- Dynamic Business
- Posts
- 20AUG2021-FRI
20AUG2021-FRI
Let’s Talk: Post-pandemic team building – how to make remote workers feel included
Friday 20th August 2021
Let’s Talk: Post-pandemic team building – how to make remote workers feel included
Buying collaboration software isn’t all there is to engaging remote workers. Not by a long shot. As employees grapple with uncertainly about the course of the pandemic, building cohesive remote teams has never been more critical.But managers and leaders are in uncharted waters as well, so how can we find ways to provide empathy, inclusion, motivation, and authentic leadership?Let’s Talk…
Australian brands: Unplugging a massive diversified market in India
India is a rapidly changing country — a market of over one billion people and a young generation eager to experience new products.Traditionally, Australia’s largest exports to India have been coal and international education. However, Australian brands have recently uncovered the potential of two new sectors: health supplements and wine.
Smishing scams on the rise: Here’s how to protect your Business
Dynamic Business spoke with Ben Mostafa, Chief Technology Officer at a mobile messaging solution for businesses, MessageMedia, about smishing fraud warnings and how businesses can avoid it.
Mandoe announces new digital signage for SMEs
Digital signage provider Mandoe has announced new software targeted at small and medium businesses. The company has been supplying large Australian businesses with digital signage since 2010. Now it is helping smaller businesses to increase patronage through simple, easy to create and display, digital signage.
How to pandemic-proof your business payments
While technology has been one of the 21st century’s greatest disruptors to the financial services sector, the pandemic has resulted in the next wave of change. Here are a few tips and insights to help you to pandemic-proof your business.
The Wage Price Index (WPI) increased by 0.4% in the June quarter, bringing it to 1.7% higher than a year ago. Wages in the private sector increased by 0.5% in the third quarter to be 1.9% higher than a year ago. Wages in the public sector increased by 0.4% in the June quarter, bringing the annual growth rate to 1.3%, the smallest since records began in September 1997. Wages in the private sector, including bonuses, were up 2.0% year on year, marking the third consecutive yearly increase.
In order to compete with other cardless payment services, the Commonwealth Bank officially launched its buy now pay later (BNPL) offering StepPay. StepPay is available to the bank’s 4 million customers, with a special emphasis on the 86,000 who pre-registered. StepPay customers can pay in four instalments. It will be available at any retailer that takes Mastercard, with purchasing restrictions of up to $1000 at first.
By November 15, Qantas will expect all of its 22,000 employees to be completely vaccinated against COVID-19. Australia’s largest airline published the policy today on its website, following a request for vaccine comments from staff across the Qantas and Jetstar divisions. All frontline workers, including cabin crew, pilots, and airport personnel, will have until November 15 to be completely vaccinated under the new regulation, with all remaining employees having until March 31, 2022.
Crude prices fell for a fifth day, as investors remain worried about the outlook for fuel demand as COVID-19 cases surge worldwide just as more supply reaches the market from large global producers, including the United States.
U.S. homebuilding fell more than expected in July, the latest sign that surging construction costs and home prices continued to constrain the housing market early in the third quarter.
Mastercard is retiring the magnetic strip, which has been an essential component of all credit and debit cards since the 1960s. According to the financial services behemoth, the strip is on the cusp of being obsolete, as merchants and consumers increasingly rely on chip technology to perform safe transactions. Modern chip cards have also fuelled the expansion of contactless payments, and online smartphone equivalents like Apple Pay are becoming more popular.
T-Mobile has revealed that a data breach in the United States affected more than 40 million of its customers. The leak was attributed to a very sophisticated hack. It stated that it is immediately taking steps to help protect all those who may be at danger from this hack. According to the company, while attackers took personal information, no financial information was exposed as a result.
The market value of China’s largest technology companies fell by more than $50 billion after the government announced sweeping new rules to further curb anti-competitive behaviour among large internet enterprises. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which has led the government’s antitrust battle against Big Tech, has launched the latest move to crack down on the sector. The laws announced will make it illegal for businesses to falsify data or information regarding their product orders, sales, or user reviews in order to deceive customers. They would also be prohibited from creating consumer opinions in order to harm the reputations of their competitors.
According to a Biden administration official, any central bank assets held by the Afghan government in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban. Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) has around $9 billion (£6.5 billion) in reserves, the majority of which is held in the United States. Dollar shipments, international loans, and help are also in jeopardy since the extremists gained control. The previous governor of DAB warned that the Afghan economy was on the verge of collapsing. Ajmal Ahmady, who was forced to flee the country on the weekend, tweeted that DAB’s total reserves were approximately $9bn as of last week.
The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating rose by 2.5 per cent – the most in 18 weeks – to 101.1. Sentiment is now back above the neutral level of 100. But consumer inflation expectations over the next two years hit a 26-month high of 4.5 per cent last week.
The minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Board meeting on August 3 were released. The Board reaffirmed its decision to reduce bond purchases, saying that fiscal policy, rather than monetary policy, was more suited for providing temporary short-term support to the economy.
The Commonwealth Bank has issued a warning to its thousands of customers to watch out for a rogue outgoing payment of just over $8.On social media, Commonwealth customers have reported strange transactions of $8.00, $8.13, $8.17, $8.18 and $8.19 going towards US streaming site Shudder, despite never having heard of the website.“We encourage any customer that noticed unusual activity on their account to contact us immediately,” a bank spokesman said.
According to the Australian Industry Group, an EU carbon border tax will present both opportunities and threats. The first domino to fall will be the EU carbon border tax. According to analysts, polluters will pay elsewhere, while Australia will lose revenue. According to a new Ai Group analysis of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Australian exporters will pay the price for carbon-intensive production.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued a warning about a potential gas supply shortage for the east coast market in 2022. According to the consumer watchdog, the entire east coast gas market may suffer a two-petajoule (PJ) supply shortfall. While decreasing gas costs are normally welcomed by commercial and industrial gas consumers, many are having difficulty obtaining supply offers beyond 2022. According to ACCC Chair Rod Sims, the situation highlights the necessity of a Heads of Agreement reached this year between the government and gas companies. Before exporting gas, gas exporters must supply uncontracted gas to the local market on internationally competitive terms, according to the agreement.
U.S. factory production in July posted the strongest gain in 4 months, reflecting a surge in production at auto plants that are still wrestling with major supply chain problems.Manufacturing output increased 1.4% last month following a decline of 0.3% in June, the Federal Reserve. It was the best showing since a 3.4% gain in March.Overall, industrial production — which includes manufacturing, utilities and mining — posted a 0.9% increase, the best performance since a 2.8% surge in March.
Apple, Google, and other multinational corporations are continuing to increase their vast cash hoards, indicating that corporations are growing increasingly concerned about how the extremely contagious Delta version of Covid-19 could harm the global economy. According to S&P Global Ratings data, the world’s top nonfinancial corporations had a record $6.85 trillion in cash on their balance sheets at the end of the second quarter.
In response to a complaint alleging that his Pershing Square Tontine Holdings inappropriately invested in securities, billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman said his blank-check acquisition company is not an investing firm that needs to register with US regulators.
Google and Facebook unveiled plans for a new undersea internet cable connecting Singapore, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia.Google and Facebook earlier this year had halted efforts on a planned undersea cable that would have connected California and Hong Kong, due to tensions between the United States and China.The newly announced cable project dubbed Apricot would be some 12,000 kilometres (nearly 7,500 miles) long and be operational in 2024 subject to regulatory approvals, the companies said in separate statements.
China’s biggest tech companies lost more than $50 billion in market value after the government proposes sweeping new rules to further curb anti-competitive behaviour among big internet firms. The latest effort to clamp down on the sector comes from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which has spearheaded the government’s antitrust campaign against Big Tech. The rules announced would forbid business operators from faking statistics or information about their product orders, sales and user reviews to mislead customers. They would also be banned from fabricating consumer views to hurt the reputations of their rivals.
The Income Tax department raided the offices of Chinese government-controlled telecom vendor ZTE in India and is questioning the company’s CEO, as well as other top functionaries, after discovering a number of violations, including massive tax evasion, bogus expenses worth hundreds of crores, illegal share purchases, and currency exchange and accounting discrepancies. The company’s new CEO, Li Jian Jun, is also being questioned, and the company’s and key officials’ computers and other electronic equipment have been confiscated, according to sources.
