Management Blog

Voice over IP impacting on the global telecoms industry

Voice over IP subscribers in America will number 27 million by the end of 2009, market researcher IDC predicts, up from 3 million by the end of this year.

Already Japan has more that over 8 million subscribers. Another research firm, iSuppli, expects the worldwide number of residential VOIP subscribers will reach $197 million by 2010.

The numbers do not include people using VoIP without subscribing to a service (for example, by downloading free software from Google, Skype or others). Skype alone has 54 million users. VoIP is threatening the pricing models of the telecoms industry because it is making telephone calls virtually free.

Queensland attracts the most interstate migrants

Queensland has had the largest increase in population (76,900) in the year to March 2005 of any Australian state. The Australian Capital Territory had the smallest with an increase of 1200 people.

Overall, Australia's population increased to 20.3 million in March 2005, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. All states and territories gained population over the year.
Interstate migration was the largest contributor (43.3%) to Queensland's annual population growth, with a gain of 33,300 persons.

Experimenting to shape the future

Experimenting with concepts to shape the future instead of waiting for it to happen is important for the success of organisations, says Tim Brown, the president and CEO of IDEO, a design consultancy with offices in Palo Alto, California, Boston, London, and Tokyo.

"We expect every experiment to produce an output we can communicate or experientially evaluate in some qualitative way. The result might take the form of a tangible prototype or a storyboard or video that lays out a future scenario. Or the experiment might simply provide new insights, such as a novel framework or new principles that can constitute a platform for innovation," he says.

"Managers should aim to have a balanced portfolio of experiments: some short-term and intended to create new ideas, some medium-term designed to take your company in new directions, and some long-term that will deliver new insights about the future."

Mobile phone market peaks at 2 billion customers

The mobile phone market is likely to peak this year after achieving a major milestone of more than 2 billion customers - nearly one third of the world's 6.5 billion people.

Evidence is emerging to show that the market's growth, as measured by net new additional customers, will fall rapidly over the rest of the decade.

Devine Kofiloto, principal analyst at Informa, said: "As growth in developed markets slows down and developing markets begin moving towards maturity, the net effect will see overall growth trending downwards from 2005."

Domestic tourism suffering due to high oil prices

Australians are cutting back on domestic travel because of high oil prices. Domestic trips fell 13 percent to 16.5 million in the June quarter, according to the Tourism and Transport Forum, which is made up of industry chief executives.

This has translated into an 11 percent drop in visitor nights in hotels, motels and guest houses. It amounts to 7.3 million fewer visitor nights than the tourism industry experienced in the previous June quarter. Interstate trips fell 6.5 percent and there were 16 percent fewer intrastate trips.

The exceptions were Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, which showed growth in both interstate visitors and visitor nights between the June quarter of 2004 and the June quarter of 2005.

Consumers worry most over petrol prices

The price of petrol is now the number one Australian consumer worry amid warnings that fuel costs have passed a critical economic "stress point".

A Sensis consumer report polled 1500 people and found that soaring petrol prices were rated the highest consumer concern, replacing terrorism, the health system and the environment.

Consumers expected to spend even more on transport in the next 12 months.

"Australians now believe high petrol prices aren't just a short-term fluctuation," said the report's author, Christena Singh.

No email Fridays

And on the fifth day, there was no email... at least at management consultancy firm Roberts Golden Consulting in San Francisco.

Roberts's employees use e-mail Monday to Thursday, like everyone else, but on Friday they give their keyboards a rest. Too much email, they say, makes it harder to build rapport, and that threatens to derail effective business relationships.

"People hide behind email," says president Sara Roberts. "For just one day a week, I want us to pick up the phone or talk to someone face-to-face."

Younger employed population drives higher household spend

Darwin's younger employed population meant it had the highest level of gross household income ($1415) and the highest average household expenditure ($1080 a week) in Australia, the recent Australian Bureau of Statistics survey found.

Differences in demographic characteristics of households include:

• The proportion of Darwin households with wages and salaries income as the principal source of income was the highest (73%).
• The average number of persons in Darwin households aged under 65 was relatively high (2.5).
• The proportion of households that owned their own home with a mortgage was relatively high (43%).

Queensland household expenditure holds steady

Queensland expenditure on goods and services between 1998-99 and 2003-04 increased by 2 percent, the same as the increase for Australia as a whole.

But the State had the lowest expenditures on domestic fuel and power ($18 a week); alcoholic beverages ($20 a week); clothing and footwear ($29 a week). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics these differences are explained by the demographic and geographic characteristics of households. Factors include:

• Queensland had a high proportion of households with government pensions and allowances as the principal source of income (30%).
• Queensland had a lower proportion of households living in the capital city (46%).

Beer ad exceeds expectations

Australian brewer Foster's has created the most talked-about commercial of the year, after a month on the internet and just two weeks into its television run.

The Carlton Draught 'Big Ad' features a computer-generated army of men forming various shapes including a giant schooner of beer. It has appeared on thousands of blogs worldwide in addition to its free-to-air television appearances. The accompanying jingle is being sung at football matches.

It's estimated that 1.7 million people worldwide have seen the ad since Foster's emailed it to 4000 employees on a Friday afternoon in July. The momentum gained by this viral marketing has exceeded the brewer's expectations. Foster's is now scaling back the commercial's TV air time.