual workers are being offered permanent part-time positions as the new form of labour market flexibility.

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Creating new customers

Author: Colin Benjamin on 26 February 2010

The next six months are going to be an increasingly difficult prospect for traditional small and medium enterprises that have survived the GFC. While the mass media focuses upon the equities exchange, Parliament moves into the deficit containment sphere, smart companies will have to concentrate on what Drucker called the business of business - creating new customers.

It’s not over folks

Author: Colin Benjamin on 19 February 2010

The Australian sharemarket — which has stayed at about the same level for much of February - shows that most investors are only too aware of the Abbott debt bomb campaign and the Tanner tendency to tell caucus that its plans for more cash splash are cactus. Unemployment and under-employment is still high (Roy Morgan estimates for January show unemployment at 7.5% (up 0.7% since December 2009) and total unemployment and under-employment at 14.7% (1.720 million).

Reading the future

Author: Colin Benjamin on 15 February 2010

Australia's recovery and job creation, especially in Victoria, has been ahead of the rest of the world, generating concerns that the economy will grow too fast if we follow other nation's retention of stimulus packages.

Good one, Glenn

Author: Colin Benjamin on 5 February 2010

As the nation heads for the silly season of an election year, it's only appropriate to recognise the wisdom of Tony Abbott and the folly of Barnaby Joyce in their respective relationships with our top public servants.

The next bubble?

Author: Colin Benjamin on 29 January 2010

In the next week or so we are likely to have the interest rate rise that the RBA thinks we have to have, at a time when other countries are holding onto their stimulus packages and keeping rates unchanged.

Business building

Author: Colin Benjamin on 22 January 2010

Watch out for the first weeks in February for signs that Glenn Stevens and Ken Henry will enter election year with a curb on consumer over-confidence and pressures to jump all over imports.

Secure home base

15 January 2010

The next few months are going to be critical for all smart companies that have weathered the global financial crisis, reviewed their 2010 business plans and started to convert part-time to full time staff.

Rate rise risks

Author: Colin Benjamin on 8 January 2010

If smart companies have not revised their business and marketing plans for 2010, now is definitely the time to visit both accountants and the lending manager of the local bank branch. Overseas currency speculators are convinced that the dollar is heading towards parity with the US dollar, as central bankers become more concerned about a global inflationary surge fuelled by continuing stimulus packages.