What a year 2011 has been! If you are anything like me, you will have worked some extraordinarily long and hard hours, for sure. Although it may have been a challenging year for many of you, hopefully you will find some time to take a breath, re-group and relax over the festive season.
Having said that, it’s usually when I relax a bit that I tend to do my best thinking, and come up with some of my best ideas! Sometimes when you are in the “eye of the tornado” it is extremely hard to climb out and take the helicopter view of things that you need to as a business owner. So, I do hope that you can take this issue of “Principal” to your sun lounge (or happy place wherever that may be), and get inspired by some of the articles and contributors.
To begin with, I would like to offer my thanks to some of the fantastic contributors that helped me put together this issue. First of all, I have been a fan of Debbie Palmer since I met her at a conference several years ago. One of Australia’s most respected property management leaders, she discusses the PPM Survey results, as well as giving plenty of expert tips to improve your property management profitability in the new year.
Fiona Blayney, who always writes sensational articles for us, talks about the new “golden handcuffs”. Although your team are probably still focussed on remuneration as the primary benefit of their employment, times are certainly changing – and culture, working conditions, and flexibility in hours are some of the things that are now more “in step” with the current thinking on what it takes to retain talented staff.
My friends and colleagues know I am always up for a good debate, and another article that truly made me stop and think was Bill Zheng’s report on “What lies ahead for the Australian Property Market”. In the last couple of months, almost everyone has had their “two bobs worth” for or against Harry Dent and his depiction of gloom and doom; but I am happy to say that Bill’s perspective is almost the opposite in thinking.
Enjoy the issue, and have a fantastic festive season.
Samantha McLean, Editor.
