The campaign led by Gerry Harvey to charge GST on small overseas purchases seems to have badly misfired. To be fair it was never going to succeed. You can’t stop an avalanche with an advertisement.

Yesterday I was chatting to the passenger sitting next to me on a flight to Sydney. I pricked up my ears when he told me he had employed 150 people in Australia over the last 12 months.

He was the operations manager for an international freight company and he told me how much inbound freight has increased since Gerry Harvey and his retail colleagues alerted Australians to the benefits of buying overseas.

The problem facing retailers is that they seem to think imposing GST on imported goods will solve their difficulties, which is rather like burying your head in the sand and hoping things will change.

Yesterday I waited for 12 minutes (with four other customers) at a cash register at David Jones Bondi Junction. Eventually when someone did show up to take my money I asked if they were “very busy”. The response was “no we don’t have enough staff to serve everybody”.

Hmm! Maybe that has something to do with the retailers’ dilemma.

When you think that just a few years ago the only way to access the web was via computer it’s obvious how much the world has changed.

Expect those changes to continue in 2012, making it easier for people to access your website and to discover your business.

Prospects access the web through numerous means. 20% of web access is now via smart phones and PDAs, and it’s growing, so expect to see more robust tools to come to market in 2012.

The 2011 Computer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas, introduced 70 new computer tablets modelled after the pioneering iPad produced by Apple. The iPad is so popular that, today we call desktops “grandfather boxes” – only used by those who are five years behind the times.

This will require some outlay to keep pace with the competition.

Your current web site is accessible through smart phones, PDAs, TV sets, game consoles and other tech products but if the user is required to scroll right, left, up and down to find the one piece of information s/he is looking for you are likely to lose them.

This has lead to the development of dot.mobi sites – sites designed for easy accessibility on smaller smart phone screens. If you don’t have a .mobi site, 2012 is the time to spend the money to upgrade your current site and add a mobi site to your marketing arsenal.

It’s not just the wave of the future, it’s here now so you may be running double-time in 2012 just to catch up.

If you’re into news stories at all then you are already familiar with the story of Julia. Julia is a particularly strong woman: she’s a party leader, an accomplished politician and a master tactician.  By now you’ve probably gathered that Julia is no other than our Honorable MP, Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard.

So what has our Prime Minister got to do with broken promises and lost credibility?

The answer of course is a lot.

Gillard has demonstrated to us the one way we should never do business: by breaking a promise that was made to help her career. Before being elected into office (on terms that are outside the scope of this article) Julia Gillard clearly promised not to implement a carbon tax should she become Prime Minister. Her words were: “I rule out a carbon tax.”

Instant Credibility Destruction

Fact is Ms Gillard once made a promise to Australians. A promise she broke for the sake of a political agenda most of us find hard to comprehend. It has cost her credibility in the eye of the public – except perhaps with the Green Party – and most likely the next election victory. The Greens are the only winners in this debate. Not the environment, not the taxpayers and certainly not the public.

As the Saga about the carbon tax lives on we have to take a serious look at how a broken promise can cost us our credibility in the industry.

Truth is Better than Fiction

If you’re in business you can learn an important lesson from Gillard’s broken promise.  For starters, it is to be said that people change their opinions, their stance and their viewpoint on things. It’s a natural evolution of humans. And there is nothing wrong with that.

What’s not natural though is to make a promise and then to renege on it.

In fact, doing so can cost you your clients. It can cost you your credibility with your staff, your suppliers and your business partners.

Aim for the truth every time, even if it hurts, because you will sleep better at night. If you can’t deliver on your promise don’t make it. Only promise what you can control 100%. It’s the best way to avoid embarrassing situations.

A broken promise leaves a trail of pain and suffering…

Ask yourself: can I really hold true on a promise I’m about to make? It might well save your soul – not to mention your business.