One of my favourite firestarters at dinner parties is to ask "What builds character?" I get a lot of different answers (which alone surprises me) but I firmly believe that only one thing consistently builds it, and that's hardship. So what does it say about a generation of parents who move Heaven and Earth to ensure their children never experience hardship of any kind? Visiting the War Memorial in Canberra brought this home to me the other day in a range of ways, but the typical Christmas o … read more

I get ROI. In fact I pretty much live and die by ROI. My golden rule is it makes you money or what’s the point. My clients aren’t charities, and even if they were, they’d want ROI from their marketing, so don’t for a moment think that I’m anything but an ROI fanatic. But here’s the problem, marketing isn’t that linear, and the means of delivering the ROI isn’t a simple equation of 2+2=4. In fact sometimes 2+2=a furby. There’s a lot of s … read more

This one gets a fair working over at home. It's one of my pet hates which probably adds to the sting. Gossip isn't conversation. Talking about other people behind their back isn't noble or useful (nor should it really be fun if we're being honest with ourselves). There's so many important issues out there that need serious discussion. Problems that need to be solved. Opportunities that need to be grasped. Talking about how this person did (or didn't) do such and such says a lot more about us … read more

When a 'journalist' (and I use that word deliberately in inverted commas - after all he obviously didn't get 3 sources in this instance) wrote of the death of Mark Twain, the great wordsmith replied with the priceless "Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated". Many people have also written of the death of a range of media. Newspapers are dead being the classic (even though many regional papers are not just surviving, they're flourishing). My favourite is mail. Many people think … read more