wallydownundy

Australian employers are coming back from holidays to find the return of high employment. In December job advertisements spiked – in a trend unseen before. Traditionally job ads over Christmas are dominated by casual and seasonal roles (gift wrapping at the mall, anyone?). Yet this past December recruitment advertisements increased 2.5% with an 18.5% increase in advertising and media. (See The Sydney Morning Herald.)

Dial back three years and you’ll recall the pre-crisis period. At that stage I was in a similar role at another firm (they who shall not be mentioned). I received a CV from a recruiter who enthusiastically recommended this bright candidate. She was unique and very qualified. And with 18 months experience she wanted a base salary of $75,000.

Now recruiters are human so I called and suggested the 4 key is right below the 7 key on the numeric keypad. Wasn’t this a typo?

Turns out the young candidate wasn’t the only enthusiastic one. No, the recruiter assured me, that was the salary expectation and once I met the young woman I would understand. On principle I refused the meeting.

In public relations we walk a razor-thin line. We have an obligation to provide a fair and equitable salary to our professionals. Yet clients are demanding the best services for the most reasonable fees. And after the horror year of 2008-09, we need to re-build and re-invest in technology, training and more.

Australia is also a talent pool where Asian companies love to swim. Singapore for three years? Seoul for a posting? Hong Kong for a change? With the growth in Mandarin classes even an in-land China posting is attractive to new professionals.

2010 will be a competitive year as the economic growth of Australia is compounded by the increased demand for talented people. I plan to play and play hard – but it’s never going to be a place where I’ll over-pay for 18 months experience!

The Global Financial Crisis touched down in Sydney – and promptly left. In 2009 one quarter of economic activity experienced contraction – followed by a robust rebound. Already the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased interest rates to slow growth. Australia is faring well.

In the USA, signs of life are emerging. Yet the “green shoots” of economic growth promised by President Obama appear to be weeds in the lawns of foreclosed homes. The New York Times contains an exposé on real estate in Cape Coral Florida. There houses that once sold for $850,000 are available for under $300k. Of the 64,000 single family homes, more than 18,000 have been foreclosed. Today an entrepreneur drives an air conditioned van around with potential investors. The tour is of foreclosed homes.

Most striking in the article is the human element.

Kevin Jarrett seems a lot like me. He’d relocated for work and initially found selling real estate a good profession. (Change the name, change the city and change the profession and pretty soon you might relate, too.) He and his wife and daughter settled into a good life with a nice home and a few investment properties. But when the bottom fell out he was hit. Hard. After the three investment properties were taken by the bank, his wife left – taking their daughter. He tried to maintain his home. One day when washing his face the water was turned off. He lost his home and is on the move.

The Grapes of Wrath 2010.

Looking at the level of hardship in previously well-off communities like Cape Coral makes it apparent this recession will take a decade to heal – so long as a double dip doesn’t occur. The “floor” of this drop is a long, long way from the heights before the plunge. The way back up takes a lot longer than the drop.

Australia (again) was well sheltered. Even housing prices retained their gusto. Some outer-west suburbs in Sydney dropped by double digits. Yet by the September quarter 2009 housing starts had increased 10% nationally. Prices have increased in most Sydney suburbs. Of the major global economies, Australia was one of three to record growth (alongside Singapore and South Korea).

All that said, Australia has seen pockets of hardship – and for every Kevin Jarrett of Cape Coral there’s a similar hard luck story Down Under. Thankfully strong economic leadership and underlying demand for Australian products and services mean there are fewer of them.

I can’t get family to visit me. It’s not my hospitality. My partner and I are renowned hosts. We have a spare room always on the ready and a bevy of activities for newcomers and old hands alike.

What keeps family away is the journey. From the East Coast of the USA to Sydney is approximately 24 hours travel time (perhaps longer with the new security measures going into place). There’s the flight to LAX which is really a warm-up act to the 14.5 hour flight to Sydney (six movies! four meals!).

When you come to Australia you fly over the International Date Line. If you leave on a Monday you arrive on a Wednesday. What happened to Tuesday? Hell if I know. I think you lose it – forever. (Apparently you get it back when you fly to the USA as your plane lands in LAX several hours before your take-off time/day in Sydney.

Go figure.

Tonight is a lot like flying across the date line. With the tick of a clock hand we say farewell to a year – and a decade. Time Magazine called it the “Decade from Hell”. Reflect back. Enron, September 11, Paris Hilton, Lehman Brothers, George Bush (twice). Won’t go down as my favourite years.

New Year’s Eve is a bit like an Etch-A-Sketch or absolution after confession. Your slate is clean and you get to start again. Fresh starts! New thinking! Changes to the old me!

To me it’s like a flight across the Date Line. It all seems slightly artificial. I won’t drop 5 kilos tonight or have a refreshed bank balance. I’ll wake tomorrow in the same bed with the same family. And that’s really, really okay by me. It’s good.

What tonight is good for is promoting Australia. As New Yorkers freeze in winter we’ll showcase our beautiful city and its amazing displays of fireworks.

Get ready world – Sydney gets to dash first into the new year and the new decade. Feel free to follow!

Just re-wrote the credentials document for Fleishman-Hillard Australia. The last one was filled with tons of useful information, but little separated it from the pack. What’s uniquely ours? How do you separate your own business, especially when there are 150+ public relations firms in Sydney alone.

Instead of traditional dialogue I used everyday language. And I added an Australian twist. Irreverence.

I remember, years ago, a Big Kahuna visiting the firm I worked for then. He’d flown from Hong Kong to Sydney and was used to being received in other offices in Asia. He didn’t understand the rudeness of the Australian staff! They were direct. Straight-forward. Not disrespectful but neither deferential. Australians are a world away when business leaders expect Asian manners. We’re not that refined. Sorry.

Here’s the section on our team:

WE’RE EACH RATHER CLEVER.

BUT WHEN YOU SEE US TOGETHER, WE’RE PRETTY SPECIAL

In a hot employment market we’ve attracted and retained the best people. And while we expect a lot from them, we give a lot, too. Like training every Wednesday afternoon. Or at a global conference – such as the Digital Immersion in Washington, DC in late 2009. Or the regional leadership conference in Tokyo in early 2010. We have an entire on-line curriculum that turns hard-won insights into practical lessons.

And we’re trying to build tomorrow’s leaders. So we keep inviting interns to work and learn. They seem to like it. They keep coming back.

Fleishman-Hillard is a great career choice. We host international colleagues who bring their skills Down Under for awhile. And we travel ourselves, too. Australia’s part of a great, big region and we’re constantly called on to help solve client issues in other cities, other countries.

Didn’t we say Australians are resourceful?

To give the text some real impact, I paired the words with images from James Brickwood, finalist for the inaugural Young Australian Journalist of the Year Award in 2008. See his portfolio at www.Oculi.com.au.

Whaddyathinkhuh?

Changes rocked Australian politics last week. The Leader of the Opposition last Monday was Malcolm Turnbull until Liberal party colleagues voted for a change. Media pundits backed Joe Hockey and, much like the Melbourne Cup, the favourite was nowhere near the finish line.

The new leader of the Opposition is Tony Abbott – conservative, anti-Emissions Trading, anti-union and a practicing Catholic. While religion rarely matters in politics, for a Catholic head of party it may make a difference as Australia has socialised medicine with a broad offering in reproductive medicine.

In August I wrote a post, “Facing an Election? Take Your Shirt Off!” Abbott is a fitness enthusiast known to bicycle 60 kms on the weekend for fun. There is no shortage of photos in the newspapers featuring Tony dashing across the finish line after an ocean swim. Of course he’s wearing the Australian standard – budgie smugglers (aka Speedos). If you’re not up on Aussie slang, a budgie is a type of bird. Put the two words together and you’ll probably get a visual. No? Look at this made-up campaign poster from today’s The Australian.

Later in the week the State of New South Wales (home to Sydney) also forced a change. This time it was the leader of the sitting government. Premier Nathan Rees was dumped in favour of Christina Keneally. Amazingly Christine is originally from Ohio and is the first female Premier in NSW. She still has a Yankee twang.

And like me, she fell in love and married an Australian – and fell in love all over again with Australia. It’s rare you get to choose your nationality!

Keneally shares a famous last name with Australian author Tom Keneally – best known for “Schindler’s Ark” which later became Speilberg’s film “Schindler’s List”. Christine is married to Tom’s nephew and they have two bi-national sons (Aussie-Yanks like my son).

Sad for Keneally is the view she’s a puppet to factional elements within the Labor Party – which was summed up neatly in The Sun Herald this weekend in their cartoon by David Rowe. I like the Yankee dress, the demure pose – and the numerous wingtips under the bustle of her dress.

In the land of November beach days, it’s not Thanksgiving today.

It’s just a Thursday in November and I am already at work.

There’s no steam in the kitchen as multiple pots come to boil. No one’s setting up the children’s table or ironing out Mimere’s lace tablecloth. There aren’t chores like shucking corn or stirring pearl onions or laying the fire. No one’s uncorking the wine or seeing if we remembered cranberry juice.

It’s all rather quiet.

I try to explain Thanksgiving but no one quite understands. What are Pilgrims? Didn’t you wind up killing Indians? Is it religious?

You can’t explain the conflicted thinking as you help yourself to a third serve of turkey - even though you were full after the first plate. You can’t explain the contentedness of being so squeezed onto a table three people need to pull out their chairs if you want to go to the bathroom. You can’t explain the wonderful incongruity of three generations together for one day a year - even if there are arguments. And you can’t explain why one woman…or two…or three…or some men…would cook for two days only to face a cavalcade of dirty pots.

No one understands Thanksgiving outside of America. And nowhere have I travelled that there’s been an equivalent holiday. It’s not like Christmas because you don’t have to buy gifts. It’s not like Easter because you don’t have to go to Church. It’s not like the Fourth of July because the weather keeps you indoors - all of you - and you have to wear nicer clothes. Plus they don’t televise football in summer!

Thanksgiving is a holiday completely unique in the world. And wherever I am I wish I was home.

Happy Thanksgiving. I miss you all!

Wally Down Undy

As an island nation Australia is bound to attract illegal immigrants via boat. Under Liberal leader John Howard mandatory detention of all refugees stemmed the flow. Under Kevin Rudd, the Labor government has softened the stance. And that’s lead to an influx of refugees.

In total the numbers are quite small. More visa over-stayers are already in the country having arrived by long-haul jet. Yet the dramatic imagery of small boats on massive seas filled with desperate people is ripe for national television.

This week the issue escalated due to a running issue and a new problem.

Today 78 refugees remain aboard an Australian Customs ship docked in Indonesian waters. They refuse to leave for fear of persecution under Indonesia’s shaky human rights regime. Another boat has 255 people seeking asylum in Australia. This is the long-running issue. Refugees have been aboard boats for three weeks.

Yesterday another boat sank in the Indian Ocean on its way to Australia. Twelve people are known to have died and another 11 are still missing. Opposition minister Tony Abbott blamed the Prime Minister for the deaths:

“You look at this terrible tragedy that’s unfolding in the Indian Ocean at the moment and you’ve got to say this is a comprehensive failure and it’s all the Prime Minister’s fault,” Abbott said in a radio interview.

Talk Radio is filled with views supporting a tougher stance – and others crying out for Australia to take responsibility for these people. By docking Australian flag ships off Indonesia and hoping to disembark their problems, the government is seeking to transfer ownership of refugees to Indonesia.

Clearly a regional approach is mandated – and Australia must play a lead role in directing policy and resettling refugees. When Hungarian children were evacuated in the 1950s amnesty by that country’s Communist regime they were greeted as heroes. When Vietnamese fled after the fall of Saigon they were welcomed – The Smithsonian Institute has one of the boats on display. Jews fleeing war-torn Germany were similarly shuffled from country to country – with one boat returned to Nazi Germany when the USA wouldn’t accept refugees.

The debate will continue for months to come. And in that period refugees will continue to attempt the water crossing to Australia. After covering rough seas in shoddy craft I hope they’re greeted with a sound policy and a welcoming government.

ABC Radio National has an all news station - located at 630 AM here in Sydney. (For my Yank readers, ABC means Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is a national, taxpayer funded broadcaster.) At 10:30 am I was on the Harbour Bridge crossing to a meeting when the half-hour news flash played. Headline three for the bulletin was, “Australian sheepdog beats New Zealand rival on its home turf - for the second year in a row.”

Now I’m sure this was one hell of a dog. Clearly a prize winner. But Australian radio is not so desperate for news that they broadcast nationally the results of state fair competitions. (”And Bill Chadd’s prize Angus took the blue ribbon at the Wagga Wagga Beef Invitational today!”)

Instead Australians were indulging in a bitter national rivalry. Australia versus New Zealand. It’s the Hatfields versus the McCoys all over again. (These West Virginian families entered American folklore with a multi-generational feud.)

New Zealand is to Australia as Canada is to the United States - a nearby neighbour that we pretend to embrace while saying disparaging things when they’re not in the room.

The fact a sheepdog trial got national radio play shows the depths we’ll go to to show Australians are better than New Zealanders. It’s a bi-national sport!

Jim Croce knew what he was singing when he recorded “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” in 1973:

“You don’t tug on superman’s cape

You don’t spit into the wind

You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger

And you don’t mess around with Jim”

Today Kraft Foods is facing the music after playing with Australia’s national snack spread – Vegemite. Following a marketing campaign to name a new, lighter Vegemite variant the company announced the winner yesterday. iSnack 2.0 is the name selected for the new Vegemite. It appears the selection was made following a whiz-bang marketing meeting involving creative geniuses paid by the hour. In other words, consumers hate it.

Writers from far afield as London have deplored the choice, as “Word of Mouth” at The Guardian comments:

“But to consider calling the Vegemite cheese spread “iSnack 2.0″… yes, that’s right … can only be the biggest steaming honker of an egregious publicity stunt in recorded history.”

Call me “Ishtar” but I do believe there were bigger failures – but you’d have to reach back to Edsel and “New Coke” to find one worse (Great article on New Coke: “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time“). Said Coke’s recalcitrant boss:

‘We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola.’

— DONALD R. KEOUGH, Coca-Cola president (1985)

But that was so…1985. Back then we had to write ‘Letters to the Editor’ and mail complaints to Atlanta, Georgia. Maybe we opened a can in front of a grocer and let it run into the gutter – in front of local television news. Things moved slowly then.

Kraft came out with iSnack 2.0 on Sunday. Today is Tuesday. Already blogs are on fire with disappointment, and the company has been forced to defend its choice. Talk about good PR gone bad!

In today’s age of immediacy it doesn’t take long for creative types to rubbish the product on blogs, mass-email friends, Twitter on the name and post hate videos – like this one.