Management October 2010

NZIM’s Focus on Management p59

In this issue:

management.co.nz

PAGE 26

Phillip Mills:

Building cleantech muscle

NZ’s best chance for future wealth?

Greed fuels leadership crisis p42 Hawke’s Bay … a great place to do business p50 OCTOBER 2010 $7.10 INCL GST

9 421902 251030

Deloitte/ Management Magazine

TOP 2OO A Bold Spirit

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Saving New Zealand and the world

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alking to CEOs of organisations around New Zealand this year, I’ve noticed that more of these conversations are turning to the intangibles of business – social responsibility and the future of New Zealand.

Many managers are deeply concerned about the environment and how their businesses interact with it. And yes, we do need to be concerned, and not just because we are at risk of fouling our own nests.

Overseas, public pressure is forcing businesses to make their supply chain more environmentally sound, and New Zealand products are often along that supply chain. A European consumer’s demands for sustainability and pangs of conscience about air miles reverberate across the globe until they create shock-waves in the south Pacific. Sustainability consultancy Envirostate’s founder Calum Revfem is at the fore of a drive to move New Zealand’s reporting

Deloitte/ Management Magazine

TOP 2OO A Bold Spirit

A MEDIAWEB MAGAZINE EDITOR Brenda Ward 09-575 8830, editor@management.co.nz CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Reg Birchfield reg@rjmedia.co.nz CONTRIBUTORS Bob Edlin, Thomas Evans, Pauline Herbst, Colin James, Vicki Jayne, Wayne Mapp, Peter Neilson, Peter Tynan ADVERTISING MANAGER Clara Iqbal 09-271 3711, 021-930 887, admanager@management.co.nz DESIGNER Rachel Walker

standards to those recognised overseas. “This is coming our way in New Zealand,” he warns on page 40.

“We want to be at the forefront.”

But, as leading figures become more aware of sustainability and start to form groups to drive real change (the 100% Plan group is one example, the NZ Council for Sustainable Business another), a bigger picture emerges (A cleantech future, page 26).

As other nations race to embrace cleantech – technologies that can change the world for the better – New Zealand risks being left behind, as areas where we have traditionally excelled are being exploited by our competitors. In a thorough analysis of where we stand on cleantech, Vicki Jayne echoes the warning of many of our senior business people. We run a very real risk of eroding our existing clean-green branding, and of missing a wave of cleantech innovation that could transform our economy.

Can we catch the cleantech express, Jayne asks. Yes. All it requires is a bit of joined-up thinking and clear strategic direction.

COPY & WEB EDITOR Gill Prentice PRODUCTION MANAGER Fran Marshall franm@mediaweb.co.nz NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS www.management.co.nz/subscribe SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES subs@mediaweb.co.nz PUBLISHER Toni Myers

Phone 09-845 5114, Fax 09-845 5116 enquiries@mediaweb.co.nz www.mediaweb.co.nz PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141

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Editorial material does not necessarily reflect the views of NZIM. Copyright © 2010: Mediaweb Limited.

All material appearing in NZ MANAGEMENT is copyright and cannot be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher.

Editorial contributions are welcomed. Letters to the editor are also welcomed, but pen names are not acceptable.

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Vol 57 No 9 • ISSN 1174-5339 (Print), 1179-3910 (Online)

Brenda Ward, editor OCTOBER 2010

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contents 26 COVER STORY

Understanding the new world

All aboard cleantech express Cleantech is powering fast-moving global economies. Can NZ Inc capitalise on this major growth opportunity? Or are we too late to the starting gate? Vicki Jayne reports.

THE TOP 200 CAMPAIGN

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EDITOR’S LETTER

As part of this year’s Deloitte/Management

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INBOX: News and views

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AS I SEE IT: Simon Wickham, The Trusts

Top 200 Companies campaign,‘Understanding the New World’, we continue our series of six themes examining major contemporary issues and opportunities for business. This month, business opportunities for cleantech.

10 MANAGERS ABROAD: Katherine Corich, Sysdoc 22 NZIM: How to boost training’s ROI Reg Birchfield 55 FOCUS 56 EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT 57 EXECS ON THE MOVE MANAGING SUSTAINABLY 12 CASE STUDY: Mall’s message 14 SUSTAINABILITY: One big leap for New Zealand Peter Neilson OPINION 17 ECONOMICS: A shakeup for the economy Bob Edlin

Deloitte/ Management Magazine

TOP 2OO A Bold Spirit

19 POLITICS: Not cleaning up on cleantech Colin James 21 THOUGHT LEADER: The quest for innovation Wayne Mapp ADVICE 49 EXEC TECH: The future is here Pauline Herbst 53 EXEC HEALTH: Tour de workforce Peter Tynan 54 BOOKCASE: Brenda Ward, Reg Birchfield 58 EXEC 10 TIPS: Preparing for ultra-fast broadband Thomas Evans

OCTOBER 2010 • Vol 57 No 9

features 36

CLEANTECH: GEOTHERMAL GOLD

36

There’s money in steam. New Zealand has the expertise – but are we going to let Chile push ahead of us? Vicki Jayne investigates.

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CLEANTECH: CLIMATE WARMING BETWEEN COUNTRIES Australia and New Zealand could both learn from each other as they set about cutting greenhouse gases, Vicki Jayne finds at a trans-Tasman climate change conference.

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SMART COMPANY: ONE-STOP SUSTAINABILITY SHOP Kiwi company Envirostate is making sustainability easy for corporates – saving money and the world at the same time, says Brenda Ward.

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FACE TO FACE: A CULTURE OF GREED Moral Bankruptcy, not governance per se, is the issue in business today, says corporate philosopher Roger Steare.

Reg Birchfield talks ethics with one of the world’s top corporate thinkers.

46

SOFTWARE FEATURE: CUSTOMER FOCUS IN SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS Today’s management software is about focusing on customer relationships and finding solutions that work across a business.

50

REGIONAL FOCUS: DOING BUSINESS IN HAWKE’S BAY

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Known for its wine and warm weather, Hawke’s Bay is also a great place for business. Here is your guide to the region and its opportunities.

59

NZIM’S FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT Management on steroids – The rise of project management; Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau’s Shane Te Pou on the Trust’s commitment to its mokopuna and kaimahi; Regional news; Upcoming management courses.

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INBOX Generation gap showing in global study

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n a worldwide study, IBM has found many similarities between the leaders of today and the leaders of tomorrow – but discovered Gen Ys are more likely to prioritise issues of sustainability and globalisation.

The Global Student Study was done because IBM Business Global Services says in a few short years the “Millennial” generation, sometimes called Generation Y, will make up half of the worldwide workforce. The study, based on similar questions to the IBM 2010 Global CEO Study (CEOs struggle to cope, NZ Management August), drew over 3600 responses from graduate and undergraduate students from more than 40 countries Like CEOs, six out of 10 students

rated creativity among the top three leadership qualities, more than any other attribute. CEOs and students both agreed that organisations should concentrate on setting up new channels for their customers, that access to greater information and insight was critical to setting up closer relationships, and that organisations today can’t move fast enough to keep up with the pace of change.

CEOs viewed the new economic environment as more complex, and students did too – even more so (69 percent compared to 60 percent).

MBA students saw the greatest complexity.

For all the areas of agreement between students and CEOs, there

was still a deep divide, say the authors, which may be attributed to future leaders having a different experience of the world. Historic events weren’t rated by students, their experience of information was different, and they understood that economies, societies, and organisations are made up of

The Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards 2010 Understanding the New World... what is the future for NZ Inc?

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any of us are acutely aware of the lack of a common vision and shared goal for New Zealand’s future which is limiting our nation’s prosperity and our personal hopes for our children’s future.

As much as we value our natural environment and the benefits of tourism, we do not want a future defining us primarily as a playground for wealthy and adventure tourists.

This year’s Top 200 Awards theme is Understanding the New World, following the premise that New Zealand is uniquely placed to emerge well from the paradigm shift accelerated by the global recession. We have significant natural and man-made advantages. We are small and can be nimble. We have a temperate climate that sustains a myriad of desirable animal and vegetable life, and relatively pollution-free air and waterways. We are isolated but developed and an ideal ‘test market’. We have relatively corruption-free political, economic and public sectors – note NZ Police winning the Most Reputable Government Department in last month’s NZ Management. And yet from all this we have been unable to develop a sustainable competitive advantage and standard of living we all aspire to.

Kiwis are often hailed as clever entrepreneurs and ‘punching above our weight’ but too many clever Kiwis go overseas and stay there. We need a clearly articulated vision of the future to unite behind and achievable goals to aspire to.

The cleantech opportunity (see cover story p26) is arguably the single greatest potential driver of economic transformation for New Zealand, and within a relatively short timeframe – witness the strides Scandinavian countries have made inside 15 years. That’s a saleable proposition even to election cycle-focused politicians.

What we need is someone to articulate the vision.

Join New Zealand’s business leaders at the annual celebration of corporate and executive excellence; the Deloitte/Management magazine Top200 Awards, December 2 at SkyCity Auckland. Here you will learn more of a vision for an enlightened and prosperous future for New Zealand.

For bookings go to www.management.co.nz/top200, or email taniav@mediaweb.co.nz. M

Toni Myers, publisher, NZ Management

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interconnecting networks.

There were two themes that consistently differentiated students from CEOs. Globalisation was one; sustainability, both environmental and societal, was the other. CEOs and students both expected sustainability issues to have a large impact on organisations over the next five years. Students, however, were particularly passionate about the implications. When asked “What will you do differently in your career compared to previous generations?”, the students did not hold back. With few exceptions, they expressed commitment to the responsibilities of global citizenship.

CEOs said they trusted gut instinct, but future business leaders indicated they would need to lean more heavily on data analysis to reach their strategic and operational goals. The study’s authors suggested as fact-based decisions begin to prevail, future leaders may well need to pioneer an entirely new management style – one that continually enriches personal experiences with new sources of insights based on “fact checks” rather than “gut checks”.

The authors suggested in meeting the challenges of an interconnected world, organisations can look forward to formidable capabilities among the ranks of future leaders.

One United States CEO told the study, “I am excited about our next generation of leadership and the new level of energy it brings.” M

Beating corruption

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id-rigging, or secret collusive tendering, has become such a problem in business, the Commerce Commission has taken measures to widen public knowledge of the issue.

It has released guidelines and two fact sheets to help purchasers spot and report potential breaches. There are also tips on how tender processes can be designed to foil bid-riggers.

“Bid-rigging happens when there is an agreement among all or some of the bidders on which of them should win a bid or a contract.

Bid-rigging and other cartel conduct

is prohibited by the Commerce Act,” said Kate Morrison, Commerce Commission general manager, enforcement. Fines are severe, from up to $500,000 for an individual, or up to $10 million for a corporate.

“Illegal collusive conduct damages the welfare of New Zealanders by raising prices and negatively affecting other factors such as choice, innovation, quality and investment.”

The guidelines and two fact sheets can be downloaded from the Commission’s website at www.comcom.govt.nz/bid-rigging. M

Key note speaker

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rime Minister John Key will be delivering the 12th Europa Lecture in Wellington, as keynote speaker this month.

The Europa Lecture Series is the Prime Minister John Key. European Union Centres Network’s prestige public lecture series, usually presented annually by a high-profile, leading New Zealand or European politician.

Eleven lectures have been presented as part of the series since the first was held by the National Centre for Research on Europe in 2001.

So far all the lectures have been in either Christchurch or Wellington, but the network says it plans to expand the cities hosting the series for future events.

This year’s lecture will be held on Tuesday, October 12, in the Banquet Hall of Parliament Buildings starting with a reception at 4.30pm, followed by the lecture at 5.30pm.

Those wanting to attend should register at http://www.eucnetwork. org.nz/forms/europa_lecture.html. M

Carmel Fisher.

On my iPod Carmel Fisher is the managing director of Fisher Funds and a newspaper columnist: I’ve had an iPod for a while and I replaced it about 18 months ago. I only really use it for exercising, when I’m walking on Takapuna beach, or on the treadmill. I have an eclectic mix, which is heavily influenced by my 12-year-old daughter!

1. Michael Buble I Just Haven’t Met You Yet This is a really nice one for exercising.

2. Pussycat Dolls Buttons This is more funky and nightclubby.

3. Michael Jackson Black & White It’s great for walking.

4. Lady Gaga Eh, Eh Definitely influenced by my daughter here, but it has a nice rhythm. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I like it, and I can’t see myself listening to it in two years’ time. M

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OCTOBER 2010

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M

INBOX Young executive walking the talk

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igrants and refugees have the impressive leadership strategies of Claire Szabó to thank for the smooth running of the not-for-profit organisation English Language Partners.

Her skills as CEO running and restructuring the organisation have won Szabó the NZ Institute of Management’s Young Executive of the Year award for the Central Region.

English Language Partners is New Zealand’s largest organisation working with migrants and refugees.

It works with 8000 migrants and refugees in 23 locations throughout the country.

“I inherited an organisation that was unsatisfied with its remuneration regime,” says Szabó, 32. “Funds dispersed by national office to members for the organising

and delivery of services were seen as inequitable and out of step with the market. Working with senior managers, I implemented a programme of change regarding salary funding for members.”

Titles also changed to reflect the contributions of individuals.

In 2008, she also negotiated a new $1.12 million annual fund with the Tertiary Education Commission to purchase a programme for 690 employees needing small group or one-to-one language support.

The streamlined organisation also rebranded. “When I became CEO, the national organisation and its 22 member organisations were called ESOL Home Tutors (English for Speakers of Other Languages). This stemmed from a proud history of delivering home tutoring, but did not

Executive Pulse MMP VERSUS FIRST PAST THE POST usiness decision makers are more likely to think that MMP has performed better than the first past the post (FPP) electoral system it replaced.

43% of decision makers think it is better compared with 38% of New Zealanders overall. 29% of both business decision makers and respondents overall think MMP has been worse than FFP. New Zealand votes on the future of the electoral system at a referendum being held in conjunction with next year’s general election.

B

Overall, do you think MMP has been better or worse than the First Past the Post system it replaced?

ALL NEW ZEALAND Much better Better About the same Worse Much worse I really don’t know

15% 23% 15% 21% 8% 17%

BUSINESS DECISION MAKERS Much better 19% Better 24% About the same 12% Worse 21% Much worse 9% I really don’t know 14%

Source: ShapeNZ nationwide survey July 19- August 20, 2010. 2,270 respondents including 636 business decision makers (managers, proprietors, self employed, professionals). Weighted to represent the national population. Maximum margin of error on the national sample +/- 2.2%. Shape NZ is operated by the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development. www.shapenz.org.nz, www.nzbcsd.org.nz

6 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

reflect the organisation’s range of programmes or future potential.”

The name had an effect on the identity of the organisation, both internally and externally, she says.

Hard on the heels of agreeing on an enduring and common identity, she led the organisation into a year of strategic reviewing and planning, for its first-ever organisational review.

“After consultation on the plan, it was finalised, adopted unanimously at our May AGM, and launched to much fanfare. This means cake in our organisation.”

The Young Executive of the Year award recognises leaders, innovators, team builders and high achievers aged 35 and under for making a positive impact on the growth, productivity, and morale of their organisation.

“It’s an enormous privilege to get this award – and huge recognition,” says Szabó. “I’ve spent a little time with the regional finalists and they’re fantastic people, very skilled, from diverse backgrounds.”

Szabó says her next steps for the organisation are focused

Claire Szabó: “It’s an enormous privilege to get this award.”

on advancing partnerships with migrants and refugees. “We need to get the system right for refugees.

This means effective collaboration across the sector. The system also needs to be set up for temporary migrants who are already on a legitimate pathway to residency.”

• The overall winner of the NZIM/ Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year award will be announced at the Deloitte/Management Top 200 Awards at SkyCity, Auckland on Thursday December 2. M

Logging out

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s the staff member you need not answering their phone? Are they in or are they out? This issue has plagued offices for generations.

At last you can answer the question with a glance at your computer screen.

Christchurch-based IT consultancy Digital Fusion has put a modern twist on the in-out boards that used to hang in receptions around the world and created a web-based version.

“Tabzon shows you the location and availability of all staff at a glance. It’s ideal for any organisation that has more than a handful of employees, particularly if they’re mobile or in and out of meetings,” says developer Matthew Rhodes.

The company has sold the software to companies in the United States and in Canada. M

75 and still going

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t’s rare to hear of a staff member staying with a firm for 60 years – but at Christchurch company Skellerup, Monk Jones, 75, has hit the record books.

Skellerup’s longest-serving staff member, Jones has lived and worked in Woolston, Christchurch, all his life and has no plans to retire. He’s the only remaining staff member who has met its founder George Waldemar Skjellerup, known as GW, a Danish Australian immigrant who established his first Para Rubber store in Christchurch in 1910.

A family ethos of management has marked Skellerup as a special kind of place to work, says the company’s group human resources manager Diane Evans.

“It drives a culture of friendliness and egalitarianism within the business, something that is not always easy to find in a public company. People who are new to Skellerup find quickly that the people within the company at all levels are down-to-earth.”

Evans says it is not a place where managers sit in their offices all day or wear ties. Casual attire is accepted and the organisational structure is as flat as possible, she says.

“We make complex issues simple. So there’s no place for hierarchies, power games or arrogance in our culture,” she says. M

‘Monk’ Jones, left, with HR manager Diane Evans, has worked for Skellerup for 60 years.

New weekly e-newsletter

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n a move to increase the quality and frequency of information that NZ Management subscribers receive, the magazine’s publisher Mediaweb has launched a new weekly newsletter called Executive Update.

The newsletter, which is emailed on a Friday, focuses on the latest in management thinking, trends and practices within New Zealand and globally. It also provides a succinct overview and analysis of any major events of the week that are of importance to managers and the way their businesses are run.

NZ Mangement publisher Toni Myers says the objective of the newsletter is to give managers a ‘heads-up’ on trends and developments that they won’t necessarily get from other more news-oriented sources. The newsletter will also contain a limited amount of advertising, including executive recruitment advertising.

Executive Update is being edited by former NZ Management editor Neil Prentice and contributions are welcomed from readers who come across information, blogs or video clips that they have found to be valuable and worth sharing with other managers. Contact editor@executiveupdate.co.nz.

For advertising enquiries contact Clara Iqbal at admanager@ executiveupdate.co.nz.

If you have not received a copy of Executive Update and would like to be added to the mailing list contact subscribe@executiveupdate.co.nz. M

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M

INBOX A different beat

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A new world of insights

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irect marketing means businesses can target very closely the audiences they want to talk to – and initiatives are getting smarter all the time.

Now the Foodstuffs nationwide co-operative has refreshed its direct marketing tool, New World Direct, so suppliers and their advertising agencies can plan marketing campaigns via post or email with a new online marketing tool – the New World Direct interactive online campaign planner.

Fiona Stewart, marketing manager for Foodstuffs Wellington, says: “Our interactive portal newworlddirect.co.nz helps users understand the service, play with data numbers and even plan a campaign using the timeline, budget and briefing tools.

“To drive the campaigns we use

data from Fly Buys, which has a reach into more than 70 percent of the nation’s households through its customer base.”

Fly Buys purchases account for more than 70 percent of New World’s total sales value across a total of more than 130 million customer transactions a year at supermarkets nationwide.

More than 1.3 million New Zealanders actively use their Fly Buys cards and Foodstuffs has discovered Fly Buys members spend nearly 50 percent more per week at New World than non-Fly Buys shoppers.

New World Direct campaigns have already achieved a 10 percent average consumer response rate compared to the three percent average industry standard, says Stewart. M

magine a corporate team-building exercise where not a word is spoken. This is one aspect that makes the drumming workshops run by Auckland company Rhythm Interactive so different, says its co-founder John Boone.

Says Boone: “Most team-building activities involve a lot of talking – after all, we all like the sound of our own voices. But when René Sterk and I founded Rhythm Interactive, we wanted to do something quite different for the corporate events market.”

Its workshops are facilitated without verbal instructions.

Instead each participant from the CEO to the receptionist is given his or her own African drum, called a djembe, and everyone takes part in the session.

It’s not just for fun though – the lack of talking is the tool through which the positive team-building effect takes place.

Says Boone: “The theme is ‘actions speak louder than words’, and we believe that when verbal communication is taken away, team members are forced to interact in a new way. They learn new things about one another and come closer together as a group. It’s a very energising experience and it builds internal morale.”

Corporate clients have included Telecom, Harveys Real Estate, Paper Plus and Dick Smith. Sessions range from brief icebreakers to full-on team building workshops.

For more information, see http://www.rhythminteractive.co.nz/ corporates. M

Using the power of rhythm, staff learn to communicate and express themselves through drumming.

Accountants align

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n the accounting world, Australia and New Zealand just moved one step closer.

The New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) have joined to create a powerful alliance between the two organisations.

The organisations say the move will cement the chartered

8 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

accountant qualification as the foremost professional designation for accountants within the AsiaPacific region.

Many of the larger accounting firms and corporates are also increasingly viewing the transTasman environment as one market, says NZICA chief executive Terry McLaughlin, and the new alliance recognises that New Zealand’s economic development

will be strengthened by working closely with Australia.

“It is widely known that it is in our best interests to be aligned with Australia. Our governments are presently working towards creating a single economic market, including regulatory harmonisation.

“The accounting standards boards have announced steps towards the convergence of accounting standards. All these

initiatives aim to develop a low-cost, innovative and more seamless trans-Tasman operating environment for businesses which we believe can extend through to our members.”

A governance board has been set up to oversee the collaboration.

On it will be the ICAA president, the NZICA chairman, board directors from each institute and the two chief executives. M

AS I SEE IT M

Simon Wickham Simon Wickham, CEO of the Trusts Stadium in Waitakere, has been appointed chief executive designate for The Trusts in West Auckland (Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts).

What do you see as your key achievement in your current role?

The Trusts Stadium was in its infancy when I came on board. Transforming a start-up operation with just a dog show and a school prize-giving to its name was a great challenge. We’re now open 140 hours every week with more than half a million visitors a year. Unlike many event centres, our unique charitable trust ownership model generates profits to support our community, which is also using this facility every day.

What are the challenges of your new role?

The role requires managing the demands of a commercial business that operates with a community focus. Profits are generated and returned locally through a charitable foundation so the challenge is ensuring The Trusts continues to generate the millions it has reinvested in the community to date ($85 million in the past eight years). Obviously in the current economic climate, that is a real challenge.

How do you balance profit and community needs?

The Licensing Trusts have created a clear structure to separate the charitable and commercial parts of the business. The Trusts’ commercial arm has a solid commercial board and management focused on results, while ensuring that the pursuit of profits is tempered by social conscience. The Trusts Charitable Foundation helps ensure we remain connected to our local community groups and organisations to develop projects that benefit our community.

What does New Zealand need to grow as a country?

We need ongoing confidence, courage and innovation to remain competitive and relevant to the rest of the world.

New Zealand has created so many great leaders from whom we can draw inspiration, in business and wider fields such as sport and the arts. These leaders have taken on the world and come out on top.

OCTOBER 2010

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M MANAGERS ABROAD

In the pilot’s seat The systems that keep planes safe can be used to make businesses fly too, Katherine Corich discovered. The Britishbased Kiwi tells Brenda Ward about her international process consultancy Sysdoc and her company’s award-winning workplace practices.

K

atherine Corich was a pilot before she was a businesswoman. She quickly found you could learn to fly a 747 safely and efficiently without even getting into a plane, using smart simulator and systems-based training.

“But I realised you didn’t have the same clarity in business.” She quickly worked out how the robust processes and systems used in aviation could be extended to companies.

Using the skills she learned about endto-end process management from flying, she created Sysdoc, a company that helps businesses become more efficient, more robust and better organised. Now Sysdoc has offices in four countries and works in many more.

“A lot of our work is in relation to defining the processes when an organisation needs to change, perhaps due to legislation, a merger, or acquisition,” she says.

“They need services to help them define the training, develop e-learning, lead the change and then also build the knowledge resources. Chart, Challenge and Change is our primary methodology.”

Qualified in instrument rating and as a flying instructor, Corich says she was a long way down the track to becoming a commercial pilot when she made an unscheduled detour into business after working with IBM on process change.

10 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

“I never said I wanted to be a business director or own a business,” she admits. “I had started working in projects and I had people working with me and then really, the culture of this company that wanted to make a difference had been born.

“Even in the early days I felt it was bigger than me. I felt that we had a mission to make companies safer and more efficient.”

One project led to another – IBM in the UK, then the London Stock Exchange, the Metropolitan Food Group, the NZ Dairy Board and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“By then we had a lot of people and a company! We started the company for the reasons that we wanted to see change, and we wanted to see our clients and the world a better place.”

Once companies saw how they could benefit from employing Sysdoc, it had to grow. Offices spread from New Zealand and the UK, to Australia and the United States.

“We also do projects anywhere people want us to go,” says Corich. Recently work has taken them to Singapore to work on a big banking project and to Kazakhstan for the oil company Chevron Group.

But it’s not just changing the working world for others – the company’s values start in its own workplaces.

Sysdoc has just won the UK’s prestigious Opportunity Now Agile Organisation Award, recognising programmes or initiatives that show an agile and flexible approach to job design and work environment.

At the heart of its work culture is a set of organisational values it calls the Sysdoc Way. “These values evolve around superb customer service, leadership through excellence and by example, commitment to the growth of its people, support for their families and nurturing teams,” said the award judges.

The family and human aspects of the business are embedded in the culture, says Corich.

“We believe that we all – all of us and our clients – have aspects to our lives that we have responsibilities to. It might be to children, to elderly relatives, it may be to dependants in other ways, or people who are unwell for a time.

“Whatever the situation, we needed to create a culture where it was okay for all the individuals to be who they are, to shoulder the responsibilities they have, and to feel that they’re part of a team and they are not alone.”

The key is having discussions with each staff member about what is important to them, says Corich. She stresses it’s not just about working parttime – or about mothers.

“Sometimes you might want to take time off, or work full time. We always have a conversation, but the conversation is based on the fact that there’s not one size that fits all.

“There’s a need for flexibility at different times in your life and even at different stages of the year. Because we’re client-based and we provide services throughout the year, we needed to have a model where everyone participates in a team, so if anyone needs to take time out to support a family member, they can do so and in a supportive way.”

One example was a staff member who wanted to compete in an ironman event.

She altered her hours for training before the event, then took a month off for the event in Hawaii. An ambitious young man wanted challenges to help him work rapidly towards seniority and asked to work weekends.

“It’s just personal engagement, to understand what motivates you at this point in time in your life,” says Corich.

“If someone’s motivated to pay off their mortgage as fast as possible, they may ask for some overtime and we’ll support that

if we can do that economically at the time and it works.

“It’s not just about mums and dads.

We’re saying it’s about understanding what’s important to an individual right now – and that that will change.”

How work-life balance is defined is different for everyone, says Corich. “A lot of people will say work-life balance is about working nine to five, but we fundamentally disagree with that as a one-size-fits-all model.”

In her personal life, work-life balance represents a surprising model for Corich, husband Maarten and their four children, aged 16, 15, 10 and seven.

“I have huge amounts of energy and I love working with clients, so if you said to me do you have work-life balance, I would have to say to you, yes, I do have work-life balance and I participate hugely in the lives of my children because I’m everpresent at really important times for us.

“But if I’m working on a project where there’s a real challenge and I want to motivate the team and be a leader, I might work 12 to 13 hours a day for two weeks or a month.

“However, I’m having the conversations at home with my family so that they understand that this is something that I really want to do. They support me in that.”

But ask Corich how she organises her life and family and she admits with a laugh: “Badly!”

“It’s interesting, because I was probably the first to have children among the Sysdoc teams so I sat down the teams and I said to everybody ‘I want to be a really great business leader but I also want to be a really good mum. I can’t find too many role models to show me how to do this, so it’s going to be a bit of an experiment.

If we do this as a team, then I promise you that we will try and define approaches that work for all of us – but it will be a learning curve’.”

Corich is based in the UK, but is often in

Katherine Corich... “A lot of people will say work-life balance is about working nine to five, but we fundamentally disagree with that as a one-size-fits-all model.”

New Zealand. Overseas she is part of KEA’s World Class New Zealanders network, offering her expertise to help Kiwis succeed in business abroad.

She says her next steps will be licensing the Chart, Challenge and Change methodology and setting up channels to market that will open up a much wider client base.

So what’s ahead for Sysdoc? Corich is looking at a more permanent presence in Asia and more delivery of Sysdoc’s services using mobile devices, particularly

the iPad, which she calls “game-changing” – productivity at a client’s fingertips.

She’s never been a ‘gadget’ girl. As a pilot, she never relies on technology alone – and she admits she’ll never get aviation out of her blood.

“I still look up, with any aircraft that goes over. Aviation has been in my blood since I was a little girl. That will never go away.

“I love flying with a passion, but I don’t regret leaving it – sometimes you’re put on the planet to do what you do.” M

Katherine Corich is a member of Kea, New Zealand’s global talent community. www.keanewzealand.com

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 11

M MANAGING SUSTAINABLY CASE STUDY

Mall’s message How do you redevelop a major public and commercial space using sustainable principles?

Peter Jessup talks to Andrew Wadsworth about the lessons learned from the awardwinning Bayfair Mall project as well as life at the top of one of the country’s busiest shopping centres.

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ecycling, smart use of resources and a continual focus on reducing waste are among the processes applied by manager Andrew Wadsworth and his team as they tackle sustainability at the Bayfair Shopping Centre in Mt Maunganui.

The mall is already a regional and national winner in sustainability awards, but Wadsworth makes it clear as the $15 million refurbishment is completed, that “we are not sitting on our laurels – there are always little things that can be tweaked”.

As they continue their drive towards responsible energy use, he says they are now looking at air-conditioning and

lighting costs. An audit of water usage quickly uncovered excessive water use and resulted in the discovery of a leaking mains pipe under the building. It also led to a proposal to collect rainwater and use that to fill the toilet cisterns. “An awful lot of people flush a toilet in a mall each day,” he says.

Wadsworth ‘s also looked at solar power, but says it’s “cost-prohibitive at the moment”.

Refuse was a big issue for Bayfair and Wadsworth early on identified the need for the mall to become an influencer among its retailers. He engaged someone to monitor, then report on, what retailers put into the mall’s rubbish compactor over a week.

The exercise prompted discussion with many, including some large users, on finding ways to divert waste that was being sent to landfills. Recycling of paper, plastic and shrink wrap has increased substantially and ongoing staff training has been put in place.

The Bayfair food hall claims to have achieved a recycling first. “The customer has no option to throw anything away,” says Wadsworth. “Instead of providing common area bins for customers to use, they choose either to leave packaging and uneaten food on the table to be collected by mall staff, or to take it to a cleaning/ recycling station”

Bayfair Shopping Centre manager Andrew Wadsworth (right) and Tauranga MP Simon Bridges observe the refurbishment from the roof of the centre.

12 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

The remains of meals are sorted, so that paper and cardboard can be recycled along with glass and cans, while food scraps (organic) are used for compost. This results in 80 percent of it being diverted from the landfill.”

The Government’s “Love NZ – Recycling in Public Places” programme financed recycling bins at the centre. There are no general rubbish bins for public use – it is all handled by centre staff.

Bayfair management has succeeded in reducing the mall’s waste costs by 44 percent and its carbon footprint by 22 percent over the past five years. They are recycling 48 tonnes of food scraps annually (equal to the weight of 240,000 hamburgers) and have cut $350,000-plus from the energy and waste bill over the five-year period, while also diverting 60 percent of the centre’s waste from landfill each month.

The bottom line is important to Wadsworth, who began his career in accounting. “Our operating expenses are passed on to retailers, so if we make savings the retailers and the customers benefit.”

And the wider community benefits too. Via the Paper4trees project, the mall in partnership with Tauranga City Council rewards the recycling efforts of local schools with trees given to students to plant.

Wellington-born Wadsworth brings a wide set of finance and administration skills to his job but has swapped dealing largely with numbers to a job that “is all about people”. And after close to four years at the Bayfair centre, he’s enjoying it. “It’s an industry where no two days are the same.

There are always external factors affecting things that happen.”

The 90-plus stores at Bayfair include major chains like Farmers, K-Mart, Countdown and Woolworths, along with service centres, specialist retailers and the food hall.

In September 2006 Australian property

An artist’s impression of how the Bayfair Shopping Centre refurbishment will look. It is scheduled for completion later this year (sketch only).

fund AMP Shopping Centre paid $121.5 million for a half-share of Bayfair and took over the management rights, with Tower Asset Management continuing to hold the other half-share. By 2008, retailers were complaining about rent increases of up to 40 percent and several moved out, including Line 7, Starbucks, No1 Shoes, Living and Giving, and Pagani fashion.

Wadsworth conceded that while it was never good losing tenants, the rentals were based on supply and demand and there were other high-profile retailers wanting to move in. Among those who have moved in since September 2006 are Esprit, Subway, Cotton On (including Cotton On Body and Kids), Wildpair, Smiggle and Synergy.

Part of the challenge of the job is keeping everyone happy, and for Wadsworth that means it’s not always easy or plain sailing. “This job is all about listening to people, trying to get a win/ win situation, sitting down and getting a solution that works for both parties.�

It’s also about looking for new angles to keep the mall’s retailers and customers happy. In August last year, a glass-walled squash court was built in the centre of the mall to host New Zealand’s best players plus some international visitors as they

competed for the first NZ Open title to be contested in 12 years.

Just on 20,000 spectators watched the matches, including an exhibition where multiple world and New Zealand champion Dame Susan Devoy taught Bay of Plenty’s MP Simon Bridges some lessons in the game.

on his team; and members of the team make valued contributions.� If they make mistakes, it’s a good way to learn, Wadsworth says, something he applies to himself too. Honesty is a must and making time to “stop, have a laugh with the others at work, and have a beer or a wine with them� is important too. “If the whole team

The mall’s carbon footprint has been reduced by 22 percent over the past ďŹ ve years. “We don’t mind doing things a little bit differently here at Bayfair,â€? says Wadsworth. “The community loved it and we’re always happy to look at something that will bring people into the mall.â€?

Currently, the upgrade to one of the centre’s major entrances and provision of new stores, including the Bay’s first JB Hi-Fi outlet, is nearly over.

Empowering his staff to make decisions is a key to a smooth running mall, says Wadsworth. “It is rewarding for those

is operating well, it generally means we can all keep to a 40-hour week. I don’t necessarily see working long hours as being productive.�

Working “smart� also leaves more time for family, his wife Angela and their twins Luke and Samantha who will be two in December. “It [fatherhood] puts life in perspective.

Family always comes first. I want to be involved in everything my kids do.

Playing with them is a stress reliever.� M

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| management.co.nz | 13

M MANAGING SUSTAINABLY PETER NEILSON

One big leap for New Zealand China has proven it can reach its goals to ‘leap-frog’ high-tech developments. Isn’t it time New Zealand joined the game, asks Peter Neilson.

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ince 1986 the Chinese government has been pumping billions of dollars into a national research programme to accelerate its hightech development.

Since 2001 the ‘863 Programme’ has specially focused on clean-energy opportunities in a country which has switched from oil exporting to importing and generates 80 percent of its electricity from coal.

In 2006, the commitment to new energy sources was redoubled, increasing funding for wind, solar and hydro power.

In 2006 alone, China doubled its windpower capacity. It doubled it again in 2008, and the year after. It had almost no solar industry in 2003, five years later it was the world’s biggest solar-cell maker, winning contracts worldwide.

It is buying and installing the world’s most efficient electricity transmission lines, leaping ahead of the United States with its smart grid incentives and pilot programmes.

Clusters of new hi-tech industries, many with overseas partners, are being developed.

Now into its 10th five-year plan period, the Chinese government says its 863 Programme aims are to boost innovation capacity in the high-tech sectors, to strive to achieve breakthroughs in key technical fields and to achieve ‘leap-frog’ development in key high-tech fields.

Twenty-four years after the Chinese started working on cleantech opportunities to “leap frog” itself into a climate changeand resource-challenged world, New Zealand needs to do the same.

14 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

Genesis Energy windfarms show the way to the future.

There are significant opportunities for this country in deciding what those opportunities are – and putting in place policies which ensure we achieve them at ‘leap-frog’ speed to ensure we remain competitive.

We also need to coordinate our research and science funding to make best use of it and look at incentives to ensure investment flows into job-rich, high-pay, new sustainable businesses which can rapidly increase this country’s export earning power.

A study by Fuji-Keizai, a leading provider of market and industry information, finds the global market for cleantech products and services will reach US$1.3 trillion a year in the next seven years.

A Deutsche Bank report released in January this year found companies that specialise in renewable energy outperformed peers across the wider global economy last year.

“Until the US Congress passes climate regulation, America will be at a competitive disadvantage in the development of renewable energy and other climate change industries,” said Kevin Parker, the bank’s head of global asset management.

The same could be said of New Zealand.

Hopefully the Government here will back an idea being led by more than 100 chief executives to review this country’s

approach to cleantech, identify new opportunities – and recommend a raft of policies to help the country more quickly realise the potential of new industries.

It took 20 years to develop our modern wine industry. It has taken about the same to develop tourism into the nation’s number one export earner.

Should it take 24 years, or just 24 months, to start developing new businesses and services around the cleantech breakthroughs? What are the ideal research and development incentives and investment packages which will produce results most quickly?

How do we put incentives in place so households also convert sooner rather than later to generating their own power? How do we encourage a mass switch to homegrown transport bio-fuels? How do we open up opportunities to collaborate with other countries to rapidly commercialise New Zealand’s clean technology ideas?

A government move to support a proposed joint state-business taskforce to find the answers and chart the quickest course to a more competitive cleaner economy would be welcome. And not before time. M Peter Neilson is chief executive of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development. www.nzbcsd.org.nz www.shapenz.org.nz

and when it does you want QBE on your side Imagine: an engineering and construction blueprint for disaster.

What follows will change the road ahead for those involved. Contractors losing their businesses. Investors losing their money. And all looking for someone to blame – and to pay compensation. The legal wrangles might span a decade.

How would your business survive the risks of the real disaster – its after effects?

QBE has more than 200 different liability and property insurance policies working to help protect New Zealand businesses. So when it hits the fan, you want QBE on your side.

Talk to your insurance broker today about QBE Insurance. www.qbe.co.nz

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BOB EDLIN ECONOMICS M

A shakeup for the economy So, how do you rejuvenate a flagging building industry?

Let’s have an earthquake, says Bob Edlin.

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n the aftermath of the Canterbury disaster, several commentators saw the silver lining. Cleaning up amounted to a giant stimulus package for the country’s struggling construction industry.

For the economy generally, the quake would have a sharply adverse impact on gross domestic product in the short term, but probably a positive one over a longer period.

Westpac and ASB economists, typically, were reported to be forecasting a slowing in economic growth in the coming months. But reconstruction was likely to more than compensate for the short-term slowdown (it may even drive inflation up in the Canterbury region, as demand soars for building materials and trades people to carry out construction and repairs).

But economists who talk of this stimulatory shot for GDP are not saying earthquakes are good for the economy.

This is easily explained: Canterbury has 13 percent of the country’s population and contributes 15 percent of national GDP. If rebuilding a city is good for the economy, we should hope for many more 7.1 earthquakes elsewhere in the country. Auckland would be a good starting point. The devastation there would offer the building industry (and GDP) a much more robust shot in the arm than – let’s say – Gore.

Economist Brent Wheeler expanded on this. He included himself among the economists who agree there will be increased activity generated by the “re-building” of Canterbury, but explained why this does not necessarily make up for the loss nor add to economic output. He mentioned the opportunity costs involved

There will be increased activity generated by the “re-building” of Canterbury, but this does not necessarily make up for the loss nor add to economic output.

in glaziers being diverted from what they were already doing, the profits lost while reconstruction takes place, and so on.

But new buildings and reconstruction will involve modern materials. The buildings will be likely to last longer, deliver better performance, and be earthquake-proof. New techniques and improved productivity will get things being done faster, more efficiently and (probably) more safely.

So, said Wheeler: “It is true that we cannot vandalise our way to heaven and that Mother Nature playing vandal is neither helpful nor pleasant – but it is also true that opportunity abounds in building new ways forward for communities which are likely stronger not weaker than they were.”

Marty G, blogging at The Standard, gave a similar account of the effects, but used more sobering language, noting – for starters – the immediate shut-down of the economic heart of Christchurch, the extensive damage to factories, shops and so on, and the disabling of large parts of the capital and labour needed for production. Some recession-hurt businesses would go to the wall; job losses would be huge; the government would lose tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue and face big increases in costs from emergency benefits…

In the medium term, when the money

spent on rebuilding is spent, the country’s physical wealth will have been returned to where it was before. There will be no real economic gain.

More critically, a stimulus package gets the economy revved up again and builds up its production capacity but the rebuilding of Christchurch will simply put back what the city already had before the quake.

The money spent (the damage then was estimated by the Treasury at $4 billion and rising) will replace physical assets but run down financial assets. A temporary increase in economic activity (positive) will be offset by a decrease in our national wealth (negative), aggravated by an increase in the national net debt.

The most obvious economic impact of the quake is that all forecasts made before Canterbury was rocked will need revising.

But economic forecasts always need revising. The quake simply calls for more comprehensive revising.

Another thing: GDP measures no more than the value of all final goods and services within a country. It is an inadequate measure if we are talking about economic well-being. But it was never intended to serve that purpose. M Bob Edlin is a leading economic commentator and NZ Management’s regular economics columnist.

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 17

ADVERTORIAL

Literacy’s role in the Top 200

There’s a strong synergy between New Zealand’s Top 200 companies and literacy issues in the workplace.

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hat does an organization that specializes in improving literacy in the workplace have to do with sponsorship of the Best Growth Strategy Award in the Deloitte/ Management magazine Top 200 Awards? Everything, we believe.

A successful business depends on its workforce. If its workforce doesn’t have the literacy skills it needs to work effectively and efďŹ ciently (and by literacy, we mean speaking, listening, reading, writing and numeracy), then any growth strategy, as brilliant as it may be, will fail.

To prove our point, in 2009, four of the top ďŹ ve companies in the Top 200 league have introduced literacy initiatives in some way, for a number of their workforce. They recognised that having employees with the skills to do their job properly means the company stands a much better chance of getting those jobs done well.

accountability processes become common place. Productivity and competitive manufacturing practices increase the literacy demands of jobs.

Employees in a position to contribute ideas to improve processes and to see at ďŹ rst-hand

'PVS PG UIF UPQ žWF DPNQBOJFT JO UIF 5PQ MFBHVF IBWF JOUSPEVDFE MJUFSBDZ JOJUJBUJWFT JO TPNF XBZ GPS B OVNCFS PG UIFJS XPSLGPSDF Most people agree that productivity improvements and a highly skilled workforce are crucial for New Zealand business. Yet many businesses fail to see how raising literacy levels can make effective in-roads into productivity and skills.

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when systems are failing often do not have the speciďŹ c technical vocabular y and conďŹ dence to be able to communicate and make themselves understood.

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literacy inhibits our ability to increase productivity, innovate and meet changing customer and market demands. We are less able to compete and succeed in the global economy.

On the positive side, many businesses have introduced literacy training to their workplaces – either directly, with a specialist literacy provider, or through Industry Training Organisations. They report signiďŹ cant reductions in errors and wastage, fewer accidents and lost time injuries, improved communication and team work, better morale and retention and as a result, increased productivity.

Adults are best able to develop literacy skills in a meaningful authentic context. For the workforce, that context is the workplace or industry. Once we raise literacy skills in our workplaces, then we will see New Zealand with a ‘Best Growth Strategy’.

The New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy Development Katherine Percy – Chief Executive phone: 09 361 3800 email: kpercy@workbase.org.nz www.workbase.org.nz

18 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

COLIN JAMES POLITICS M

Not cleaning up on cleantech The environmental voices in Government are growing louder, but have yet to seriously influence core policy. Colin James asks why.

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his month, if he sticks to plan, Environment Minister Nick Smith will announce a working group on cleantech, modelled loosely on the tax working group. He started talking about it in February.

Back in June, Singapore, roughly New Zealand’s economic and population size, announced a US$700 million (around NZ$1 billion) programme of research into clean technologies. New Zealand’s commitments so far are at most a 50th of that.

And Singapore is small beer. South Korea, not the cleanest-greenest place, announced mid-year US$85 billion (NZ$118 billion) of loans to companies for strategic development, focusing on green growth. And that’s small beer beside China’s massive renewable energy programmes.

This is a league New Zealand is not in.

John Key has habitually talked of “balance”, which implies a zero-sum calculation, that more environment equals less economic growth, and vice versa.

It’s not quite as simple as that.

As Minister of Tourism, Key has been getting a message that wholesalers are insisting on operators here meeting some environmental standards.

Too much dairying polluting too many waterways will discourage tourists who come here for trout fishing or to celebrate a “100% pure”, “clean, green” place. Damming rivers to irrigate more dry land for cows will reduce the number of wild rivers for kayaking tourists.

Trout fishers and kayakers are highrevenue tourists: they represent economic growth by lifting value. Chinese in buses,

Damming rivers to irrigate more dry land for cows will reduce the number of wild rivers for kayaking tourists and damage our clean, green image.

and Australians on a cheap stay with relatives are low-revenue tourists: which means you need to create economic growth by expanding volume.

For real wage-lifting tourism growth, more water for more dairy farms has to come in ways that do not deplete waterways and groundwater, or lead to their pollution.

Agriculture Minister David Carter is generally on farmers’ side, having been one. But he has also given farmers blunt messages on their need for far stronger action to cut waterways pollution.

Carter knows, and Key understands – he did, after all, back Smith in resisting heavy pressure from Business New Zealand and Federated Farmers to delay the emissions trading scheme – that, as some put it, “the new regulators are the big retail chains”.

Unilever gets that. It has a sustainability programme that it claims has, over 15 years, cut carbon emissions in its factories by 40 percent, water by 65 percent and total waste by 73 percent for each tonne of output.

Dairy farmers who don’t get the message will at some point fall behind the game. Forestry companies are getting to know they have to meet tough international standards to make premium

sales. There is now a world water alliance of big companies and NGOs. Smith understands this. In the 1990s’ National cabinet he and Simon Upton were lone environmentalist voices. In 2002 the Bluegreens National ginger group Smith championed was a minor strand, with three members. Now it has 18 MPs and attracts a sizeable annual conference.

But it has yet to seriously influence core government policy.

One reason is the primacy the Government gives, including in research funding, to economic growth – and economic growth lobbies generally see cleantech more as cost than opportunity.

A second is that Bill English is sceptical and has a tight grip on state finances that could fund research and joint projects.

The message so far: if cleantech is to take off in New Zealand, the private sector will have to get there pretty much on its own – or in cahoots with foreigners who see an opportunity to piggy-back on the 100% pure brand.

Turning that message round is the job for Smith’s working group. It’s a big job. M Colin James is New Zealand’s leading political commentator and NZ Management’s regular political columnist. ColinJames@synapsis.co.nz

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 19

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THOUGHT LEADER M

The quest for innovation You can make money and save the world as well, says Wayne Mapp, Minister of Research, Science and Technology.

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lean technology is a genuine ‘win-win’. It delivers both environmental and economic benefits.

Growing the economy while protecting the environment is a significant challenge. The Government is backing innovative New Zealand companies and research organisations to create successful outcomes in response to that challenge.

As the world moves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and find new energy sources, innovation can help New Zealand tap into the large and increasing market for environment-friendly technology.

The Government has made bringing business and science together to drive innovation a high priority, with a major increase in funding in the recent budget.

We have allocated $189.5 million in funding for technology development grants for firms successfully doing a significant amount of research and development, $20 million for technology transfer vouchers that will encourage links between firms and publicly-funded research organisations, and $24.7 million for other technology transfer initiatives.

Many New Zealand firms are already successfully venturing into cleantech, with support from the Government.

Take cleantech company LanzaTech.

It was set up in 2005 to develop technology to produce low-cost transport ethanol from industrial waste gases and other resources. In June the company signed a $120-million agreement with Baosteel, China’s largest steel and iron conglomerate, to

Kiwi firm LanzaTech has signed a $120-million agreement with China’s largest steel and iron conglomerate Baosteel to commercialise its process.

commercialise its process in China.

Through TechNZ, the Government has invested more than $12 million in LanzaTech’s innovative research. Its work is a major step forward in the production of cost-effective sustainable fuels. It is a pathway to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is exactly the kind of project we want to see more of.

Wellington technology design and energy information services company Energy Intellect (Ei) is another TechNZ grant recipient.

Ei has developed technology that will save a massive amount of power. Along with partners Energy for Industry and Energy Response, Ei is creating a ‘virtual power station’ that aims to save 100 megawatts of electricity kept in reserve to deal with power fluctuations.

The Interruptible Load project will bring together hundreds of users, instantly shutting off power not needed when necessary, to reduce demand and provide a safety net for fluctuations.

Ei is expanding globally, with clients and projects in Africa, Asia, Australia and North America.

Manawatu-based company PEC Fuel Pump, a subsidiary of the Gallagher

Group, has developed a system for recovering fuel vapours that are usually released to the atmosphere at petrol stations. As well as preventing greenhouse gas emissions, the technology could save fuel companies about $2 billion a year.

PEC, which has received $961,000 in funding from TechNZ, has developed a prototype which can be installed at service stations quickly and costeffectively. It is currently being trialled in Australia.

Some excellent work is also coming out of our research organisations, often in the form of public-private partnerships and spin-off companies.

With business and science working together, New Zealand can capitalise on the huge opportunities in cleantech.

We can start by thinking of the economy and the environment not as separate things with conflicting demands, but as mutually dependent.

What is good for the one can and should be good for the other. M Minister of Defence and Research, Science and Technology, Wayne Mapp is also Associate Minister for Tertiary Education and Economic Development.

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 21

NZIM TRAINING

How to boost

training’s ROI Training can deliver returns of more than four times the investment. The secret lies in the real-life nature of the programme and understanding what is needed.

Reg Birchfield reports.

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raining makes people more capable. There is no shortage of evidence to prove it. But too often, organisations don’t know how much value training delivers. And, when they can’t measure it, chances are they won’t do it or, worse still, they will do it badly and squander the return on the investment.

If people are an organisation’s greatest asset, developing them is the most important investment of all. It makes sense, therefore, to both measure and identify the business value training delivers. Measurement by conducting attendee surveys or counting the number of courses they have completed is no measurement at all. Organisations need to know whether their employees learned anything that improved their capability and business performance.

Organisations don’t have money to spare any more. Investment in training cannot be a “pig-in-a-poke” exercise. A recent study conducted by one of America’s social-sector groups, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), showed just how organisations can ensure a better return from their training budgets by identifying which learning experiences create value and how.

The organisation faced a shortage of

22 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

leadership capability. Using a capability model that appraised nearly 50 aspects of leadership, it undertook a 360-degree assessment of every local leader in the organisation, involving more than 650 leaders across the US. The process found that four out of the 50 leadership aspects contributed disproportionately more to performance. As a result, BGCA built its training programme around those four subjects. According to reports of the study, the programme involved both intensive classroom work and a project chosen by each local team.

Because the programme was designed to improve specific organisational-performance outcomes, assessing its impact was relatively straightforward. Without going into a full explanation of the evaluation process, it showed that on average, where leaders had been trained they bettered a control group on every performance outcome measured.

BGCA found that the programme generated more than a four-fold return on the cost, including the participants’ time, travel and training expenses. And when it compared the performance gains among participants, it found that the performance gains of those in the highest quartile were three to five times the average. The high performers focused on very aspirational

projects; set clear, quantifiable goals; and took the extra step of teaching what they learned to the rest of their organisation.

The insights led BGCA to adjust the training curriculum to reinforce the success factors.

As the New Zealand Institute of Management Southern’s training consultant Gail Foster-Bohm says: “When times get tough, training-learning development is often one of the first (costs) to go by the wayside in favour of areas perceived to be of greater importance. All too often we see businesses with a shortage of leadership capabilities and too little money to support growth or a reluctance to spend what money they do have in this area.”

The BGCA approach of concentrating on four of the 50 leadership aspects saved time and money, she says. “It provided a clear direction for the organisation and the participants. The results speak for themselves.”

NZIM Northern’s learning and development manager Suzanna Rangi agrees with the BGCA approach. “Work-based qualifications have increased by more than 50 percent in the past four years,” she says. And these qualifications incorporate assessments that are directly linked to organisational performance measurements and continuous improvement processes.

LEADERS BUILDING LEADERS Our aim is to build management capability through, Research, Learning, and Recognition

Training should meet the needs of the organisation and offer participants learnings to take back to the workplace.

“As a provider, we are expected to show how we can assist by ensuring a return on the investment,” says Rangi. “The lead time before the client commits to a programme is longer now because they want to ensure that measurement tools are implemented. Assessments are also related to outcomes.”

Susan Andrews, NZIM Central’s learning and development strategic marketing manager, believes the BGCA experience is a tangible example of an organisation taking a strategic approach to ensuring its training dollars deliver value for money.

“By taking the time to identify and analyse the areas of greatest need and to gather baseline measures prior to doing the training, meant they were able to benchmark their pre and post results and prove the value of the training,” she adds.

“Most New Zealand managers recognise the value of developing their people.

Unfortunately they do not always allow enough time and resources for upfront analysis and planning. An unstructured approach leads to ad-hoc training which is not easy to evaluate.”

Before she develops a programme, Foster-Bohm asks organisations where they are at, where they want to be and what behaviours they want to see changed. She also looks at the organisational structure and discusses any challenges or constraints that may prevent them from reaching their goals. “I then analyse the results and put a learning and development plan in place that meet their needs,” she says. Then she measures the outcomes. “That way we can

ensure that the training meets not only the organisation’s expectations, but that the participants found value which allows them to take their learnings back to the workplace.”

Rangi uses 360-degree feedback and other pre-measurement tools such as EQ (a methodology to measure change of behaviours) and Team Member Inventory (which measures skill set levels to help organisations identify the attributes needed to build their capability).

The outcomes are usually based on completion of the work-based assessments. Learners are expected to complete the work assessments, usually linked to the organisation’s needs.

“We recommend the work-based assessments and implementation process as solution because it gives the organisation an option to measure change and improvement. It also gives the learner the opportunity to implement change and get recognised for it – through NZQA accredited qualifications,” she says.

Andrews believes that effective individual learning is “best achieved with a mix of external and on-the-job” learning. But, she adds, “the more we know about the needs of the organisation and the individual, the more targeted the development”.

Picking the right metrics is critical to creating real value from training. By tying the training curricula to key organisational performance metrics and then measuring its impact, organisations can generate greater value from training programmes. M

Our focus is to: • Research leading management trends and practice and promote a constantly developing model of best management capability for New Zealand.

• Enable managers and aspiring managers to participate in learning programmes, mentoring, and events that provide the information and experience they need to develop their capability.

• To identify leading management role models and provide awards that recognise the career and educational achievements of managers.

NATIONAL BOARD PHILLIP MEYER FNZIM (CHAIRMAN) BRIAN SOUTAR AFNZIM LLOYD DAVIES FNZIM GARY STURGESS LIFE FNZIM JOHN SANDFORD FNZIM CHERYL DOIG FNZIM LYNDA CARROLL AFNZIM OFFICES NATIONAL OFFICE Acting CEO PHILLIP MEYER FNZIM Box 67, Wellington 6140 Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479 Email national_office@nzim.co.nz National website http://www.nzim.co.nz NORTHERN President: JOHN SANDFORD FNZIM CEO: KEVIN GAUNT FNZIM, FAIM Box 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, Fax 0-9-303 9109 Email kevin_gaunt@nzimnorthern.co.nz Website www.nzimnorthern.co.nz CENTRAL President: PHILLIP MEYER FNZIM CEO: KARIN CALLAGHAN FNZIM, FIPAA Box 11781, Wellington 6142 Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301 Email karin_callaghan@nzimcentral.co.nz Website www.nzimcentral.co.nz SOUTHERN President: BRIAN SOUTAR AFNZIM CEO: JOSEPH THOMAS AFNZIM Box 13044, Christchurch 8141 Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-3-366 7069 Email joseph@nzimsouthern.co.nz Website www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

NZIM FOUNDATION CHAIRPERSON: DAVID MOLONEY FNZIM SECRETARY: JIM THOMSON PO BOX 67 WELLINGTON, PH 0-4-473 0470 NATIONAL_OFFICE@NZIM.CO.NZ

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 23

Environment as...

...a place to change behaviour.

In the new world, what we do now lives on beyond our own lifetime, but also impacts immediately on the reputation of our company and its people. Today’s environment is a place to change behaviour.

Book now for this year’s Top 200 and meet those who are already rewriting the rules for a new world.

6.30pm Thursday 2nd December, SkyCity Auckland Convention Centre.

Visit www.management.co.nz/top200 for more information and ticket registration.

All aboard the

Cleantech Express

26 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

CLEANTECH

Cleantech is powering fast-moving global economies.

Can NZ Inc capitalise on this major growth opportunity? Or are we too late to the starting gate? Vicki Jayne reports.

T

he writing is certainly vividly evident on China’s wall – or at least in its 10-year energy development plan. The world’s second largest economy is pouring US$740 billion into renewable power sources and energy efficiency.

While global policy makers dither over complex carbon equations, China is mobilising its resources to take a lucrative first mover’s stake in the rapidly expanding cleantech market. Already world leader in wind generation, it’s now also the biggest exporter of solar panels.

In terms of sheer scale, the investment is massive – but China is far from alone in its shift of economic focus. Korea is committing two percent of its GDP to greentech in a coordinated push to be one of the top seven players in this space by 2013. Sweden is already earning $8 billion a year from its cleantech exports, while in Denmark, exports of energy technology alone reached $15 billion in 2008. And in the US, California’s San Diego is leading the charge with a cleantech cluster now 650 companies strong.

As the cleantech revolution takes hold around the globe, New Zealand – despite its ready-made “clean” brand – seems to be missing in action.

It’s not like we lack the know-how.

As one of few countries already running on 75 percent renewable energy, we should at least be able to claim the high ground on specialist advisory (as well as offering an attractive destination for multinationals keen to minimise their carbon footprint). Instead we’re being pipped at the post by smaller players like Iceland – now regarded as global leader in geothermal.

Nor is the innovation gene dormant.

NZ Trade and Enterprise recently

Phillip Mills... helping build New Zealand’s cleantech muscle.

OCTOBER 2010 20 010

| management.co.nz | 27

UNDERSTANDING THE NEW WORLD

DUNCAN STEWART, 100% PLAN GROUP

“New Zealand risks turning up to the party late, drunk and clutching a sheep.”

RICK BOVEN, THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE

“There are huge opportunities and other countries are systematically going after these.”

PHILLIP MILLS, LES MILLS INTERNATIONAL

“To get stuff like this happening, you have to tilt the playing field, it’s got to be government-led.”

identified some 220 New Zealand companies specialising in the cleantech space. We’re already doing some great stuff – like turning industrial waste into biofuel (LanzaTech), leading the world in biogas upgrading technology (Flotech), producing great medium-sized wind turbines (Windflow), exporting energyefficient lighting (Energy Mad), building world-leading eco-buses (Designline), creating more efficient motors (Drive Technologies) or high-tech, lightweight engines (Duke). And we do still have market cred in geothermal (Mighty River Power).

But … we could be doing so much more.

A growing cadre of business leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists and strategists sees cleantech as our best-yet opportunity to grow New Zealand’s economy, build export income, increase our productivity, and boost per-capita income.

And if that’s not carrot enough – try the stick.

If we don’t wake up to either the strength or momentum of the global market shift to cleaner products, we run a very real risk of eroding our existing clean-green branding, thereby undercutting the exports that are this country’s economic lifeline.

Soon we won’t have any green laurels on which to rest…

IS IT TOO LATE? Can we catch the CleanTech Express?

Yes. All it requires is a bit of joined-up thinking and clear strategic direction.

The problem at the moment is that while Kiwis have cleantech capability, it is isolated, uncoordinated, short of support and lacking overall leadership.

It was this recognition that helped prompt the formation of a high-powered business group that reads like the who’s who of NZ Inc achievement. People like Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall, Air NZ’s Rob Fyfe (recipient

CLEANTECH

of last year’s Deloitte/Management Executive of the Year award), ‘world-class’ winners like Geoff Ross (42 Below), and Phillip Mills (Les Mills International) all see gold in greentech.

The group’s members are increasingly concerned that New Zealand is falling off the pace in terms of shifting our economic priorities toward a low-carbon future. Recently appointed spokesman for the 100% Plan group Duncan Stewart believes we need to get momentum going – and fast.

“The magnitude and breadth of cleantech uptake in offshore markets is astounding. Every day, billions are being poured into commercialisation, scaling and transforming these economies. New Zealand risks turning up to the party late, drunk and clutching a sheep.”

That we seem to be buying into the bureaucratic inertia which has so far characterised global efforts at adapting to climate change is plain shortsighted.

Forget complex carbon-counting exercises – just check out the business case, suggests Stewart.

“At its heart, cleantech represents a fundamental global shift towards renewable energy production, resource efficiency and waste reduction – show me an economist prepared to argue against the long-term benefits of this.”

Rick Boven certainly wouldn’t. Head of local think tank The NZ Institute, he says even winning a one percent share of a market estimated to be worth over US$1.3 trillion by 2017 would represent a sizable boost to our economy.

“There are huge opportunities and other countries are systematically going after these – with their governments guiding and assisting that process. We’re falling behind.”

There isn’t the sense of urgency there should be either about the opportunities represented by the cleantech shift – or the very real need for adaptation to a changing world environment, adds Boven.

New Zealand has an opportunity to be a global leader in wind turbine technology.

“All the evidence is that climate change is progressing faster than any of the models predict. I am in the minority who think this is a very, very urgent issue.”

WHAT WE NEED Should New Zealand’s Government help tilt the playing field? Based on what other countries are doing worldwide – the answer has to be ‘yes’. Okay – we’re ahead of the game in terms of regulation to put a price on carbon, but that’s only part of the picture.

Complementary measures – whether incentives, regulation or clear strategic direction – are all needed to build the necessary momentum for responding to an economic shift that various commentators now regard as being on par with the industrial revolution.

And when you’re dealing with such a broad-based, fundamental step change, the country can’t afford an ad-hoc approach. This is an opportunity that needs our best brain power and a coordinated strategy, says one of the movers behind

the 100% Plan, Phillip Mills.

“Our aim has been to get a highpowered taskforce together to identify the gaps – to basically look at where our natural strengths lie, where the demands are overseas and to find the most effective way of incentivising New Zealand Inc to make the most of these opportunities. To get stuff like this happening, you have to tilt the playing field, it’s got to be government led…”

And the current Government seems inclined to agree. When Minister for Climate Change Nick Smith spoke to NZ Management in late August, he suggested a decision around setting up a public/ private taskforce focused on cleantech opportunities was in the offing.

“It’s been openly mooted by myself and actively considered. It’s yet to go to Cabinet but it’s an idea I’ve been working on for a number of months.”

The Government thinks there are “real opportunities for New Zealand in the cleantech space and is working on how we can best leverage that OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 29

UNDERSTANDING THE NEW WORLD

itself into a good space and we need to leverage from that…

“We do want to lead and ensure that New Zealand and New Zealand businesses are not caught lagging their competitors in cleantech issues.”

Sm i t h s ay s h e’s b e e n wo r k ing closely on the issue with former National MP Simon Upton who chairs the OECD Roundtable on Sustainable Development. “He has a conference organised in December around OECD steps in cleantech and I would hope we’ve made some progress by then.”

It is, he says, a case of getting various government organisations (MED, NZTE and Ministry for the Environment) working in unison and reviewing what other countries such as Denmark have been doing to ensure New Zealand gets the maximum benefit. There are “quite exciting opportunities” opening up in geothermal and Meridian is also leveraging its wind farm expertise offshore, added Smith.

Mighty River's Kawerau geothermal power station.

across primary industries, tourism and broader manufacturing and IT industries,” Smith says.

“Our immediate priority was getting the ETS [Emissions Trading Scheme] in place, but moving into cleantech is the next important step.”

According to Smith, the ETS has already put New Zealand on the front foot.

“The overwhelming message I get 30 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

from business is that resolving the ETS has given New Zealand a competitive advantage over Australia where there is complete political confusion over where they are going. Even some quite emission-intensive industries have made interesting signals regarding quite significant investment in New Zealand ahead of Australia simply because investment hates uncertainty. New Zealand has got

PRIMING ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION Denmark is just one example of cleantech-driven economic transformation that Nick Marsh has been studying – and the former director of Auckland University’s Auckland MBA, business author and managing director of Next Corporation describes the results as “breathtaking”.

“Denmark now has $23 billion in exports across the cleantech portfolio.

Compare that to our $15 billion in dairy exports. Sweden has about $8 billion across 25 classes of clean economy products and services. These countries got into this not more than 15 years ago.

It shows what you can achieve in a small economy when you join the dots.

“Denmark chose not to be held to ransom by oil prices as a point of national security. They got cross-party agreement on that and, by putting an extraordinarily high tax on the cost of

CLEANTECH

power, drove their economy toward cleantech. New Zealand needs this kind of economic transformation.”

And he believes we could get it under way quite quickly. In the geothermal space, for instance, we have bits of the value chain already in place in terms of scientific/geological/technical expertise, training resources, and manufacturing know-how.

“The problem is these groups are not talking to each other because no-one has thought we should have a NZ Inc Geothermal strategy. But it’s entirely doable and could be achieved quite quickly.”

His global research into “cleantech clusters” shows how various countries and states are helping force-feed their own cleantech potential – and creating jobs and wealth in the process. The

Finnish Cleantech Cluster is, for example, already reaching its goal of creating more than 40 new high-growth companies annually and has generated over 500 “green” jobs in the process. Such clusters, notes Marsh, need a thriving technology base, entrepreneurial and management talent, access to capital and a proactive environmental public policy.

NZTE’s Chris Mulcare agrees that we have “a whole lot of nascent capability right across the clean economy spectrum”. It’s just a case of getting NZ Inc mobilised.

“We need to construct a smart model for how New Zealand can go after opportunities so we have a more comprehensive offering. In geothermal we have the capability and opportunity to reassert some leadership – we need

to put an action plan in behind it that joins up industry and government into going after this business and getting our market share.”

And if we can do it with geothermal then we can do it with the whole suite of renewable energy offerings (tidal power offers great possibility) – as well as leveraging our expertise in farming and the emerging opportunities around soil carbon sequestration. Recent research suggests the latter offers an enormous opportunity, notes Mills.

“We’re already experts in biological farming. And basically we don’t want our beautiful grass-fed dairy put out in the market on a commoditised basis like everyone else. We should be able to get a premium.”

It’s all about building a higher-value,

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 31

UNDERSTANDING THE NEW WORLD

low-carbon-based economy – and what makes this all really attractive, says Mills, is that it hits a natural sweet spot in terms of New Zealand’s existing brand and core values.

“We already have our 100% Pure brand – what we must do is adopt a goal and standards that absolutely authenticate that. We do what is necessary to clean up the rivers and counter the dirty things starting to happen to our environment and that aligns very nicely with New Zealand’s cultural values.”

He sees the full economic transformation platform as based on four pillars: • clean economy opportunities; • existing NZ Pure brand protection; • significant cost savings (at both national and individual business level); and • risk mitigation (not only in terms of being shut out of traditional markets either by regulation or shifting consumer demand, but also guarding against the potential cost explosions associated with

increasing resource scarcity).

Much of it is just plain good business sense, says Mills.

“Cost efficiencies, for instance. At an individual business level, Les Mills gyms had a footprint analysis done and it turned up a 40 percent potential reduction. We were told the first 10 percent would cost $120,000 and pay for itself within 11 months. The next 10 percent is going to cost $450,000 and have a 23 percent ROI. “Why didn’t my traditional cost accounting and management methods turn this up? The reality is, they don’t.

So I say to any business that’s interested – get a footprint done because there are incredible savings there and you just don’t realise them.”

Much the same points are made

by Mike Pratt, professor of leadership and sustainability at the University of Waikato and co-author (with wife Helga) of Sustainable Peak Performance.

The recently published book examines business lessons from sustainable

It’s about living the brand Having built a $140 million international business on the back of New Zealand’s clean, green, sheep-dotted and adventurous archetype, Icebreaker founder Jeremy Moon is understandably keen to see policymakers get in behind the brand.

“There’s an opportunity here to build deep integrity into who we are as a country, which is important culturally and important commercially. To me, it’s just absolute common sense to make an intentional long-term commitment as a nation to being green and attractive.”

But, he adds, there is too much short-term thinking and a lot of antiquated practices that pose a risk to that picture. “Why do we have polluted rivers in New Zealand? It’s ridiculous.”

Famous for his marketing nous, Moon backs his own 100% pure brand with a “baa code” that allows customers to do their own authentication of the product’s green credentials. He’d like to see the same philosophy applied country-wide.

“It’s such a no-brainer that it shouldn’t even be considered for debate. And we just have such a fantastic long-term opportunity that we must first protect, then build on.

Unless it’s intentional, it won’t happen. But it requires courage and a longer-term vision and view. So it’s not just a political tool for this or the next government – it’s about thinking beyond your own patch and taking responsibility for our future.”

32 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

enterprise pioneers around the world (including New Zealand’s Snowy Peak and Comvita) to look at what can be learned from their leadership.

And while sustainability has, oddly, become lingua non grata in New Zealand, his finding is that it offers a useful lens through which business can both reduce costs and build opportunity.

Pratt highlights three benefits.

“There is cost reduction through efficiencies and waste elimination; there is risk avoidance; and there is the potential for value creation through seeing new opportunities and ideas where others are seeing problems. This is the most exciting from my point of view because it offers an interesting area for business growth.”

Interestingly, that’s a point NZ Institute’s Boven also made in a recent presentation exploring the different impacts on policy and business decisions when they are regarded either through an economic lens or an environmental one.

Whether the focus is on regulation, education or innovation – the choice of lens shifts emphasis and direction. Those looking through the environmental lens say the world is changing – those using an economic paradigm are continuing as if it won’t, says Boven. And they tend to talk past each other.

“New Zealand’s strategy going forward,” he says, “needs to incorporate both paradigms. We need to deliver the win/win outcomes that are going to add value and grow our economy and we also need to limit damage and risk.”

THE RISKS OF INACTION When Phillip Mills tells American clients where he comes from, the response is almost tediously predictable: “Nooo Zealand – ahhh, beautiful.”

“It’s a great brand but boy, the day that perception changes is a very bad day for New Zealand because right

CleanTech

now we don’t have much else than farm products that will allow us to keep up economically in future years.”

The reality is that those products travel a long way to market and buyers are becoming more carbon-conscious.

So unless we seriously grab the green high ground and authenticate it, then we risk losing access to many of our traditional markets.

Mike Pratt isn’t sure New Zealanders have grasped the pace and scale of the green shift in overseas markets.

Certainly the conversations he hears offshore are way more focused on it than they are here.

“I guess the anxiety around that is that retailers, particularly in the FMCG market, are choice editing stuff off the shelves that doesn’t meet their perspective on what sustainable criteria would

Thought leaders gather The third annual Hillary Symposium will be shifting the spotlight from the problem of climate change and carbon, to the solution opportunity – the booming commercial international markets for clean economy technology and services.

The Hillary Symposium is a group of invited thought leaders who discuss topics of world interest, this year on October 21 at Christchurch’s Millennium Hotel.

This year’s keynote speaker will be 2010 Hillary Laureate, Peggy Liu, chair of the Joint USChina Collaboration on Clean Energy, who will be talking on Understanding the China Story.

The Hillary Institute’s Mark Prain says it will be a business briefing on the extraordinary story of the government-driven effort to ‘green’ China, and the private sector investment strategies to be number one in the world in clean economy technology.

Other topics covered during the one-day event will include small states which have developed an export boom in clean economy technologies, and how New Zealand can connect the dots of our potential.

be. Given we’re a nation that earns its way in the world via exports, that puts us at risk.”

He believes the ongoing debates over climate change are a distraction from market realities – the world is

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OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 33

UNDERSTANDING THE NEW WORLD

MIKE PRATT, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO

“There is the potential for value creation through seeing new opportunities where others are seeing problems.”

JEREMY MOON, ICEBREAKER

“It’s about thinking beyond your own patch and taking responsibility for our future.”

DOUG HEFFERNAN, CEO MIGHTY RIVER POWER (see p36)

“The global opportunity is much much bigger than our existing business model could fund. It’s as simple as that.”

moving on and we’re stuck in the wrong conversations. But we do have a brand image that, by luck rather than management, is in tune with the market and economic shifts that are taking place.

“We should be looking at ways to exploit this as a major business opportunity because we have a huge comparative advantage here. What we need to do is turn that comparative advantage into a competitive advantage – and that is what we are singularly failing to do.

“Instead, we have just been riding this comparative advantage which unfortunately is getting eroded because the reality is not quite matching up to the brand image. The more that becomes apparent, the harder it will be for us to get it back – and we are squandering a significant source of potential advantage completely unnecessarily.”

But perhaps the conversations are starting to change.

Minister Nick Smith says one of the frustrations around the ETS debate is that it was all about costs with “a lack of emphasis on opportunity and the importance of New Zealand protecting its clean green brand and picking up the opportunities that go with cleantech.”

But since July’s enactment of ETS, he’s noticed a distinct shift in business attitudes.

“Some of the dire projections of cost impact have not been realised.

Businesses are starting to focus on where the opportunities lie and how can they adjust business to take advantage.

Rather than fighting the ETS, they can focus on how to reduce emissions and get cleaner.”

Following that up with a clear strategy for shifting comparative to competitive advantage is increasingly being seen as a ‘last chance saloon’ for this country’s economic recovery – and the aspirational goal of catching up to Australia.

“This is the biggest economic opportunity New Zealand is likely to have

CLEANTECH

in a very long time,” says Mills. “So we have to do the best quality thinking around this area that we’ve ever done.

This is about making New Zealand economically and ecologically prosperous through this century and really becoming one of the voices in the world

that is contributing solutions to the big problems that face humanity.

“It’s a way of saying let’s treat the changes we’re facing as an opportunity rather than a problem and that is by far the best way we are going to solve them.” M

Cleantech pioneers New Zealand already has a growing cadre of companies in the cleantech space – NZTE has identified over 200 whose focus ranges from renewable energy generation and energy efficiency to biofuels, sustainable agriculture, transportation and waste minimisation.

Five-year-old LanzaTech is one of several kick-started with angel investment from Stephen Tindall and the company is now making solid inroads into China with a technology that turns industrial waste gas into biofuels. More established is Flotech, an Auckland-based company now undergoing rapid growth on the back of its expertise in biogas. At the cutting edge, Nouvoa is developing technology solutions that extract high-value volatile organic acids from waste streams.

In the renewable energy space, Meridian Energy is increasingly exporting its locally established expertise in windfarming into the Australian market. Christchurch-based Windflow Technology recently moved a step closer to its aim of being a global leader in wind turbine technology innovation by signing up with a UK distributor. And Crest Energy is pioneering marine turbine energy generation.

At the efficiency end of the energy spectrum, Energy Mad powered into Deloitte’s Fast 50 in 2007 with growth of 2746 percent based on takeup of its energy-saving lightbulbs and has since branched into Australia, Europe and the US. Energy Intellect is a proven energy management solutions provider offering online software solutions and hardware to major utilities. Energy Light offers high-performance, low energy commercial lighting systems…

And that’s just scratching the surface of what New Zealand is already offering in the cleantech space. Building on our traditional agricultural strengths, there’s huge promise in soil-carbon sequestration technologies while organisations such as Pastoral Genomics are leading research for forage improvement through biotechnology.

While some of these entities have already developed high profiles, others fly under the radar – something The Greenhouse’s Duncan Stewart hopes to address by building a cleantech company web portal.

In partnership with exporter of the year Raph Engle, Stewart also recently formed Cleantech Global to help facilitate export of homegrown clean technologies around the world. Its operations will start this month with export of energy-efficient, chemical-free water treatment systems to markets in South America, Mexico and Europe where Engle already has a well-established base.

Stewart says the treatment works really well in closed loop systems such as refrigeration and air conditioning and while the IT is originally from the US, the systems will either be made in New Zealand or locally in the export markets.

“Over time, we plan to add complementary clean technologies to those same sales distribution networks,” says Stewart.

R U O ’S Y FOR T A WH ATEGY STR WTH?

GRO

The Middle East presents real opportunities for New Zealand business.

With offices in Abu Dhabi, Kensington Swan is making connections for Kiwi businesses with products or services to export.

AUC KL AN D | WELLI N GTON | AB U D H AB I

UNDERSTANDING THE NEW WORLD

Geothermal gold There’s money in steam. New Zealand has the expertise – but are we going to let Chile push ahead of us? Vicki Jayne investigates.

I

s New Zealand making the most of its long history and expertise in geothermal power generation?

Already ahead in the renewable energy game, we have a global reputation in geothermal and the opportunities to capitalise on that can be measured in billions. But it’s already becoming a competitive space and grabbing our share may require a more concerted effort.

One local company already leveraging its geothermal development expertise offshore is Mighty River Power. It now has multimillion-dollar investments in projects in the US and Chile through its international partner US-based GeoGlobal Energy – of which Mighty River Power is the cornerstone and, currently, sole investor.

CEO Doug Heffernan says the formula it’s pursuing is that of informed capital provider – and he believes the rapidly growing offshore demand for such ex-

pertise will quickly outstrip Mighty River Power’s present investment capacity.

“The global opportunity is much much bigger than our existing business model could fund. It’s as simple as that.

There is billions worth of opportunity.

We have currently committed US$250 million (through GGE) but could see that fund needing more capital quite quickly in order to grow with the opportunities that come to it.”

The advantage of geothermal is that it offers reliable base-load energy, and New Zealand is rare in having such a long history of large-scale production, says Heffernan.

“It’s a particular aspect of cleantech in which New Zealand is one of very few countries that has competence because we’ve been in it for so long. Our reputation is very high globally but could be improved. Certainly the recent flurry of

for exporting geothermal expertise dates back several decades, notes James Muir, clean energy finance manager for Sinclair Knight Merz – an engineering firm with well-established expertise in the geothermal space.

“New Zealand was helping the Philippines set up their geothermal industry 30 years ago and we do very similar work around the world now – so globally we are definitely on a par with the Icelandics and the US West Coast.”

There are a limited number of countries that have both geothermal resource and existing expertise. Of those, the US base is a bit scattered, while the Philippines and Indonesia are mainly focused on their own economies, suggests Heffernan. Iceland has, however, already spotted the economic opportunity and is putting a concerted effort into establishing itself as an international centre of geothermal excellence.

There are great opportunities out there. We’re very keen about getting involved – beyond just providing services.

– Doug Heffernan, CEO Mighty River Power activity in geothermal – a lot of it stuff MRP is doing – has raised prominence in a global sense and that is an opportunity to leverage off.”

It’s not like we haven’t been down this track before. New Zealand’s history 36 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

It has, suggests Heffernan, been a “bit more global” in the way it’s approached the market than New Zealand has to date.

But it’s not alone. Countries like Germany are competing in what is starting to become a crowded space, says Muir.

CLEANTECH

New Zealand’s history for exporting geothermal expertise dates back several decades.

“Geothermal concessions attract bids from around the world so you have to make a very strong play to get those.”

Both Muir and Heffernan see value in taking a more “joined-up” approach to going after such business. Linking up the value chain from exploration to development and project management expertise would make NZ Inc much more effective, says Heffernan.

“If you look at a country like Chile trying to start a geothermal industry – how do you get people trained, create a workforce that can sustain an industry in Chile? How do they get rules, regulation, environmental standards up to where they can be world class. The expertise that we have in our Crown Research Institutes, our universities – all can help that country accelerate its efforts and help New Zealand companies that are participating get over the line faster.”

NZ Inc was investing in this space 20 years ago says Muir and could do it again.

“There are some entities investing overseas, but not at the scale they could be if there was a concerted push from public and private sector together. There are great opportunities out there. We’re very keen about getting involved – beyond just providing services.”

Exactly how, is the next question – but taking equity stakes in offshore projects leveraging off local expertise is certainly

one option. If we were to develop an NZ Inc strategy, we already have the expertise and resources to deliver, says Muir.

“I guess what other governments do around the world is support their geothermal industry more proactively in their bid to be international players. We do quite a lot of work with Germany and the issue for them is that they are really keen to get into the renewable space and can see downstream benefits.

“If we took a similar approach in New Zealand, the benefits would probably be much more immediate.”

A lot of what New Zealand has done in the geothermal space is contract for service or bodies for hire – whether through universities, Crown Research Institutes or consulting firms, says Heffernan.

“There hasn’t been any leveraging of capital against that intellectual talent. And geothermal and renewable energy is capital intensive. It’s about finding some way you can get a multiplier value effect for New Zealand by deploying capital against that talent. If we’re just going to hire bodies, that’s not a sustainable proposition in the long run.” M • Sinclair Knight Merz is running lunchtime seminars on cleantech opportunities and how to finance them in Wellington, October 8, and Auckland, October 11.

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UNDERSTANDING THE NEW WORLD

Climate warming between countries Australia and New Zealand could both learn from each other as they set about cutting greenhouse gases, Vicki Jayne finds at a trans-Tasman climate change conference.

N

ew Zealand ahead of the Aussies? Well – it doesn’t happen often (except in sport, of course) but a recent Sydney conference focusing on business response to climate change saw this country lauded by Aussies as being on the front foot.

New Zealand’s Government has, with its Emissions Trading Scheme, at least provided some certainty around carbon pricing – and therefore a firmer platform for business planning. Absence of clear policy signals from Australia’s Federal government has made it harder for businesses across the ditch to develop strategic responses to both the opportunities and threats of adjustment to a carbon-constrained future.

And the good news? Both countries can cut their greenhouse gases by at least 15 percent by 2020 in ways that actually benefit the economy. But to do it, they need a price on carbon and a full range of complementary measures tailored to the needs of different business sectors.

That’s according to a communiqué issued during the sixth Australia-New Zealand Climate Change and Business Conference, which also noted that the

38 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

two countries could learn from each other – Australia from the Kiwi experience of implementing a price on carbon and New Zealand from Australia’s experience with “complementary measures”, both regulatory and incentive.

What the range of business, political, investment, science and technical experts at the conference also made clear is business can’t afford to wait for the

energy security concerns and a desire to maintain economic competitiveness, it is pouring US$740 billion into renewable energy and energy efficiency.

It could even be argued that the short-term absence of a binding climate agreement following Copenhagen gives China a competitive advantage in the race to win the green economy, suggested Anthony Hobley, partner and head of

We need leadership from both government and business. This is the opportunity of the century.

– Ben Waters, GE Corporate global policy fog to clear before taking action to adjust to what is a major shift in economic and social priorities.

Certainly China is not hanging about. As Robert Hansor of Lloyds Register Quality Assurance pointed out, it doesn’t need an international agreement to aggressively implement emission reduction measures. Driven by its

Global Climate Change and Carbon Finance at Norton Rose.

Cleantech opportunities aside, much of the adjustment that needs to be made is beneficial to business. There’s no silver bullet, chair of ClimateWorks Australia John Thwaites told conference delegates. But there are opportunities that have a net return – ranging from

CLEANTECH

energy efficiency measures to commercial property retrofits.

In a report that analyses 54 emission reduction opportunities across 10 sectors of the economy, ClimateWorks has found Australia could achieve a 25 percent reduction in emissions from 2000 levels at low cost, using technologies already available.

The report, Low Carbon Growth Plan for Australia (see www.climateworks australia.org) also found that “delaying action will mean some low-cost opportunities are lost, ensuring greater cost to society and business in the long run”.

The message that delay is costly also came from Professor Andy Pitman, codirector of the University of NSW’s Climate Change Research Centre who told delegates that human-induced climate change is unequivocal, that long-term, large-scale impacts are coming at us and that there is little time to respond.

“We need to adapt now to build robustness into our economic and social systems… The changes have to be fundamental which is why it is such a challenge.”

The later we start on GHG emissions reduction, the tougher they will be to achieve – and even cutting GHG emissions by 40 percent over the next 20 years only gives us a 50 percent chance of avoiding ‘tipping-point’ or catastrophic climate change impact.

So why, asked Pitman, have scientists failed to convey the urgency of the situation?

The answers include: politics – green issues are seen as left of centre even though a “left-right split on the laws of physics is ridiculous” (exceptions to this rule usually involve politicians who have science credentials); gender and age bias – more women and young folk see the issue as vital as opposed to older men (who still hold sway in boardrooms and cabinet rooms); confusion of climate with weather; and, media misinformation.

So do we want to invest in technologies that take us into the future?

The conference included examples of those technologies. Granex is pioneering a novel technology utilising lower to medium grade heat resources for power generation. GE Energy’s smart grid system delivers more reliable, efficient and cleaner energy but – as company CEO (Australia/New Zealand) Tim Rourke noted, lack of policy certainty makes it hard to get investment traction.

Getting a regulatory push toward cleantech would encourage investment in new technologies, said Transfield Holdings manager investments Chris Cook. The company’s majority-owned Germanbased subsidiary, Novatec, uses proprietary linear fresnel technology for low-cost solar thermal generation. A small 1.4MW plant based on this technology started selling power to the Spanish grid early last year and a 30MW plan is currently under construction. The technology, said Cook, has wide application in Australia.

But – investors are nervous about new technology which is where clear policy frameworks and clean technology incentives (including carbon pricing) would help. And that, it seems, is the biggest roadblock to generating the impetus needed for both the Australian and New Zealand economies to shift into low-carbon gear.

As Ben Waters, GE Corporate’s commercial director, Australia/New Zealand, put it: “We need leadership from both government and business. This is the opportunity of the century and we are punching below our weight because we lack the leadership needed to harness the disparate voice of support.” M • The 7th Australia-New Zealand Climate Change & Business Conference will be hosted by New Zealand next year. Information and papers from the 2010 conference are available at www.climateandbusiness.com.

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SMART COMPANY

One-stop

sustainability shop Kiwi company Envirostate is making sustainability easy for corporates – saving money and the world at the same time, says Brenda Ward.

F

ew companies want to be sustainable out of the goodness of their hearts, admits Calum Revfem, but he says most CEOs get excited about changing if they understand that any savings go straight to their business’ bottom line.

Every year more businesses – like Winstone Aggregates, Toyota New Zealand and Chevron – are using the environmental consultancy Revfem founded, Envirostate, as a one-stop shop to help them adopt sustainable practices over many parts of their business.

Revfem started Envirostate five years ago as a general sustainability consultancy, but soon found people couldn’t understand the services they offered, which range from transport, energy, waste and procurement to environmental management.

Once he listed the ways Envirostate worked, people could better understand how its consultants can drive a culture of sustainability through their businesses, which “was a critical shift for us”, he says.

“We work with businesses that want to improve their environmental performance.

40 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

We still work through communications image and brand, but really we’re the level behind that, working on management plans and auditing services.

“We can advise on smarter travel, we suggest initiatives like video conferencing to save travel, show how to build energyefficient buildings, advise on waste minimisation.

“It’s simple, why have something removed when you can use it again? Why are you paying to have something taken away that you didn’t want in the first place? It’s about getting concepts over to business people so they can understand the value of it.”

The steps they introduce can be culture changing for businesses, says Revfem, and have brought worldwide recognition to the small company, based in offices in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.

“Companies find that their staff say ‘I love to work for a company that is trying to make positive environmental change’ and you see increased productivity.

“Really it’s the people in a business that make the difference.”

He cites the case of Winstone

At Winstones Aggregates, drivers got behind an initiative to reduce fuel bills and carbon emissions, saving $335,000 a year.

Aggregates, which wanted to reduce its fuel bill and carbon emissions. Envirostate started by asking the company’s drivers for their suggestions, says Revfem.

“It was the drivers that said, ‘Someone’s asked our opinion, so we’ll start changing behaviours’ – and they’ve got so much knowledge. People know how to do things better.

“They made a 15 percent fuel saving. That was $335,000 a year and they save that every year. It all starts with the buy-in and you can introduce smarter policies that are both more efficient and environmentally beneficial.”

He says it’s deeply satisfying to drive innovation and watch the culture change within a company.

Revfem’s environmental expertise spans the globe. First attending Lincoln University in Christchurch, he then studied for an environmental management masters in the Netherlands, where he built an extensive range of contacts with other sustainability initiatives.

“They are really on the cutting edge over there.”

His experience overseas shows one area New Zealand lags behind the rest of the world is in global reporting standards.

He says many small companies here feed into international companies’ supply chains and those companies are demanding higher standards of sustainability.

He gives the example of Fonterra, which is a big exporter. It has 15,000 suppliers, many of them small farm owners.

“There are risks in managing these people, and ensuring their environmental credentials. This is coming our way in New Zealand. We want to be at the forefront. Whether we export or supply locally, our standards have got to be international, it’s the way things are going.

Local doesn’t cut it any more.”

As a step to bringing global reporting standards here, Envirostate has become the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) training partner for New Zealand and Australia – the only one. GRI is a global network-based organisation that has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework.

As work builds, Revfem says Envirostate has had to grow. In its first six to eight months the company took on one staff member, but this year alone they’ve

Calum Revfem … New Zealand will have to adopt global reporting standards to be taken seriously.

employed four graduates working from two offices, in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty. “We’ve got a wealth of projects,” he says.

He says the biggest part of the business is working with large corporates one on one, but now government agency, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), has employed them

lished, Revfem has found he can return something to the community, founding Envirochallenge, a not-for-profit organisation to encourage green awareness in high schools.

The students treat their school like a business, creating a ‘green team’ with managers and reviews, and they have a mission – to sell a case for sustainability

It all starts with the buy-in and you can introduce smarter policies that are both more efficient and environmentally beneficial. to run co-ordinated training programmes for SMEs, dealing with groups of 20 to 30 companies.

A new sub-brand, Green Events, focuses on sustainable practices for events like seminars and conferences, including the recent Bizzone events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Now the business is well estab-

to their school’s trustees.

For Revfem, green practices should start in the classroom and move into big business. “If people want to move towards sustainability, let’s help them move in that direction,” he says.

“Worldwide there is a shift in thinking, so we’d better get our house in order.” M OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 41

FACE TO FACE

A culture of

greed Moral Bankruptcy, not governance per se, is the issue in business today, says corporate philosopher Roger Steare. Reg Birchfield talks ethics with one of the world’s top corporate thinkers.

T

he world faces a serious leadership crisis in both the corporate and political worlds.

Incompetency is not the issue.

Rather, it is that those at the top of the organisational feeding chain are too often morally bankrupt.

Greedy and unprincipled corporate governance may have caused the world’s financial and economic chaos, but its impacts are now compounded by equally inept political governance, according to London-based corporate philosopher professor Roger Steare.

Steare is corporate philosopher in residence and professor of organisational ethics at London’s Cass Business School.

He visited New Zealand last month as a keynote speaker at the Human Resources Institute conference in Wellington. And some of the world’s largest and most successful organisations take his message seriously and employ him as a consultant, banks like HSBC and global accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Steare doesn’t think the governance model is exactly flawed. “It is only flawed

42 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

if we see it as a system that will deliver the answers to our challenges,” he says.

“Corporate governance without a sense of moral leadership is, on the other hand, deeply flawed. If we can combine governance and moral leadership I think we will be okay.”

There are, he says, many businesses which are well led and where the governance model is identical to that of organisations that are badly led. It all boils down to the ethical standards and moral responsibility of their directors and executives.

According to Steare, process and structure are important to organisational success, but unless those at the top “set the right tone, then agonising over the minutiae of processes, structure and other organisational detail, won’t make much difference”, he says.

Standards are set at the top. But Steare also believes that, good governance and moral leadership is the joint responsibility of the board and the executive. They need to keep each other “honest”.

“It’s about openness, accountability

and good relationships,” he says. And he promotes the value of non-executive and independent directors. “Effective oversight comes from a combination of good support and, like a good friend, having someone who will challenge you with the truth. Unfortunately, this is not a combination we see often enough at board level.”

SHORT-TERMISM Steare believes there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of corporations. “It is not just about profits. The fundamental purpose of any enterprise is to deliver the goods and services its sells. If it does that well, then profits are an outcome. But they are not its purpose,” he says.

He holds “the slavery of 90-day reporting regimes” responsible for much of the organisational breakdown between boards, management and investors. That kind of short-term thinking is, he says, incompatible with building a sustainable business model and focusing on long-term value creation.

Roger Steare … “Females tend to be driven more by the need for security and, therefore, tend to be greedier.”

The global banking crisis and even the BP oil disaster illustrate the consequences of what he calls “a childish focus on sweeties today” rather than trying to build and create something “which has an enduring purpose”.

The real problem, Steare says, is to counter our “greatest human vices of arrogance and greed” which he has been tracking as part of his research into moral character and leadership.

“Both traits give rise to short-termism,”

he adds. “Men are motivated more by things which give them status in the short term.

“Executives who make a lot of money are less motivated by the quantum increase in bonus or options or whatever, than by the status the increase gives them. The psychology of it is quite clear.

Men worry about their status compared with their peers.

“The drive of envy or competition is much more powerful than the drive

to acquire resources amongst men.

Females tend to be driven more by the need for security and, therefore, tend to be greedier.”

MORAL CONSCIENCE Steare’s research also shows that directors and executives become “less obedient” the higher up the organisational ladder they climb. “The more senior they become, the less individuals feel obliged to subject themselves to external control,” he adds.

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 43

FACE TO FACE

“They effectively outgrow the organisational structure or culture.”

These findings parallel his other research on how moral conscience develops with age. “There is an inverse correlation between the ethic of obedience and the ethic of reason,” he says.

In other words, senior business leaders are arrogant, to some extent greedy, lack empathy, are wilful and disobedient.

So to be effective any system of oversight, governance or regulation must recognise these psychological truths. For these reasons, Steare believes peer supervision delivers better and more professional behaviour.

up to the plate.” The problem, he says, is that “equity investors don’t see any moral hazard”.

“Look at the way the global banks were bailed out by citizen tax payers. The institutional investors looked around and saw no moral hazard to trip over.

Not only do we need a dialogue about what constitutes good leadership behaviour and what a good tone from the top looks like, but we must also bring investors into this dialogue and ask them about their stewardship of the risk capital.”

So what are the chances of any such dialogue ever taking place when the

The more senior they become, the less individuals feel obliged to subject themselves to external control.

“The governance of doctors, lawyers and accountants, for example, is peerreviewed. If they breach their governance standards they can be disbarred for life,” he adds.

Directors and senior executives should, therefore, have a professional status from which they can be disbarred.

“But the profession must set the standards and not an external authority,” says Steare.

He concedes there is increasing pressure to change the governance model but, he warns, that will not fix the problem.

“Attitudes must change. We need sensible dialogue between boards, executives and institutional investors who, frankly, take their stewardship responsibilities very lightly. The owners of organisational risk equity need to step 44 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

beneficiaries of current practices are so firmly entrenched?

Steare concedes the difficulty. The winners of corporate destruction are, after all, those with elaborate golden parachute contracts. At US investment bank Lehman Brothers chairman Dick Fuld walked away with more than $US300 million despite the fact the collapse was one of the principal catalysts for the global banking crisis.

“That is something we have to fix.

People must be made accountable for their actions and face the consequences,” adds Steare.

The dialogue should, he says, take place at effective annual general meetings and in board meetings.

“AGMs are,” he concedes, “too often a farce. They are invariably pre-planned, showcase events and there’s no real

dialogue. People know which way the institutional investors will vote and there is no meaningful discussion. Most board meetings could be characterised similarly.”

BUILDING STAKEHOLDER TRUST But meaningful and honest dialogue builds organisational trust, according to Steare. “And trust is the most important asset any corporation has. You won’t see it in the balance sheet. It is never measured, except in terms of market share price movements. Take a look at BP’s current share price. That’s the market telling them they don’t trust them as much as they used to.”

Boards should focus on building stakeholder trust. “But actions and strategies that build trust are, ironically, an inverse of what organisations do to fulfil their 90-day reporting measures,” says Steare.

Despite the banking crisis and increasing evidence of global resource and environmental destruction, Steare sees little evidence that boards and senior executives accept the need for a new governance or leadership imperative. Political leaders appear similarly entrenched in their tacit rejection of any urgency to adopt a more principled approach to leadership.

“The stakeholders that could influence change aren’t yet hurting enough,” he offers. “The world might need to be on life support before we really change.

The corporate model allows responsibility to be handed around like a game of pass the parcel. Things won’t change until we look to director, officer and stockholder liabilities.”

Liability was, in the corporation’s early days, unlimited. “Investors could not only lose their equity stake in a business, they could also be liable for consequential losses,” adds Steare. “If that was true today, what kind of stewardship would we see from institutional investors? The same applies to directors

and officers. Now they just walk away from their actions.”

Steare asks the boards he advises two core questions: What is the purpose of their organisation? And, do you create a place of belonging for people?

“The second question tends to rock them because, he says, they don’t see a company as a place of belonging. Every enduring form of human association – family, friendship and neighbourhood – satisfies both of those questions.”

His point is that these forms of human association have lasted for thousands of years. The corporation, on the other hand, is not yet proven successful or enduring. “In fact, the modern corporation is a deeply dysfunctional form of human association,” says

Steare. “It is not fair, nor democratic, and it is exploitative.”

There are, however, leaders in modern corporations who transcend the model and build ethical and sustainable businesses that create value and deliver excellent financial returns. Self-serving perhaps, but Steare says HSBC always took a very conservative approach to banking. After the global financial crisis, it came out firmly atop the cash and asset pile built from the reputational ruins of others less prudent and responsible.

“The joint stock corporation can, I’m afraid, bring out the worst in human weaknesses,” says Steare. “On the other hand, principled leaders of joint stock companies do great things. If we are just going to mess around with corporate

governance systems, it won’t make much difference. The character and the judgement of business leaders must change to make a lasting and material difference.

“And whenever I see man-made complexity in organisational processes I ask, what are they trying to hide or what are they trying to avoid. In the case of corporate governance, complexity suggests an attempt to avoid personal responsibility.”

Despite evidence to the contrary, Steare is optimistic about the future of the corporation. He also thinks leaders can mend their ways. He believes enlightened self interest will prevail because, even the most grasping will, in time, “see the sense of global wellbeing – a reconciliation of personal self-interest and the common good”. M

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MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Customer focus in

software solutions Today’s management software is about finding solutions that work across a business, say two experts from the information technology industry.

N

ew trends in management software we are arising out of an ever-tightening market, says Simon Bright, chief operating officer at Intergen, which provides information technology solutions to industry.

Bright, who also heads up the company’s Microsoft Dynamics practice, says across the information technology industry, he’s seeing a consolidation of applications as companies move from a

Simon Bright … “Businesses are looking for solutions that help retain customers.”

46 4 6 | m management.co.nz man ma a anag an na ag age ge g eme men m ent. en t..cco t.c o..n o.n nz | OCT OCTOBER OC CTO CTOB CT OB OBE BE B ER 2 2010 010 0 01 10 0

number of disparate applications to a single application, or to a set of applications that are tightly integrated.

“We are seeing increased competition in all sectors, so it’s important for organisations to be close to their customers.

They need a good handle on who their customers are.”

That means sourcing information from many different parts of the business, It really important that you bring he says.“It’s all of that information together. You need to form a p picture of how you deal with and the customers. As the economic retain these situation tightens every year that goes by, businesse are looking for solutions that businesses help them retain these customers and work c more efficiently with them.”

Having a greater customer focus Havin means you have to put more time into each customer, says Bright.

Another trend he is seeing is business Anoth “It’s about taking the process automation. au multi-touch aspect away from the way multi-tou you deal with interactions through the business,” he says.

“There is a lot of focus on automating “Ther processes using workflow technologies which allow all you to bring together business processes proc that fit in different systems across your y organisation and help you i better interact from a technology-tostaff pe perspective.”

Ot Other trends are around knowledge-b edge-based organisations, particularly in the professional services sector.

Kn Knowledge bases are about build-

ing knowledge and IP within a business, says Bright. “We’re seeing differences in how you mine that information, using the concept of ‘search’.”

We all use search functions in our day-to-day work, Google, for example, he says. Now you can use searches in your enterprise – rather than collating data into one place, consolidating the process.

“Take the legal profession, for example, where you’ve got different departments, one with contract information, one with customer information, one which interactes with the customer. When you’re about to visit that customer, you can use a search and see everything about them, and have the results on a single page. It is about presenting information back in a usable form “Or you can search for the last four interactions and it will provide all of that information for you.”

The other area Intergen works in is retail, where there have been dramatic changes in the way businesses work. Says Bright: “If you think about where retailing has come in just five years, it used to be bricks and mortar, now businesses need to compete in a different way. The traditional bricks and mortar retailer is competing with online businesses, websites, catalogues and even purchases accessed through mobile devices.”

He says traditional retailing is moving to multichannel retailing, so retailers can compete with telesales and the online experience, driving a consistent

MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Peter Beattie … “Mangement software has a limited life.”

customer experience.

“If I go online and purchase a product from an online retailer and I am not happy with it and want to take it back, I want to take it back to a store – and I want them to know that it’s a valid purchase that I’m returning.

“It’s about connecting channels and making the experience seamless. It’s an evolution. Some retailers have gone into an online presence, and now it’s about how to extend these online channels.”

For example, social media messages can send people on to online media or telesales.

“There are challenges in the retail sector,” says Bright, “but there are also opportunities. Five years ago you talked about the retail sector, now you talk about retail wholesale distribution. To be a multichannel retail wholesale distribution company is where the market exists for retail companies now.”

T

here was a time when every person working for a corporate had their own desktop computer, a full suite of software that was purchased outright – and they finished work when they shut the office door behind them.

That scenario of the traditional office has been left far behind, replaced with 48 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

changing technologies that make investing in software and hardware less practical, says Peter Beattie, managing director of Equico, a company that specialises in leasing in the ICT sector.

He says many companies have turned to leases at a time of rapidly changing technologies.

“Leasing, simplistically, is a decision about whether you want software residing on your balance sheet or out of your operating budget. Software has a limited life, similar to the life of hardware. Many companies find the benefit is to get it off the balance sheet, to free up cash to invest in your business.”

Many larger companies, says Beattie, have been turning to cloud computing, where business functions and software reside offsite and are accessed over the internet, allowing much greater storage capacity, and sharing of resources.

“Quite a lot [of the hosting] is being done in New Zealand – it’s a growth business. That’s changing the needs for the larger customer, but it hasn’t yet filtered

laptop, that for some time has been replacing desktops. Now netbooks and smaller portable devices are becoming popular, particularly in the health sector.”

Another game-changing device will be the iPad. “It has only just been released to the retail market, not to the commercial and education markets, because we don’t have the stock available.

“But when they do there will be enormous application for its use in the health sector, health management and education.”

Beattie says it’s an ideal tool for students and some private schools are already in discussion with Equico on issuing one to every student in the school.

He says low cost is a factor. “The entry point is not that high, compared to a high-spec laptop. It lends itself to what a student needs. We will see a lot of applications and opportunities for it in the future.”

When ultra-fast broadband is available to New Zealand businesses, Beattie believes we will see another seismic shift.

Many larger companies, have been turning to cloud computing, where business functions and software reside offsite. down, from what I can see, to the SMEs. But it’s a trend that will happen.

“We will see a shift from one type of customer to another.”

Beattie’s business lends money in the ICT sector to educational and health institutions, SMEs and corporates, so he quickly sees some of the biggest trends that are affecting the technology business.

One is the move from fixed to portable equipment. Already the laptop has become the computer of choice in most offices, able to be used when travelling overseas, or taken home so teams can continue working on projects after hours.

“We’ve seen enormous growth with the

“Like everyone else, we’re waiting to see ultra-fast broadband roll out. It will create a great chance in the next 15 years for new technology and for new hardware.”

As hardware needs change, so do insurance needs, he suggests. Group insurance can involve high excesses, as high as $10,000 a claim, so his business offers a product to insure the hardware that it leases, both static and mobile.

Extended warranties have also become more popular as firms look for cover to last the life of equipment, which he estimates at around three years.

With that prognosis, it probably pays to lease, he laughs. “You have to identify what is the useful life of the asset.” M

EXEC TECH

The future is here World firsts at IFA, the annual Berlin-based consumer electronics and appliances show, give a glimpse of the business tools we will be using in years to come. By Pauline Herbst.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab.

TOP OF SHOW Every now and then a product is launched that changes the way in which people use technology. At IFA this year, that product was Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, a device that is tipped to knock the iPad off its current pedestal.

The problem with devices like the iPad is the size. Fantastic slipped into a laptop bag or briefcase, they’re not quite as handy in the pocket and constitute yet another device to carry around. The Galaxy Tab surpassed the tablet rumours circulating prior to IFA. The new 7-inch “smart media device” is said to represent “a true paradigm shifter that will change our lives”.

At 380g it’s smaller and lighter than other tablet-type devices, yet can still take calls. This is in line with Samsung’s brand statement: “Creating a smarter life” where multifunctional mobility without compromising on performance is key.

You can take photos and video with it, blog, work, check emails or read magazines. This may sound a little like some existing smartphones, however it has a lot of functionality that simply hasn’t been seen to date.

Like battery life. Samsung expects this to run for at least eight hours while running multimedia heavy applications. The

Galaxy Tab also features video chat, with a camera both back and front to facilitate those ‘arm-stretch’ shots. As it runs an Android operating system you’ll also have access to a huge range of apps.

Expect to see more people using tablets and to being able to work wherever you are from a convenient device. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in his closing keynote: “The future is here”.

comes with 10 tips to fit any laptop and as they know you’re going to lose it, you have lifetime free access to more.

Toshiba 3D TV range: If looks are important to you, Toshiba’s WL768 series of 3D enabled LED TVs have been designed in collaboration with Jacob Jensen. Features include Intelligent 3D and 3D Resolution+ and the by now de rigueur wireless LAN. This means that you get smooth motion (ideal for sport) and a 3D image at near Full HD quality from a side by side input signal. You will still need to don the glasses. M

Panasonic 3D camcorder.

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR: Launched at the show last year, 3D is starting to become integrated in everything from TVs to laptops and cameras.

Energy conservation and how to keep your devices constantly powered are another important consideration.

Panasonic 3D camcorder: For those who want to record every moment in HD and 3D, Panasonic presented the world’s first 3D camcorder for home use at IFA. The HDC-SDT750 consists of a normal camcorder that comes with a 3D conversion lens.

Innergie mCube Slim: Anyone who’s travelled with a laptop will know how annoying a bulky AC adaptor is to carry. The mCube Slim is tiny (18mm x 100mm), weighs 150g and won a 2010 iF Design Award. It can also charge two devices simultaneously. Best of all, it

Toshiba’s WL768.

Networked cities are becoming more of a reality but how will this affect your daily life? November’s ExecTech brings you a peek at the future from the World Expo in Shanghai.

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 49

REGIONAL FOCUS

Doing business in...

Hawke’s Bay Known for its wine and warm weather, Hawke’s Bay is also a great place for business. Here is your guide to the region and its opportunities.

WHY DO BUSINESS HERE? Best known for the twin cities of Napier and Hastings, Hawke’s Bay is a bustling region with a strong emphasis on pastoral farming and horticultural activities, complemented by an export-oriented primary food-processing and viticulture industry.

Other sizeable manufacturing sectors include forestry and wood processing,

chemicals, and significant and typically entrepreneurial engineering and technology industries.

There are many reasons why Hawke’s Bay is becoming a location where new businesses are emerging and local businesses are growing, says Vicky Roebuck of Venture Hawke’s Bay. “Hawke’s Bay has the major concen-

Five great places to stay 1. Te Pania Scenic Circle Hotel: The 109-room property offers 4-star accommodation of an international standard. Guests have access to the pools and gym across the road. 45 Marine Parade, Napier, Ph 06 833 7733, tepania@scenichotels.co.nz.

2. The Crown Hotel: Offers 5-star self-contained and serviced luxury accommodation at the small Te Pania Scenic Circle Hotel. fishing port area of Ahuriri. Cnr Bridge Street & Hardinge Road, Ahuriri, Napier, Ph 06 833 8300, www.thecrownnapier.co.nz.

3. Cape Kidnappers: The Farm is set high on a sheep and cattle station, resembling a cluster of traditional rural farm buildings. It is a corporate retreat offering spa and golf course facilities.

446 Clifton Road, Te Awanga, Ph 06 875 1900, www.capekidnappers.com.

4. The County Hotel has 18 luxury rooms with food from a la carte, to finger food working lunches. Across the road is the New Zealand Wine Centre with two purpose-built theatres.

12 Browning Street, Napier, Ph 06 835 7800, www.countyhotel.co.nz.

5. The Dome is Napier’s ultimate art deco accommodation and conference space, situated on top of the iconic T&G building. Marine Parade, Napier, Ph 06 835 0707, www.thedome.co.nz.

50 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

Hastings city is keen to encourage new business.

tration of industry on the East Coast of the North Island with the major transportation routes into and out of the region, including a port, rail and the airport.

“Hastings has great land availability and plenty of infrastructure capacity to deal with growth, and the region offers a cost-competitive business environment.

“With the installation of high-speed broadband in the region, business can be done from anywhere. Why not live, work and play in one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand?”

UnisonFibre sales and marketing manager Wayne Baird says when Unison Networks decided to deploy a smart grid across its electricity network it needed a fibre communications backbone. A natural extension, which made sound commercial sense, was to become an open access provider. The benefit of open access is that any service provider can connect its customers to the network for ultra-fast fibre broadband.

Five great conference venues Charlotte Williams of Venture Hawke’s Bay says in the Bay there is a diverse range of great destinations for small to medium-sized conferences, up to 350 to 400 people: 1. The Hawke’s Bay Opera House in Hastings is one of the region’s larger conference centres. A five-star convention centre, it boasts newly renovated venue spaces – ballrooms, business centres, display and event areas. Ph 06 871 5289, www.hawkesbayoperahouse.co.nz.

2. The War Memorial Conference Centre, Napier, sits in a curve on the pebbly beach at Marine Parade, and has a ballroom that seats up to 350 theatre-style, or 280 banquet-style, a gallery, exhibition hall, two breakout rooms and a boardroom.

The Hawke’s Bay Opera House.

48 Marine Parade, Napier, Ph 06 835 9001, www.napierwmc.co.nz.

3. The Crown Hotel, Napier, is a combination of a historic hotel and newly constructed four-storey building. It has conference facilities for up to 70 people. Cnr Bridge Street & Hardinge Road, Ahuriri, Napier, Ph 06 833 8300, www.thecrownnapier.co.nz.

4. Black Barn is a small vineyard on the outskirts of Havelock North village. The ‘River room’ is a stunning conference room which opens up onto a sunny private patio. Black Barn Road, Havelock North, Ph 06 877 7985, www.blackbarn.com.

5. The Mission Estate winery is surrounded by farmland and vineyards. It is ideal for one-day conferences and has options for functions and conferences. 198 Church Road, Taradale, www.missionestate.co.nz.

Five great things to do When your day’s work is done, enjoy the activities of this beautiful region: 1. Cape Kidnappers gannet safari: Cape Kidnappers Safari Experience takes you to Hawke’s Bay Cape Kidnappers’ gannet colony, the world’s largest, most accessible gannet nesting place. Ph 06 875 0888, www.gannetsafaris.co.nz.

2. Cycle the wine trail: On Yer Bike Winery Tours offers a unique, one-day, cycling experience giving visitors the opportunity to enjoy tasting some of Hawkes Bay’s finest foods and wines.

Ph 06 879 8735, www.onyerbikehb.co.nz 3. Art Deco walks: The Art Deco Trust’s daily walks at 10am last an hour and take you past buildings built after the 1931 earthquake. Meet your guide at the Napier i-Site Visitors’ Centre, Marine Parade, www.artdeconapier.com.

4. Take the kids to Splash Planet and get wet and wild in this water theme park.

Grove Road, Hastings, Ph 06 873 8033.

5. Mountain Valley Wilderness Adventures offers the best of New Zealand’s great outdoors beside the Mohaka river. It’s 40 minutes from Napier on McVicar Road.

Ph 06-834 9756, www.mountainvalley.co.nz.

THE RECRUITMENT EXPERTS !UCKLAND 0H s (AWKE S "AY 0H

Red Consulting Group

WWW REDCONSULTINGGROUP CO NZ OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 51

REGIONAL FOCUS

Working in Hawke's Bay Wendie Harvey is general manager, operations support, at electricity lines company Unison Networks.

What advice could you give to women seeking a career in Hawke’s Bay? Understand your strengths in terms of your skills and what you want from your career as there are plenty of good opportunities in the region because it’s growing and going ahead.

Hawke’s Bay is a great place for having a career and enjoying work-life balance.

How did you build your career and create opportunities at Unison?

For 10 years I had my own legal consultancy business specialising in human resources and Employment Law. I advised to Unison and as Unison grew, it created opportunities for a job here. I didn’t hesitate. I knew the company and the people and I knew it was a great place to work. In nearly six years, I’ve had a range of different portfolios, and today have a team of 50 staff in operations support.

How do you cope working in a senior role within a male-dominated environment?

I’d say I enjoy working in a senior role in a predominantly male workplace!

You do have to have a sense of humour and you have to be cognisant that you offer a different perspective to your male colleagues. I’ve always enjoyed working with male colleagues and I think they enjoy my contributions. I’ve certainly never felt like a ‘token’ woman.

What do women bring to the workplace?

I’d say we do have to work harder to prove ourselves. If you make a mistake, you have to make sure it’s not a gender issue; that you’re always at the top of your game.

Women are very good at bringing teams together, we’re probably more confident communicators and we’ll step forward to a management role.

52 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

Wendie Harvey.

How do you see the role of women developing in technical-based environments?

This is something we need to work hard at.

Unison has looked at a number of initiatives to bring women into male-dominated areas, right from school level. We offer scholarships, apprenticeships and emerging talent programmes to develop young people.

What initiatives have you introduced at Unison that you are most proud of?

At Unison we have a saying that performance matters and so do people. This is a core value I support and endorse through a range of initiatives including introducing a new emerging talent programme, and one that’s unique to us: a succession planning programme, doing a temperature check of talent every two years so we can realise each person’s potential.

Where to from here for you? Do you think you’ve reached the “glass ceiling”?

I can’t say there’s a glass ceiling, there are always new opportunities every day. If there’s not an opportunity, there’s a challenge to overcome. I don’t think I’ve exhausted my potential and I’d like to go on to more senior management experience. Unison Group has a number of businesses, UnisonFibre, Unison Contracting Services, a transformer manufacturing business ETEL and Unison Insurance, so there are plenty of opportunities.

Unison is rolling out 130km of fibre cable across its three network regions in Hawke’s Bay, Taupo and Rotorua and is now starting to connect businesses, schools and local authorities.

“The fibre is ready to connect to whoever we go past. It certainly makes it more viable for any business to operate out of the Hawke’s Bay,” Baird says.

Companies already benefiting include ABC Software, which supplies software for pack-houses, as well as the Eastern Institute of Technology and Napier City Council.

“Broadband is a key enabler of economic growth and our purpose is to help make sure that businesses here get well ahead and to help grow the wealth of the region,” says Baird.

Hawke’s Bay has been hit by the economic downturn, says Rachel Cornwall, director of recruitment service Red Consulting, but business remains buoyant. “It’s been tough but businesses are pushing through it.”

She says many people with exceptional skills are moving to the Bay for lifestyle reasons, particularly from middle-management roles in cities like Auckland, but there still skills shortages – for structural engineers, for example.

She says it is a primary economy, which is where the main work opportunities are found, rather than the corporate, telecommunciations or banking industries. To attract business, there are several options available in funding and support for research and development projects.

Through TechNZ, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology’s business investment programme, up to $50 million annually is available to businesses to develop new technologies.

Venture Hawke’s Bay and the Hawke’s Bay Regional Development Agency are part of the regional partner network which provides fast, accessible research and development advice and funding to local businesses undertaking early-stage or small R&D projects up to $60,000.

For more details, contact Venture Hawkes Bay on 06 834 1918. M

EXEC HEALTH

Tour de workforce It’s healthy, cost-effective and on the rise. Peter Tynan discovers the benefits of going by bike.

W

hat if I said there was an exercise that could simultaneously improve your health, fitness and wellbeing, save you money, and reduce your carbon footprint – all without expending an extra minute of your precious free time?

The name of this revolutionary multitasking exercise? Cycling, of course. When the benefits are spelled out it’s easy to see why cycling for fitness is being embraced

by New Zealand professionals.

According to Sport & Recreation New Zealand (SPARC), cycling is the fastest growing recreational and sporting activity in New Zealand.

However, cycling is not just for keen networkers – its accessibility, low entry cost and low impact on the body make it easy for just about anyone to take part.

“Cycling is a great low-impact exercise, and is often loved by those who have arthritis in the hips or knees, or who find walking or running too painful,” says physiotherapist Jenny Cooper, of Active Physio Albany.

Government guidelines recommend adults do at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity most days of the week to reduce the risk of, or

improve outcomes for a wide range of health conditions.

But despite the widely publicised message to ‘get moving’, the Ministry of Health’s most recent nationwide health survey found that nearly half of all New Zealand adults did not meet the definition of being regularly physically active.

It’s here that cycling offers a solution.

Commuting by cycle is an easy way to make exercise part of your weekday routine. During any one week, the SPARC survey found that 38 percent of adults who took part in cycling achieved more than 2.5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous activity through cycling alone.

What’s more, going by bike may prove to be faster than taking the car. Splitting the trip may be an option – take an earlier motorway exit, park the car and cycle the last 10km.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council’s interactive ‘Journey Planner’ website offers a mapping tool which calculates vehicle cost, health cost and carbon emission savings of walking and cycling. Based on a standard 2.2 litre car, it estimates cycling the 20 kilometre round trip from Lyall Bay to the City and back (via the harbour) three times a week will save approximately 600kg in carbon

Cycling is the fastest growing recreational and sporting activity in New Zealand – and it’s good for you.

emissions and $1800 in vehicle running costs per year. The same thrice-weekly trip would yield around $5000 in annual health savings, based on the costs of disease and early death that can be avoided with an active lifestyle.

The latest Kelly Global Workforce Index survey showed that 80 percent of Kiwi employees think their employer should assist them with having a healthier lifestyle.

With this in mind offer showers and bike storage facilities. With summer on the way, there’s no better time to jump on a bike to see if cycling is the exercise for you. M Peter Tynan is chief executive of Southern Cross Health Society.

Healthy staff means higher productivity and profitable business. Your profits, not ours. Because we’re not for Covering staff with Southern Cross health insurance means less profit, we’re for you. To find out more, call Southern Cross Health sick days, quicker return to work1 and it’s an attractive incentive for retaining and recruiting employees. It all adds up to a more productive Society on 0800 323 555 or visit our website healthybusiness.co.nz

Healthy people healthy business 1. TNS research 2004.

Southern Cross Medical Care Society, 181 Grafton Road, Grafton, Auckland 1010

OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 53

M BOOKCASE

Thrills and chills CRISIS: One Central Bank Governor & the Global Financial Collapse

By Alan Bollard, with Sarah Gaitanos • Auckland University Press • RRP $29.99

You wouldn’t consider the global financial crisis as a thriller, but for Alan Bollard and the team at the Reserve Bank, this is exactly what it became, an on-the-edge-ofyour-seat drama that was played out day after day on screens of numbers and in the international theatres of politics and economics.

Bollard is known in the business as an adept writer and in this analysis of the events that unfolded from 2007 to this year, his readability has been enhanced even more by co-writer Sarah Gaitanos.

They take us from the overheated markets of 2007, where Bollard was preaching a message of moderation and caution, through to the cruel events of early 2009, when it seemed that everything that could go wrong did.

As Lehman Brothers, AIG and Merrill Lynch crumbled under the weight of debt, Bollard called emergency meetings where teams worked late into the night to devise ways of keeping investor confidence steady and prevent New Zealand sliding into a situation like that of the bankrupted Iceland.

One of the most interesting insights is into the government banks guarantee scheme. “The scheme was distortionary and costly, as we knew when we implemented it. We’d had little room to move.” But Bollard points out it did its job – to reassure Kiwis about the security of their deposits. As we know now, the South Canterbury Finance episode is the very outcome he feared, as finance companies used the scheme to take on risky investments.

Few of us knew the extent Bollard had to 54 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

go to, to beg for funding from the world’s giant investment funds, flying around the world, cap in hand, on a PowerPoint ‘road show’ for the New Zealand economy. It took its toll on his health as he battled migraines and lack of sleep, and he betrays that once, exhausted from a daylong summit, he skived off early to catch the end of a cricket game.

It was Bollard’s authoritative leadership, the convenience of communication within our small Reserve Bank and Treasury, and quick responses to events that kept us from the brink – although we stared into the abyss once or twice.

Even for those who don’t know their OCR from their ECB, the progression of this descent into financial hell is a gripping tale, with enough human touches to make it a truly personal insight. – Brenda Ward

Honeybees & Locusts

By Gayle C Avery & Harald Bergsteiner • Allen & Unwin • RRP $49.99

Management metaphors don’t always work too well. Authors get distracted by the need to draw out the parallels. This one works better than many, though in places it wears thin.

Honeybees and Locusts: the business case for sustainable leadership, draws on the age-old symbolism of the creative and destructive practices of these two insects to prove that businesses behave in much the same constructive or destructive ways.

Honeybees build community and ecosystems. Locusts swarm together and lay green fields to waste.

The book could be dismissed as just another addition to the growing catalogue of literature promoting sustainable management and leadership practices. But it offers some additional food for thought and practical consideration.

The authors are academics based at Australia’s Macquarie Graduate School of Management and are co-founders of the country’s Institute for Sustainable Leadership. Their credentials are sound.

They have come up with 23 practices which they believe drive sustainable leadership. When embedded in the leadership practices of sustainable businesses, these mostly intangible factors can, they argue, result in enhanced business performance.

They effectively challenge many entrenched ideas about leadership. They have, they say, joined the growing army of critics of popular business models that still permeate most global business and political thinking – the model based on the assumption that a corporation’s primary purpose is to maximise investor returns.

The analogy with locusts is clear enough.

Quarterly reporting and its associated short-term profit demands are essentially destructive.

Business must take a longer view to remain sustainable. But even sustainability is not the main game. That, the authors suggest, is the creation of enduring value for all stakeholders, including investors, the environment, other species and society.

This particular contribution is sensibly and rationally argued and, once readers move on from the strains of the metaphor, makes an important contribution to the discussion on how leaders must rebuild rather than rape the planet. – Reg Birchfield

FOCUS M

1

Mediaweb’s Most Reputable Organisations awards luncheon was held at Auckland’s Harbourside Restaurant on September 10: 1 Outside Harbourview restaurant, from left, Andrew Mackmurdie of Hay Group, Toni Myers of Mediaweb, Gavin Law of Kiwibank, Major Heather Rodwell of the Salvation Army, Commissioner Howard Broad of the NZ Police and Air New Zealand’s Rob Fyfe. 2 Hay Group partner Andrew Mackmurdie presents a certificate to Kiwibank senior business manager, Auckland central Gavin Law. 3 Rob Fyfe CEO of Air New Zealand and NZ Management publisher Toni Myers. 4 Salvation Army Divisional Commander Major Heather Rodwell and NZ Management publisher Toni Myers.

5 Police Commissioner Howard Broad accepts the certificate.

Westpac Enterprise North Shore Business Excellence Awards, North Shore Events Centre, September 3: 6 Eco Insulation Excellence in Design, Research & Development Award, from left, Tal Eyal, Mike Eyal, Michael Winn (Secured Signing) and Greg Sweeney (Eco Insul). 7 Benefitz Best Startup, from left, Annie Wentworth, David Wentworth (The Wharf ) and Aidan Bennett (Benefitz).

8 Supreme winner EasiYo Products, from left, Richard Trussler, Sandra Sweetman, Paul O’Brien (EasiYo Products) and Ian Blair (Westpac New Zealand).

Westpac Manukau Business Excellence Awards, TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre, September 17: 9 The team from Bluebirds Foods were showered with streamers as they were announced Supreme Winners.

10 Manukau Young Businessperson of the Year, Tim Guy from Boardertown (left) and Mayor Len Brown. 11 NZ Management editor Brenda Ward and Bruce Ward of United Group. 12 MC Carol Hirschfield.

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OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 55

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EXECS ON THE MOVE M

recruitment, advertising and HR sectors, and joins Drake from Sydney where he was with TMP Worldwide.

New chief executive for Kiwibank Paul Brock has been appointed as Kiwibank’s new CEO. He was part of the original team that created Kiwibank in 2002, and has held a number of key positions within the bank, including general manager, marketing and most recently general manager, savings and transactions. He has also stepped into the role of acting chief executive over the past few years.

Kiwibank chairman Jim Bolger said Brock had been chosen from a field of high quality national and international applicants.

“It is a tribute to the development of the senior management under Sam

Alex Davies Flight Centre has appointed Davis as chief financial officer (CFO), responsible for leading the financial, legal and procurement teams for the company’s retail, wholesale and corporate brands. He joins the New Zealand team from Flight Centre in the UK where he led the finance teams for more than four years.

Knowles that the board of Kiwibank was able with confidence to appoint a top quality internal candidate.”

Raewyn Lovett

Peter Hamilton

National and transTasman lawyers Duncan Cotterill has appointed Lovett, a partner of the firm for 19 years, as it new chair. She is also the current chair of Netball NZ and trans-Tasman subsidiary company TTNL, and a board member of several private company boards including Obex Medical.

Hamilton, who has been deputy secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and has served as Ambassador in Berlin, High Commissioner in Apia, and had postings in Suva, Ottawa and Geneva, is New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to Singapore.

Greg Main

Drake New Zealand has appointed Black as its new business development manager, based in its Auckland office. He has more than 10 years’ experience in the

Dorchester has appointed Main as general manager, insurance and lending. He has more than 15 years’ experience in senior leadership positions at major international insurance and banking companies both in New Zealand and overseas.

Craig Black

Andrew Stephenson TechnologyOne, a leading provider of enterprise software solutions, has appointed Stephenson as regional manager North, based in Auckland. He will be responsible for company operations and business development across the region. He was most recently northern region sales manager for The Simpl Group.

Andrew Holt Clemenger BBDO Wellington has appointed Holt as managing director, effective December 1.

He is currently a group account director at Colenso BBDO in Auckland where he has been responsible for managing the Vodafone business across the Clemenger Group. M

More Projects, Greater Complexity, Bigger Budgets, Higher Risk?

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www.projectplusgroup.co.nz OCTOBER 2010

| management.co.nz | 57

M EXEC 10 TIPS

Preparing for ultra-fast broadband Alcatel-Lucent’s Thomas Evans shares some ideas on how you can prepare your business for an ultra-fast broadband world.

U

ltra-fast broadband has been receiving a lot of attention in the media lately. But what does it actually mean for businesses?

The government is aiming to connect 75 per cent of New Zealanders to ultra-fast broadband, using fibre optic cable, over the next ten years. This will have a huge impact on the way businesses are run.

1

Understand what ultra-fast broadband is

Ultra-fast broadband is more than “fast internet” – just as smooth, well-designed roads are about more than driving fast.

Ultra-fast broadband, like our roads, will enable entire industries that we haven’t thought of.

2

Define your business’ technology vision

To use the above analogy, a well-designed, easy-to-access roading network is only useful if you use it to get somewhere that you need to go. Ask yourself what are your goals? And how will technology help you to achieve them?

3

Use technology in ways to help your customers

As people, we are becoming more discerning in the choices we make.

We’re busy, we have places to go, tasks to juggle – we need our technology to keep up with us. When was the last time you took a blank page and asked yourself, what does my customer really want, and how could technology help?

58 | management.co.nz | OCTOBER 2010

4

Understand your internal needs and behaviours

5

Talk to your own technology partners

Ultra-fast broadband will change the way we engage with teams and the way we work – remote working, virtual meetings, connecting globally. Ask your staff what would make life easier for them. For example, if I could do ‘something’ then that would save me time, reduce costs for the business and make the customer happy.

What defines a company as a technology partner is the fact that they understand your business and can help you become more efficient and effective. Talk to them and seek advice. Discuss your priorities, your concerns, your strengths, your weaknesses and your key opportunities.

6

Assess your business

Identify the technologies you’ve got, and what you need to compete in an ultra-fast broadband world. Some legacy technology may still work, but others may need upgrading. Do a cost/benefit analysis of any additional technologies.

7

Look at how firms are using technology

Many businesses are already using technology to dramatically change the way they do business. One example is Air New Zealand. The traditional checkin model has been replaced by a more seamless automated one. It’s less labour intensive for the staff and it’s quicker for the customer. What could you replicate or change slightly for your business?

8

Differentiate yourself

Ultra-fast broadband will make it easier for your business to go out to

Thomas Evans.

the international market, but also for international businesses to come into our market. Never before has there been a greater need to differentiate your offering. What’s the most exciting way you’ve used technology to distinguish your brand in the market?

Can you do better?

9

Expand your horizons

Use the power of connectivity to identify and target different markets – both for customers and for suppliers.

Think differently. Challenge yourself.

What marketing activity would you do if there were no limits to technology or cost? Start from that position. You might surprise yourself.

10

Keep your staff, customers and business partners informed

Technology – websites, social media, viral marketing for example – is a great way to communicate and collaborate and keep everyone informed on the vision and progress of your company. M Thomas Evans is marketing director of Alcatel-Lucent.

OCTOBER 2010 VOL 05 NUMBER 05

ISSN 1177-5815

ON MANAGEMENT

NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT IN ACTION

Management on steroids The rise of project management O

nce the realm of civil engineers and the construction industry, project management (PM) is now one of the most popular management courses offered by NZIM. Demand has taken off in recent months as businesses and organisations of all sizes and types look at how they can best spend their money and get better, more consistent results, and discover that the discipline provides an invaluable set of tools to enhance business performance in a tight economy, says Sally Pewhairangi, a facilitator for the NZIM Level 4 Diploma in Project Management and Auckland branch chair of the Project Management Institute. Doing things better in a consistent way requires a framework, a process and some understanding about what you’re doing and the discipline of project management provides exactly that, she says.

“A lot of people see PM as primarily a planning discipline where all your work goes in up front, but it’s more than that. Project management is about planning, leading and delivering strategic results.”

She says PM as a profession turns knowledge and processes that often operate almost subconsciously into a formal discipline, working within a framework and in a structured way. Choosing the appropriate framework is vital, however.

“Project Management Institute (PMI) research in 2008 showed that businesses succeed in PM because they choose a framework that fits their organisation – is your organisation just starting to undertake projects, or has it been doing projects for a while? There are lots of frameworks and many complement each other. The PMI’s framework provides you with a place to start and to examine what best fits your organisation and your project. You don’t need to do every step on every project if it isn’t going to be of benefit.

“In New Zealand we have a culture of let’s just do it and figure things out along the way.

That works in some instances but not on a consistent basis, and the whole point of project management is to deliver consistent success.

“One of my colleagues describes project management as management on steroids, in that you’ve got a short time frame with often limited resources to manage and lead people under sometimes stressful situations. So a lot of it is around soft skills such as leadership and communication as well as technical PM skills.”

NZIM offers a suite of project management

courses with the support of the PMI, ranging from entry level and the Level 4 National Certificate through to the Level 5 National and NZIM Diplomas and Project Management Professional (PMP), which prepares participants for the PMI’s professional examination.

Brandon Tyo, project manager and solutions analyst for Cadbury Ltd, is completing the National Diploma. His two-fold role encompasses project management for strategic New Zealand projects and relationship management across the Australian and NZ business. Currently he is managing an integration project to streamline the company’s product portfolio.

“The NZIM programme appealed to me as it appeared to be very practical and in depth, taking components from both PMBOK [the Project Management Body of Knowledge] and PRINCE2 [a British certification system providing an international best practice standard].

The facilitators, practicing PM professionals, were excellent and really set the tone of the programme. Highlights for me have included interacting with similar PM professionals and the field trip to the NZTA’s $200m+ Newmarket Viaduct replacement project where we were able to pick the brains of the PM in charge.

The time commitment to attend classroom sessions and complete module assessments has been challenging, but at the same time I feel I am committing to improving my capabilities as a project manager, as it is directly related to my day-to-day job. Knowledge of PM best practices and tools has helped me accelerate my understanding of the dynamics of project management, and I find myself referring back to my course book to seek more detail or clarity.

The most valuable information I’ve been able to effectively apply is the practical advice given by the facilitator at the various stages of the PM life cycle, based on his own real world and/or industry known experiences.”

NZIM project management courses can also be delivered as in-company programmes. One company taking advantage of this option is specialist contracting company Electrix.

“A large chunk of what we do is capital works in the energy and electrical sector, and project management is essential to our very existence,” explains group HR manager Jerome Cudmore. “We have around 25-30 project

Sally Pewhairangi

managers at various levels of skill, capability, and qualifications. When projects didn’t achieve good margins or, worst case, lost money, we would quite often find the same recurring issues amongst project managers who didn’t have the grounding or formal training to be project managers. So we developed an internal PM development framework, where we listed all the technical PM skills our people need. We wanted to assess all our project managers against this, but wanted a formal qualification at national level to use as a benchmark for current and future project managers.

Because of the number of people we’d identified as needing this qualification, we decided to do the L5 National Diploma in Project Management in-house. NZIM is a preferred supplier to the Electricity Supply ITO for this and late last year put together the first programme.

We’re now running it for the second group.

“We’ve been very pleased. The qualification hasn’t been a walk in the park – the standard set

by NZIM has been very high. The facilitator is a very experienced project manager so they’ve put on a very experienced trainer for us. He’s done exceptionally well, so we’re very happy with the level of delivery. Obviously it’s a long-term thing but the initial feedback from our senior people who have been sitting in on some of the formal training is that it’s very relevant to what we’re doing, addressing the areas where there are concerns, and it’s definitely going to be of benefit. It’s a big financial commitment to put 21 people through a Level 5 qualification but we believe the investment’s worth it.”

For more information visit www.nzimnorthern. co.nz/wawcs0132253/ln-project-management.html.

Focus on Management

NZIM/Eagle Technology Women in Management:

Robyn Walshe

D

o we have competent women leading with confidence here in New Zealand?

Definitely. Do we create a culture which enables women to succeed as managers?

Perhaps. Do Robyn Walshe we support the development of women on that often lonely road to the top? Not that well.

It’s clear that the sorts of managers that are taking us through the challenges of this decade are a different breed to those who made an impact 20 years back. Now, great managers are dealing with change and ambiguity, they are customer-focused (even customer-obsessed), and they read people very, very well.

Does male and female managers’ behaviour differ? Technology – MRI scanning for one – has clearly identified that male and female brains don’t approach tasks or process information the same way. So jokes that were once considered sexist or stereotypical have in fact tapped into snippets of what scientists might now call ‘evidence’.

How does all of this pan out in the workplace? Organisations require effective managers and successful management interactions. Whether gender brings advantages or challenges we need to be clear about two intensely personal things: your anchor and your compass. One holds you strongly in rough seas and turbulent times – and keeps you from being thrown upon the rocks. The other gives you a clear direction and means you move forward confidently, even when the new horizon is lost in fog.

NZIM’s two-day Women in Management programme gives participants (and yes, both women and men are welcome) the chance to check both the anchor and the compass.

You’ll review and reflect on your management capabilities and experience, explore new strategies to build competency and confidence, and extend your toolkit for the road ahead. It could be your best investment in professional development this decade.

For more information visit www.nzimnorthern.co.nz.

Focus on Management

Young Executive of the Year Award and NZIM mid-year graduation T

his year’s July graduation was a huge success, honouring many participants who had reached the end of their studies and achieved qualifications for their efforts over the previous year. With qualifications ranging from the National Certificate in Business through to the NZIM Diploma in Managerial Excellence and the NZIM Diploma in Project Management, there was a wide ABOVE LEFT: Sharon McCook, Young Executive of the Year, Northern. ABOVE RIGHT: Wiremu range of participants from many Tanekaha Rosieur and Te Aniwa Tutara from the Waitemata District Health Board. different organisations.

The graduation evening was combined with the Young Executive of the Year Northern Regional Awards. With some tough competition, the judges had their work cut out to review the finalists’ achievements and their contributions to their organisations. It was a difficult decision, but in the end Sharon McCook, group manager from Health Research Council, emerged as the overall winner. With Angela Levet, Brant Alton, and Jodie Jury. an overview of 100-plus research projects and ensuring high level qualifications, many participants remarked outcomes, her leadership and energy shone on their now being better equipped with the through, as well as her mastery of the complex knowledge and tools to carry out their roles, to environment she works in. the benefit of their organisations.

All in all, the evening was a huge success, Our end of year graduation is scheduled for 16 with networking and wine tasting after the December so please note this in your diaries. Sure formalities. With an assortment of completed to be another evening not to be missed!

Social media: a key strategy T he introduction and rapid expansion of social media and targeted social media marketing has become an unprecedented global phenomenon. It has also quickly become an essential part of how we present ourselves to the market, individually and as organisations. For many companies, including NZIM Northern, the use of social media is increasingly a key strategy in terms of how we do business.

In mid-2009, after considerable market research, NZIM Northern jumped in. As longterm individual users of the business social networking site LinkedIn, NZIM Northern formed the ‘NZIM Northern Networking Group’ and extended LinkedIn invitations to all NZIM Northern members, participants, past graduates and any other connections in New Zealand that had an interest in management, leadership and the functions of NZIM. The group enables us to provide information in real-time on programmes, qualifications, networking events, facilitator profiles and facilitate discussion across the wider business community. The group now has over

250 loyal members and is growing daily.

In early 2010 after the redevelopment of the NZIM Northern website, NZIM Northern introduced its Twitter page to build on the immediate success of the LinkedIn traffic. NZIM Northern can be seen ‘tweeting’ daily with programme specials, quotes and management links to our ‘Followers’ which are now over 150.

The third phase of the social media strategy is to build and implement a Facebook page designed specifically for NZIM graduates and participants and to have a less formal approach to communicating with our alumni.

The key to understanding social media and implementing a successful strategy is to know your target market and the demographic they represent, know your tools and allocate appropriate time across your teams to maintaining these daily. It’s still a growing medium and NZIM Northern is committed to evolving along with the technology.

Tait Grindley, L&D Business Consultant, NZIM Northern

Cullen – The Employment Law Firm: lunchtime seminars C

harles McGuiness, senior solicitor with Cullen – The Employment Law Firm recently presented to NZIM members the latest information on the proposed employment law changes.

TRICKY TRIAL PERIODS The Government’s proposed changes to employment law have seemingly had their first setback, in the form of an Employment Court decision that was released on 24 August 2010 (Smith v Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Limited).

The decision concerned the 90-day trial period legislation.

Trial periods are already available for businesses with fewer than 20 employees. Trial periods, if agreed with the employee and in writing in the agreement, could allow an employer to dismiss without fear of an unjustified dismissal claim.

The proposed law changes would widen the availability of trial periods to all employers.

In this case Ms Smith had worked at a pharmacy for eight years. When the pharmacy was sold she started employment with the new employer entity. She was provided with an employment agreement containing the trial period clause. When she asked she was told the agreement was standard and had nothing in it to worry about. She was then dismissed with no clear reasons given a little over two months later.

The court decision has determined that the legislation must be strictly interpreted because it removes a right from employees (the right to claim unjustified dismissal). The court then determined that the employee, who had signed the employment agreement the day after she started work, was not a “new employee” as required under the Act. The trial period therefore did not apply to her and she had been unjustifiably dismissed by her employer.

The case shows that employers need to be especially careful to ensure that any employment agreements containing trial periods are correctly framed and applied. Minor or technical faults could render the trial period inoperable and expose employers to claims. The case also holds that the good faith provisions under the Employment Relations Act 2000 continue to apply, as do contractual obligations, when employers are contemplating dismissing Charles employees under the trial period McGuiness provisions.

Trial periods are attractive to employers for many reasons, an opportunity to test new employees being the key feature. However, employers are advised to approach the clauses cautiously and to seek legal advice on their correct application.

Disclaimer: This article is prepared for information purposes only and not as legal advice.

Coming up in November ASSERTIVENESS SKILLS Asserting yourself means expressing your thoughts and feelings in a way that clearly states your needs, while maintaining open communication. Learn the techniques that will allow you to change, enhance and develop your life in a way that you determine.

This programme is designed for those who wish to enhance their personal impact and communicate effectively and assertively.

On successful completion of this programme, it is expected you will have the tools to: • describe different ways of communicating with others • identify ways to enhance your self-esteem • express ideas, feelings and wants in an appropriate and confident manner • respect the rights of yourself and other people • set up boundaries for appropriate behaviour and stand up for yourself • increase your confidence when dealing with others • take responsibility for yourself and your actions Dates: November 1 Cost: Members: $1100 Non-members: $1450 DIPLOMA IN FRONTLINE MANAGEMENT The roles, duties and responsibilities of managers

at all levels are undergoing far-reaching changes.

More than ever, modern managers need highly-developed interpersonal, conceptual and managerial skills. The NZIM Frontline Management programme focuses on individual learning and application, emphasising the importance of developing specific competencies.

It is designed to benefit middle to senior managers with at least five years management experience.

On successful completion of this programme, it is expected you will have: • the skills and attributes needed to be an effective manager • the ability to undertake a range of management roles in an organisation • the ability to plan and implement management strategies • an understanding of systems development and management process and planning • an understanding of key communication strategies • the ability to recognise, develop and implement continuous improvement strategies • the ability to anticipate, plan and strategise for the future.

Dates: November 10 Cost: Members: $6500, Non-members: $7500

Introducing

Barbara Morris

B

oth the Assertive Skills and Diploma in Frontline Management programmes featured in Central news are presented

by Barbara Morris. Barbara has worked as Barbara Morris a learning and development consultant for over 20 years. During that time she has designed and delivered leadership and management development programmes for a wide range of public and private organisations.

Barbara currently delivers public and in-house courses for NZIM on a range of people-related topics including Facilitation Skills, Conducting Effective Meetings, Train the Trainer and Training Programme Design.

She is course director on NZIM’s residential leadership development programme, as well as programme director and facilitator for NZIM’s Diploma in Frontline Management, the National Certificate in Adult Education and Training, and the Certificate in Management.

Barbara has worked in a wide variety of public and private sector organisations including the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea. This gives her a sound, practical approach to all aspects of learning and development in business as well as insight into cross-cultural communication.

Barbara is currently the Wellington branch president and a national executive member of the NZ Association for Training and Development. She is a Professional Member of NZATD, and a Member of the NZ Institute of Management, the Human Resources Institute of NZ and the American Society of Training and Development.

For your diary WEDNESDAY 6 OCTOBER Cullen Law Series – lunchtime seminar. Protecting Valuable Business Interests, with Charles McGuiness, senior solicitor with Cullen Law TUESDAY 16 NOVEMBER NZIM & WECC Women’s Breakfast Series with Sarah Mehrtens, CEO of the New Zealand Bankers’ Association To register for these events please visit www.nzimcentral.co.nz or contact Susan Mckibbin susan_mckibbin@nzimcentral.co.nz, phone 04 495 8296.

Focus on Management

Hats off to resilient Cantabrians T

Joseph Thomas

New CEO W

e are pleased to welcome Joseph Thomas as the new chief executive officer of NZIM Southern.

Most recently a senior consultant at Polson Higgs in Christchurch, Joseph’s areas of expertise include governance and management, strategic and business planning, problem solving and decision making, human resource management, organisational change management, and delivery of corporate training. He has also been active in Maori business development through the delivery of Maori business facilitation services and Maori trustee training for the Canterbury/Westland region, including the Chatham Islands.

Prior to joining Polson Higgs in October 2006, Thomas had 15 years’ experience as a general manager and CEO while based on the Chatham Islands. He also has over 10 years’ experience in various governance roles as a director, trustee and councillor. Joseph is a chartered accountant, an Associate Fellow of NZIM, and a certified management consultant and member of council with the Institute of Management Consultants of New Zealand. In 2000, he received the NZIM/IBM Young Executive of the Year Award and in 2002 received the Young Chartered Accountant of the Year award for the Upper South Island region.

Joseph says while he enjoyed his time at Polson Higgs he is ready to take on the fresh challenge as CE of NZIM Southern.

“I have been associated with NZIM for more than 10 years and respect and admire all they have accomplished with their outstanding leadership and management training over their 64 years conducting business in the South Island.”

Tom McBrearty, previously acting CEO, describes Joseph as “an outstanding gentleman”.

“We welcome Joseph’s expertise and experience and are confident that he will be a valuable asset to NZIM Southern in the years ahead.”

Focus on Management

he heart of NZIM Southern didn’t miss a beat as a result of the catastrophic 7.1 earthquake that Canterbury suffered on Saturday 4 September. We’re extremely thankful we came through unscathed, with no damage whatsoever. Like many businesses in Christchurch and Canterbury, we are open for business, committed to serving our existing clients, and ready for new ones.

It is definitely business as usual at NZIM Southern! On the Monday following the earthquake, several of our senior team attended client meetings, an in-company training session took place as planned, and our five-day residential Strategic Development Programme started at the Copthorne Hotel Commodore (also unscathed). On the Wednesday we hosted a Steve Simpson breakfast and seminar on Cracking the Corporate Culture Code for approximately 70 participants. (Admittedly, they experienced a strong aftershock and evacuated the building briefly as a safety exercise, returning minutes later when the all clear was given.)

While our buildings were given the all clear, the residences of some of our people have been seriously damaged, while others have minor or no damage. Everyone in the region is extremely grateful that there was no loss of life. Businesses have been destroyed and buildings demolished.

However, through it all the feeling has been one of the community pulling together, united and helping each other. Everyone is looking out for family, friends and neighbours, and it is this spirit of cooperation and positive energy that is coming through in every conversation.

As this issue went to print, NZIM Southern has been planning initiatives that will assist Canterbury businessmen and women to cope with the challenges thrown at them. As you would expect, we’re putting together relevant new courses that will suit the immediate needs of quake-affected businesses, as well as our usual popular core courses.

Our course caterer, Richard Loffhagen of Simply Catering, suffered significant damage and his business, two blocks north of our site, has been demolished. Typical of the resilience we are seeing everywhere, Richard is catering from an alternative kitchen and still delivering delicious meals to our course participants.

Lee Hughes

Gail Foster-Bohm

Sir Bob Charles

ANNUAL CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENT Our 25th Annual Charity Golf Tournament takes place at The Russley Golf Club on Friday 5 November. As this is our 25th year we are celebrating even more than usual! Sir Bob Charles has graciously agreed to participate in our Tournament again and we appreciate his support. This year we are supporting two charities. The Sir Bob Charles Scholarship fund assists talented young golfers to pursue academic excellence in conjunction with their golfing goals, one of the many contributions made by Sir Bob to assist young golfers. Our second charity is Camp Quality New Zealand, an organisation dedicated to bringing fun, hope and happiness to children aged between 5-16 years living with cancer.

COURSES Courses are of course continuing. Popular courses coming up include Excellence in Management (2-9 October), and ESCO The Discovery (9-16 October).

Our SpringTime Seminar Series is also proving very popular. A full list appears in What Where When. For more information, go to www.nzimsouthern.co.nz, email, or phone one of our personable and talented Business Development Consultants: Lee Hughes 03 374 8522 lee@nzimsouthern.co.nz Gail Foster-Bohm 03 374 8527 gail@nzimsouthern.co.nz Harry Fox 03 374 8526 harry@nzimsouthern.co.nz

Harry Fox

NORTHERN All courses shown are in Auckland. For more information phone 0800 800 694 or visit www.nzimnorthern.co.nz

OCT

11 11-13 11-13 12-13 13 13-15 14-15 14-15 18 18

CENTRAL All courses shown are in Wellington unless otherwise indicated. For more information phone 0800 373 700 or visit www.nzimcentral.co.nz

OCT Speed & Power Reading Professional Administrator Skills

18 Memory and Mind Mapping 18-19 Change Management (Dip in Management Advanced)

Accounting for Non-Accountants Coaching and Mentoring Stress Management Strategies Four Quadrant Leadership Report Writing

20-21 21-22 22 28-29

Workplace Assessment Diploma in Frontline Management (starts)

1 Report Writing 1-2 Assertiveness Skills 8-9 Budgeting for Non Financial Managers

Problem Solving & Decision Making Leadership, Motivation & Team Building

17-18 Contract & Procurement

Think On Your Feet Microsoft Projects

Diploma in Frontline Management Managing Your Time Business Plan Writing Team Leader Skills Three-Building Effective Teams Management

19 Process Mapping and Continuous Improvement

Managers

28-29 Presentation Skills

23-24 Leading Virtual Teams 25-26 Needs Analysis and Programme Design

NOV Change Management Train the Trainer

29-1 Introduction to Management 29-1 Project Management

Supply Chain Management Emotional Intelligence

DEC

Interpersonal Communication Skills

1-2 6-7 9 13-14

Developing Influencing & Motivation Skills

15-16 Confident Communicator

Strategic Thinking Tools Memory & Mind Mapping MEX Communications

Interpersonal Communication Skills Presentation Skills

Effective Business Writing Effective Use of Time Introduction to Management Negotiation Skills Dealing with Difficult Behaviours

Leadership (Dip in Management Advanced)

SOUTHERN For more information phone 03 379 2302 (Christchurch & Queenstown), 03 477 9277 (Dunedin) or 03 218 7451 (Invercargill) or visit www.managementsouth.co.nz or.

Facilitation Skills Understanding a Profit & Loss Marketing Marketing Planning & Control

Practical Management Skill Needs Analysis & Programme Design

CHRISTCHURCH OCT

11-12 Presentation Skills 11-13 Developing Effective Teams 14-15 Project Management Diploma

(commences) 18-19 Performance Management 20-22 Team Leader – The Essential Skills 21-22 Introduction to Marketing

Lean 6 Sigma – Yellow Belt Interpersonal Communication Skills Team Leader 3 Project Management Effective Use of Time

SPRINGTIME SERIES 2010 OCT 15 18 20 22

Courageous Conversations Email Etiquette Stress Management Outsmarting the Competition with Innovation 28 Starting People off Right – Induction Planning and Delivery

NOV 5 8 15-16 16 17-18 19 23

Understanding Behavioural Models Bullying in the Workplace The Counsellor Salesperson Think First – The Words will Follow Building Relationship Versatility Emotional Intelligence How to Manage a Meeting Effectively 24 Successful Event Management 26 Project Management for Administrators 29 Protecting your Business from Fraud

OTAGO/SOUTHLAND OCT 6 7-8 11 12-13 TBC TBC 14-15 28-29 29

Governance in Practice, Invercargill Negotiation Skills, Dunedin Governance in Practice, Dunedin How to Manage & Lead Successfully, Queenstown Practical Project Management, Invercargill Practical Project Management, Dunedin Accounting for Non Accountants, Queenstown Practical People Skills, Invercargill Speed Reading, Dunedin

NOV

1 Managing the Performance of your Staff, Dunedin NEW

2 People & Communication Skills,

Team Leader 2 Consultative Selling Skills

Group

24-25 Practical Project Management 24-26 Four Quadrant Leadership 29 Four Quadrant Leadership Stage 2

Facilitation Skills

Advanced Project Management

DEC

2-3 2-3 3 6-7 7-9 8-10 15

Applied Management (Dip in Management Advanced)

10 15 15 15-17

Team Leader 3

28 Conducting Effective Meetings 28-29 Budgeting for Non Financial

11-12 12 17 17-19 18-19 23-24 23-25 25-26 25-26 30 30-1 30-12

Effective Business Writing

NOV

Management (starts)

2-3 2-10 3-4 4 4-5 8 9 10-11 10-11

Dealing with Difficult Behaviours

Effective Use of Time

18 Effective Business Writing 19 Diploma in Supply Chain 19-21 21-22 22 26-27 27-29

Understanding Public Sector Finance

8 Effective Use of Time 9-10 Practical People Skills 16-18 Team Leader – Leading the Work

NOV

1-3 Introduction to Management 1-3 ABCs of Win-Win Relationships 3-5 Management in Practice

Dunedin

3 Effective Business Writing, Dunedin 4 Effective Business Writing, Queenstown

10 How to Manage your Manager and your Office, Invercargill

11 Delivering Great Customer Care, Invercargill

11 How to Handle Difficult Customers, Invercargill

11-12 Coaching for Performance Excellence, Dunedin NEW

16 Effective Use of Time, Queenstown 24-25 How to Manage & Lead Successfully, Dunedin Focus on Management gement

LEADERS BUILDING LEADERS Our aim is to build management capability through, Research, Learning, and Recognition.

OUR FOCUS IS TO: • Research leading management trends and practice and promote a constantly developing model of best management capability for New Zealand.

• Enable managers and aspiring managers to participate in learning programmes, mentoring, and events that provide the information and experience they need to develop their capability.

• Identify leading management role models and provide awards that recognise the career and educational achievements of managers.

NATIONAL BOARD Phillip Meyer FNZIM (Chairman) Brian Soutar AFNZIM Lloyd Davies FNZIM Cheryl Doig FNZIM John Sandford FNZIM Gary Sturgess Life FNZIM Lynda Carroll AFNZIM OFFICES National Office Acting CEO Phillip Meyer PO Box 67, Wellington 6140 Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479 Email national_office@nzim.co.nz National website www.nzim.co.nz Northern President John Sandford FNZIM CEO Kevin Gaunt FNZIM, FAIM PO Box 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, Fax 0-9-303 9109 Email kevin_gaunt@nzimnorthern.co.nz Website www.nzimnorthern.co.nz Central President Phillip Meyer FNZIM CEO Karin Callaghan FNZIM FIPAA PO Box 11781, Wellington 6142 Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301 Email karin_callaghan@nzimcentral.co.nz Website www.nzimcentral.co.nz Southern President Brian Soutar AFNZIM CEO Joseph Thomas AFNZIM PO Box 13044, Christchurch 8141 Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-3-366 7069 Email joseph@nzimsouthern.co.nz Website www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

ME MB E R CO M M EN T:

Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau is New Zealand’s largest kaupapa Maori provider of residential and vocational services for people with an intellectual disability. Its mission is to enhance the health and wellbeing of mokopuna by providing culturally based services. Tikanga Maori is infused throughout its everyday operations and Te Reo is utilised wherever possible. Shane Te Pou, executive manager, human resources, talks about the Trust’s commitment to its mokopuna and the development of its kaimahi (staff).

S

ixty percent of our mokopuna are Maori and 40% non-Maori. We call our clients mokopuna (although they’re aged from their teens to 70) using the word mokopuna not as grandchild, but in the traditional sense. Moko means reflection, and puna means of yourself and your tupuna, so it’s saying we want to look after our mokopuna as we would expect to be looked after – with dignity and respect.

We have 500 staff working throughout the country [twice the number of mokopuna because of the need to provide 24/7 care], 64% of them Maori. We ask them to buy into our kaupapa, which is that our methodology, our teachings and our very being is steeped in tikanga and Te Reo but always underpinned by the need to provide quality care and options for people with intellectual disabilities.

The people we recruit tend to come from parttime or no employment. The role of caregiver is highly skilled – you need good life experience, patience, tolerance, understanding and empathy – but they don’t have any formal training. We need to ensure they have the range of skills to provide the quality of service we demand. We want to get to the point where every single one of our employees is on a continuous learning cycle, either formal or informal, but preferably qualification based. So if you’re not doing the Core Competencies certificate you’re doing the specialist strands certificate, diplomas, degrees etc. We also provide literacy training embedded into our base qualification.

We offer the opportunity, and equity of access... the outcome is up to the individual. The industry average of people with some formal qualification is about 27%. In Te Roopu we’re well above that, at 60%. To hold a position with us you must have certain qualifications that will also give you access and a pathway to better earning. Kai awhina/ community support workers must work towards the NZQA Level 3 Certificate in Core Competencies Kai Whakahaere and those aspiring to positions above that, for example kai arahi, or house leaders, must hold that before they even qualify to apply. Kai whakahaere – managers of a group of homes – must have a diploma-level qualification and managers a post graduate diploma or degree.

Eighty-five percent of promotions are internal, so we can demonstrate very clear career and remuneration pathways. As a good example, a person who some 10 years ago started off as a casual kai awhina became a regional manager responsible for 130 staff within eight years, so it is “do-able”.

The biggest training cost for organisations like Te Roopu is the replacement cost. So if they’re rostered

Shane Te Pou (bottom left) with the rest of the HR team: Ani Petera, human resource operations manager; top left Ashani Senanayake, HR advisor; top right Adele Muller, PA.

on we pay them, but if not, they take it on the chin.

We also ask them to contribute towards the cost of external courses because we think people get more value from the experience than if it’s simply for free. They accept that, because on completion they’re rewarded with an allowance tied to the qualification, and within about 5-6 months they’ve made up their investment in their own training.

Since we introduced this for our basic qualification our completion rate is up to around 96%. Before, it was about 85%, which we were told was very good, but asking people to contribute a small amount financially has resulted in a much better outcome.

Our corporate membership of NZIM is important.

We use NZIM to access high quality, relevant training that adds real value to the individual and the organisation. We meet regularly with NZIM to get a real understanding of the challenges facing employers, we identify our own challenges and then discuss a pathway forward. As a Maori organisation we want to ensure our thinking is as broad as possible and that we are providing the right solutions given the ever-changing circumstances we face as a large employer. We want to give people the ability to upskill in specific areas… including me. Even though I’ve got a post-graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, I’m currently doing a Level 4 Certificate in Adult Teaching. We’re putting 10 people through that this year, and over the last two years we put another 10 through the L6 Diploma in Managerial Excellence, and seven through the Diploma in Front Line Management.

Our investment in NZIM-based programmes has been considerable but we believe that it has been well placed, as staff have proved in terms of their clarity and ability to function in a challenging environment… excellent results, excellent completion rates, and we’re seeing a real change in the people that took that programme.

The skill sets that you need to be a kai whakahaere who manages three or four homes compared to a house leader or community support worker are totally different. You need managerial skills –to be able to read and understand budgets, negotiate with staff, have good conflict resolution, listening and presentation skills. NZIM has given us a pathway to enhance the managerial skill set that we need.

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