Tag: entrepreneur - Page 4

“Humans and machines – each on their own – won’t be enough to drive businesses in the coming decades. Tomorrow’s leading enterprises will be those that know how to meld the two effectively” – Accenture.

It’s those forward-thinking businesses who have adopted robotics, automation software and technologies, that have increased their productivity by over 200% evidence suggest. This helps re-affirm what the future workforce will look like: human and digital interaction on a daily basis.

Yesterday was the last day of an internship for a young man who had chosen Marketing Eye Melbourne as the place he was going to learn and work out where he wants to be after he graduates.

Last days are always hard. Firstly, if you have finished everything that you were working on, you tend to just do task that have to be done, rather than projects that may benefit your internship and future employment prospects. Secondly, it's a day of reflection. What did you get out of your internship? Was it worthwhile? Are your colleagues friends of the future? Do you want to work at the company that you did your internship at? Have you chosen the right career path? Are you more confused than ever?

If you don't believe in it, why do it? 

I had breakfast with 'the devil's advocate' this morning. A dear friend who always asks a lot of questions and is possibly so seasoned that instead of having a glass half full when a new idea or business starts, he spends a little too much time in focusing on what won't work.

The amount of times people ring Marketing Eye to talk about their marketing efforts, and they have literally left it to the last minute, I cannot count. It actually happens on a daily basis. Leaving your business' destiny in the hands of a marketing company (or any company) that doesn't know your product and service as intimately as you, and has no data science on what you have done previously from a marketing perspective is simply crazy.

For anyone interested in becoming a fashion designer, there is one thing you need to know, and that is "the numbers". 

I'm a marketer. It's been my choice of career for almost 25 years. I am the first to put up my hand and say that I know very little about anything other than marketing - and even with that, it's a daily challenge to keep up to the many changes in dynamics, technology, and human behaviours that affect our ability as marketers to do a job well.

Over a year, I speak with hundreds of marketers and potentially, more than a thousand entrepreneurs. More recently, interviewing people for roles with our fast-growth company has meant that I have been having conversations with quite a few marketers, many of whom have tried their hand at being entrepreneurs. In fact, more than 30 percent of the marketers in the latest bunch have started a company, and during the job interviewing phase, have said that the company was successful, but either exists no more or is put to the wayside.

High expectations of themselves

I was driving to work today, and I really need to put diesel in my car. It is the one thing I hate, but fortunately, I literally fill my car up once ever 6 weeks or so. I don't drive much as I am never in town. I thought to myself how annoying it is to fill my car up and how I wish I had someone to do it for me. It's just a task that seems pointless other than the real fact that if I don't fill it up, I will be on the side of the road.

Which brought me to the fact that on my 5 minute drive to work, 3 cars were being removed by trucks because they had been left overnight and at 7am in the morning, the road doesn't allow parking. It was 7.01am. 

It's been a hectic few months and this week has been no different. 

With the weekend upon us, I can safely say that the next few months I am only focused on Marketing Eye, technology development and the people who have already been in the incubator and need my support. It's time to pass on the baton for all the things I have become so passionately involved with, and focus on my own backyard - so to speak.

I've had a phenomenal start to the new year - by choice. 

I chose to look at 2017, literally through a new set of glasses, and with a mindset that begs for change.

Change is a strange word, because it means so many things to people, and rarely does it mean the same from one person to another.

I encapsulate my thoughts on change, by looking at my life and how fortunate I have been, then looking ahead and seeing what purpose I have that underpins my next stage of this incredible journey.

Innovation is notoriously hard, and for those selling the service of innovation, one must ask, "are they innovating themselves or are they just selling a dream?".

I constantly have people contact me in relation to disrupting my industry and I laugh. Clearly they don't read my blogs as I am 5 steps ahead. First mistake. Second mistake is I take the opportunity to look at their businesses and while the buzzwords come in hard and fast, they have no substance to break it up.