Management October 2011

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NZIM’s Focus on Management p59

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Link or swim – NZ’s Asian choice

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October 2011

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Frucor’s Carl Bergstrom Boosting corporate energy p34 Maori and Mighty River Power p38 Image is everything Executive car leasing p50

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Eroding the foundations of democracy

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y first job in publishing was at Fourth Estate, the then Wellington-based publisher of the National Business Review, run at the time by Reg Birchfield.

The job was hardly upholding the sanctity of a free press – I was a student lucky to score a holiday gig working on the NZ Business Who’s Who directory. I was however, profoundly influenced by the company’s maxim emblazoned on the exterior wall of its premises in Blair Street off Courtenay Place, Wellington; Edmund Burke’s “there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.”

And it wasn’t just that in those days, spelling out your company’s founding philosophy vertically up the full height of its exterior wall was a little ‘out there’, a company that stood for and was guided by an ethical position was rare.

I’ve been contemplating the Burke quote again since the debate has heated up about funding for public broadcasting in the wake of ongoing cuts (or staff ‘attrition’) to Radio NZ and the Government plan – in the likely event National is still calling the shots – to cease funding and close down TVNZ 7. It’s not just the closing down that’s a problem, it’s the dumbing down.

This following is not an extreme example, but it epitomises the danger of insidious gradual deterioration.

I realise you’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to know there’s a certain sporting event holding the nation in its thrall right now, but a recent Radio New Zealand news item graphically illustrated for me how fast we’re sliding into mediocrity – the dumbing down of much of our ‘news’ content.

www.management.co.nz a mediaweb magazine publisher Toni Myers

The item was the lead story in a midday broadcast. It described the ‘horror’ for a group of overseas rugby fans, spending $6000 on tickets only to discover they were fakes, but getting possibly better tickets as compensation. Maybe I’m out of touch with the contemporary lexicon but I thought ‘horror’ related to mass starvation such as that unfolding in the Horn of Africa; or the scene at a multiple car accident with a number of fatalities and serious injuries. But buying counterfeit RWC tickets for $6000, discovering the rort and being given potentially better tickets as compensation? I don’t think so.

South Pacific Pictures’ John Barnett is leading a bid to blend two of our most valuable public services; Radio NZ and content now aired on TVNZ 7, into a ‘radio with pictures’. I hope he succeeds in preserving the best of what those services offer. In a television landscape populated by a majority of dross, TVNZ 7 has some gems like The Court Report, Hindsight and others. And RNZ, despite the constraints, generally provides a good service for the three main centres although regional coverage has suffered from funding cuts in recent years.

It’s not hyperbole to fret that important tenets of democracy are threatened by such cuts and closures.

A well informed populace is a most fundamental prerequisite for a healthy democratic state.

CONSULTING EDITOR & WRITER-AT-LARGE Reg Birchfield CONTRIBUTORS Hayley Barnett, Deb Boswell, Peter Burdon, Bob Edlin, Rob Eliott, Colin James, Vicki Jayne, Ruth Le Pla, Craig Morrison, Andrew Sibley, Jamie Sinclair, Mike Underhill Advertising Manager Rod Myers 09-372 6444, 027-484 8046 admanager@management.co.nz DESIGNER Jan-Michael David COPY & WEB EDITOR Gill Prentice editor@management.co.nz production MANAGER Fran Marshall franm@mediaweb.co.nz NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS www.management.co.nz/subscribe Subscription enquiries subs@mediaweb.co.nz

Phone 09-529 3000, Fax 09-529 3001 enquiries@mediaweb.co.nz www.mediaweb.co.nz PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141

NZ MANAGEMENT magazine is independently owned by Mediaweb Limited and is published 11 times a year. It is the officially recognised magazine of the New Zealand Institute of Management Incorporated.

Editorial material does not necessarily reflect the views of NZIM. Copyright © 2011: 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.

NZ MANAGEMENT is printed by PMP. Subscriptions: One-year NZ subscription (11 issues) $78.15 (GST incl). Overseas (airmail only): Australia $NZ130; rest of the world $NZ250.

Enquiries: Mediaweb Limited, PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141, New Zealand. Phone 09-529 3000, Fax 09-529 3001, enquiries@mediaweb.co.nz www.management.co.nz New Zealand Institute of Management enquiries to: NZIM Inc, Box 67, Wellington; Northern, Box 26001, Epsom; Central, Box 11781, Wellington; Southern, Box 13044, Christchurch.

Vol 58 No 9 • ISSN 1174-5339 (Print), 1179-3910 (Online)

Toni Myers, Publisher October 2011

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contents 22 Cover Story

Link or swim NZ’s Asian choice Recent ructions in the Eurozone could give New Zealand the hurry-up it needs to strengthen links in the Asian region. If so, we’d better jump to. Asian economies are locking in trade with each other as the European and US economies falter. By Ruth Le Pla.

1 EDITOR’S LETTER 4

INBOX: New and views

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FOCUS: EEO Trust Work & Life Awards; FISH restaurant launch

10 AS I SEE IT: Rob Eliott 11 MANAGERS ABROAD: Deb Boswell 12 NZIM: A legacy for youth employment Reg Birchfield 56 EXECS ON THE MOVE 57 EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT OPINION 14

POLITICS: The Maori party’s hard choices Colin James

15 ECONOMICS: Elections help the economy Bob Edlin 16 LEADERSHIP: In search of a true story Reg Birchfield 17 MANAGING SUSTAINABLY: Vision 2050 under the spotlight Jamie Sinclair 18 THOUGHT LEADER: An unconventional approach to sustainability Andrew Sibley 19 BOOKCASE: The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling; What to ask the person in the mirror Reg Birchfield ADVICE 55 EXEC HEALTH: Risk and relaxation Craig Morrison BMW 6 Series Coupé.

6 DEGREES OF ASPIRATION.

58 TOP TIPS: Dealing with the media in a crisis Peter Burdon

October 2011 • Vol 58 No 9

features 32

Top 200 Thinking 2011 Harnessing the brainpower of our leaders to activate transformation.

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Nicola Bell, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi … New Zealand’s greatest opportunity lies in our ability to harness our creativity. It’s our ultimate competitive advantage.

34 Face to Face: Carl Bergstrom – Boosting corporate energy The man who heads energy drinks company Frucor has his own recipe for boosting corporate vitality. Fun plays a part – so do words like “trailblazing” and “straight up”. Why? Carl Bergstrom shares his ingredients for leadership success with Vicki Jayne.

38 Responsible Governance Series: Maori and Mighty River Power

Mighty River Power has made an impressive effort to understand and promote the value of strong partnerships with Maori business enterprises. What it has learned in the process is central to its commercially and culturally enlightened governance practices. By Reg Birchfield.

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42 Leadership: Fit to lead? It’s in the mind

The state of the executive body and mind are increasingly valuable corporate currency. Fitness of mind is the new priority.

For a growing number it comes packaged in a 2500 year-old box of tricks called mindfulness. By Reg Birchfield.

46 Energy Efficiency: Saving $billions for NZ business

The Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority’s chief executive Mike Underhill explains the potential untapped earnings for most businesses locked in energy waste.

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50 Executive Car Leasing: Image is everything

As corporate New Zealand finally begins to pull itself out of a tough recession, the car and fleet lease market has noticed a shift towards smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. But, as Hayley Barnett finds, it’s not all about cost cutting.

59 NZIM’s Focus On Management

Boost to ag sector leadership development; Member comment from Una Ryan; Regional news; Upcoming management courses.

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new report launched in London has suggested that New Zealand’s economy could be an early casualty of an impending food market crash prompted by irresponsible speculation in food prices. The Broken Markets report, released in Britain by the World Development Movement (www. wdm.org.uk), cautions that volatile food markets expose food-producing economies such as New Zealand to price collapses that are passed down the chain by investment groups.

The scenario Broken Markets asserts is that the current ‘bubble’ characteristic of the global food commodity markets of grain, dairy, meat, sugar, coffee and cocoa is the consequence of similar unregulated speculation by investment organisations to that which triggered the financial crisis of 2008. The problem the report foresees is that when the ‘bubble’ bursts, a lack of any real link between prices and market value for food is compounded on price-taking communities at the bottom of the

market. That is, the farmers and their national economies.

With New Zealand currently enjoying high commodity prices that have shored up the economy, the report is timely as it coincides with a sudden decline in the manufacturing sector’s sales in the June quarter by 0.7 percent. This is in spite of an increase in production of 0.3 percent. Meat and dairy processing represent 30 percent of New Zealand’s manufacturing sector.

The report calls for more regulation of the international food commodity market to limit instability in the market and bring prices back to a more accurate reflection of supply and demand dynamics.

Increasing involvement in food price speculation by investment groups has led to a dislocation between food prices and food supply, the report shows. Wheat, for example, has been at record-high prices for three years, but supply continues to meet demand across the world.

This inflation, the report shows, is due to a reversal in the balance of

The New Zealand Institute of Management has appointed Kevin Gaunt as chief executive of its newly integrated national organisation.

Gaunt was formerly NZIM Northern chief executive.

NZIM Northern and NZIM Central integrated their regional structures to create one national organisation from the beginning of this month.

NZIM Southern has also voted to integrate but will remain a regional society holding an NZIM brand licence until its integration is complete, following earthquake recovery.

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Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

Broken markets driving up food prices

the food trade. Financial speculators made up just 12 percent of food commodity markets in 1996, but are now at 60 percent with total assets of US$126 billion.

Broken Markets’ call for increased regulation of this market is supported by Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, who says: “There is strong evidence that speculation exacerbated the last oil and food bubble. Speculation will fuel the next one too, unless

meaningful speculative position limits are established.”

“Regulation of agricultural derivative markets would end the dominance of financial speculators, and make these markets work for the benefit of food producers and consumers throughout the world. Regulators must take this opportunity to act for the benefit of all,” the report concludes. M – Keith Stewart

Matt Carter, 2011 Young Executive of the Year, Southern Region, is presented with his trophy by Brian Soutar, NZIM Southern President.

Carter is general manager, human resources and student services at the Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin. He will represent the South Island in the national final of the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award at the Deloitte/ Management magazine Top 200 Awards in Auckland on November 24.

The winner of this award receives a trophy, executive management development training with NZIM to the value of $5000 and a travel prize from the award’s associate sponsor Singapore Airlines.

• See page 62 In Focus on Management to read more.

New Zealand business lacking in innovation and sophistication ew Zealand continues to tread water in terms of global competitiveness, the World Economic Forum’s 2011 Global Competitiveness Report has found.

While New Zealand’s Global Competitiveness Index score has remained stable since last year, the country has slipped two places to 25th of 142 countries measured, overtaken by Israel and Malaysia.

Switzerland ranked first for the third year in a row, followed by Singapore which overtook Sweden to claim second position. The United States declined for a third year to fifth place as macroeconomic vulnerabilities continue to build.

Australia ranked 20th, a drop of four places since last year. China improved by one place to 26th, continuing to lead the way for large developing economies The Global Competitiveness Index is made up of 111 indicators categorised into 12 pillars of competitiveness in three sub-indices: Basic requirements, Efficiency enhancers, and Innovation and sophistication factors.

New Zealand continues to do well in Basic requirements and Efficiency enhancers, ranking 17th (14th last year) and 18th (same as last year) respectively. Strongest performance is in strength of investor protection (1st), diversion of public funds (1st), number of procedures to start a business (1st), quality of primary education (7th), and quality of math

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

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and science education (7th). But the good overall rankings for these two sub-indices mask weak performance in some areas. The infrastructure ranking remains low at 34th (37th last year) particularly in quality of electricity supply, mobile telephone subscriptions, rail and road. New Zealand’s hiring and firing practices lag well behind the best in the world (86th).

Performance in Innovation and sophistication factors (ranked 28th, the same as last year) continues to bring New Zealand’s overall ranking down, and remains the greatest challenge and opportunity for New Zealand, says New Zealand Institute director Rick Boven. These are the most important drivers of economic performance in advanced economies, he says. “Government has increased efforts and investment in innovation but we cannot yet see evidence of improvement. Other

countries are doing more.”

Areas that continue to constrain overall innovation performance include government procurement of advanced technology products (71st), availability of scientists and engineers (69th), state of cluster development (60th) and value chain breadth of exporting companies (59th). The New Zealand Institute’s research shows that shortages of specialised talent and capital availability are constraining innovation performance too.

“Despite the efforts of many in New Zealand’s innovation ecosystem much more effort and investment will be required to

improve competitiveness and lift prosperity. For example, there is still nowhere in New Zealand offering full-time world class professional training in international marketing and sales to lift the success of our many hundreds of internationalising businesses. The countries that are improving competitiveness have well-formulated strategies and much more investment. Complacency must be replaced by urgency or we will continue to fall behind.”

Further information on New Zealand’s competitiveness is available at www.nzinstitute.org. The full report is available from http:// www.weforum.org/gcr M

Energetic performers

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Energy has won the overall Energy Company of the Year award in the 2011 Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards.

The company, born out of the sale of Shell’s service station business and associated infrastructure to Infratil and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, had a stellar year according to the judging panel. The company successfully rebranded and localised its business operation – a challenging task in its own right – returning a healthy earnings lift in the process.

Patrick Strange from Transpower won Energy Executive of the Year and Contact Energy’s James Kilty won Young Energy Executive of the Year. Roger Sutton received the Energy News award for outstanding contribution to the sector. Sutton was chief executive at Canterbury lines company Orion from 2003 until this year when he left to become chief executive of the newly established Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

Energy News editor Gavin Evans said that while Sutton’s performance at Orion during the earthquakes was outstanding, his biggest contribution to the industry was in the culture and professional rigour he harnessed and developed at Orion since becoming chief executive in 2003. M

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Organisational development in Aotearoa

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n November each year Thought Partners, a Wellington-based consulting company, hosts a one-day OD Forum for leaders, organisational development/HR professionals and academics to share and develop practice.

On 10 November, this year’s Forum showcases examples of how we’re ‘finding our own way’ to work effectively with change and complexity, and implement initiatives that last the distance and make a difference. It also includes looking to our own indigenous models and not discounting the past as a guide to the future. As the

saying goes “Titiro whakamuri, kia anga whakamua” – the future is behind us.

The Forum has been designed for experienced leaders and practitioners and will also provide opportunities for those new to organisational development to listen, participate and learn.

Keynote speakers are Maori Television’s Jim Mather and Russ Gaskin, a consultant with Washington DC based CoCreative Consulting. Gaskin will discuss the concept of polarity management, and Mather will share insights into how an indigenous perspective provides different options for organisational development.

See www.thoughtpartners. co.nz for programme details and registration information. M

Capital climate solutions

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s a result of uncertainties around climate change policy, most businesses remain unwilling to commit significant sums to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

Companies have adopted a “capital light” approach, where any investments need to be modest and provide quick returns in terms of cost-savings or boosts to brand and reputation. While this is a sensible business strategy, in particular as we emerge from the global financial crisis, clever capital spending can help business cope with climate change, says Rory Sullivan an internationally recognised expert on climate change and investment and author of Corporate Greenhouse Gas Management: From Operations to Strategy.

“Companies need to treat climate-change-related risks and opportunities in a similar manner to other business risks and opportunities. That is, they should assess how climate change may affect their business and, based on this assessment, make decisions that allow them to manage these risks.”

Sullivan says the single biggest opportunity companies have to futureproof their businesses and create longer-term value is when they invest capital. This can be into new projects, new products or upgrading existing equipment. If climate change is factored into these decisions, it maximises the likelihood that companies will make decisions that create real business value over the long term.

“Companies that are recognised as successful innovators consistently emphasise how much time and effort they have invested in testing new technologies and new approaches. This means that when it comes to the point where they need to make investments they fully understand the financial and technical implications of their choices, and of the options that they are rejecting.

“Developing this level of knowledge and expertise requires that organisations purposively and deliberately look for opportunities to take actions that fall outside the search for efficiency.” M

Environmental abilities

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uckland’s North Shore-based enterprise for the disabled, Abilities Inc, scored a major environmental recycling coup last month.

Environment Minister Nick Smith visited the plant to announce that the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund would grant the not-for-profit enterprise $110,000 to help it buy technology to safely recycle old and leadriddled cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and other components from old television sets.

Abilities was established in 1959 to provide employment for people with disabilities. It employs about 140 people of whom 120 have disabilities.

The company now earns more than 50 percent of its income from recyclingrelated activities. It will help dispose of around two million old televisions and computers with its new technology.

“Abilities is the kind of forward-thinking and innovative enterprise New Zealand needs to show,” said Smith. “It makes a change for me not to deliver a cost-cutting announcement, but instead help an enterprising organisation that has come up with a way to provide more work for disabled people and simultaneously solve a major environmental problem for New Zealand.”

The Swedish made Hot Band Technology is the only plant of its kind to be installed in New Zealand. It will be operational early next year, according to Abilities managing director Peter Fraher. The timing is ideal, he said, as around 500,000 televisions will become obsolete with the change from analogue to digital broadcast in 2013.

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The Abilities programme will divert 750 tonnes of TV glass from local landfill, recycle 70 percent of it locally and safely process lead from the CRTs to send to a special processing plant in Europe. M

Abilities employee Anthony Rowe with Minister for the Environment Nick Smith.

Executive Pulse: Facebook rules

Letter to the editor

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ometimes déjà vu is a sinking feeling. Reading Anne Fitzpatrick’s article (“The rise and fall of our top women”, NZ Management August 2011) on the decline in numbers of women applying for and being appointed to CE positions in the public sector, I was reminded of a survey I did nearly 30 years ago in Radio New Zealand. We wanted to know why women were not applying for jobs as commercial radio station managers. Simply, they told us the game was not worth the candle.

They were competent, intelligent, savvy women – making fully reasoned decisions based on their perception of the role.

It seems from the SSC research (2009) quoted by Anne Fitzpatrick that senior women managers in the public service may be telling us the same thing.

I note that since the article was written three more women have been appointed – two to CE roles and one to an equivalent sized deputy role – but two are from outside New Zealand, which I suspect does not negate the argument.

We need to put the possibility that qualified senior women are sending the message through their nonapplication together with a couple of other things: one, Anne Fitzpatrick’s well-sourced research on the proven value of having women in such roles; and two, some earlier essays

which compare women in corporate life to the canaries that used to warn of toxic gases in mines. (When the Canary Stops Singing ed Pat Barrentine, 1993).

So, given the research on corporate performance being improved by having at least 30 percent women in top jobs, and assuming that the reduction in the numbers of women applying is telling us something about their perception of the role of public sector CEs, then we need to be looking at something more fundamental than the strategies Anne Fitzpatrick’s respondents proposed.

Have “we” (the collective ‘we’ of public, politicians and pundits) made those jobs just too fraught? Are we relying on the people holding them to have their public-service ethos outweigh their 3-o’clock wakies? Is it actually a toxic environment?

Thirty years ago, we asked ourselves “if the jobs are not fit for qualified women, why should we expect men to do them?” Then there was another political change, and the need to respond, and … business went on as usual.

I hope that, this time, the State Services Commissioner, the Minister, and the incumbent CEs, are having a serious look at the fundamentals of those roles. “We” need the brightest and best choosing to apply – sans gas-masks!

– Carolyn Lane

The best time to tweet, blog and facebook

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hen are the most effective post times for various kinds of social media? A Social Media Today blog has some advice on optimal moments to let your fingers do the talking.

Twitter: at noon, 5pm and 6pm midweek and on weekends.

Facebook: Saturday morning is the optimal time for any post, although those posted around noon also get more traffic.

Blogs: Monday morning is the best time.

The lesson for marketers: Social media (like email) has become a kind of adult homework.

The optimal times match the times when busy professionals have a few minutes to browse the web and catch up on things they just don’t have time for during the workday. Scheduling your social media posts can increase results – and repeating Tweets helps too. And it’s easy to test your own audience’s reaction to posts made at different times of day to find the optimal time for your content. M

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acebook is New Zealand’s top social media site. It is being visited by 76.1% of web users aged 18+. This indicates more than 2.43 million adult New Zealanders are visiting Facebook every 30 days.

Facebook is followed by YouTube with 61.6%, according to a survey of 967 New Zealanders by Horizon Research (www. horizonpoll.co.nz). Conducted in July and August 2011, the survey also finds 36.9% are using Skype, 18.7% Yahoo Live, Twitter 11.4%.

Windows Live Spaces has 9%, Bebo 3.5%.

Which of the following websites have you visited or used in the past 30 days?

A. YouTube 61.6% B. NZ Dating 4.1% C. Kiwiblog 7.3% D. The Standard blog 6.4% E. Other blogs 15.2% F. Twitter 11.4% G. Facebook 76.1% H. Bebo 3.5% I. Voxy 1% J. Windows Live spaces 9% K. Yahoo live 18.7% L. Google 84.9% M. Gmail 39.4% N. Skype 36.9% O. None of these 1.6% P. Other, please specify 3.8%

Source: The nationwide AWF Group – Horizon Research Workforce Survey covered 967 New Zealanders. It was conducted in July and August 2011. On the web: www.horizonpoll.co.nz

• Local Government • Business & Academia plus Professional Development Guide • Executive Travel • The Director

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For further information contact Rod Myers on 0-9-372 6444, 027 484 8046 or email admanager@management.co.nz October 2011

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igh-impact entrepreneurs usually start their companies when they are between 26 and 45 years old and they are likely to work in partnerships.

These are among the findings of new report released by Ernst & Young entitled “2011 High-impact entrepreneurship global report”, which provides insights into the characteristics of high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurs. The report is based on a survey of more than 800,000 people in 60 countries worldwide of whom over 70,000 were entrepreneurs.

Maria Pinelli, global vice-chair strategic growth markets for Ernst & Young, says as a group entrepreneurs represent the best hope of creating sustained economic growth around the world as they are big employers

of people. However, the report shows that although there is a really important pool of entrepreneurs, only three out of 1000 respondents have founded businesses that achieve an average 20 percent or more estimated growth.

“To replicate this group of ‘super entrepreneurs’ there needs to be the right social culture and educational system from the beginning of their development to equip them with the right skills and behaviours to build sustainable, globally focused high growth companies,” says Pinelli.

In terms of their attitudes, the survey shows high-growth entrepreneurs have little fear of failure and are among the most likely individuals to start a business because they perceive that there is an opportunity to be grasped. In

addition, once these entrepreneurs become successful, they are the most likely to start funding other ventures as angel investors.

The director of Endeavor’s Center for High-Impact Entrepreneurship, Rhett Morris, says high-growth entrepreneurs can buck the trend and deliver sustained growth in all economic circumstances.

“Entrepreneurs create jobs and fuel economic activity. However, the most common barrier to future growth is the lack of funding. It is amazing to me that this group of business leaders are not supported and acknowledged for the critical role they play in creating societal benefits. They clearly need more support and attention in fiscal and government policy. They can lead economic recovery.” M

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com/ Jupiterimages

What makes successful entrepreneurs?

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EEO Trust Work & Life Awards: August.

1 Sam Sefuiva (Human Rights Commission), Lana Hart (EEO Trust).

2 Jill Greathead and Jean Fitzgerald (EnZed PC Services).

3 Maxine Graham and Naumai Smith (AUT University), Gabriele Wehler (Clarity Coaching).

4 Martin King (Coca-Cola Amatil NZ), Kate Daley (Fletcher Building), Peter Hughes (Ministry of Social Development), (Philippa Reed, EEO Trust).

5 Judi Altinkaya (Department of Labour) Felicity Bollen (Department of Labour), Dianne Rogers (Ministry of Social Development) Therese Weir (Department of Labour).

6 Lui Vitale, Rita Hohaia, Kaisa Teevale, Kalolo Sutter, Faletolu Faletolu, Peter Cook (all Cardinal Logistics).

7 Karin Adams, Felicity Evans, Kerri Thompson, Lynne Sutherland (all ANZ National Bank).

FISH at Hilton Auckland on Princes Wharf.

Launched 1 September.

1 Richard Sigley (Nourish Group), Nick Baylis (Post Creative) and David Walden (TBWA Group).

2 Nourish Group’s Richard Sigley and Simon Gault.

3 Robere Pothier and Shane Yardley (FISH).

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M AS I SEE IT

Rob Eliott General manager, Brand Events & Festivals.

How would you describe the New Zealand identity?

Wine and meat, stunning landscapes, adventure, rugby and in certain circles – sailing. The world sees us through our food and drink exports, our sporting achievements, the 100% Pure campaign, that mother of all NZ billboards – the Lord of the Rings, and our major events.

Events play a huge role in helping to shape our identity and bring aspects of it into focus. I spend a lot of time championing our food and drink scene. We might all think it’s pretty good, but events like Taste at the Cloud and the Taste of New Zealand Festival highlight to everyone just how good. They provide relevance for media to talk about our chefs and prompt consumers to explore the industry. Soon we will be promoting the Taste Festival offshore, encouraging food tourism, which will in turn stimulate trade opportunities. Hopefully RWC will help whet our appetite for big events and we can look to promote other aspects of our identity in this way – contributing more vibrancy to the community in the process. Much more exciting than a billboard in Kings Cross.

What do we need to do to prepare for this?

Concentrate on what we are good at. Let’s cultivate a great film industry, not just an occasionally good one. Let’s secure our position as a leading producer of premium wines. Give 100% focus on building industries that will inspire our youth and lead to their employment. Let’s regularly stage events that celebrate our talents, promoting them to the world and to ourselves. And if we want to ride the tourist wave of a clean green image, let’s all get out there and practise what we preach. M

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Photo: Jan-Michael David

What are our major challenges?

If we like our clean, green 100% Pure image, then we’d better try to hang onto it. Much of the developed world is marching on ahead of us. Trade in our beloved V8s, pull back on the pesticides, clean up the Manawatu (in 2009 ranked most polluted river in a study of 300 in the western world). We could even learn something from London, whose local household refuse service now includes compost collection for kitchen scraps.

However, as important as our international image is, we have to be more than pretty landscapes and adventure holidays. We need New Zealand to be a land of opportunity for New Zealanders.

Currently we have one of the highest youth suicide rates in the OECD, a massive child poverty rate amongst Maori and Pacific Islanders, and every year thousands of our most talented young people leave to pursue greater opportunities abroad. No youth, no future. New Zealand will never prosper until our young people are given hope for a brighter future and we reverse the brain drain.

MANAGERS ABROAD M

Strength in the NZ voice Deb Boswell, a member of Kea North America, is general manager of Icebreaker’s Run Specialty Channel.

What prompted you to seek work out of New Zealand?

I wouldn’t say I was prompted to seek out work overseas – more that I wanted to play a role in New Zealand’s export success. My father worked for the NZ Government so half my childhood was spent living in Europe. Now I’m following in his footsteps, representing New Zealand in the private sector rather than the public sector.

What is your current role?

I’ve most recently been challenged with developing a new business channel for Icebreaker – the Run Specialty channel, through all of the markets we currently sell Icebreaker in globally. Icebreaker has been focused on lifestyle friendly apparel.

What we realised is that Icebreaker is also fantastic to run in. So, after researching the market more, we dived into this new channel opportunity and it’s starting to take off. We’re the only natural fibre story in the running apparel market.

What are its main challenges?

The cost of brand awareness building in the US, Canada and European markets.

We have to use that famous Kiwi ingenuity on a daily basis – but that’s what sets us apart from the competition

so it’s a threat, and in a strange way a competitive advantage. It just means we have to be very focused on where we invest, why and how. It also encourages us to prototype, before rolling out activity to all markets or all retailers.

From a US market perspective, an interesting and new challenge we face is the recent escalation of the consumer drive to buy US made. In 2006-2008 I was involved in marketing NZ wines in the US and being exotic and foreign was an advantage. Now, many of those same discerning customers are looking to support their local economy. It’s not a show stopper, but it is another hurdle for Icebreaker and NZ exporters in the US market.

What are the learnings from all of this?

The strength of our New Zealand voice and personality and how staying true to your roots can give you a competitive edge. I’ve learnt the incredible importance of forming personal relationships with our customers, whether that’s hosting them in New Zealand so they can experience the essence of our country and our brand first hand, or getting actively involved in their retail environment.

It also couldn’t be more evident to me now that major markets should never be thought of as one market. The US is not one market – it contains thousands of discreet markets and understanding these markets, and really narrowing your focus, is key to success. I’ve also learnt to think beyond the clichés of selling in LA, London and New York, and look at towns and cities that are could be the perfect fit for many Kiwi brands. When was the last time a New Zealand business spent time investigating Minneapolis and Portland as targeted export

opportunities? They just happen to be a couple of the most progressive US cities at the moment from an outdoor, active and eco-minded consumer perspective.

How do you view New Zealand as a country and economic/entity?

I see New Zealand as the Finland of the Southern Hemisphere. A country of incredible beauty with immense design talent and a unique identity. Niche, beautiful and quirky.

Known and celebrated by discerning customers throughout the world.

We are quiet though, and we tend to think we’re better known on the global stage than we really are. Our ability to understand and serve more niche markets in a more concentrated and consistent manner will help us establish more export success stories.

Most importantly, we need to spend time in our target markets and feel the opportunity for ourselves, in order to create more global success stories and export revenue.

Also, we have to realise and capitalise on how one New Zealand brand indirectly helps another, and the impact that New Zealand art and tourism has on New Zealand export success.

Air New Zealand is oozing our Kiwi personality and design prowess at the moment, and I think their brand interactions are helping all New Zealand exports. The impact Flight of the Concords had on awareness levels and love of New Zealand in the US was incredible too. When many of our customers buy an Icebreaker top, they are so frequently buying a connection with “the best holiday they’ve ever had”, “the quirkiest guys on US TV” or “the most beautiful place in the world”. M

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

October 2011

| management.co.nz | 11

NZIM

A legacy for

youth employment The New Zealand Institute of Management is concerned about the impact and implications of the Government’s latest industry training and youth unemployment policies. Reg Birchfield reports.

N

ew Zealand governments and educators have made a generally poor fist of preparing the nation’s youth for the workforce. The errors are not unique to us. Even a cursory look at the United States, Britain and other European economies provides stark evidence of the growing disenfranchisement of school leavers.

Being young is difficult to avoid and besides, the problem rests less with our youth than with their parents, educators, careers advisors, some employers and politicians. This combination of influencers is frequently conflicted and confused about how to tackle the task of preparing future generations for life and work. The confusion is worsening in direct relation to the increasing complexity of work options and instability of world economies.

No government could, therefore, leave a more profoundly useful legacy than to create a learning environment with policy settings that prepare school leavers for a meaningful work life. For its part, NZIM is concerned that today’s workforce entrants are tomorrow’s managers and leaders. The Institute is mandated to raise the nation’s manage-

12 | management.co.nz | October 2011

ment capability. It needs more than another crop of sow’s ears from which to tailor its product.

Managers and leaders emerge from every corner of the learning and work experience world. Trades learning and workplaces are as fertile management spawning grounds as any ivy-encrusted academic campus. But, as NZIM’s newly appointed National chief executive Kevin Gaunt points out, New Zealand suffers from a “serious lack of qualified trades people” – a shortage that threatens to become even more acute.

The paucity of suitably educated and trained young people struggling to enter the workforce presents NZIM with a double whammy. The shortage limits the feedstock of suitably schooled young people that it needs to build management and organisational capability. Simultaneously, it starves employers of the skilled individuals needed to grow their businesses.

Business and economics writer Rod Oram criticised the Government’s recently announced plans to spend more on youth unemployment while, at the same time, cutting $100 million from it industry training budget. There

was, he wrote, a sense of back-to-thefuture about the measures. They were, he added, based on previously failed policies and didn’t seem well designed to get to grips with the real issues confronting industry training.

Southern Group Training Trust general manager Glenys McKenzie thinks some of the Government’s thinking is rooted in a belief that paying a subsidy to employers to recruit unemployed young people will reduce youth unemployment. “The strategy fails to recognise that under-qualified students are leaving secondary school poorly equipped for the real world,” she said. “Employers and other tertiary institutions shouldn’t need to provide these skills – that is a school function which is inadequately addressed.”

Using the unemployment benefit as a subsidy to encourage employers to offer apprenticeship is not always practical. As McKenzie says, many students are already disadvantaged and will need “intensive pastoral care” to have any hope of success. “And schools need to promote and endorse tertiary trade training as much as they do tertiary university training,” she adds.

NZIM Southern deputy chair Michael Weusten, who is also chair of the Engineering Trades Association Southland, shares McKenzie’s views on apprenticeship training and employment. They do not believe the current $5000 subsidy for training should exclude apprentices. The Government will get the best return on its investment from just that group.

They also think a selective government policy on funding only those who are unemployed for three months or longer is unrealistic. “Many of these people won’t be well positioned to complete an apprenticeship.” The Government should, in their opinion, offer subsidised first year of job training or an annual registration fee to ensure that employers financially stretched to offer employment, would be able to do so. The increased demand would reduce unemployment and allow the market to select the best candidates for the jobs offered.

The reasons for and consequences of increasing youth unemployment are complex and potentially socially and economically explosive. Take a look at what happened recently in England.

Employers are reluctant to recruit because of the uncertain state of the global economy. They are even less inclined to employ individuals without either the skills or the inclination to accept employment conditions that go with current market realities. According to McKenzie, many young people are unwilling to tackle menial tasks as a first step to their employment and further training. “Their expectations of fair remuneration and job conditions are often unrealistic and disproportionate to their skill offerings,” she says.

Oram thinks the Government’s plans to cut industry training are based on an ideological belief that industry should cover off its own training costs.

The problem with that approach, he said, was that when tried before in the early 1990s, companies opted out of training and simply employed those trained by their competitors or other

more conscientious employers.

Industry is already sharing the cost and taking the lead in trade training according to McKenzie and Weusten.

“But only industry members who are training are carrying the cost. We need to distinguish between and reward those that make the commitment to trade training rather than those who feast on the spoils without making any input or contribution to their training costs,” they add. “The Government could set up an industry training levy on employers and redistribute the levy to those who invest in recognised and approved trade training.”

Trades careers offer well paid and sustainable employment. This reality is not well understood by educators, a consequence of which is that many school leavers fail to realise they must have enough base qualifications, NCEA Level 2, to complete an apprenticeship.

As Weusten says, some of New Zealand’s most successful businesses are small to medium enterprises that deliver trade-based services and are managed by trade-trained chief executives. “NZIM is well positioned to deliver management training and support to this sector,” he adds.

He and McKenzie advocate the introduction of practical trades training at intermediate schools so kids and parents are better equipped to make informed decisions about secondary school choices. They also want more specialist technical colleges, equipped with the best resources for trade training and attractive to properly trained workshop practice teachers.

The lack of properly qualified and trained trades people “seriously hampers management in New Zealand”, says Gaunt. “It makes it difficult for companies to progress. It forces them to spend time focused inwardly to create their own training solutions, rather than being externally focused on customers and the marketplace.” M Reg Birchfield Life FNZIM, is a writer on leadership and management. reg@rjmedia.co.nz

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.

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

NATIONAL BOARD Gary Sturgess Life FNZIM (Chairman) Lynda Carroll AFNZIM Dan Coward AFNZIM MOHS BRIAN SOUTAR AFNZIM John Sandford FNZIM Ash Dixon MNZIM Joanne O’Connor MNZIM Mark Woodard AFNZIM NZIM Inc Chairman: Gary Sturgess Life FNZIM Deputy Chair: Lynda Carroll AFNZIM PO Box 67, Wellington 6140 Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479 Email national_office@nzim.co.nz Website: www.nzim.co.nz 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 Northern Region Regional Director: John Sandford FNZIM Regional Contact: Tait Grindley PO Box 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, Fax 0-9-303 9109 Email enquiries@nzimnorthern.co.nz Website www.nzimnorthern.co.nz Central Region Regional Director: Lynda Carroll AFNZIM Regional Contact: Susan Andrews PO Box 11781, Wellington 6142 Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301 Email enquiries@nzimcentral.co.nz Website www.nzimcentral.co.nz Southern Region Regional Director: Brian Soutar AFNZIM Regional CEO: Joseph Thomas AFNZIM PO Box 13044, Christchurch 8141 Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-03-357 8003 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 2011

| management.co.nz | 13

M politics Colin James

The Maori party’s hard choices

W

hen the Maori party won four seats in the 2005 election its president, Whata Winiata, said the Treaty partner had come to Parliament. In 2008, with five seats, it partnered with National in government. Its problem: those partnerships are unequal.

Its annual general meeting in late October will reflect that. Far from aspiring to seven seats on November 26, it will be defending the four it has left.

This turnaround reflects the brutal majority-rules truth about Maori influence on politics since 1860: hard choices, which have always divided them. Resist or withdraw to preserve what can be kept intact and separate.

Or do what deals can be done. Or meld into the majority. All three tendencies will run in the election.

Hone Harawira will trumpet the first tendency. He and Annette Sykes assert a Maori sovereignty at least the equal of the dominant power.

For example, they insist the foreshore still belongs to iwi. It was never lawfully alienated. Labour’s 2004 legislation was a confiscation. Harawira and Sykes split last year’s AGM on this point. Next month their Mana party will fight the Maori party in the Maori electorates.

Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia agree National’s replacement foreshore legislation, which they supported after trying for more, is a half-step. But they have adopted the long-sighted pragmatism practised by the most respected iwi leaders: to take what they can get, bank it and come back another time.

That has been the line most Maori MPs have taken since the Young Maori party a century ago. Labour’s Maori MPs are mostly of this tendency. They went through hell in 2004 but stuck with Labour – only just in Nanaia

14 | management.co.nz | OCTOber 2011

Mahuta’s case. Only Turia split.

The third tendency is represented in Parliament by the likes of National’s Paula Bennett, Simon Bridges, Aaron Gilmore and Paul Quinn: mainstream members of a mainstream party, their Maoriness a secondary hereditary or cultural factor.

All three tendencies are at large in the electorate. A third of Maori choose not to be on the Maori electorate rolls.

National’s John Carter used to ascribe to Maori voters most of his Northland general electorate majority.

Of Maori who go on the Maori rolls, most take the middle course. Social and economic issues are at least as important as indigenous rights issues and, in the crunch, mostly more important.

So how does this play out in the election?

At the purist end, Harawira should hold his seat and Mana might get more if the hard-left likes of Sue Bradford and Matt McCarten can siphon party votes off Labour as the Alliance once did.

Most Maori at the mainstream end will vote National. This will be indistinguishable from the general National vote.

In the pragmatic middle the Maori party and Labour will fight it out.

Labour is unlikely to lose either of its two Maori seats, even though Parekura Horomia is past his use-by date. It might pick up Te Tai Tonga if Mana takes enough votes off Rahui Katene to let Rino Tirikatene through.

That leaves the Maori party with four seats at most and possibly fewer and two co-leaders now in the retirement zone. It will have to continue attending both to iwi leaders, most of whom lean National, and rank and file voters who, as between Labour and National, are more logically Labour.

That is a fiendish balancing act, especially when locked to National, as John Key wants it to be again next term. The party will be expected to extract big concessions but also distance itself on much else, in order to fend off Mana and Labour.

Ideally, a Maori party would command all Maori seats – likely to be eight in 2014 – and king-make Labour and National governments in turn.

Three years ago, that was conceivable.

Now it looks a pipe dream. November 26 and the three-way divisions could make a political management nightmare. M Colin James is New Zealand’s leading political commentator and NZ Management ’s regular political columnist. ColinJames@synapsis.co.nz

Bob Edlin economics M

Elections help the economy

American economist Dani Rodik says the economies of democracies perform better than countries where they don’t hold elections.

GDP. In theory it should give the same result as the production series, but it doesn’t: it shows an increase of 2.4 percent.

But the population has grown, and dividing a country’s GDP by its population gives a measure of the ability of those people and the country to afford the goods and services they consume, including spending on public systems such as education, health, welfare, security, and environmental protection.

Until the 1960s New Zealand had one of the highest levels of GDP per capita in the world, but from 1970 to 1990 we steadily went down hill. By the early 1990s we were around 20 percent below the OECD average. Despite improvements, in 2009 we ranked 21st on the OECD list.

Over the past three years our GDP per capita has declined 1.7 percent.

As a rough rule of thumb, according to American economist Dani Rodik, merely by conducting elections to decide who should govern us (and deliver their special recipe for making GDP grow), we are better off than countries where they don’t hold elections.

Rodik’s observations on the relationship between democracy and wealth are noted in a post on his blog in August titled “Can you get rich without democracy?”

Photo: www.daylife.com

F

inance Minister Bill English some weeks ago said he saw signs the economy had turned a corner. It had grown in seven of the past eight quarters and this year was likely to grow faster than Australia.

He and his National-led Government are keen to persuade voters the country will keep growing under their stewardship, bringing higher incomes and more jobs.

They seek support (the opinion polls suggest they have it) for policies that include a large long-term infrastructure investment programme to help lift efficiency and productivity, better economic incentives through tax reforms, the cutting of red tape and improvement of public sector efficiencies, and investment in science and innovation.

National also seeks a mandate for plans to partially privatise some key state-owned enterprises.

But hey – Labour will tell you it wants growth too and is rolling out a fully-costed economic policy that will put in place what it regards as the right elements to encourage growth and job creation. New rules to protect New Zealand land and vital assets have been announced (to ensure those who buy into New Zealand are helping to grow our economy).

Labour will boost research and development with a 12.5 percent tax credit, to encourage businesses to research and innovate.

“An innovative economy and a highly skilled workforce are essential for economic growth,” Labour’s website says.

“New Zealand cannot – and should not – compete on the basis of cheap labour.”

Neither party promised to shrink the economy at the 2008 election, but it shrunk anyway when measured in production terms, down 0.67 percent in the three years to March 2011.

Fair to say, the recession had much to do with the decline, but National might prefer to highlight the expenditure measure of

His answer: “Yes if you are an individual, but it’s tougher if you are an entire country.”

Using 2005 purchasing power parity figures, Rodik showed very few countries have developed beyond US$5000 per capita without becoming democracies somewhere along the way unless they are an oil economy. An accompanying scatter plot covers all countries with populations above one million and fuel exports less than 50 percent of export revenues.

Singapore shows up as one of the richest countries in the world, but it has an authoritarian regime on the democracy measure applied by Rodik.

He doesn’t mention India, relatively democratic, which has significantly underperformed autocratically run China for decades.

New Zealand is not mentioned either, but an International Monetary Fund table of countries ranked for GDP per capita shows we sit in 32nd place, far below Singapore (third) and some of the wealthier oil producers, such as Brunei (fifth), United Arab Emirates (sixth) and Kuwait (15th).

Maybe we should be drilling instead of voting. M Bob Edlin is a leading economic commentator and NZ Management’s regular economics columnist.

October 2011

| management.co.nz | 15

M Leadership Reg Birchfield

In search of a true story

16 | management.co.nz | OCtober 2011

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

T

he management world is suddenly awash with tales about just how effective storytelling is as a core leadership competency.

The thinking goes something like this.

Storytelling, like the opposable thumb, differentiates humans from the myriad of other species that inhabit the earth.

That at least is an explanation Auckland’s robust advertising and ideas man, Mike Hutcheson, offers in his foreword to local author Wade Jackson’s recently released book Stories at Work.

By telling stories, particularly organisational ones, we’ve learned to “coordinate and galvanise collective action for common purpose”, Hutcheson adds.

Jackson’s view is less anthropological and rather more germane to this column. His book simply tells leaders how to leverage the power and impact of storytelling to get faster and better organisational results.

Fair enough.

Stories, Jackson writes, are like oxygen.

We don’t, on a day-to-day basis, much notice its presence but, try living without it. By telling and sharing stories, we make connections that help us to understand who we are and to make sense of the world around us. And that, of course, is the essence of his argument and this column.

These are, for a raft of increasingly obvious reasons, challenging times.

Leaders that use narrative effectively are more likely to be listened to. The issues confronting enterprise, economies and communities are pretty complex.

Powerpoint presentations packed with figures and formulae won’t cut it if leaders want individuals to take the information on board. On the other hand, stories that explain where and why we are where we are, and point out the road ahead, encourage listeners to listen and, maybe, even write their own happier endings.

The commercial world’s best known advocate of tusitala leadership, American writer and consultant Stephen

Denning, thinks leadership is about connecting people’s “hearts and minds”.

Through business narrative, storytelling leaders help others to “imagine new perspectives”. Storytelling can, he believes, help leaders to “communicate who they are or what their company is, transmit values, share knowledge, tame the organisational grapevine and create a vision for what’s to come”.

The relevance and facilitation of narrativebased leadership is linked to the evolving drift from transactional to transformative leadership, and to the explosive impact of social media. Transformational leadership is about people, emotions, values, standards, ethics and connecting with the future. Social media, meanwhile, is radically transforming the way in which organisations and individuals communicate.

Transformational leaders, says Denning, are values and ideas driven. They motivate followers to act for the common good and, in the process, end up changing both themselves and their followers.

The world’s political, economic, financial, resource management, environment and organisational leadership over the past 50 to 100 years, suggest transactional leadership has successfully dominated business, politics and just about everything else. Leaders, if they are going to tell true stories in future, will need to find new scripts of equally popular appeal.

We might need more transformational leaders to effect change in organisational priorities, political policies and social disparity, but the new currency is not risk free. The integrity of the teller, not the words of the narrative, determines whether

a particular transformation is for the best or worst reasons. Leaders, therefore, must understand what the long-term impacts of their stories are, no matter how bewitching the short-term story.

Storytelling is, and always has been, an effective leadership tool. If its use is to become more widespread and its power more effectively exploited, listeners must be able to differentiate between heroes and villains – of the telling, not just the plot.

In his leadership book Deep Change, Robert Quinn calls transformational leadership a process. As the individual grows, so does his or her leadership influence and competency. Leaders, therefore, must be constantly self aware and work to become the leader they aspire to be. That’s fine, so long as their aspirations are aligned with the common good and the community’s true needs.

As New Zealand slides gracelessly toward next month’s general election, the stark and sad reality of just how politics brings the worst out in some aspiring leaders whose stories go far beyond the pale, is there for all to read. Boobs on bikes can’t hold a G string to some of the whores on the hustings.

True leaders don’t, as Denning notes, lead because they expect something in return.

“They lead because they have something to give.” If they get something back, it should be a contingent event and not the goal.

“They are relatively ego free,” he adds.

A government or an organisation led by ego-free individuals! Now wouldn’t that make a cracker of a story? M Reg Birchfield is NZ Management’s consulting editor and writer-at large. reg@rjmedia.co.nz

Jamie Sinclair MANAGING SUSTAINABLY M

CEOs put Vision 2050 project under the microscope

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he NZBCSD Vision 2050 project is gaining momentum. On August 30, over 20 chief executives reviewed the work completed by the Future Leaders group in respect of the Vision “pathways”. From their critique we gained a significant amount in terms of expectation as to the project and its outcomes; how the project can extend the engagement with business in general; and the work performed to date and refinements needed.

A key message coming from this session was some deeper thinking about what needs to happen to ensure our aspirational targets for each pathway are achievable. This included the critical role of People’s Values and the supporting infrastructure and system.

The way in which people behave and the attitudes they hold reflect their values. Where these are not supporting the milestones needed to achieve the positive imagination for each pathway, the overall vision will not be achievable.

The implication from the session is that people’s values act as a filter across all pathways rather than being a separate pathway. If values are to have this critical role in the overall Vision roadmap, then the question arises, how the supporting infrastructure and system support values consistent with our objectives.

Improvements are certainly needed. The signals and incentives of the existing system are creating a distortion which is counterproductive to achieving the desired change.

The economic system is a primary determinant in how we prioritise what is important and in driving behaviour.

This is not to say that it reflects our values – more that it limits our choice based on a narrow set of conditions.

For example, if you are looking for fair

NZBCSD Vision 2050 Pathways • People’s Values • Marine • Human Development • Economy • Buildings • Materials & Waste • Agriculture • Culture Diversity • Mobility • Forests • Energy & Power • Tourism trade coffee you may pay more for this even though the human capital impacts of unsustainable farmed beans could be significant. The true cost of the coffee is not reflected – and because economic cost is the primary decision point for many, it influences behaviour.

Yes, there is an element of choice and the old argument would be that if enough people choose the sustainable alternative the market will deliver this.

But this is a naive assumption when the impacts of the decisions we make are not fully costed.

Translating this to the drivers of business value the impact is significant.

According to Ocean Tomo’s Intangible Asset Market Value Study, over 80 percent of the S&P 500 market value is intangible – much of which remains unexplained in corporate reporting and measurement.

At a global level, this distortion is being realised. There is acknowledgement that current corporate reporting only provides a very limited view of the performance and future economic sustainability of the organisation. The International

Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) recently released a discussion paper (see www.theiirc.org) outlining proposals for an enhanced, integrated reporting framework which could become the basis for all corporate reporting.

This framework aims to deliver material information for investors.

It focuses on how the organisation uses and impacts different “capitals” (financial, manufactured, human, intellectual, natural and social) in the delivery of its goods or services. The objective is to deliver less information – not more. To be more future focused and relevant.

While the IIRC developments are positive in addressing the information deficit – the challenge is going to be application and measurement. How do you get a consistent approach to measuring environmental or social impacts? Furthermore, how will this change the underlying signals (ie, price) that we see on a daily basis and that influence our behaviour?

Our Vision project must address and will be influenced by these challenges.

To move the debate forward, education and connectivity are key. This also reflects what the CEOs would like to see from the Vision project. The Vision works need to be accessible and to create a platform for open collaboration and engagement. This may manifest in any number of ways, but could include: • A Vision “module” that can be taken and adapted by business for their own exercises and reflecting their own situation.

• Online interaction.

• Ability to benchmark your organisation.

• National framework for discussion. M Jamie Sinclair is project manager for Vision 2050. jpsinclair@kpmg.co.nz.

October 2011

| management.co.nz | 17

M thought leader Andrew Sibley

An unconventional approach to sustainability

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or most companies, the green agenda has been about assessing manufacturing and distribution processes and then finding ways to minimise their impacts on the environment.

Instead, taking our inspiration from nature, our company has adopted a Cradle to Cradle philosophy that looks instead at the whole life-cycle of a product and, using technology and lateral thinking, is finding ways to recycle every component of that product back into productive life.

This new philosophy of sustainability was developed in 2002 by the German chemist Michael Braungart and an American architect William McDonough. In their book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, they said that products should be conceived from the very start with intelligent design and the intention that they will eventually be recycled, as either ‘technical’ or ‘biological’ nutrients. Time magazine has called it “a unified philosophy that – in demonstrable and practical ways – is changing the design of the world.”

It’s a philosophy that looks at the world with a new perspective, because it doesn’t romanticise nature or demonise factories or manufacturing processes. It’s an approach that accepts that, in the modern world, we need to make things – and the goal should be to find ways that balance commercial activity with the natural world.

A birth-to-rebirth philosophy sounds deceptively simple, but it turns conventional sustainability on its head, because conventional thinking is all about a language of negatives. The green lobby talks about “minimising” human impacts, “zero footprints,”“banning” harmful substances or “reducing” energy use.

This approach is, of course, better than doing nothing. But, effectively, what it’s saying is that adopting a “less bad” approach is inherently ethical. What we’re saying instead is that it doesn’t matter how much we manufacture, or how much “waste” we create because, as in nature and the

18 | management.co.nz | OCTOber 2011

changing seasons, waste simply become the raw materials or nutrients for further manufacturing – with products being reborn and reborn.

Instead, Cradle to Cradle® makes planned obsolescence respectable. It encourages consumers to buy more products, but to do so from innovative companies that have policies in place to recycle old products, turning waste into new products or into nutrients. The approach to business taken by the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where we supplied carpet for interior spaces for a new stand development, is a good example of this philosophy at work.

The MCG operates to strict principles of sustainability and in the past few years has introduced rigorous Closed Loop recycling programmes. These are all about reducing waste, reusing materials and using landfill only as a last resort. That represents a real commitment for a stadium that feeds over 300,000 corporate hospitality customers and serves over four million food and beverage products every year.

As an example of waste management in practice, the polystyrene beer cup was found to be the largest contributor of non-recyclable waste with a total of almost 80 percent. The solution? Replace it with a recyclable Closed Loop PET beer cup. The MCG now recycles 100 percent of this major waste contributor. Since the

introduction of Closed Loop recycling at the MCG, approximately 72 percent of all waste generated each month is now recycled – the equivalent of approximately 97 tonnes of recycled waste, 48 tonnes of emitted carbon dioxide and 1.6 million litres of water. The stadium also makes use of rainwater capture, solar panels – and all the other technologies that forward-looking companies are adopting.

Longer term, we want all our products – and our company – to be Cradle to Cradle® certified, to be using 100 percent purchased renewable energy for processing and manufacturing, have factory effluent water that is cleaner than the water it is discharged into – and at all stages in the product life cycle actively support the reuse or recycling of materials at the highest possible level of quality.

We are already working with affiliates and suppliers to build a community of like-minded companies to adopt this birthto-rebirth philosophy because, as more companies work together, the sooner the circular economy will be achieved. M Andrew Sibley is sales and marketing director for Desso, a leading European manufacturer of carpets, carpet tiles and artificial grass. It sources all its wool from New Zealand and provided the surface for Dunedin’s new covered stadium, a hybrid natural grass pitch reinforced by 20 million artificial fibres. www.desso.com.au

BOOKCASE M

contemporary relevance of leadership through storytelling.

Business narrative, okay

By Stephen Denning •Josey Bass • RRP $31.77 storytelling, is finally and increasingly recognised as a core leadership competency. In reality it always has been, the There is nothing quite so compelling, difference is only that it is now enervating or informative as a cracking “recognised” as such. good yarn, well told. And even when Of the growing number of books on the subject is business narrative, this the topic, including a good home-crafted conclusion holds true according to one by Auckland writer and speaker Wade American writer and consultant Stephen Jackson, Denning’s are the most thoughtful Denning. His hypothesis is not one with and soundly based. He was converted to which I feel inclined to disagree. the concept by circumstance, conceding Denning first published The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling in 2005. This is a revised that the idea that storytelling might be a powerful management and leadership and updated version. Indeed, much has tool was originally “counter-intuitive and changed in the world of management contrary” to everything his earlier education and leadership since he first penned this and work-life experience had taught him. book. The explosion of social media and Storytelling and leadership are, he writes, its offspring Facebook and YouTube have, both “performance arts” which, therefore, for instance, transformed storytelling, particularly in branding and marketing, but involve as much doing as thinking. And while performers always know more than elsewhere as well. they can tell, his book is an attempt to Denning is the world champion convey as much of what works – and what advocate of the power, effectiveness and

doesn’t – at the “intersection of the two different worlds” of leadership and storytelling.

Any attempt to argue that storytelling is anything other than a universally effective means of communicating, is pointless. What’s important about this book is, not just that it reinforces this truth but, that it simultaneously illustrates the critical connections between a human communication process that began in caves, and the realities of a world as different as the one unfolding today.

Denning calls stories trapdoors, escape hatches and portals through which “we can expand our lives and learn about other worlds. They offer guideposts to what is important in life. They generate meaning.

They embody our views. They give us the clues from which we can discover what ultimately matters.”

This is a thrashing good story. I rank this book nine out of 10 for real world relevance. – Reg Birchfield

What to ask the person in the mirror

required to solve a problem or enhance an approach to something?

Sevens aside, Kaplan’s approach to inquiry ties key leadership functions together and in that respect, each element should be regularly looked at.

There is nothing new about each component, it is more a case of regularly focusing on them and contemplating their current state.

According to Kaplan, when leaders ask the right questions and open themselves up to a “true” inquiry path, compelling insights tend to fall out as a matter of course. “How many times has someone asked you a well-framed question that causes a light bulb to go off in your head?” he asks. “Sometimes just hearing and then thinking about the right question opens your mind, and steers you in a new and constructive direction.”

The book is short, interesting to reflect on, but overpriced. – Reg Birchfield

The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling

By Robert Steven Kaplan •McGraw Hill • RRP $59.00

A successful life in leadership swings more on knowing the questions to ask, rather than on having the answers to hand.

The premise of Robert S Kaplan’s new book, What to ask the person in the mirror, is that knowing how and when to ask critical questions serves young professionals and senior leaders equally well when it comes to taking greater ownership of their career.

Kaplan, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, bases his conclusions on a good many years both in business as a leader and more latterly as an academic and advisor.

According to him, all successful leaders go through periods of self doubt, confusion, and uncertainty about the quality of their decisions and reasons for being where they are. So do unsuccessful leaders.

The difference lies in how they respond to these pressures.

“The trick,” he writes, “lies not in avoiding these difficult periods; it lies in knowing how to step back, diagnose, regroup and move forward”: the looking in the mirror connection.

Having looked, the challenge then is to ask the right questions and make the time to reflect on both the questions and possible answers. Reflection before proceeding is a key ingredient. It provides the time to ask the right questions in ways that frame key issues cogently and is “more important than having all the answers”, Kaplan argues.

This 224-page book is a simply structured guide to helping managers and leaders learn to ask the right questions. Kaplan offers seven basic types of inquiry or areas of focus. Why, though, do so many management, leadership and business books offer “seven” steps, solutions or essentials as the consistent number

OCTOber 2011

| management.co.nz | 19

“Transformation needs design to make it work.�

Sharon Angus, Group Marketing Manager, Silver Fern Farms Limited.

Silver Fern Farms embarked on a journey of transformation in 2008 with the creation of a new vision and approach that has set a new standard in the meat industry by becoming more market focused.

A new standard not just for our country, but as best practice for the world, with design playing a vital role in making it work.

designworks.co.nz/transformation

Cover Story: Asia Impact Series

LINK OR SWIM NZ’s Asian choice

22 | management.co.nz | OCtober October 2011

October 2011

Photos: Ruth La Pla

Recent ructions in the Eurozone could give New Zealand the hurry-up it needs to strengthen links in the Asian region. If so, we’d better jump to. Asian economies are locking in trade with each other as the European and US economies falter. By Ruth Le Pla.

| management.co.nz | 23

Cover Story: Asia Impact Series

I

n five packed conference days in Seoul’s summer heat, a New Zealand speaker fronts the stage just once. Victoria University’s Dr Stephen Epstein is the sole Kiwi voice among over 150 international presenters. The only other formal mention of New Zealand comes in a single table flashed momentarily on a screen. It features during a talk on clean energy investment in a carbon-constrained economy. There at the bottom of the list is New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme. The speaker barely mentions it. Even Australia gets scant attention.

There’s nothing like spending time in Asia to drive home the truth that, in world terms, our economy is the size of a pea and frustrated by distance. Private conversations about New Zealand evoke instant-smile responses about our beautiful country, a desire to visit, and enquiries about sheep. Yet many of the 500 conference delegates seem genuinely puzzled as to why someone from New Zealand would be interested in Asia.

The recent Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) in Seoul, Republic of Korea, played out against a backdrop of economic disintegration in Europe and financial stress in the US. Debt-laden Greece was inching closer to detonating the Eurozone. The US had stepped back from the brink of defaulting on its debt. Investment bank Morgan Stanley unleashes a scathing report saying the US and Eurozone economies are “dangerously close to recession”. The bank cuts its 2011 global growth estimate from 4.2 percent to 3.9 percent, and its 2012 forecast from 4.5 percent to 3.8 percent.

The combined ructions in both zones trigger new waves of fear of a looming global recession.

While the US and Europe will continue to drive global economic agendas for a long time to come, heightened levels of direct investment, financial transactions and trade within Asia are leading to the rise of increasingly integrated Asian economies.

At HPAIR, Khee-Hong Song, managing partner at Deloitte Consulting Korea, points to Asia’s intra-regional trade as the world’s new economic powerhouse in the making. Business leaders, he says, must shift their gaze away from Asia’s relations with other regions and pay more attention to the dynamics within Asia itself.

The timing of Song’s message adds extra urgency to what many have been saying for some time. In a speech earlier this year, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that while there are few straight lines in economic growth, by the end of the decade Asia’s trade is expected to form 60 percent of global trade flows. Importantly, intra-Asian trade will form at least half of all Asian trade.

So, as a tiny island nation on the edge of the Pacific, what does this mean for New Zealand? Are we destined to remain on the outside looking in? And how can we best handle integration into the economies of Asia?

For decades, New Zealand business leaders have studied charts showing Asian countries clambering up our list of trading partners while traditional ‘western’ ones slither further down the scale.

Last year our merchandise trade with Asia represented 40

24 | management.co.nz | October 2011

percent of our total exports and just over 44 percent of our imports. Not surprisingly, most of the action took place with northeast Asia which absorbed just over a quarter of total exports and, in return, sent us just under 29 percent of our imports.

(Confusingly, definitions of which countries are included in which subregion can vary according to context. The above Statistics New Zealand figures place China firmly in northeast Asia. The Asian Development Bank’s regional classification, on the other hand, places China in East Asia, has no such place as North, or northeast, Asia and no listing at all for Japan.)

Southeast Asia was our next largest trading partner in the region, comprising 10 percent of our exports and 14.5 percent of our imports.

Roll together exports and imports, and last year six Asian countries featured in our list of top 10 trade partners. It’s starting to get easier to remember our few non-Asian top trading partners rather than name the more numerous Asian ones.

For those with a practical turn of mind, maybe shipping best exemplifies Asia’s increasing interconnectedness. Earlier this year, a Box Trade Intelligence special report predicted capacity carried between Asian ports could hike seven percent to hit around 22 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) by the end of this year.

If that happens, trade between Asia’s ports will dwarf the two east-west trunk trades between Asia and North America, and Asia and Europe.

That trade upswing would come on top of 15 percent annual growth the previous year (which was, admittedly, after a slow 2009) and could be followed by a further five percent upturn in 2012.

To nail home the point, such continued growth is likely to bring about a need for more, and larger, vessels.

The same report reckons Chinese exports will represent 35 percent of trade within the region in 2012. That’s a 12 percent compound average growth rate since 2006.

There’s no little irony in the fact that the current world economic turmoil is devastating the market economies of

Sneezing all the way to the bank Despite the attractions of strengthening our economic links offshore, many New Zealand business leaders have long been criticised for appearing to believe that ‘abroad’ still really means Australia. On one level their instincts may be sound.

Across the Tasman, Mark Thirlwell has just published a paper, “Australia in the Asian Century”. Thirlwell is program director, international economy at Australia’s prestigious Lowy Institute for International Policy based in Sydney.

His publication explores the extent to which Australia is feeling the pull of new economic tides as the world’s centre of economic gravity shifts towards Asia. His work carries resonance for New Zealand.

Thirlwell references an International Monetary Fund working paper “From West to East: Estimating external spillovers to Australia and New Zealand”.

Prepared by Yan Sun and published in May this year this paper finds that during the past decade shocks from emerging Asia have become more important than those from the United States in affecting Australia’s business cycle.

“A one percent shock to emerging Asia’s growth is found to shift Australian growth by about a third of one percent,” Sun concludes. “Furthermore, there is evidence that commodity prices dominate the transmission of shocks from emerging Asia to Australia.

As Thirlwell puts it: “So when Asia thrives, so does Australia. But at the same time, if Asia sneezes, it’s now more likely that Australia will catch a cold.”

Yet when it comes to New Zealand, Sun reckons the influence of emerging Asia strikes at us indirectly through Australia. He estimates Australian shocks transmit almost “one-on-one” to

New Zealand, largely through financial factors.

“Spillovers from growth shocks in the United States, emerging Asia or the rest of the world to New Zealand are estimated to be statistically insignificant. In contrast, New Zealand’s response to a one percent shock of Australian growth rises from 0.3 percent initially to 0.6 percent over two years.”

One caveat is necessary: Sun’s research covers the period from 2000 to 2010. Our trade with countries such as China, for example, has skyrocketed since then.

Even so, as Sun points out, our increasing ties with fast-growing emerging Asia present both opportunities and challenges.

“This implies higher long-run growth as well as larger exposure to cyclical swings, particularly related to commodity prices and terms of trade,” he says.

“To reap the benefits while minimising potential pitfalls, policymakers in both countries should be conscious of the need to support market-based domestic resource reallocation and to continue implementing counter-cyclical policies to maintain macroeconomic stability.”

Sun reasons that this suggests our government may like to consider upping saving during boom years to build a buffer for future shocks, including a possible sharp fall in commodity prices.

“Given the evidence of New Zealand’s increasing business cycle synchronisation with Australia, continued close policy coordination between the two countries, particularly in the financial sector such as supervision and crisis management, will also be helpful,” he concludes.

October 2011

| management.co.nz | 25

Cover Story: Asia Impact Series

Kid Korea When it comes to fast-change acts, few countries can rival the Republic of Korea’s economic transformation within the space of a generation.

Now a senior adviser to leading Korea law firm Kim & Chang, Dr Jong Nam Oh was economic adviser to the president during Korea’s financial crisis during the late 1990s.

He attributes two reasons to his country’s more recent success. Firstly, he says, Korea used the financial crisis to strengthen its competitiveness: often through painful restructuring.

At the time, Dr Oh was in charge of restructuring the country’s chaebols: its often problematic and highly influential business conglomerates.

“I was so notorious during that period,” he says, “that people sometimes called me a man without blood.”

Secondly, and significantly, Korea switched export partners. During the country’s earlier economic development, Korea sent roughly half of its exports to the advanced economies of the US and Japan.

Since then it has slashed its exposure to developed economies and turned its attention to a larger number of neighbouring developing countries. Korea is betting its bank on their rising star.

Just 28 percent of Korea’s exports now head off to the US, the EU and Japan. Korea’s economic growth remains export-led.

Erik Hunt, counsellor for commercial affairs, for the Seoul US Embassy’s Commercial Service, points out that the majority of the Asian economies – including those of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and China – are trade-weighted and trade-driven.

“When you look at the gross domestic product of the Republic of Korea, 52 percent of it is exports,” he says. “When you add another 32 to 35 percent of imports, you have an economy that is over 85 percent weighted GDP on trade.”

In Hunt’s view, the world’s largest economic challenges will increasingly centre round how we collectively foster investment and innovation.

He notes that problems in the US are embedded in consumption and debt and asks how we can move to a more equitable world economy.

“How do we create a global economy that is not necessarily focused and rooted in a single money-creation regime – whether it be exports or consumption?”

26 | management.co.nz | October 2011

Seki Obatu.

liberal democracies such as the US, the EU and Japan, while China, a communist country (albeit with a market economy), is emerging wealthy and confident.

The thought is not lost on Dr Mong Joon Chung, a six-term member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. Dr Chung (or MJ, as he likes to be known) can’t resist joking at HPAIR that when the communists took over China in 1949, people said only socialism could save China.

“Thirty years later in 1979, when Deng Xiaoping started his reforms, they said only capitalism could save the country,” he quips.

“Ten years later in 1989, when the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc failed, they said only China could save socialism.

And today, everyone says only China can save capitalism.”

Chung describes the crisis that has befallen the leading economies of the world as systemic in nature and therefore requiring fundamental rethinking.

“In the face of this crisis it is crucial for us to search for a new engine for continued growth for the global economy.”

Unlike Europe and North America, where political will has driven economic integration, in Asia it is most likely that market forces will compel politicians to foster more formal economic ties. As with so much else in Asia, pragmatism may finally carry the day.

That day remains, however, a long way

MJ Chung.

off. So far, the creation of regional trading blocs and a confusing network of free trade agreements, which work at the loosest and least restrictive level of economic integration, have been the favoured tools de jour within the Asian region.

While there is talk of closer integration there remains considerable political and economic distance between major players.

Like other parts of the world, Asia brings to the global agenda its own set of problems.

Just last year, Domingo Siazon stepped down as Ambassador to Japan from the Philippines having served from 1993 to 1995 and again from 2001 through to 2010.

Among other roles he’s now senior adviser to Metrobank (Philippines) and chair of the advisory board of Metrobank (China).

Siazon says 40 years of experience in ASEAN show that economic interdependence dampens the centrifugal forces of nationalism.

“We are however greatly concerned that Asia is confronted with serious political and security problems,” he adds. “Our situation is made more complex by the heavy historical burden of Asia and the absence of proven mechanisms within the region to deal with such problems.”

Siazon believes the greatest threat to Asia today is the spiralling proliferation of nuclear weapons. While Asia-watchers can point to specific potential flashpoints – nuclear or otherwise – many speakers

at HPAIR concede that an upset is just as likely to come from a chance occurrence. Japan’s triple-whammy earthquake, tsunami and nuclear-meltdown in March this year is a case in point.

At HPAIR, Seki Obatu, an associate professor from Japan’s Keio Business School, says he’s seeing signs that the Fukushima disaster is triggering some Japanese companies to start thinking more globally.

He likens it to the Republic of Korea’s strategic re-evaluation of its direction following the economic crisis in the late 1990s. (See box story “Kid Korea”.)

South Korea, of course, remains ever mindful of its northern counterpart which is both a military wild card and a regional economic black spot. M J Chung says South Koreans joke that when [former North Korean leader] Kim Il-sung died in 1999, in his will he told his son Kim Jong Il to remain responsible for everything except the economy.

“Kim Jong Il must be thinking now how wise his father was.”

North Korea notwithstanding, Siazon says countries in the Asian region remain committed to further integrating their economies.

Summarising intra-regional cooperation, he notes that East Asia within the ASEAN framework has made much progress in its efforts to establish a free trade area.

“It has also put up financial mechanisms to make the sub-region more resilient to the vagaries of the global financial system,” he says.

“South Asia economic cooperation is also on the move. India and Bangladesh have improved their relations and a wide-ranging set of agreements including on sensitive issues like water and territorial disputes are scheduled to be signed.

“India-China trade has blossomed from US$12 billion in 2004 to US$60 billion in 2010. US$100 billion is the target by 2015. These developments augur well not only for the economy of South Asia but also for India-China relations which have to remain friendly if peace is to be secured in Asia,” he says.

“And central Asia is actively engaged in deepened integration among its members, serving as a hub for growing Europe-Asia economic relations and increasing economic linkages with the fast-growing economies of Asia.”

To their credit, successive New Zealand governments have for years been quilting together a series of FTAs to keep us sewn into the region. The New Zealand-China FTA has been the big kahuna so far, carrying a symbolic first-over-the-line value and in its first two years almost doubling our exports to China to $4.5 billion.

Two-way trade in that time has increased by more than a third, from $8.5 billion to $11.1 billion.

Trade Minister Tim Groser likes to point out that in six hours we now trade with China the same value that we traded in the whole of 1972 when we first set up diplomatic relations with China.

A deal with India could be the next big prize. Stop-start talks on an FTA with the Republic of Korea will only gain serious traction when it reaches the top of Korea’s agenda. And that’s unlikely to be anytime soon.

For New Zealand, foreign direct investment remains problematic. When it comes to shelling out for outbound ventures, we prefer to keep our collective wallets closed. Receiving inbound money October 2011

| management.co.nz | 27

Cover Story: Asia Impact Series

remains an emotive issue as New Zealanders struggle to separate their desire for dollars from their need for a sense of sovereignty over their own land and other key assets.

At the company level, we’re going to have to get used to embedding ourselves more deeply in one Asian country in order to springboard into others. Business mindsets and models need to continue to change to help make this happen.

Earlier this year, Mainfreight group managing director Don Braid outlined his company’s approach at an evening talk as part of the Asia:NZ Business Leaders Series. He spoke of how his company has built a “triangle of influence” between New Zealand/Australia, Asia and the US. In March this year Mainfreight, a global supply chain logistics provider, acquired Netherlands-based Wim Bosman Group, locking in a further option to influence freight decisions from Europe as well.

Braid is a firm believer that for New Zealand to succeed we must have more companies both located in, and trading with, Asia. He’s also got his eye on opportunities arising from high levels of intra-Asia freight where year-on-year volume is expected to grow at 10 percent versus global growth of five to 10 percent.

Earlier this year when Singapore’s Tharman Shanmugaratnam spoke about pending growth in intra-Asian trade, he went on to note that the finance sector is following hard on its heels.

“Almost every segment of Asian finance is now growing rapidly,” he said, “trade and structured trade finance, cross-border corporate lending and infrastructure finance, capital-raising in equity and bond markets (increasingly too being done across borders), corporate treasury services and wealth management for affluent and high net worth groups.”

Certainly attitudes in Asia towards mergers and acquisitions are changing, further opening up a mechanism for New Zealand companies to lock themselves in to the regional market. Bell Gully partner David Flacks has noted that around 20 percent of merger and acquisition activities in New Zealand currently involve Asia.

Matthew Ginsburg tells HPAIR delegates that, historically, Asian companies wouldn’t touch mergers and acquisitions.

“The only people doing them were people going out of business. Now it’s a well-accepted strategic tool and you see huge cross-border transactions.”

Today, Ginsburg is managing director and head of investment banking, Asia Pacific, at Barclays Bank’s investment banking division, Barclays Capital. He started his career in Asia back in 1986 as one of only seven people in an investment bank. He now runs a team of about 550 people out of Hong Kong.

He tells the story not to suggest a meteoric rise in his own career but to emphasise the rise of demand for investment banking in Asia and what that says about Asia’s economic re-emergence.

Ginsburg says it is “entirely possible” that fees paid to investment banks in Asia this year will exceed fees paid to investment banks in Europe. “If you’d told people that three years ago, they’d never have believed you.”

28 | management.co.nz | October 2011

Ginsburg says over 45 percent of all equity issued globally last year – including IPOs, follow-ons, converts and secondaries – were issued out of Asia. “That’s a remarkable number,” he says, “and it’s gotten bigger this year.”

As elsewhere in the world, growth in Asia will hinge on entrepreneurs being able to access equity capital, do IPOs, fund capital expansion, and fund the growth of marketing campaigns.

“Such stuff is critical and it’s why you see a huge growth in equity issuance in Asia,” says Ginsburg. “If you look at the top 20 IPOs done globally in the last 18 months, 12 of them were done from Asia.”

Then mix in follow-ons, which enable publicly listed companies issuing further stock to fund their growth. Ginsburg points out that only the US, which had 24 follow-ons greater than US$2 billion in the past year and a half, surpasses Asia.

“Greater China had 16. Compare that with some of the economies that people think are the powerhouses of the world these days, such as Germany which had four.”

At HPAIR, Ginsburg flicks to a chart on the far wall.

“I want you to understand that the growth we’re seeing is not just a China story,” he says. “Clearly China stories dominate the newspapers… the Wall St

Journal and the Financial Times… But the light blue line here represents fees paid by Asian corporates to investment banks to raise equity in 2005. The dark blue represents those same geographies in 2010.

“You can see that in virtually every market fees paid by corporates have increased dramatically. This should also tell you that demand for capital in those countries is huge whether it be for providing for growth in domestic consumption, exports or financial services.

“If they haven’t been exposed to Asian markets most people seem to think of them as second tier. But nine of the world’s top 20 fee-paying markets are now in Asia. So clearly for investment banking Asia is a very important part of the world as it is for virtually every other industry.”

That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be volatility in this emerging powerhouse, Ginsburg cautions. “But you’ll find a virtually unanimous view that of all the geographies of the world, Asia is best equipped to deal with it and is likely to continue growing at a much faster rate than other regions.” M Ruth Le Pla, a former editor of NZ Management, is a freelance business journalist. She attended the Harvard Project on Asian and International Relations in the Republic of Korea with the help of an Asia New Zealand Foundation Media Advisory Grant.

Asia by the numbers Tall: In 1990, only 13 of the world’s tallest buildings were in Asia. By 2010, the region was home to 45 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings.

Calls: In 1990, there were just 1.5 million mobile phone subscribers in the whole of Asia: 800,000 of those were in Japan and 600,000 in Hong Kong. Last year there were more than two billion.

Rich: In 1990, there were fewer than 500 millionaires in China. By 2010 there were 960,000 in China and close to 3.5 million millionaires across the whole Asian region. This is more than in Europe and the wealth controlled by those millionaires in Asia is more than the wealth controlled by the millionaires in Europe.

Flyers: In 1990, Chinese airlines were flying 385 domestic air routes. Last year, they were flying close to 1600 routes.

Source: Matthew Ginsburg, managing director and head of investment Banking Asia Pacific, Barclays Capital.

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| management.co.nz | 29

“ NEW ZEALAND’S GREATEST OPP LIES IN OUR AB HARNESS OUR TOP 200 THINKING JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT BLOG.TOP200THINKING.CO.NZ Book now for this year’s Top 200 and meet those who are challenging the perception of New Zealand business thinking.

6:30pm Thursday 24th November, SKYCITY, Auckland.

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

ORTUNITY ILITY TO CREATIVITY.”

NICOLA BELL.

CEO, SAATCHI & SAATCHI

TOP 200 THINKING

NICOLA BELL

CEO, SAATCHI & SAATCHI NEW ZEALAND

NEW ZEALAND’S GREATEST OPPORTUNITY lies in our ability to harness our creativity. It’s our ultimate competitive advantage.

I’D LIKE TO SEE WHAT WE COULD DO IF WE EMBRACED CREATIVE LEADERSHIP as the next evolution in business.

I WORK IN AN INDUSTRY THAT RELIES ALMOST ENTIRELY ON CREATIVITY so you might think it obvious that I would think this. But, if you look around, there’s plenty of evidence that all sorts of companies are realising the powerful advantage that creativity can bring to a business. IBM, in a recent global survey of 1500 CEOs in 60 nations and 33 industries, revealed that creativity is the ‘single most important leadership competency for enterprises seeking a path through the rapid escalation of complexity’ in their organisations.

MANY COMPANIES ARE ABANDONING THE TOP-DOWN, COMMAND AND CONTROL MODEL OF LEADERSHIP. It’s simply not relevant to the current and emerging generation of talent because it stifles their freedom to re-imagine things in a better way. If leaders make no space for creativity, people tend to retreat and guard their contribution instead of sharing openly. This ultimately drives a team apart.

I FOUND THIS ASTOUNDING. The crossover of creativity into mainstream leadership is fascinating to me. It’s charged by a radical shift in technology, and a new culture of connectivity that technology has enabled. We need to embrace this shift and reflect it in how we educate and inspire the next generation of New Zealanders.

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP INVOLVES INSPIRING AND EMPOWERING a team to re-imagine, encouraging collaboration, embracing beta (waiting for perfection every time is no longer an option when marketing is built around continuous conversations with consumers), keeping conflicting agendas in play simultaneously (organising the team to meet current deliverables while also allowing time and space to ‘ignore’ the status quo and re-imagine) and fuelling optimism.

MORE THAN 170 YEARS OF RELATIVE ISOLATION HAS TAUGHT US TO THINK LATERALLY, to experiment and create, and to overcome the “tyranny of distance” to attract attention and get our products and services to the world. We’ve always been outward-looking, and in many respects have turned our isolation into an advantage. We have an objectivity and perspective on the rest of the world that others admire.

OPTIMISM IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT for creative leaders. Not guileless, blind optimism. But the kind of optimism that allows us to stick our heads up above the fray and try something different. Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook calls this ‘hacking’. As he describes it, “It’s not about breaking and entering. It’s about being unafraid to break things in order to make them better. The root of the hacker mindset is there’s a better way.”

IT’S THIS KIND OF PERSPECTIVE that already fuels many of our most successful businesses and endeavours and could really help us economically as a country in the long term.

OF COURSE WE MIGHT GET SHOT DOWN OCCASIONALLY – I know this only too well – but not bothering to think differently, following formulas and “keeping it safe” all feels very “un-Kiwi” to me, and certainly a lot less fun. Adhering to the status quo is no place for New Zealanders. We are far more spirited than that.

BUT THERE ARE STILL MANY AREAS WHERE IT SEEMS THAT WE LACK CONFIDENCE in our ideas and abilities. We need to turn this on its head, and build a culture of creativity. A culture that allows us to re-frame and re-imagine businesses and industries. To do this, we need to identify and support our next generation of creative leaders.

SO LET’S EMBRACE CREATIVE LEADERSHIP because more than anything, creativity has the ability to change the future and fortunes of our people and our businesses. Let’s harness our capacity for fresh ideas, rigorous thinking and encourage more creative leaders to step up and help us succeed in today’s exciting world.

Photo: Vicki Jayne, vjayne@xtra.co.nz

Face to face

Carl Bergstrom

Boosting corporate energy The man who heads energy drinks company Frucor has his own recipe for boosting corporate vitality.

Fun plays a part – so do words like “trailblazing” and “straight up”. Why? Carl Bergstrom shares his ingredients for leadership success with Vicki Jayne.

34 | management.co.nz | October 2011

I

t could be something of a cliché – but talking recipes with Frucor managing director Carl Bergstrom is a fitting analogy. One of his other potential career paths might have seen him on the celebrity chef circuit, rather than heading a beverage company.

“I did think about becoming a chef when I was young – and it’s still a hobby…”

He also contemplated law for a bit because the idea of being paid to argue seemed rather appealing. That was before he had daughters and got the whole arguing thing out of his system.

But then, he probably would have been wasted tucked away in a kitchen because Bergstrom is very evidently a people person.

Personable and easy going, he shuns the notion of hierarchy in favour of a corporate climate that is both informal and professional. Fun is good – but it’s underpinned by solid commitment to business goals.

To illustrate how that works he tells a story. It revolves around a corporate fundraiser that prompted Frucor staff to give up something they loved for a day.

Bergstrom sacrificed his coffee, someone else gave up walking – instead spending his day whizzing around the office on a kid’s scooter – and one of the company’s sales managers quit talking.

“Unfortunately it was the same day that he had to come and discuss a major business proposal with me. It was a multimillion deal, quite complex and he couldn’t speak. So instead, with the help of a whiteboard, he sang me through the whole thing.

“It was a bit hard to keep a straight face but it really showed commitment – if we say we’re gonna do something then we do it. You support a good cause but you don’t put work on hold. It’s about innovation, commitment, fun – I left for home that day knowing that’s why I want to come here every day. That is the sort of environment I want to create.”

Seems he has succeeded. This year Frucor Beverages was one of only two New Zealand organisations awarded

Best Employer status by Aon Hewitt – an honour it shared with Frucor Australia.

The company had set that as a goal for 2012 two years ago, making it a year ahead of time. Last year, it similarly achieved its goal to be market leader in the Petrol and Convenience Channel.

“Our salesforce is recognised as best in the convenience trade – as assessed through independent surveys,” says Bergstrom proudly. “It’s really about blending those aspects – of being a great place to work and a competitive goalfocused successful business.”

The ingredients for that are not so secret – or difficult. If there’s one thing that 50-year-old Bergstrom has discovered during his years in business, it’s that people are prone to over-complicating the process.

university with a degree in applied mathematics. Really? Maths?

Well, there had been a career plot involving overseas MBA study, says Bergstrom, but it never happened. Meanwhile, the maths was put to very good use in areas like production optimisation, supply chain management and logistics.

“At the end of the day, it’s a way of thinking about how to solve practical problems with empirical techniques,” notes Bergstrom. It also led on to his being given some fantastic opportunities.

“At different times, I ran the manufacturing and technical side, sales and marketing, stand-alone commercial products business – I even ran IS [information systems] at one stage. I just got a fantastic practical grooming in business management.”

The quality of people and culture is the major thing – possibly the only thing – that differentiates you, that can be your point of competitive advantage.

“One of the businesses I was responsible for when I worked for Carter Holt Harvey was Raleigh Paper – a great little private company they’d bought whose owner stayed on to run it. I remember he had a sign over his desk that said ‘nothing happens until you sell something’.

“It’s a fundamental statement, but one that is often lost sight of by people in a corporate environment. I think people who run private companies have a knack of simplifying business and they know with crystal clarity what creates value.

They may be less able to articulate that eloquently in a power presentation like their corporate counterparts but they know it, everyone in the business knows it. I think that helped shape me.”

Bergstrom’s career started at Caxton when it was still owned and run by the Spencer family. He was fresh from

When Caxton was bought by Carter Holt Harvey, he shifted into a more business-to-business role. Just prior to joining Frucor as CEO, Bergstom was general manager for CHH Distribution Group and Carters Building Supplies.

“I saw the Frucor role as an opportunity to get back into the consumer goods business which is what I enjoy the most. I prefer to be as close to the consumer end of the value chain as possible because there is a greater degree of freedom to control your own destiny and create value.”

That said, he believes business is becoming increasingly homogenous and business processes more generic.

“You can move from one company in one industry to another and find so much is the same. Increasingly I have come to believe that the quality of people and culture is the major thing – possibly October 2011 | management.co.nz | 35

Face to face

Management tips Asked what advice he would give to someone pursing a management career, Bergstrom had this to say.

• Firstly understand what is really important to you and what you enjoy. You might need to work for a while to form this view. I’ve seen too many people pursue management careers for the wrong reasons when they would rather be the very best at what they love doing.

• Choose the industry and company first rather than the position. You can change the latter more easily than the former, and to be successful you need to enjoy the business you’re in.

• Seek opportunities to diversify early in your career. We need to grow more rounded business people. I see too many uni-dimensional executives who have come up almost solely through one function. However, the more senior you become the harder it is to move cross functionally.

• To the above point, your broader skill set, capabilities, and preferences are more important than specific functional training for most management positions.

the only thing that differentiates you, that can be your point of competitive advantage. During my career that has just become more and more apparent.”

As to his own leadership style, he believes versatility is the name of the game as different situations call for different styles – sometimes consultative, sometimes directive, the ability to be both visionary and pragmatist.

“But underpinning that is one key word and that is authenticity. People aren’t silly, they see through someone who is not authentic, who doesn’t walk the talk.”

Overall, a simple strategy that has worked for him in all his roles is to “hire the very best people you can and then create an environment they can really enjoy and can flourish in”. Hence the informal + professional approach. When he talks to another employee, says Bergstrom, rank 36 | management.co.nz | October 2011

is not in the room. It’s just people having a discussion about business.

No surprise that among Bergstrom’s pet hates are politics, hierarchical attitudes and incompetence.

“I often find those three qualities packaged in one,” he adds wryly. “Good people don’t need those things.”

With an organisation the size of Frucor – 800 people (600 on this side of the Tasman and 200 in Australia) engaged in a range of areas from manufacturing to R&D, it’s important to find common themes that resonate for all.

“Everyone wants to treated with respect, feel they can be listened to, have a contribution, enjoy the team and environment they work in – I think all employees would tick those.

“One of the programmes we’ve been running over the past couple of years in all parts and at every level of the business is called Quest. It’s based on the notion of improving your every day, giving people some skills and toolsets they can use, challenging them to look for ways to do things better, to achieve goals they want but in a different way… and we’re getting a lot of value from that.”

It’s very much part of a “can-do” culture that has its own buzzwords adorning the building on posters or informing staff-designed artworks.

“We articulated our values about 10 years ago now – the substance came from all our staff and these values hold a very special place here. If you wanted to buy an argument with anyone at Frucor, you might suggest those be changed… it’s what they felt was inherent in the business and those things they aspire to do better.

“I think they’re a pretty good reflection of what we’ve been talking about.

‘Go for it’, ‘trailblazing’ – that’s all about goal-focused innovation. ‘Straight up’, ‘one team’, ‘value you’ are more about the community of Frucor.”

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Frucor values turned out to be pretty similar to that of parent company Suntory. One of Japan’s oldest distributors of alcoholic beverages, Suntory bought Frucor from

French company Groupe Danone in 2009 – and its motto Yatte Minahare can be translated as “go for it”, says Bergstrom.

While still New Zealand based, Frucor now generates at least half its business offshore and that is where its best opportunities are for growth – particularly in markets where the energy drink category it pioneered is still in development phase.

“We’re totally committed to having a strong footprint and autonomous business here while we focus on expansion offshore as well,” says Bergstrom.

“After that, really my goal for the business is simply to be the very best at what we do: being the innovators in our industry, building aspirational brands like V, having the most highly regarded sales organisation by its customers, and being the best company to work for in FMCG in Australasia.”

He has no plans for self export – though one of his two daughters had done a stint in the Solomons with the territorials and the other has recently completed a semester at Oxford. He also takes some pride that some of the young graduates he has recruited have gone on to succeed in bigger roles offshore.

But looking back on his own career, he is grateful to have held a range of challenging roles as well as playing a role in the wider industry as president of the NZ Juice and Beverage Association – without compromising the other things he enjoys doing.

“I unashamedly live in New Zealand for the lifestyle and while work is a very important part of my life, it is by no means the only thing. I think I’ve managed to keep a good balance.”

As to that chef career – it’s still on the backburner. Right now, he’s still enjoying what he does.

“There is no business I’d rather be leading than Frucor. I may look at one or two external directorships but at the moment there is more than enough to keep me occupied here.” M Vicki Jayne, a former editor of NZ Management, is a freelance business journalist. vjayne@xtra.co.nz

Paul Buetow | Infrastructure

David Shillson | Commercial

Grant Hewison | Local Government

Matthew Ockleston Property

|

Greg Milner-White Resource Management

|

Working in this complex and highly political sector takes expert knowledge.

Local Government is a big player in the New Zealand market, spending around $6.7 billion each year. Working with local government can be very rewarding but it takes skilled navigation to avoid the pitfalls. Kensington Swan acts for many local authorities in New Zealand, and also advise major corporates with large projects underway for councils. If you are looking to do business in this sector, take expert advice from lawyers who understand the political and commercial complexities of working with councils.

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Responsible governance

Maori and Mighty

River Power Mighty River Power has made an impressive effort to understand and promote the value of strong partnerships with Maori business enterprises.

What it has learned in the process is central to its commercially and culturally enlightened governance practices. This is the sixth and final article in Reg Birchfield’s series on responsible governance.

R

esponsible governance, says Mighty River Power chair Joan Withers, starts with having the right people around the board table. Then it takes an open and trusting working relationship between the board and senior management team to deliver.

And board composition, she says, is about having the right skill mix. That’s not always easy in a state owned enterprise. Politicians, or more accurately cabinet ministers, pull the candidate selection strings. Getting good directors in place can, therefore, be challenging – not that Withers would express it that way.

All political regimes stack SOE boards with favoured hacks when they can.

Mighty River has, in that regard, fared better than most. It has been forced to accommodate the occasional aged wasp, but generally its board ranks well on gender and other diversity, experience and competency. The result is an energy enterprise that has performed consistently well and was named Energy Company of the Year at the 2010 Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards.

Board behaviour is important to

38 | management.co.nz | OCtober 2011

Withers. “Forging relationships in which directors have respect for each other without resorting to group think is critical,” she says. “We have a diversity of views around the Mighty River board table. The senior management team runs an outstanding induction process for new directors. It brings them up to speed quickly. And now we are running a series of refresher tutorials so that director understanding of the complexities of our business is up to scratch.”

Mighty River’s induction programme emerged from a comprehensive board process review. “Some of the less commercial directors were struggling to keep up,” says chief executive Doug Heffernan.

“Management was therefore challenged to help the board. The induction programme emerged as the flow on benefit.”

Electricity generation is a complex business. Keeping directors up to speed and providing board papers that distil and interpret the issues and help directors make sound decisions is both a management and governance priority.

“We get very good board papers,” Withers says. “They are long enough for us to

understand the issues and ask the right questions, but short enough for directors to comprehend without 20 hours of reading. That is hugely important.

Directors come to the meetings knowing what the issues of the day are.”

Management demeanour Board composition, professional processes and “the demeanour of management” are fundamental to responsible governance practices, according to Withers. “The board must be treated with deference and respect so that when the questions are asked, management responds and comprehends the relevance of the questions. I have never felt, on this board, that we are treated like mushrooms. That’s how management treats some boards. They expect directors to simply rubber stamp what they want to do.

“Our executive team is always ready to debate and discuss issues and to put forward and defend their views. Most importantly, they suck the wisdom out of the directors to gain critical insights or leads on new approaches.”

Mighty River Power chair Joan Withers and chief executive Doug Heffernan: governing responsibly is fundamental to Mighty River's success.

To take the company forward strategically, we must protect our right to use the natural resources and have the trust and respect of our people.

– Doug Heffernan Heffernan agrees that his management team benefits from the board’s diversity of views and experiences. “The electricity industry’s dna is pretty close,” he adds. “It is a tight sector. The roots of those employed in it are all grafted from the same gene stock. Having access to the diversity that sits around the board table is important.”

The electricity industry administers large assets and earns its living from managing natural resources, says Heffernan.

“At a cultural level, the characteristics of these two realities require that we act responsibly both within the community and for the regulators. Otherwise, we won’t be given the privilege of accessing those resources. Because we need a licence to operate, professional environmental management, sustainability and ethical practices are imperatives. Governing responsibly is fundamental to our success,” he adds.

“On the big assets side, being responsible for personal safety is paramount. If

we weren’t on top of that we’d be exposed to reputational damage in a big way. To take the company forward strategically, we must protect our right to use the natural resources and have the trust and respect of our people.”

Maori partnership Both Heffernan and Withers credit Mighty River’s understanding of the need to embed ethical governance in the company’s corporate dna for its decision to partner with Maori land trust interests to use geothermal resources to power its energy generation strategy.

“Nobody owns our geothermal resources,” says Heffernan. “To get access you must reach an agreement with land owners. Typically, Maori land trusts own the land that sits atop our geothermal reservoirs.”

When Mighty River saw New Zealand’s Maui oil field declining while the need for more energy grew, it saw the geothermal potential. Coincidentally, Maori interests were looking for greater involvement in the development and ownership of their resources. Maori OCtober 2011

| management.co.nz | 39

Responsible governance

were effectively disenfranchised by traditional royalty-based resource exploration models. But they had no cash to develop their resources.

Mighty River decided to find ways to allow Maori landlords to participate in their geothermal strategy and simultaneously build equity in the energy business. “They became true investors in the project,” says Heffernan. “Electricity generation is a long-term business. Projects take 30 to 50 plus years to complete. There is, therefore, risk from any misalignment of investor interest.

found a solution was highly regarded by Maori. Until a year or two ago we were the only company doing things in this way.

It was very innovative,” says Heffernan.

The exercise has given Mighty River traction with Maori investment interests. “We saw what we did as being a significant and responsible approach to harnessing a valuable energy resource,” he adds.

The Nga Awa Purua project and other negotiations around the use of Waikato River water resources have lifted both the board and management’s understanding

New Zealand needs to get the picture of the potential of Maoridom as an economic powerhouse for this country.

– Joan Withers “Maori investors take a very long view. Having them involved as joint equity participants means we are joined at the hip.”

Mighty River’s new $430 million Nga Awa Purua project on the Rotokawa geothermal field, 14 kilometres northeast of Taupo, is now 25 percent owned by the Tauhara North No 2 Maori Land Trust. “It is earning royalties that are being distributed to its 2000 plus owners,” says Heffernan. “As a consequence, the economic wealth of their people is fundamentally changed from what it was a decade ago.

“They would not have partnered with us unless we could demonstrate that we could look after and manage that resource sustainably. They want it for their grandchildren and their grandchildren’s children. Sustainability was fundamental to the business proposition.

“We used creative financial and other professional expertise to find a way to structure a venture that delivers a fair return to the company and provides the Trust with equity and income. The process by which we aligned our interests and 40 | management.co.nz | OCtober 2011

of how established large enterprises and Maori interests can work together. “We must work together more for the greater economic good of both parties and the country in general,” says Withers. “New Zealand needs to get the picture of the potential of Maoridom as an economic powerhouse for this country.”

The company is also partnering with Maori on other projects. In a kind of role reversal, Mighty River executives like Heffernan are providing technical advice and governance guidance to Maori boards keen to lift their governance skills and understanding of conventional business models.

Mighty River, like other SOEs, complies with the Securities Commission based Corporate Governance Principles of responsible governance standards and practices. It also has its own continuous disclosure regime.

The board acts much like a listed company board. “We are accountable to one shareholder, but all the processes around our governance recognise our place as one of New Zealand’s top 25 companies,” says Withers.

Living ethics The company’s published code of ethics dates back half a dozen years. Its existence was triggered by plans to work with a Sri Lankan enterprise. “The code is now a living document,” says Withers. “We deal with things on an issue-by-issue basis but we live by the specifics and the sentiments contained in the code.”

The relationship between board and management is, says Heffernan, transparent and built firmly on confidence and mutual trust. “Board members have access to the senior management team.

The process makes my life easier,” he adds. “Management understands directly the issues board members are dealing with rather than hearing it from me second-hand.”

The company has whistle-blower provisions within its employee codes of practice and training programmes. “We need these provisions because we deal with natural resources and at the consumer end, electricity is a common ‘good’ that people expect,” says Heffernan. “The expectation of professional performance is high in our industry. Everyone needs to know where they stand and what needs to be done.”

“We have robust internal audits of all processes important to strong governance,” Withers adds. “Our risk assurance board committee is very effective.”

Mighty River was one of the first SOEs to introduce annual public meetings. “We have always taken communication with all our stakeholders seriously,” says Heffernan. “We engage out in the community very interactively and, as a company, we enjoy the process.”

What of the future? Mighty River is picked as the first SOE most likely to have 49 percent of its government shareholding sold to the public if National is returned to power in next month’s general election.

“It’s a great company with a strong ethical and performance tradition. If the sale option comes to pass, it will offer a great investment opportunity,” says Withers.

“Mighty River’s culture is firmly embedded in the enterprise. Transition, if there is one, should be relatively seamless.” M

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Mindful leadership

Fit to lead?

It’s in the mind The state of the executive body and mind are increasingly valuable corporate currency. Wellness programmes are more than ever woven into everyday executive life. Fitness of mind is the new priority. For a growing number it comes packaged in a 2500 year-old box of tricks called mindfulness. By Reg Birchfield.

42 | management.co.nz | October 2011

Mindbalance's Maya Nova.

T

o cope with today’s portfolio of management and leadership pressures, executives must be match-fit according to contemporary best practice thought.

Individuals see it similarly. It is a complex and competitive world out there. Success, therefore, is increasingly defined by an individual’s ability to deliver under stressful and demanding conditions.

Motivated managers readily relate to the call for physical fitness, but selling them on mind building concepts takes more convincing. Concepts like “mental fitness” are, said The Economist’s columnist Schumpeter, “bound to attract charlatans and snake-oil salesmen”. And US leadership guru Warren Bennis agrees the new “science” of neuroleadership is “filled with banalities”. These cautions make it easy for the disinclined to dismiss practices like mindfulness, for example, on semantic rather than scientific or evaluated grounds.

Individual resistances notwithstanding, there is a growing body of both opinion and research that links personal performance to the interconnections between both a healthy body and equally tuned mind. There is also a growing appreciation that, as the world and its accompanying technological, social, organisational, political and economic structures, practices and priorities change, so the mind and how we use it to lead and manage must keep pace.

Mindfulness is an age-old concept rooted in Buddhist meditation. Modern western psychology defines it as bringing the individual’s “complete attention to the present on a moment-by-moment basis”, out of which comes an enhanced capacity to use the mind to greater specific and nonjudgmental effect.

The objective of meditation is to clear the mind of the everyday jangle and clutter of thoughts that are constantly on the move or in conflict. The practitioner submits to concentrating (samadhi) on exclusively present moment activities such as breathing (anapanasati – mindfulness of breathing). Cleared of all other distractions, the mind focuses exclusively on what is happening “now” and opens up

to clarity, awareness and insights into the way things really are (vipassana).

Dr John Kabat-Zinn, for example, founded his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme at the University of Massachusetts in 1979 to treat the chronically ill. The medical profession now increasingly accepts the relationship between mind state and recuperative medical outcomes.

Simply put, mindfulness is about developing skills to control and focus personal concentration. Its application has evolved from the spiritual, medical and stress management worlds to become a workplace tool for individual, team and organisational leadership and change.

Maya Nova is the founder of Aucklandbased consultancy Mindbalance which provides “mindfulness and meditation training for improved productivity, resilience and wellbeing”. Mindful leadership is, she says, “about going beyond the hierarchical, conservative [organisational] models into adaptive, intuitive and cooperative leadership”.

Her embrace of Buddhism about 10 years ago sparked a personal interest in the power and clarity of thought that came with meditation. Then, as she explored the relationship between the work-life pressures confronting leaders and managers and her own experience of the benefits of meditation, she moved into what is for her a new career built, serendipitously, on a decade’s personal application.

“We live in stressful times of unsettling change and challenge,” she says. “Whether we see these challenges only as a crisis or as an opportunity to develop new models of how we live, work and trade in the world will depend on the kind of future leadership we foster,” says Nova, a Serb who saw her share of social and political wretchedness before coming to New Zealand with her former Kiwi husband.

But what does mindfulness do for leaders?

In the practical sense, Nova defines mindfulness as the capacity to be fully and clearly aware of what is going on in the present moment, without distortion. “It is defined by clarity, calmness and insight,”

she says. The individual in a mindful or meditative state is aware of what is going on but stripped for the moment of judgement, prejudice, fear, beliefs and other preconditioned thought screens. “It teaches us to trust and surrender to our ability to become clearly aware as a way for solutions to reveal themselves, rather than violently rummaging through our mind looking for answers and ways to fix things,” she adds.

Mindful leaders are, she says, intuitive, creative, honest, wise, compassionate and “deeply resonant with” the constantly changing needs and demands of the workplace and surrounding environment.

“Mindful leaders are able to navigate complexity with the flexibility of insight and leadership presence,” says Nova.

As compelling as that sounds, sceptics are likely to see it at best as another faddish leadership or management practice or worse, the snake oil of which The Economist warns.

“Mindfulness is grounded in sound research, particularly in the field of neuro science,” counters Nova.“It also has a 2000plus year history of application which delivers results that are now making their way into many different facets of our existence – most obviously in medicine and stress management.”

Mindfulness is less concerned with tools, skill sets, knowledge and past experience and is more about the ability to access, at will, an individual’s natural leadership qualities. “It provides leaders with access to deep and honest self awareness,” says Nova. “It tells them if they are on track and learning to observe impartially and with both internal and external wisdom.

It bypasses mental ruts and other habitual, unexamined responses to challenges such as fear, anger, arrogance, set belief systems and so on.”

Nova concedes mindfulness does not come easily. “The ability to stay fully in the moment and respond appropriately to the situation unfolding before you requires self mastery,” she warns. “But it is consistent with the natural leadership quality of pursuing excellence.”

George Ambler, a leadership writer and thepracticeofleadership.net website October 2011

| management.co.nz | 43

Mindful leadership

Mindful leaders are able to navigate complexity with the flexibility of insight and leadership presence.

promoter, calls mindfulness one of the most powerful but difficult leadership practices to master. But it is, he thinks, critical for navigating uncertainty, dealing with and understanding change and managing leadership crises.

Self awareness, an acknowledged valuable leadership attribute, is the pearl mindfulness delivers those willing to plumb the depths of their own minds.

Self knowledge, according to Ambler, helps leaders to make choices about how to respond to people and situations.

“Deep knowledge about yourself enables you to be consistent, to present yourself authentically, as you are,” he says. “We trust – and follow – people who are real, who are consistent, whose behaviour, values and beliefs are aligned. We trust

people we do not constantly have to second guess.”

In their 2005 book Resonant Leadership, American academics Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee said that when executives were faced with extreme organisational turbulence, mindfulness came into its own.

“You need more, rather than less, information, and it is generally more difficult to get [when things are going badly]. You need to leverage your strengths and find those people who are succeeding despite disruptions.

You need to stay calm,” they wrote. “And mindfulness starts with self-awareness.”

Is mindfulness innate? “Yes,” says Nova, “but it doesn’t appear to be because our habit of mindlessness is so pervasive.

Observe babies and you can see that mindfulness is innate. Mindlessness is a

habit we develop. But whatever the case, embracing it is a choice we make similar to ones we make when we quit bad habits. We choose to become fit, eat greens or drink less alcohol. The benefits that come from being mindful far outweigh the deterrents. Not making those choices can significantly diminish an individual’s potential for self realisation, prosperity and wellbeing,” she argues.

Individuals can teach themselves meditation. But, Nova warns,“it’s a bit like going to a gym and not knowing how to use the machines, or learning a musical instrument on your own. Mindfulness should be cultivated and practised in context with someone who can teach the techniques and answer the questions that naturally arise.”

The training is fairly simple. The difficulty is all in the mind. “The mind doesn’t really multi-task,” she says. “It is either present and here or distracted and otherwise engaged. The mind is a rather unruly student and needs lots of patience, encouragement and reward. Thankfully, the rewards are natural to the process of quieting the mind.”

What seems increasingly apparent is that, whatever processes deliver it, leaders and managers must become more adept at bending their minds to more effectively solving some heady problems if the world is to emerge as a happier and healthier place in the next 25 years. M

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44 | management.co.nz | October 2011

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Energy efficiency

Saving $billions for NZ business

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

The Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority’s chief executive Mike Underhill explains the potential untapped earnings for most businesses locked in energy waste.

46 | management.co.nz | October 2011

A

few weeks ago the Government released its new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy.

If you’re like two thirds of New Zealand business managers, this is the point at which you’ll switch off. Because energy isn’t your core business – it’s a fixed cost, something you pay every month to make the fleet run and the photocopiers work, right?

Actually, your day-to-day energy waste is probably an untapped source of revenue.

In every business – be it in financial services, manufacturing or tourism – energy is a fundamental input cost. And if you’re like most Kiwi businesses, one fifth of that monthly bill will go straight back into the coffers when you take steps to run more efficiently.

There are immense bottom line benefits to energy efficiency.

We estimate a staggering $2 billion per annum in savings are achievable in time across the business sector, cost effectively.

Energy efficiency is also one of the cheapest ways to reduce business carbon emissions – and the value of lowering our carbon footprint, particularly in export markets, can’t be overstated.

All of this is why improving the energy intensity of New Zealand’s business sector is one of the key planks in the Government’s strategy – a strategy that EECA is charged with helping deliver.

Renewable energy will play a vital part in creating a low carbon, secure energy future for New Zealand. The strategy emphasises our potential wealth in renewables, specifically using bioenergy and geothermal energy to provide business with the heat it needs. We’re aiming for up to 9.5 additional petajoules of bioenergy or geothermal energy above 2005 levels, by 2015. That’s the same amount of energy used every year by 250,000 homes.

With the bottom-line and environmental benefits being so clear, one might expect reducing business energy intensity to be a walk in the park. It isn’t.

Clean Energy Expo, October 13-16, 2011 New Zealand Clean Energy Centre (NZCEC), Taupo The Clean Energy Expo is part of the REAL New Zealand Showcase – a programme being coordinated by the NZ2011 Office to present the best of New Zealand business, innovation, expertise and excellence to the world during Rugby World Cup 2011. The Expo will feature workshops on geothermal and biomass aimed at businesses and industry, followed by a public expo and tours. EECA will be exhibiting with a range of information on energy efficiency and renewable energy.

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| management.co.nz | 47

Energy efficiency

Typically, every dollar invested in an energy audit brings a return of $7.50 in savings.

Our research shows that managers are most concerned with customer and supplier relationships, brand, reputation and business growth. Unsurprisingly, you’re busy people focused on pressing priorities. Most managers haven’t been convinced that energy efficiency is an enabler to help boost productivity and competitiveness, and strengthen business.

Helping make that case is EECA’s job. We know the main barriers are time, knowledge and finance. So we’re designing our programmes to tackle those barriers and make it as easy as possible for business decision-makers to improve energy use without having to become experts in kilowatt hours or energy use benchmarks.

A key part of our strategy involves working with New Zealand’s growing base of energy service providers – such as energy auditors – who can come into your company and advise on where the savings opportunities are. Supporting a strong energy services sector is a key focus for EECA, and this will increase in the next few years.

We know where the biggest potential for business energy savings is. Transport fuel, process heat and motorised systems are the big industrial opportunities. A little-known fact is the amount of energy used by commercial buildings – with the bulk of that in lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

We’ll be working on developing voluntary building performance ratings that enable tenants and owners to differentiate energy48 | management.co.nz | October 2011

conscious buildings from others. And we’ll be investing in the capability of the building and construction sector to bring the expertise needed.

The Green Growth Advisory Group set up by Government will report on ways for small to medium businesses to move to a lower carbon economy while growing productivity – and those findings are likely to have a bearing on EECA’s work with business.

The great news is that energy efficiency usually comes with a very attractive payback.

Typically, every dollar invested in an energy audit brings a return of $7.50 in savings. We’ve worked with many businesses that have gained a competitive edge by saving energy. We’re working closely with our export-driven sectors – such as dairy and wine production – that need to prove their carbon credentials in global markets.

But there are benefits across all industries.

In the banking sector, Westpac reduced energy use by 21 percent and CO2 emissions by 28 percent. ASB is saving around $1 million a year with its energy initiatives, while Kiwibank is saving more than $20,000 each year with new software alone.

In industry, Pernod Ricard redesigned its warehouse lighting and cut electricity use by 90 percent, worth around $150,000 a year. Goodman Fielder saved $45,000 a year at its Christchurch Meadow Fresh plant with a simple boiler tune-up.

There are many more companies doing innovative things with energy. We know that businesses are usually far more influenced by other businesses than by what Government says. So we’re aiming to make more use of these ‘energy champions’ to help sell the benefits to the wider business community.

The New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy poses some big challenges, but the payoff will be more than worth it. More competitive Kiwi companies, helping create a more competitive New Zealand. Let’s seize the opportunity. M

EECA chief executive Mike Underhill Mike Underhill joined the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority as chief executive in May 2007.

He has extensive management experience in the gas and electricity sector in New Zealand and overseas and has been chief executive of WEL Networks, TransAlta, and Energy Direct.

He has also had significant governance experience in this sector, and has been chairman of Pacific Energy, EECA, and Katolyst, the Waikato Regional Development agency.

Underhill has a Bachelor’s degree in engineering, a Master’s degree in economics, has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard, and is a Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers.

WORD COUNT: Approx 490 words + short heading + pic/s AD SIZE: 185w xadvertorial 20dmm

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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

2 www.management.co.nz Management april 2010

October 2011

| management.co.nz | 49

Exec Car leasing

Image is everything As corporate New Zealand finally begins to pull itself out of a tough recession, the car and fleet lease market has noticed a shift towards smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

But Hayley Barnett finds it’s not all about cost cutting.

Businesses are becoming aware that if they want to keep on side with their customers they need to prove they’re making an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.

BMW 5 Series.

50 | management.co.nz | October 2011

S

ince the Global Financial Crisis, Kiwi companies have had to think fast and come up with creative ways of reducing costs. In terms of leasing this has meant either selling up and leasing back or simply switching to a more economical arrangement or choice of vehicle, all while maintaining an image in line with how they want to be perceived by their customers.

Toyota business development executive Darren White says the Toyota hybrid Camry is more in demand than ever before, as is the Prius, both of which are cost effective and environmentally friendly.

“About five years ago we started to see a change in the way people were looking at cars, but it’s only been in the last couple of years that they’ve consciously made the decision to move towards smaller vehicles,” says White.

“There’s far more awareness out there and customers want to make sure their suppliers are doing the right thing. Our customers ask us what we’re doing around sustainability often because they’re being asked the same question by their customers.”

The latest model Prius has a fuel consumption of 3.9 litres per 100 kilometres, the best fuel economy of any mass produced car and emits 89 grams of CO2 per kilometre travelled, while the hybrid Camry produces 142 grams per kilometre of CO2 and fuel consumption is six litres per 100 kilometres travelled.

Honda New Zealand managing director Graeme Seymour says it’s clear the eco-friendly trend is growing. Right now Honda’s most popular leased vehicle is the Insight hybrid, a car that costs around 40 percent less to run than a standard sized car.

“There’s definitely a drift towards smaller and more fuelefficient cars,” says Seymour. “Businesses these days are much more cost conscious than they used to be, but also more socially responsible. They’re having to make a conscious effort to reduce their footprint and at the same time cut costs.”

ORIX national sales director Natalie Milicich says that even though New Zealand businesses are still suffering the effects of the Global Financial Crisis they’re not afraid to show it. In fact, they’re using their fleet to project a more conservative image.

“Smaller vehicles are more fuel efficient but a lot of the time it’s about image,” she says. “They want people to know they’re not making millions of dollars anymore. They want to put the message out there that they’re being more conservative.”

She says these days more companies are choosing to lease medium-size SUVs rather than the old favourites like the V6, Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, for a longer period of time. And longer periods mean leasing companies are reaping the benefits.

“The leasing market has actually improved during the recession. Some companies have gone from ownership to leasing, because they realised they don’t want money tied up in vehicles.

Rather than spending $40,000 on a car, they’re more willing to pay $700-$800 a month on a lease.”

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October 2011

| management.co.nz | 51

Exec Car leasing

Hybrid Camry.

Just recently, we’ve started to see the green issues become more of a factor in leasing with new tenders… It’s a theme that I don’t think is going to go away. It’s here for the long-term and it will be kneaded into longterm business operations.

– Mitchel Booth, GE Capital GE Capital New Zealand general manager Mitchel Booth says the leasing industry enjoyed a boost during the recession as companies looked at ways to inject cash back into their business.

“As things got tougher naturally credit lines were not as available as they used to be in a more liquid environment so companies who owned their vehicles began to consider leasing as a way to free up their traditional funding lines for capital cash flow,” Booth says. “We saw much more of a trend towards leasing than we had done historically.”

He said it was at the very start of the financial crisis that clients began to look towards smaller cars to reduce costs.

“Initially, through that recession period, the cost was a bigger driver for moving 52 | management.co.nz | October 2011

into smaller vehicles over environmental reasons,” said Booth. “Just recently though, we’ve started to see the green issues become more of a factor in leasing with new tenders. They know there will eventually be written legislative requirements around reducing carbon emissions so everyone will be looking at that from a business perspective soon. It’s a theme that I don’t think is going to go away. It’s here for the long-term and it will be kneaded into longterm business operations.”

Booth says he’s definitely noticed a trend towards long-term leasing over the past two years.

“We looked at restructuring some leases and we certainly saw a trend to longer term leases to save money,” he says.

By moving from a 36-month term,

which used to be the traditional leasing tender, to a 45-month agreement, the maximum term for an off-balance sheet operating lease, businesses have been able to cut costs with lower lease rates.

BMW New Zealand’s corporate communications manager Edward Finn says its most popular arrangement is a threeyear, 45,000 kilometre operating lease, which aligns with the three-year servicing arrangement.

“This effectively ensures peace of mind for the full duration of the lease agreement,” says Finn.

A new development in BMW leasing is BMW and MINI Select, a finance option available on all MINI, BMW xDrive and BMW 5 Series models. It will be extended to include other new models in the BMW range as they are launched.

“The Select programme offers BMW and MINI customers flexibility and security when financing their vehicle as it provides a Guaranteed Minimum Future Value at the end of their term,” says Finn.

“Options then include refinancing their car or buying out the contract, trading in or simply returning the vehicle.”

GE Capital’s Booth says another trend has seen clients move towards sale leaseback.

“Some customers have had to consider other funding lines like sale leaseback which is where a customer might have owned their fleet historically but now outsource to a fleet management provider.

How Custom Fleet caught the New Zealand Police.

With more than 3,000 vehicles, the New Zealand Police has one of the largest fleets in the country.

So when the management of this substantial fleet was put out to tender, Custom Fleet was able to successfully demonstrate outstanding fleet management capabilities. As a result, Custom Fleet will now be providing New Zealand Police with total fleet management services until 2017.

As Stan Pope, National Manager for Procurement at New Zealand Police explains, “We’ve found that Custom Fleet has been able to simplify the process, save us money and reduce our risk. They are able to do this while also managing the more than 60 contractual supplier relationships that exist to provide our nationwide service agent network.”

In New Zealand, we manage the fleets of nearly 3,000 businesses, including more than 40 of the top 100 companies*. As part of GE Capital, we are one of the world’s leading financial services and fleet management companies.

If you’re looking for a company with the experience and expertise to develop an integrated fleet management service, call Custom Fleet on 0800 4 LEASING (0800 453 274) or visit customfleet.co.nz

* Top 100 companies sourced from Kompass Business Directory at 21 September 2010.

BCG2 GEC0065

Exec Car leasing

The new model Prius.

We’ll take ownership and lease the cars back to that customer where they realise the equity in that fleet of cars and project it into the business. We’re seeing more opportunities to do that and certainly a lot more interest from customers as well.”

Other businesses have had to review the risk associated with spend on repairs and maintenance meaning many are seeking fully maintained leasing arrangements

54 | management.co.nz | October 2011

or attaching a fleet management service to a non-maintained lease.

“Fleet management means the company owns its vehicles and we manage them,” says Booth. “They still get the advantages of our buying power, our fleet management expertise and our systems so they can better utilise their fleet.”

FleetPartners director of sales and marketing Barry Nicholson says its fully maintained operating lease is the most popular option right now.

“Little things like maintenance costs and labour rates that we factor into our fully maintained operating lease – that’s where the savings are,” he says. “We’ve seen more customers becoming aware of that and looking at it as an option as opposed to the old non-maintained operating lease. Now around 80 percent of our clients choose the fully maintained operating lease.”

Nicholson adds that since the recession FleetPartners has had to look at how it can

add more value to its customers so it has had to develop the fleet management side of its business to drive costs out. “We’ve had to go further into our customer’s business and become more of a consultancy around formulating vehicle policies that align to their business vision and values and how that interacts with all areas of their business. We’re going in and actually streamlining processes and creating policies. That’s definitely evolved since the global recession.”

As future predictions, Nicholson says he expects Toyota will continue going strong.

“Toyota is generally a strong lease vehicle due to their range of product and can accommodate vehicle policy quite easily, as are Ford, Holden and Hyundai,” he says. “Suzuki Swift is a very popular lease model and a star for their marque, as is Navara for Nissan.” M Hayley Barnett is a writer-at-large for Mediaweb.

Craig Morrison Executive health M

W

hen on holiday most of us expect bit of R&R and some great memories to take back home. What we don’t expect is to become caught up in a medical emergency.

But the worst can, and does, happen when travelling overseas.

And it’s then that a lack of attention to detail or “she’ll be right” attitude has the potential to become financially ruinous.

Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI) covers around 225,000 customers each year. In 2010 the most expensive individual claim paid came from a traveller to the USA who incurred over $1 million in medical expenses alone. The four next highest claims paid (with totals ranging between $129,000 and $264,000) all related to costs associated with a traveller becoming critically ill while in the US or Europe.

A worrying number of New Zealanders may be either unaware of – or choose to ignore – the risk of racking up huge medical and transportation bills when overseas (not to mention the costs associated with cancellations, disruption, losses, theft and other unexpected events).

It’s estimated around one in four Kiwis heading offshore do not take out travel insurance.

For those who do choose to insure, the potential costs of a medical

emergency mean it’s absolutely essential you understand what your policy covers you for. For example, many standard travel policies do not provide cover for losses or costs related to certain adventure sports, such as skiing outside of designated commercial areas.

In the US and Europe, the cost of healthcare can be eye watering. But even in countries that have reciprocal healthcare arrangements with New Zealand, such as the UK and Australia, there are other, potentially hefty, health-related costs to take into account.

Depending on the severity and type of injury or illness, travel back to New Zealand may require the purchase of a first-class seat, as well as the travel costs of an accompanying medical professional or family member, or even chartering an air ambulance.

Then there are the costs involved in medical evacuation by air, boat or land. For example, in Victoria, Australia, the fees for emergency ambulance transport by road start at A$940, while fees for helicopter ambulance transport start at A$3280.

As with any insurance, full disclosure is essential to ensuring you have the right cover for your personal circumstances. Many policies do not pay for any costs or losses arising directly or indirectly from ‘Pre-

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

Risk and relaxation

Existing Conditions’. This is really important to understand. If medical records show your claim is related to a pre-existing condition, it will likely be declined. However, some policies (including SCTIs) will cover common “controlled” pre-existing conditions (such as asthma, epilepsy and diabetes) if they meet certain criteria.

Some insurers also offer the ability to pay extra premium to have your preexisting condition covered.

And finally, don’t leave insurance until the last minute. Over the past 18 months a large number of major weather and geological events have closed airspace and disrupted travel for prolonged periods. To be covered for any losses resulting from these types of events, it’s essential your policy was purchased prior to the event occurring – in other words, when it was still unexpected. A good rule of thumb is: when you buy your ticket, buy your insurance.

The unexpected can happen. So for peace of mind, make sure you read and understand your policy. M Craig Morrison is CEO of Southern Cross Travel Insurance.

Healthy staff means higher productivity Covering staff with Southern Cross health insurance means less 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 and profitable business. Your profits, not ours. Because we’re not for profit, we’re for you. To find out more, call Southern Cross Health Society on 0800 323 555 or visit our website healthybusiness.co.nz

1. TNS research 2004.

Healthy people healthy business Southern Cross Medical Care Society, Level 1, Ernst & Young Building, 2 Takutai Square, Auckland 1010

OCTOber 2011

| management.co.nz | 55

M execs on the move

Rob Campbell, James Ogden

Retirement village operator Summerset Group Holdings has appointed Rob Campbell as an independent director and chairman of the group’s board. James Ogden has accepted appointment as an independent director. Campbell has more than 20 years experience in investment management and corporate governance and is chair of Guinness Peat Group and its NZX listed associate Turners & Growers.

David Hemara, Dr Richard Spelman Sarah Kennedy

Sarah Kennedy succeeds John Lea as the next CEO of rural supplies company RD1.

A veterinarian by training, Kennedy has just completed a Sloan Fellowship at MIT. She has held senior executive positions with NRM NZ, Tegel Foods, Healtheries NZ and Vitaco Health and board positions with Global Women, IANZ NZ, Auckland University Business School and the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Kennedy says she is looking forward to her new role. “RD1 is the backbone of the dairy rural supplies sector in New Zealand and with its return to full ownership by Fonterra is uniquely placed to support Fonterra shareholders to farm competitively.”

She joins RD1 on October 3.

John Lea will step down at the end of November.

Following a restructure of the senior management team at dairy farmer cooperative LIC, David Hemara (pictured) has been appointed to the new role of chief operating officer, with responsibility for managing the operational side of the business and Richard Spelman has been appointed to the new role of general manager research and development.

Hemara will report to CEO Mark Dewdney.

Matthew Ockleston, Karen Dwyer

Kensington Swan has made two senior appointments to its property team in Auckland.

Matthew Ockleston has been appointed as a partner and Karyn Dwyer as a senior associate.

Bruce Ross

Recytech, a reverse logistics and remarketing provider specialising in the removal of electronics and IT waste has appointed Bruce Ross as business development manager. Previously with

Veritas Asset Management in London, Ross has experience in investments and portfolio management.

Kevin Francis

Kevin Francis leaves Australian listed digital agency Q Group, where he was CEO of the New Zealand subsidiary, to take on the CEO’s role at Jasons Travel Media. He brings IT, digital marketing and telecommunications knowledge gained from significant executive positions held domestically and internationally.

Daniel Clouston

Christchurch-born Daniel Clouston has returned from London to take up the role of international marketing manager at Jade Software. He will be responsible for marketing the company’s JOOB suite of products across Jade’s international markets and at home in New Zealand.

Robin Armstrong

Insurance broker and risk advisor Marsh has appointed Robin Armstrong as an associate director, with responsibility for the organisation’s financial and professional services business in Wellington, and as deputy branch manager. Armstrong has been with Marsh since 2002 and comes to New Zealand after six years as country manager and CEO of Marsh in Thailand.

Last month’s issue published the photo of Margaret Smith, Southern Cross Health Society’s new national sales manager – advisers, alongside the announcement of Vivien Sutherland Bridgwater’s appointment as chair of Save the Children New Zealand. We apologise for the error.

Investing in Your People Provides Return Our range and quality of professional development solutions suits all organisational levels. It will also assist your organisation succeed in the brave new world!

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56 | management.co.nz | October 2011

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To Darren Levy, The University of Auckland Business School Thank you for tailoring a leadership programme for our organisation. New insights were gained that are closely aligned with our business strategies and values.

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| management.co.nz | 57

M TOP tips Pete Burdon

Dealing with the media in a crisis

A

crisis or adverse event can hit any business at any time. It could be as serious as a fire killing employees or less severe such as staff walking off the job. Crises can harm reputations and bottom lines. In some cases, they even trigger business failure.

Often, it is how businesses respond to the crisis through the media that determines what impact it will have.

That’s why it’s vital they are equipped to handle the media scrutiny they may suddenly find themselves under.

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

give them all the support they need to get through this.” Another one could be what you are doing to fix the situation, while the other could be what you are doing to stop it happening again. While you should always have a three point media message, the actual points may obviously differ from these if the crisis is less serious.

1

Be prepared

Unfortunately most businesses that find themselves under this media scrutiny have no idea how to deal with it. That’s why they need to be prepared before anything happens. This means selecting a spokesperson to represent the company through the media before a crisis hits. That person needs to be media trained so he or she knows what the media wants, how to give it to them, while also maintaining the reputation of the company.

2

Understand the media need a story

There’s no point looking at the media as an enemy. Reporters are just doing their job of writing and producing stories. If it’s big news, they will cover it. In lots of crises, you can also use the media. For example, you can ask them to broadcast telephone help lines.

www.thoughtpartners.co.nz

58 | management.co.nz | OCTOber 2011

5

Question your lawyers

3

Always be available

If you are at the centre of the crisis, reporters will contact you. It’s important that you be available to answer their questions at all times. This is your opportunity to control the story. If you don’t comment, they will find other sources that may be less sympathetic to your cause, or even give incorrect information. Without your input, onesided and incorrect stories can be produced. These can prolong the crisis or imply that it is worse than it is.

4

Create a media message

You need to prepare three points you want to get across when talking to journalists and refer back to these as often as possible. If the crisis is one where people have been injured, one of these should always be regret. For example, “We really feel for those affected and will

Well-established NZ consulting company providing professional services: • Expert facilitators in strategic thinking • Designers of effective organisational change • Experienced in developing people and potential • Skilful coaching and sensitive investigations • Leaders in organisational development

While you will need to take legal advice on what you can say to the media, be wary if lawyers advise you not to comment. Their focus is to keep you out of jail, while public relations consultants and media trainers are concerned about the court of public opinion. If a lawyer tells you not to comment, you have to weigh that up with how that will come across to the public and your stakeholders. Failure to front up in a crisis can have major implications for your long-term business viability.

6

Avoid speculation

Never speculate. For example, you may be asked: “What will you do if you are found to be responsible for this accident?” Never fall into this trap. Stick to the facts and what did happen, not what might have. You can fend questions off by saying things such as “I don’t want to speculate on that” or “I would prefer not to deal in hypotheticals.” M Pete Burdon is director of Media Training NZ.

10th November 2011

OCTOBER 2011 Vol 06 Number 05

ISSN 1177-5815

on management

New Zealand Institute of Management IN ACTION

Boost to ag sector leadership development D

espite agriculture’s dominance of New Zealand’s trading economy, the needs of the sector haven’t always been met by traditional “generic” leadership development programmes.

By focussing strongly on the unique needs of the agricultural sector the new Agricultural Leadership Programme (ALP), a Landcorp Farming initiative, is specifically aiming to prepare and support current and potential agribusiness leaders.

CEO Chris Kelly says, like all companies, Landcorp relies on the competence of its staff to drive its business performance, but as the country’s largest farmer, it has some special training requirements.

Chris Kelly

“Although Landcorp uses a number of traditional training outlets such as the Agricultural ITO, universities, and other established training outlets, we believe there has been a market failure in the area of leadership in agriculture. Therefore, working in conjunction with NZIM as facilitators, we launched the inaugural Agricultural Leadership Programme in November 2010,” Kelly says.

“This programme is unique, in that it is a leadership programme with a distinct bias towards agriculture.”

NZIM Central CEO Karin Callaghan says NZIM Central has partnered with Landcorp since 2003 to provide professional development across the organisation.

“Following the success of numerous management and leadership programmes, in 2010 we worked with Landcorp to design, implement and pilot this week-long residential programme. The residential model means

participants build new strategic partnerships and learn skills and innovative ways of thinking about the challenges facing their industry in the 21st century, working with like-minded peers.”

The ALP covers key areas seen as critical to successful, sustainable agribusiness leadership, and all learning draws heavily on participants’ involvement in case studies, exercises, syndicate work, and action planning.

“Landcorp has its own customised internal programmes but we wanted to offer something that was going to work for the industry as a whole, and to be leaders in providing that opportunity.

We’ve tried to come up with something quite

Lindy Nelson

unique, and to stimulate people’s minds,” says project director Darryl Parrant, Landcorp’s national manager, staff relations and training.

Every syndicate works on a project of their choice, applying insights, ideas and solutions from the programme. On the final day they present their findings to the shareholders of the businesses they are auditing. The final day also features a CEO Forum which allows programme participants to question CEOs on key issues. This year’s panel consists of Chris Kelly, Wayne McNee, directorgeneral of MAF, and Trevor Deed of Deloitte.

At the end of each programme, one participant is selected to receive the $5000 ALP scholarship towards professional development.

The scholarship winner is also selected as an ambassador for the programme.

The 2010 scholarship winner was Lindy Nelson, who has an intensive sheep and beef farming operation in partnership with her husband in the

Wairarapa. The past 15 years have seen her strongly involved in leadership and governance as a director of the Wairarapa DHB and other roles. Increasingly interested in women’s participation in leadership and governance within the agriculture sector, for the last five years she has focused on research in this area, identifying barriers and looking at what support women need to increase their presence in leadership roles. Last year she founded the AgriWomen’s Development Trust (www.awdt.org.nz).

“When we launched the AWDT I went from chair and a governance background to a management focus as executive director, virtually overnight. I had been working alongside Landcorp on our programme and was impressed with their commitment to people development.

I liked the fact that the focus of the ALP was on leadership within the management framework, which was exactly what I needed, and on learning how to get the best results from a team to improve business performance.

“For me the highlights were: • The opportunity to work in a syndicate and apply theory in practice.

• Learning about your particular strengths and the value they can bring to a team – where you excel and areas for improvement.

• The opportunity to have a 360° and EQ evaluation and getting feedback on that.

• Being able to role play new ways of thinking and responding in challenging situations.

“The biggest thing I gained was increased skill and confidence in my ability to operationalise strategy, and clarity around my strengths and skills. There is probably not a week goes by when I don’t reflect on some key learning. Strong effective leadership within our agricultural businesses is vital, and we need the skills that this programme delivers. Landcorp has shown exemplary leadership in recognising this.

“Being selected for the scholarship was an enormous honour. As a result I have been able to work with a professional executive coach, and I was also able to spend three weeks in Australia furthering my research on leadership and governance within agriculture for women,” says Nelson.

An important aspect of the ALP is its commitment to ongoing support for its graduates, through alumni networking and other initiatives.

Graduates are signed up on LinkedIn, forming an ongoing discussion network. A second programme is scheduled for November, says Chris Kelly, with a number of organisations who had representatives on the first programme attending the second one.

Focus on Management

NZIM and ACE – Committed to constructing excellence in New Zealand D

uring a significant period of building and construction growth in New Zealand, NZIM Northern and the Academy of Constructing Excellence have once again partnered to deliver a relevant and practical qualification for organisations who are involved in high-level projects across many constructing sectors.

With 2011 Rugby World Cup preparations, commercial and residential redevelopments across New Zealand and of course the dedicated rebuilding of Christchurch front of mind for many contractors, companies and residents, the NZIM Diploma of Managerial Excellence in Construction and Engineering is a training course specifically for the industry’s up and coming project and business leaders. The course is aimed at individuals identified in the succession planning of New Zealand’s leading construction industry players.

NZIM Northern has been working with the directors of the Academy of Constructing Excellence for almost five years and during this time we have seen a steady flow of graduates who have all made positive impacts back in their workplaces and industries.

The course is designed for full-time employees and covers subjects such as financial management, tools for excellence including Lean Six Sigma, and performance improvement. This flows into customer relationship management, supply chain management and project management, all customised to suit the engineering and construction industries.

Due to the popularity of this timely extended programme, NZIM Northern is now taking registrations of interest for next year’s public intake, scheduled to run in March 2012. For more information please contact Stacey Coulthard at NZIM Northern on 09 303 9106 or visit our website at www.nzimnorthern.co.nz

Focus on Management

Celebrations at the NZIM Northern mid-year graduation ceremony

N

ZIM Northern has once again joined together with participants, clients and facilitators to celebrate the success of several graduating groups at an evening event at the exclusive Romfords, at the Tamaki Yacht Club in Auckland’s Mission Bay. The event marked the participants’ achievement of several nationally recognised qualifications including the National Certificate in Business, National Certificate in Adult Education and Training, the NZIM Diplomas in Project Management and Frontline Management and Level 6 qualifications including the Advanced Management Diploma and the Diploma in Supply Chain Management.

In full graduation regalia the participants were recognised for their commitment over the last 12 months to achieve academic recognition of their work and were joined by their families and

colleagues as they received their qualification in a formal presentation ceremony.

The evening was capped off with a keynote address from the MP for Auckland Central, Nikki Kaye who spoke knowledgeably about leadership and the many positive steps the Government is taking to improve the professional development landscape for New Zealanders. The key message in her speech was for employers to invest in their people through learning and recognition as we build leadership capability at all levels.

NZIM Northern celebrated 27 new graduates throughout the course of the evening and it was also acknowledged that the support of friends and family was a vital ingredient to the overall success of these individuals, who not only completed their study but were also able to balance their commitments in their work and home lives.

And the winner is…

NZIM Northern crowns its 2011 Young Executive of the Year E

ach year the New Zealand Institute of Management actively seeks out young leaders, innovators, team builders and high achievers to step forward and be recognised for the positive impact they have on the growth, productivity, and the morale of their employing enterprise.

Hamish McBeath (centre) and judges.

Now in its 16th year, the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award was established by NZIM and NZ Management magazine to recognise stand-out individuals who are prepared to strive for personal and organisational excellence.

All nominees are entered into a first round of awards for the NZIM Southern, Central and Northern regions. The regional winners then

go on as finalists for the overall NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award, to be announced at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards dinner in Auckland on November 24.

After a receiving a number of very high calibre applications and nominations NZIM Northern was delighted to announce that the Northern Regional winner is Hamish McBeath.

Hamish McBeath is general manager of Fletcher Building’s Pacific Coilcoaters. As GM of a large business, Hamish says success is only achieved through the alignment and performance of others. He says that his most satisfying achievement has been meeting and exceeding budgeted commitments in a challenging environment with highlyengaged employees. This is a key element in his personal and professional success, in a career that has spanned over 10 years with the Fletcher Group.

Hamish achieved this award from amongst a group of driven and professional applicants that made the decision very challenging for the judges involved.

Photos from both events can be viewed at NZIM Northern’s Facebook Page – Join us online!

Project Risk Management R

isk management is one of today’s hottest topics. Most industries are now highly competitive and the project management mantra is faster, cheaper, better. With these pressures comes risk. Good risk management can mean the difference between project success and failure, and allows us to respond proactively and react better to the risks that do occur.

Experience has shown that unmanaged risks are a primary cause of project failure.

Unfortunately, many managers and project managers believe risk management to be too difficult, time consuming, or even too complicated to perform. Such concerns are unfounded and there is no doubt that successful risk management will greatly enhance the probability of project success.

Dr Jim Young FNZIM, the author of this article, has recently published a comprehensive book “Managing Murphy” about project risk management.

For some years now the project management profession has accepted that risk management is an essential, proactive and integral part of a project’s entire life cycle, not simply a onetime, optional, tack-on activity. It is now widely acknowledged that project risk management offers significant benefits to all organisations – established and new, large and small, public, private, and not-for-profit.

Our major project management authorities, including the US-based Project Management Institute (PMI) and the UK-based PRINCE2 methodology owners, now advocate that project risk management be applied to both threats and opportunities. This inclusive definition is consistent with the current trend in international best-practice risk management. Formerly, only bad things were regarded as risks – uncertain events with a negative impact on project objectives and/or benefits. Perceived positives were simply the basis for project justification.

Globally, increasing uncertainty is the new norm, yet somehow we adapt, and projects forge ahead. We can’t wait for the world to right itself, so we’re adopting new models for project management that will make our projects more efficient, agile and flexible, better able to survive the present, and better positioned to thrive when and if, normalcy returns. All such new models recognise the great significance of risk and the vital need for its proper management.

There are no rewards without risk. Just ask our All Blacks, Stephen Tindall, Michael Hill, Sam

Morgan, Peter Jackson, or any one of our many Kiwi achievers. Unfortunately, some macho senior managers and inert project sponsors can be complicit in keeping project disasters going.

Instead of commending project managers who suggest terminating overly risky projects, at best they view these project managers as inept and at worst they replace them. With such project sponsors, we can be assured that disaster has not been left to chance!

I call these doomed endeavours “dead projects walking”. We know exactly where they’re going, but reputations, sunk costs, lack of courage and political considerations often dictate that these projects continue, draining the resource pool and so denying more deserving project opportunities the chance of daylight. There can also be an adverse impact on business-as-usual if an organisation’s limited and shared resources are allocated to inappropriate projects.

Sometimes it’s only later in a project’s life cycle that intolerable risk is identified. Nevertheless, if the project shouldn’t proceed or can’t be satisfactorily recovered, it’s time to admit failure, cut losses, and re-assign those scarce resources.

Some critical factors that help ensure project risk management success are: • A risk-aware culture.

• A shared understanding of the principles of risk management and their application.

• A straightforward and scalable risk management process.

• A sufficiency of resources to implement the process, especially risk responses.

Over recent years our approach to risk management has certainly improved. In that famous 1932 photograph of New York construction workers lunching on a skyscraper crossbeam hundreds of feet above street level, they have no safety boots, hard hats, or harnesses, and are seemingly oblivious to risk. Imagine if that skyscraper scene was recreated today! The police would be called to talk the people down and their employer would be spending considerable time in court if not jail.

In the final analysis, most post mortems of project disasters conclude that problems would have been avoided or much reduced had there been explicit early concern about identifying and resolving risk. Frequently, these projects were swept along by a tide of unfounded optimism, often by their enthusiastic sponsors.

Dates for your Diary Young Professional Event with Irene Ohler – 15 November Cullen Law Lunchtime Seminar – 16 November Dr Rich Allen Workshop – 24 & 25 November For more information on upcoming events or seminars or to register please visit our website www.nzimcentral.co.nz or contact Susan Mckibbin, Membership Services & Events Manager.

Advanced Project Risk Management Course T

oday’s projects are more time constrained, pose greater technical challenges, and are less likely to have adequate resourcing than in the past. With these constraints comes risk.

This course revises best practice project risk management and familiarises participants with tools and techniques to better analyse and respond to project risk.

It is designed for those who propose to or are managing projects, particularly bigger, complex and novel endeavours, and wish to develop their expertise in managing risk to improve project performance.

On successful completion of this two-day programme, it is expected participants will be able to: • Understand the importance and benefits of effective project risk management and the associated terminology, critical success factors, and psychological considerations.

• Understand how to integrate the risk management process into their project life cycle, apply project risk management process and principles, and understand attitudes to risk.

• Prepare the project risk management plan, establish a risk register and reporting methods, recognise common sources of project risk and be able to identify, register and categorise risks.

• Undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis to estimate risk impact and probability.

• Understand risk response categories, and how to develop specific responses to manage risk.

• Understand the main types of contracts for outsourcing project work and project resource procurement and their associated risk characteristics.

• Implement risk responses, monitor, control and assess risk response effectiveness, and manage residual and secondary risk.

• Understand how to undertake a project risk audit, update the organisation’s risk database, and apply a basic risk management maturity model to achieve continuous improvement.

Date: Cost:

5-6 December 2011 Members: $1100 + GST Non-members: $1450 + GST Facilitator: Dr Jim Young FNZIM

Focus on Management

2011 Young Executive of the Year Southern Final… a very special event The annual function to find the Southern regional winner of the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year is always a highlight of the NZIM Southern calendar, but this year’s final was even more special than usual.

T

he reason is that this year’s guest speaker, Sue Lindsay, was the South Island regional and national winner of the award in 1997, NZIM Southern’s CEO, Joseph Thomas was the South Island and national winner in 2000 and we also had last year’s regional winner, Brendon McWilliam present to hand over the baton. What a line up!

The calibre of the six finalists was once again of very high quality, making the job of the judges Gordon Richards, Cathy Hemsworth and Bill Tate very difficult indeed, to the extent that three extra days were required after the conclusion of the interviews to decide on the eventual winner.

Judging wasn’t made any easier when just after midday on the first day of interviews, a 6.3 earthquake forced abandonment for the remainder of the day.

There was a good geographical spread of contestants this year with one from Invercargill, two from Dunedin, one from the West Coast and

Matthew Carter

two from Christchurch. Companies represented included Noel Leeming Group, Westland Cooperative Dairy Products, Fulton Hogan, MacIntyre Dick Accountants, Metropol Magazine and Otago Polytechnic.

The overall winner was Matthew Carter, general manager, human resources and student services, at the Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin. With 835 people on the payroll, Otago Polytechnic is one of Dunedin’s largest employers and Matt is responsible for the full human resources and organisational development function across health and safety, HR generalists and payroll. His student services responsibilities include the Student Learning Centre, counsellors, Student Support & Advisory Services and the Childcare Centre.

As general manager, Matt is a member of the Polytechnic’s leadership team, responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Polytechnic.

He is also currently president of the Southern branch of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ).

Matt’s previous positions included HR manager of community services for the North Shore City Council and management consultant for Ernst & Young.

The NZIM Southern team wishes Matt every success as he heads off later this year to represent the South Island in the national final of the NZIM/ Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards in Auckland.

Advanced Management Programme… an international experience with great networking opportunities S

L-R: Ralph Chivers, Telecom NZ; Paul Mulder, Gen-I; James Bandura, Roosje Suwae, Jesse Ramo and Kone Kula all from Telikom PNG.

Focus on Management

ince its first staging in 1979, NZIM Southern’s unique Advance Management Programme (AMP) has brought together annually a distinguished, world-class faculty from America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, giving it a truly international flavour.

Adding to the international input over the years has been the attendance of candidates from countries such as Fiji, Sarawak and Papua New Guinea. This year’s staging was no exception.

Two years ago chief operating officer for Telikom Papua New Guinea, Taito Tabaleka, (who attended AMP in 2004 when he was with Telikom Fiji), contacted us to advise that because of the benefits the programme had provided him in his professional career development, he wanted his managers in PNG to experience AMP also.

As a result of this, two of Taito’s senior managers completed the programme in 2010, and due to their enthusiasm for AMP, Telekom PNG this year registered four of their management team to attend.

At the conclusion of the first two week segment of AMP, which consists of 2 x 2 weeks with a 5 week break, we received a request from the PNG attendees to arrange a meeting with representatives from Telecom New Zealand while they were here for the second segment.

Telecom was happy to oblige so the meeting took place at the Copthorne Hotel Commodore, the venue for AMP each year, on Thursday 11 August.

There was an enthusiastic exchange of information of benefit to both parties, to the extent that a further meeting is planned to meet with senior managers at Telecom NZ’s head office in Auckland early next year.

We are pleased that attendance on AMP can provide added benefits for our valued international clients.

Keith Walker Business Development Manager NZIM Southern Inc

NORTHERN

All courses shown are in Auckland. For more information phone 0800 800 694 or visit www.nzimnorthern.co.nz

October

12-13 12-14 12-1 17 17 17-18 18

Dealing with Difficult Behaviours Project Management Accounting for Non-Accountants Effective Business Writing Diploma in Frontline Management Women in Management Manage Effective Workplace Relationships 19-21 Four Quadrant Leadership 19-21 Team Leader – Essential Skills 25 ffective Use of Time 25-26 Problem Solving & Decision Making 26-28 Leadership, Motivation & Team Building 27-28 Budgeting for Non Financial Managers 27-28 Presentation Skills 27-28 Customer Relationship Management NOVEMber 1 Principles of Policy Design 1-2 Change Management 2 Principles of Policy Analysis 3 Emotional Intelligence 3-4 Developing Influencing & Motivation Skills 7 Memory & Mind Mapping 7 Diploma in Supply Chain Management 9-10 Interpersonal Communication Skills 9-11 Team Leader – Building Effective Teams 10 Speed & Power Reading 11 Effective Business Writing 14-15 Workplace Assessment 16 Effective Use of Time 16-18 Introduction to Management 17-18 Negotiation Skills 21-22 Strategic Thinking Tools 21-22 Think On Your Feet 23 Demystifying the Financial Machinery of Government 24 Train the Trainer 24-25 Facilitation Skills 29 Understanding a Profit & Loss DECEMber 1-2 Interpersonal Communication Skills 5 Facilitate Continuous Improvement 5-7 Project Management 5-7 Team Leader – Operational Management 6 Facilitate and Capitalise on Change and Innovation 8-9 Needs Analysis & Programme Design 9 Lean 6 Sigma – Yellow Belt 14 Effective Use of Time JANUARY 2012 19 Ensure a Safe Workplace 19-20 Effective Recruitment 20 Manage People Performance 24 Speed & Power Reading 25 ffective Business Writing 25-27 Team Leader – Essential Skills 26 Effective Use of Time

CENTRAL

All courses shown are in Wellington unless otherwise indicated. For more information phone 0800 373 700 or visit www.nzimcentral.co.nz

October

13-14 Operational Management (Dip in Management Advanced) 14 Ensure a Safe Workplace 17 Manage Risk (DFM Modular) 17-18 Operational Management (Dip in Management Advanced) 17-19 Team Leader Skills – Operational Leadership (Cert in Business) 18-19 Developing Influencing and Motivation Skills 20 Speed & Power Reading 20-21 Negotiation Skills 21 Project Risk Management 25-27 Team Leader Skills – Essential Skills (Cert in Business) 26 Practical Finance for Owners and Managers – Manufacturing 27-28 Think on Your Feet® 27-28 Budgeting for Non Financial Managers 31-1/11 HR I People at Work (Cert in Management)

NOVEMber

1 Managing Your Time 2 Report Writing 2-4 Professional Administration Skills 5-11 Agricultural Leadership Programme 7-9 Project Management 7-9 Accounting for Non Accountants 10 Training Needs Analysis (NCAET Paper) 11 Programme Design (NCAET Paper) 14 Ensure Team Effectiveness (DFM Modular) 15-16 People Skills for Prince2 17 Manage Budgets (DFM611A Module) 17-18 HR II Personnel Practice (Cert in Management) 17-18 Assertiveness Techniques (Previously Assertiveness Skills) 18 Manage Risk (DFM611A Module) 21-22 Applied Management (Dip Mgmt Advanced) 22 Stress Management Strategies 23 Practical Finance for Owners and Managers – Service 23-24 Business Ethics (Dip Mgmt Advanced) 25 Training Evaluation (NCAET Paper)

DECEMber

1-2 Workplace Communications (Cert in Management) 7-8 Marketing, Planning & Control 12 Facilitate Continuous Improvement (DFM Modular) 13 Practical Finance for Owners and Managers – Manufacturing 13-14 Advanced Negotiation Skills

SOUTHern

For more information phone 03 379 2302 (Christchurch C), 03 455 5165 (Dunedin D) or 03 218 7451 (Invercargill I & Queenstown Q) or visit www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

October

The Art of Minute Taking D Counsellor Sales Person C The Art of Minute Taking - Advanced D Accounting for Non Accountants Stage 1 C 12-14 Four Quadrant Leadership C 17-19 Team Leader – Building Effective Teams C 18 Successful Event Management C 18 Emotional Intelligence D 19 Managing Effective Teams C 19 Email Etiquette C 19 How to Handle Difficult Customers D 19 Managing Stress D 19 Delivering Great Customer Care D 20 Project Management for Administrators C 20-21 Strategic Planning C 27 Governance in Practice I 28 Effective Use of Time C 29-4/11 Excellence in Management C NOVEMber 2-3 Corporate Finance C 7 Problem Solving & Decision Making C 7 Audit Training I 7-9 Team Leader – The Essential Skills C 8 Effective Delegation C 9 Delivering Great Customer Care I 9-10 Introduction to Performance Management C 9-10 How to Manage & Lead Successfully Q 10 How to Handle Difficult Customers I 10 How to Manage Your Manager & Your Office I 14-15 Presentation Skills I 16-18 Four Quadrant Leadership Stage 2 C 17-18 Building Relationship Versatility C 17-18 Negotiation Skills C 21 Problem Solving & Decision Making I 21-23 Four Quadrant Leadership With Wilf C 22 Report & Proposal Writing I 23-24 Practical Project Management C 23-24 Project Management I 24-25 Leading Change Through Challenging Times C 25 Process Mapping & Continuous Improvement I 29-1/12 Team Leader – Leading the Work Group C 11 11-12 12 12-13

DECEMber

2 Effective Use of Time C 5-6 Coaching for Performance C 7-8 Quality Management – An Introduction C 7-8 ANA Stage 2 C 9 Business Ethics C 12-14 Team Leader – Building Effective Teams C Focus on Management

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 Gary Sturgess Life FNZIM (Chairman) Lynda Carroll AFNZIM Mark Woodard AFNZIM Brian Soutar AFNZIM Dan Coward AFNZIM John Sandford FNZIM Joanne O’Connor MNZIM Ash Dixon MNZIM NZIM Inc Chairman: Gary Sturgess Life FNZIM Deputy Chair: Lynda Carroll AFNZIM PO Box 67, Wellington 6140 Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479 Email national_office@nzim.co.nz Website: www.nzim.co.nz 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 Northern Region Regional Director: John Sandford FNZIM Regional Contact: Tait Grindley PO Box 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, Fax 0-9-303 9109 Email enquiries@nzimnorthern.co.nz Website www.nzimnorthern.co.nz Central Region Regional Director: Lynda Carroll AFNZIM Regional Contact: Susan Andrews PO Box 11781, Wellington 6142 Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301 Email enquiries@nzimcentral.co.nz Website www.nzimcentral.co.nz Southern Region Regional Director: Brian Soutar AFNZIM Regional CEO: Joseph Thomas AFNZIM PO Box 13044, Christchurch 8141 Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-03-357 8003 Email joseph@nzimsouthern.co.nz Website www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

Member Comment:

Una Ryan

Una Ryan has had her own organisational development consultancy for 17 years, except for over three years as GM of Culture & Capability at Vodafone NZ from 2002. She provides coaching, facilitation, training, and consulting to business, government and not-for-profit organisations locally and internationally. Fascinated with how learning happens ever since her “first career” as a teacher, her passion is turning theoretical models into practical tools, encouraging new growth, insights and directions for those working with her.

I

’ve always had a real passion for learning – and for learning to be easy and fun for everyone. Initially I taught commerce at secondary and tertiary levels. While I loved teaching, and loved the students, I felt sad that so many were labelled and written off as slow learners. I didn’t believe that was true and that’s what led me to explore how learning happens. It was exciting finding all this out, especially the 1970s’ work of people like Tony Buzan and others, who explored how the brain works and brought new insights and strategies for learning.

The whole shift from learning being ‘teacher driven’ (I teach and it’s up to you to learn) to ‘learner driven’ (I teach and cater to everyone’s learning styles) resonated with me hugely. It’s been an incredibly rich journey sharing these understandings with people who then train others, and seeing people transform their learning experiences.

Like many New Zealanders, I went overseas, spending about a decade away. While away, particularly when I lived in Tunisia, I became very interested in learning about my Maori ancestry.

On returning, I planned to teach once my son, Thomas, went to school. So in preparation I studied at Auckland University, learning Te Reo and completing other related papers. I also upskilled in group dynamics, facilitation, training, and adult learning. My first experience with NZIM was doing Train the Trainer in 1992.

In 1993 I co-authored the book Making Choices, Taking Chances with Christine Milicich.

This was about self-reliance strategies for women in the 1990s, largely drawing on our personal experiences and our desire to support others going through similar things. It was selected as one of the top 10 non-fiction books in the Listener book awards, which resulted in a busy schedule of promotional events and workshops around the country. This was also when I really started working with adults. Christine had a management development consultancy and asked me to join her. That was a time of incredible learning and I have great appreciation for Christine for all I learned. This was also when I started my

professional association with NZIM. As facilitators and trainers we developed a diverse range of programmes for a diverse range of organisations and that has continued in my consultancy. At NZIM I’ve been a facilitator of the Diploma in Frontline Management, Managerial Excellence, the National Certificate in Adult Education and various public and inhouse programmes. Currently, I’m designing an Advanced Train the Trainer for NZIM. It will be launched around November and will include recent advanced research around the brain, learning, and about learning and performance cultures. I’m so excited to be sharing this programme with trainers and facilitators, and the difference it will make to their organisations.

I’ve always had a commitment to the quality of training in organisations. The attitude in many organisations used to be one of “having a couple of days off work and learning a few things” with very little value added back at work, or having the learning linked into a person’s development plan. These days, more than ever, it’s critical for organisations to be deliberate about the capability they require. Keeping pace with, and matching the individual and organisational capability is a must to be high performing and competitive.

Misinterpreting needs has come at huge costs all round. That’s why I get great pleasure from working with organisations in this area and training groups to ensure their needs and the intervention are aligned. NZIM’s programme ‘Needs Analysis and Programme Design’ is of great help.

These days I’m coaching about 30% of my time and facilitating and training the other 70%, and I like that variety. As well as leadership coaching I also do performance coaching. It’s often a lonely place for leaders and using a coach to discuss issues and get clarity about where to head with situations, is a wise and valuable move. I also do an increasing amount of work on how to have conversations that make a healthy difference. Given relationships are an organisation’s glue, which can rise or fall on the quality of their conversations, there are compelling reasons to become aware of what you do and don’t do in conversations. Issues don’t need to become problems, yet so much is left unspoken and costs so much valuable energy and time. Leaders/managers are the critical link between people and their performance. We need to get over being nice and tip-toeing around issues – or then clobbering others because we spent so long pussyfooting! Fortunately people are becoming more aware of the needs for these skills.

In conclusion, I’d like to acknowledge what NZIM has done to build a learning community.

The Institute has always had a solid brand in the marketplace and has always been committed to developing and going with new trends. The work NZIM did around providing NZQA qualifications has made a huge difference in New Zealand – now so many more people are gaining qualifications and actively building their careers with confidence. Also, the networking that happens for people attending NZIM programmes and events builds a very strong basis for informal and formal learning to happen.

Thank you NZIM for the contribution you’ve made to enhancing and rebuilding the self esteem of learners in New Zealand. It’s what makes my heart sing – to see people learning, thriving and knowing their value and contributing their value back into to their organisations. And now it’s back to writing my next book, for leaders and their people!

Supporting the leaders of tomorrow NZIM Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year

Finalists

2011

NORTHERN_left Hamish McBeath General Manager Pacific Coilcoaters - Subsidiary of Fletcher Building SOUTHERN_right Matthew Carter General Manager Otago Polytechnic - HR & Student Services

Auckland: 09 639 0600 Wellington: 04 802 1400 www.eagle.co.nz

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