Customers Matter

Being student-centric has turned around Victoria University, leading to dramatic increases in retention rates, pass rates and participation rates. Pro Vice Chancellor for Students, Naomi Dempsey, explains how ... 

We speak to Paul Baron about his impressive and multifaceted career and how he has observed technology and the digital era changing over the years. Paul and his team helped to grow Visit Victoria’s digital presence by finding a gap in the tourism industry in Australia.

Atomic design, marketing automation, and AI: FAQ on steroids. Senior UX Designer, Andre Kakos chats to us about the art and science of delivering a delightful user experience.

Would you like work from a tropical island, trading on your skills and doing the job you love? You're not alone - only some people are doing it. Meet Diana, Frank and Daniel and welcome to their world - the new world of work...

Imagine never applying for a job again. Instead, you'll join a talent community where you'll be deeply understood not just for the skills you possess but the values you hold. And once there, you'll be matched with the perfect opportunity in your ideal company.   As the cofounder and chief products officer of LiveHire, an ASX listed company, Antonluigi Gozzi (better known as Gigi) is developing his company's technology to do just that. He also believes it's only a matter of time before we all have an AI-powered virtual assistant helping us as well...

Omar de Silva first ventured into the business world by selling exotic lollies at school. Now, he has invented a new business school for entrepreneurs in the digital economy, which is turning the philosophy of learning upside down. He discusses his raw emotional journey through life's ups and downs that gave rise to a very purposeful educational enterprise - The Plato Project.

In the backstreets of Cronulla local kids are discovering something they’d never expect: “Murphy”, a robot, making surfboards. When Murphy joined the Force 9 Surfboards team, the nature of Sam Tehan's job was turned on its head. And while some people think robots are out to steal our jobs, Sam believes he has Murphy to thank for his job as a surfboard shaper.

Sally Mac, a digital native and founder of The Mermaid Society, explains why you have to be a triathlete in online media and content in today's digital landscape. With a background in journalism, Sally's career has seen her create content as the editor of Coastal Watch, and more recently she produced a captivating video series for the Vissla Sydney Surf Pro website. She shares her insight into the best ways to grab your customer's attention in those vital first three seconds in order to stop them from scrolling...

Joanne Stone, Director of Customer Experience at recruitment firm Hudson Asia Pacific, explains how marketing as a profession has become less about campaigns and more about engaging touch points along a customer journey. 

Harriet Wakelam, Director of Human Centred Design at IAG, grew up in a prototyping household. Her industrial designer father would line up eight kettles on the kitchen bench and ask her to choose one kettle to make a cup of tea.   "It  was  a  prototyping  household," she explains, simply. Those early life lessons now inform the career she's made helping banks, Australia Post and now an Insurance monolith innovate.   Hear how ...

Ilya Frolov, General Manager of Infinite Rewards, Investor and Advisor of Oxygen Ventures and Director of Studiomint, understands exactly how companies can leverage data to better understand their customer's consumer behaviours. Learn how Ilya's reward program and platform company provides a solution for the acquisition, engagement and retention of customers.

Luke Madden is the CEO of Surfing NSW at just 27 years of age. His aim? To better the sport of surfing by simplifying event systems and promoting the healthy surf lifestyle. In this age of digital disruption, Luke is taking advantage of wave technology in order to bring surfing beyond the coast.

Komosion affiliate Anna Jones began her career in the United States working with established brands like General Motors and Hasbro for the William Morris Agency. Upon arriving in Australia, she joined Red Rooster to run its marketing function and ultimately reframed the business, recognising that it had been focused on the wrong competitors and the wrong primary marketplace opportunity ... 

Julian Clark was determined to do anything other than work in his family's luxury hotel business, the Lancemore Group. He says the leisure customers in his boutique properties are looking for more than a recharge. His promise is "moments of bliss".

In early 2017 Morphic Asset Management co-founder and stock picker, Jack Lowenstein, announced the creation of an Ethical Investment Fund that won't invest in mining, alcohol, tobacco, factory farming, old growth forest logging or armaments. Since then, his 16 and 19 year old daughters have suddenly become incredibly engaged with what he does. Not only is he out to make steady returns for his investors, he understands they want it to be done in a way that leaves the world a better place ...

Free beer and cider on tap. Weekly breakfasts, massages, business presentations, networking and sport events. It’s like working in a groovy hotel ... and pets and babies are welcome. WeWork is an organisation delivering shared working spaces to 90,000 people in 30 cities around the world. The secret, according to the company's Director of Community in Australia, Balder Tol, is understanding the importance of delivering a personally fulfilling work experience, not just a place to work.

Harry Hodge made surf movies so he could travel the world, washed up in France where he built Quiksilver into a $500 million European Brand. Now he's on the board of industry disruptor SurfStitch. His story epitomises the evolution of surf retailing.

The Australian Catholic University has 32,000 students, including almost 4,000 international students drawn from 80 countries. Professor Anne Cummins is the Deputy Vice Chancellor reshaping Teaching and Learning in response to the voice of the student. Among many startling observations in this interview, she explains what is changing and why, after university, students may need to create their own jobs - not just seek them.

“Most retailers are not really good at what they do,” says Ikea’s first Marketing Manager in Australia. His name is Keith Stanley and he grew up in Jamaica, trained at Harrods in London and went on to become a legend in retail and travel marketing in Australia. In this podcast, Keith takes us on the remarkable journey that has been his career and explains that while he studied engineering, he discovered what he really loves is customers …

During the last decade, actor Deborra-lee Furness has founded not one but two social enterprises on opposite sides of the globe. And it happened by accident. In this podcast, Deborra-lee reveals the passion that drives her and is required for any social enterprise and how her gravitational force has pulled Presidents, Prime Ministers and Billionaire philanthropists into her organisations' orbit. 

Judy Bailey, a Kiwi who moved to Australia started her career in a typing pool, graduated in HR and is now responsible for $450 million of retail services revenue for Unitywater - a monopoly water and sewage business in the fast growing corridor of Australia’s sunshine coast. Remarkably, she’s discovered even monopolies can benefit from understanding their customers including innovating to ensure the company has a future ...

Teresa Tija was a Chinese Indonesian migrant who arrived in Perth aged 10. Her family taught her that education was the pathway to opportunity and success. Today she is reshaping that pathway around the needs of university customers - students - and is determined to understand their journeys and use to exceed their expectations, including by better using digital tools and channels ...

Flight Centre is one of Australia’s most successful companies. Today it employs 18,000 people, operates in 13 countries and has 42 brands. It has gone from being a disruptor of the travel industry to being the industry. And now it wants to disrupt itself. Its Global COO, Melanie Waters Ryan, explains why and how …

Why are we launching a podcast? It's the ability to multitask, while driving, exercising or doing housework - and to get the content that's exactly what interests you that's prompted us to create Customers Matter - a podcast about customer-centred marketing in an age of digital disruption. We promise the intellectual rigour of Harvard Business Review to our topics with the passion and the energy of talk-back.