You’ll be hard put to find a news site today that doesn’t have a bad forecast for the global economy.

Even locally we read that the majority of people in our lovely lands are inexorably falling behind economically. “The decline of the middle classes.” Indeed we probably all know people who are struggling right now, trying to keep up, trying to live within tight financial constraints.

In any business, the ability to efficiently collect and analyse data is widely acknowledged as key to its success. But incredibly, the widespread use of spreadsheets for data manipulation and storage is alive and kicking. Reports are delivered with much effort and often collated from data that let’s face it, is old.

I took an enquiry recently from someone. How could they better manage their costs in a firm of 40 staff. She started by saying their team of 10 full time administration and accounts people, “do everything for us”.

Since many of our clients run at ratios of 10:1 or 8:1 billable to non-billable staff I was staggered to hear of a ratio of 3:1. Upon further discussion it became clear.

How to steer your way through the Covid-19 recession.

At this stage we can only imagine what a pandemic really is like, and what impact it will have. Health professionals are saying nobody is alive today who has lived through a phenomenon like Covid-19. And they added it could last up to two years.

The probability of a global economic recession is high.

Whilst our own, and our loved ones and our community’s health is paramount, attention also needs to be given to the health of our businesses. This is the focus of this blog.

Edward O’Leary, Abtrac CEO considers how many professional services firms could future proof their business by over-riding people suffering from change resistance.

Edward O’Leary, Abtrac CEO considers how many white collar professional services firms could make some simple changes for the better, freeing up time, literally making more money, and bringing with both of those a bit more peace of mind.

Abtrac CEO Edward O’Leary gives his experienced thoughts on managing in the information age

Coming through immigration after a trans-Tasman flight, I stepped up to the facial scanner and got quite a surprise to hear the machine say, “You’ve put on a little weight Ed. Watch what you eat when you’re away next time.”

Ok. Ok. That’s a joke. It’s not true.

But this is. In a Melbourne café I overheard a manager talking to a supervisor. “I see Vanessa is going to Europe for a hen’s party late next month. Has she applied for annual leave?”

“No. I didn’t even know. How did you know?”

“The company has HR go through everyone’s Facebook each week and we get a report.”