This week, Deloitte Access Economics and Colmar Brunton issued a report claiming that 25,000 jobs and AU$3.2 billion will be added to the economy thanks to increased teleworking as a result of the National Broadband Network (NBN).
These are small figures when you consider the impact that emerging educated economies in Asia could have on our international competitiveness. Our focus has to be on protecting jobs, surely, more than applauding the modest personal productivity gains brought about by working from home more often.
In this week’s Twisted Wire, Nicki Hutley, chief economist at KPMG, talks about Australia’s falling productivity, and how teleworking can help new people enter the workforce. Kevin Bloch, CTO at Cisco, talks about the sort of technology that will enable this to happen. But I’m left wondering whether we’re dancing around the edges of a bigger question.
By 2020, what exactly will Australia sell to the rest of the world? What can we do that can’t be done more quickly and cheaply in China? Technology will make us more efficient, but most other economies will have access to the same advancements. Surely education and training are the things that will set us apart.
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Getting Everyone Working as One
Deloitte has identified eight key leadership attributes or archetypes, determined by the degree of direction setting and how this is applied — top down, or bottom up.
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Risk on, but war still on too
A sharp shift in market sentiment today. It’s good news, says NAB’s Gavin Friend, based on a number of circumstances, but nothing concrete.
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Record highs on equities, bond yields fall, and more weak data
Record highs for US equities as bond yields fall further. NAB’s Gavin Friend talks about more weak data, a dummy spit from President Trump and Australia’s growing trade surplus.
