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MitchelLake Market Survey - Digital Business Sentiment

02 March 2010

For the majority the past year or so has been economically challenging to say the least. In this summary of our latest market survey we have also been able compare responses from four different points in time to track changes in sentiment from February 2009 to February 2010.

The surveys are distributed to our client and candidate network and completion rates have ranged from 200 to 500 responses for each survey. We have incorporated several consistent questions about the respondents perception of the market in the context of their own businesses and role with regards to growth, headcount and general expenditure. We hope you find the results interesting...

The first comparative survey was completed in February 2009 with subsequent versions in May 2009, October 2009 and most recently in February 2010. The graph below illustrates a steady trend upwards in both the overall expectation of some business growth of at least one percent + and also a steady increase in the proportion of people with more agressive expectations. In the latest results 43.1% of respondents projecting expectations of 10% or more growth over the next six months.


It would be no surprise to anyone that MitchelLake takes a keen interest in headcount projections. While they are inherently important to the performance of our business they are also a good guide to conversion of planned growth to operational and commerical reality. In the graph below we can see some bearish attitudes in our Feb 09 results with more than half of those consulted expecting to see further cuts in staff from their operations. This did seem to reflect the worst period and a bottoming out of attitudes in the market.

The two most recent surveys have shown a strong postitive sentinment towards increasing headcount. They show very similar results with only about 11% of those survyed feeling that they may experience further reduction of headcount in their organisations.


While it may also appear that the positivity towards headcount has tailed off slightly in the graph above, we can see on the pie charts below a more detailed breakdown of static and increased hiring attitudes for the past 6 months. This detail shows an upswing in the expectation of increased headcounts for more than 52% of businesses in the February 2010 figures. This is up from 41.8% in our October 2009 results.



We were also interested to see a change in attitudes to cost reduction over the past three surveys. The graph below illustrates a change in attitudes towards operational expenditure and a shift in prioitisation of discretional spend. We can see clearly from these figures that Travel and Recruitment were the top two areas of concern for most businesses in May 2009 with more than 50% of respondents looking to make savings in these areas and 80% reducing spend across one or more areas of travel, recruitment, marketing and events. We can also see that the most recent numbers indicate that attitudes to Marketing and Recruitment are looking far more positive with figures across the board improving dramatically. Attitudes are seemingly shifting to a more healthy focus on growing business than cost control alone.



Below are some of the findings from the remainder of the survey which incorporates additional questions that are more one off and topical in nature:

Let’s have a look at social media – 61.9% of you indicated that you believe social media will be a top priority for marketers this year, with 70% of you expecting to see a significant increase in social media spend in 2010. It seems there is little concern around employee use of social media at work, 65% of us feel browsing social networks at work does not pose an increased security risk to the organisation.

Online retail – highly topical at the moment and no doubt an area in which we are going to see significant growth over the next year. But what has inhibited faster uptake in this sub-sector? Why aren’t more of us shopping online? 53% of us believe the major barrier lies with a lack of major retailers having an online presence. Security around payments and distribution/supply chain barriers also scored highly with 17% and 16% respectively. 14% of us believe there is a “lack of consumer interest in online retail”, which when compared to the 44% of us who spend $100-$500 per month on goods purchased online seems a little miscalculated. Overall a staggering 92% of people who completed the survey believe Australia’s major retail brands should be doing more online.



So what sub-sectors are predicted to see the most growth this year? Mobile? Social Media? Online retail? According to our findings, 33% of respondents are predicting Mobile Applications and Content to be the leading growth area for 2010, with Cloud Computing & Web Services (24% of respondents) and Social Media Marketing & Advertising (19% of respondents) also receiving an optimistic forecast.



Again thanks to everyone who contributed to this quarters survey. Each quarter the Digital Industry Survey is completed by a niche audience across our client and candidate networks including senior executives, business owners, entrepreneurs and investors in technology, online & mobile related industries.

Please feel free to email us with any thoughts, questions, ideas, feedback you may have!

Written by: Jacinta Coyle & Jon Tanner

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