NZ Management February 2012

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NZIM’S FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT – PAGE 59

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Low-ego solutions

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here’s something deeply refreshing about finally admitting some of the old ways don’t work. This is a new year with the same old economic problems and blind Freddy can see we’ve got to do things differently.

For several years now, people have been talking about the new normal. I’ve always suspected this is econo-speak for “don’t expect too much”. It’s not the kind of talk to make me bounce out of bed in the morning. I also think it doesn’t push the point far enough. Conversations around town suggest we’re entering an era of the previously unthinkable. It’s the new abnormal: the “new new”.

There’s a growing body of evidence that old barriers are melting and new thinking is seeping through. Nowhere is this more promising, and revolutionary, than in the work in both the developed and developing world where a huge range of new initiatives now seek to bind the pragmatism of commerce to the passion of philanthropy. (See this month’s cover story “Biz 3.0” on page 28).

If they’re to have any hope of succeeding, all parties must put their traditional differences and suspicions to one side and together start tackling the problems of world poverty, housing, access to clean water and myriad other challenges.

At the wider New Zealand organisational level, there’s also plenty of evidence of hitherto unexpected behaviour. In this month’s leadership column (“Flawed governance”, page 22), Reg Birchfield shares his take on how both the Institute of Directors and

the NZX have been wising up to the merits of having more women on our nation’s boards.

Right at the end of last year, the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development (NZBCSD) and BusinessNZ said they’d form a joint Sustainable Business Council (SBC).

Less than three weeks later, the Business Roundtable and the New Zealand Institute agreed to merge to create a new public policy think tank.

Their rationale was that the country isn’t big enough to support two such bodies.

They’ll be wed by April 1 this year.

At a recent conference of The Competitiveness Institute, NZTE CEO Peter Chrisp noted that deep collaboration is not in New Zealanders’ DNA but deep innovation is. He went on to say we need lowego institutions: ones that aren’t concerned about whether they exist or not. He means ones that are more concerned for New Zealand’s greater good than in saving their own skins.

Whether born out of inspiration, pragmatism, deep necessity or desperation, such new behaviours signal a new approach to tackling old problems. Here on NZ Management we’ll be tracking the progress of lowego solutions with great interest.

Ruth Le Pla, Managing Editor

A MEDIAWEB MAGAZINE PUBLISHER Toni Myers MANAGING EDITOR Ruth Le Pla editor@management.co.nz CONTRIBUTORS Megan Alexander, Hayley Barnett, Reg Birchfield, Wayne Boyd, Dee Crooks, Bob Edlin, Nick Grant, Colin James, Hamish McBeath, Peter Tynan, Jake Willis ADVERTISING MANAGER Rod Myers 09-372 6444, 027-484 8046, admanager@management.co.nz DESIGNER Jennifer Adams COPY & WEB EDITOR Gill Prentice PRODUCTION MANAGER Fran Marshall franm@mediaweb.co.nz NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS www.management.co.nz/subscribe SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES subs@mediaweb.co.nz

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Vol 59 No 1 • ISSN 1174-5339 (Print), 1179-3910 (Online)

FEBRUARY 2012

| management.co.nz | 3

contents

28 COVER STORY

BIZ 3.0 Make $$$ and embrace your inner philanthropist New models for addressing everything from world poverty to food security and affordable education are sprouting up across the globe. Ruth Le Pla wonders if business could, after all, help save the world.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

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INBOX: New and views

12 TOP 200 THINKING: Wayne Boyd 14 FOCUS: Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards 16 AS I SEE IT: Hamish McBeath 17 MANAGERS ABROAD: Jake Willis 18 NZIM: 2012 – challenges for NZ managers Reg Birchfield 56 EXECS ON THE MOVE 58 EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT OPINION 20 POLITICS: Crunch time for National Colin James 21 ECONOMICS: Forecasts? Take your pick Bob Edlin 22 LEADERSHIP: Flawed governance Reg Birchfield 24 MANAGING SUSTAINABLY: Protecting NZ for 2050 Dee Crooks 25 THOUGHT LEADER: What’s New Zealand’s ave’ia? Brian Richards 26 BOOKCASE: Grand Pursuit; The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs; The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs Reg Birchfield ADVICE 16

55 EXEC HEALTH: Plan for good health Peter Tynan 57 TOP TIPS: How to lead remote teams Megan Alexander

FEBRUARY 2012 • Vol 59 No 1

features

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34 Productivity Series

Solving NZ’s productivity problem

In the first of a major new NZ Management series on productivity, Reg Birchfield explains why understanding the word is so important.

40 Competitiveness: Competing by collaborating

Twenty years ago Michael Enright helped New Zealand learn how to innovate through industry clusters. Now he’s back, spearheading a new project to nudge us into the next phase of international competitiveness. He spoke with Ruth Le Pla.

44 Face to Face: Brad Clark – relentless & inspired

What’s it like to wake up every morning knowing your work helps save lives? Nick Grant goes walkabout with Starship Foundation CEO Brad Clark to find out.

40

50 Energy Efficiency: Switching on the green light

Many Kiwi businesses are lagging behind global uptake of sustainable practices. Hayley Barnett asks local energy efficiency experts why more of our companies aren’t tapping into environmental opportunities and what some businesses are doing to go green.

59 NZIM’s Focus On Management

Training for the Frontline; Member comment from Sir Eion Edgar; Regional news; Upcoming management courses.

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INBOX

The folly of forecasts

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ack in the 1980s, people would fret over how to spend the extra spare time that technology was about to force upon them. It was considered such a serious issue that Brisbane’s World Expo ’88 ran ‘leisure in the age of technology’ as its key theme. Looking back, it’s a laughable idea, says Steve Tighe, and that is the conundrum of forecasting.

“The key for a futurist,” he says, “is to detect ridiculous behaviour while it’s still considered acceptable.”

Tighe is a speaker and business advisor on the future, strategy and innovation.

He’s the man behind Australian company Chasing Sunrises. Its name, he says, is based on the observation that organisations will either look back and admire sunsets, or chase the sunrises of the future.

Tighe (say it like ‘tiger’ without the ‘r’) was in Auckland recently as guest speaker at the Randstad ‘Shaping the world of work’ breakfast series.

“You can’t predict the future,” he says, “but you can get better at picking the drivers and interpreting them.”

Many people see the future as an unknowable black hole, he says.

“So they either try not to think too much about it or rely heavily on statistics to interpret how the future might be.”

Instead, he says, there are methods for thinking more effectively about key changes that are shaping society and their implications for business.

Take the idea of cigarettes, he says. While the physical product has changed markedly little in the past 70 years (with the notable exception of the introduction of filter tips), societal values and perceptions have undergone a seismic shift.

Greta Garbo once sexualised the notion of smoking, doctors promoted it and – in the ’70s – Marlboro advertised cigarettes as masculine and fresh.

Today, ignorant consumption is one of the more benign perceptions of smoking.

At worst, smoking is seen as a death sentence.

“The images displayed on cigarette packaging are as far removed from the sexy image of Greta Garbo as you can possibly get,” says Tighe.

The key to foresight lies in unlocking current perceptions, he says, and then starting to explore weaknesses and gaps in that thinking.

“Perceptions dictate what people are attracted to and what they reject, and are the precursors to how people behave.”

According to Tighe, the developed world cycles through traditional, materialistic and post-materialistic value sets. By understanding the underlying conditions that cause societies to slowly shift from one set to the next, it is possible to become sensitive to change and, by extension, develop strategy accordingly.

At a pragmatic organisational level, he says, foresight boils down to three questions: “First: what are your existing perceptions both as individuals and across society?”

This, he says, is the most overlooked part of planning, yet provides the cheapest and most effective way of thinking about the future.

“Next, try to understand how those perceptions might change in the future. Our perceptions are fluid. Things that we are attracted to in one context, we reject in another.”

Third, think about what different behaviour might result from those changed perceptions.

“Many organisations are fixated on measuring behaviour. But behaviour is downstream from our values and perceptions. If we can unlock these, we can start to anticipate how the future will be different.” M

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EU protectionism threatens global growth

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ltimately, it may not be a collapse of the financial markets that sends the wider economy spiralling into depression: it may instead be the European Union’s protectionism and massive tariff walls that deal the fatal blow to global economic growth.

That’s the thinking of a group of Massey University executive MBA students following a recent study tour to Europe. Zaneta Schumann, Jussi Luukkonen, Enock Ndlovu, Gareth Jones and Kamelesh Prasad identified protectionism within the EU as a significant obstacle for New Zealand businesses.

“This extends not only to economic matters, but is incorporated into a complex network of cultural, financial and political arrangements,” they say.

“It is impossible to build business success in Europe without some grasp of the history that underpins this reality.”

The study points out that almost every nation practises some measure of protectionism for its domestic products.

“However, the difference in Europe is that the amalgam of protectionism,

politics and traditionally conservative business behaviour makes recognising and bridging the gap quite crucial.

“In addition, the EU’s mechanisms for protecting its economy are not only based on political, economic and financial reasoning, but are also founded on the strong emphasis placed on citizens’ rights.”

EU protectionist measures range from classical trade barriers such as tariff increases and “buy national” campaigns, to carbon footprints and behind-the-scenes, covert measures.

The students note that the current weakness of the US economy, combined with the European debt problem, has major ramifications and requires international cooperation and a coordinated global response.

They also acknowledge that what one government sees as protectionism, another might consider as simply safeguarding jobs.

“The present state of drifting international politics poses the obvious danger that the world could slide further into protectionism and dramatic currency market fluctuations would only add to the uncertainty.” M

David Chapman – obituary

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avid Chapman, for 17 years the New Zealand Institute of Management’s National chief executive and its indefatigable advocate for better management education and training in New Zealand, died in Wellington on January 14 aged 75.

Chapman took up the NZIM leadership challenge in 1992, bringing to it an impressive public sector background and an impeccable public and private sector network of contacts, colleagues and decision-makers.

He had, said the Institute’s national president of the day Lindsay Fergusson, the diplomatic skills NZIM desperately needed. And, true to form and his hallmark personal dedication, Chapman put them to work with considerable effect.

“David was a very good leader,” says former NZIM National chairman Doug Matheson who worked closely with him on several important organisational and management development initiatives.

“He was committed to establishing relevant management qualifications and all credit should go to him for what exists today. His contribution is well understood and recognised by those who know and understand what is involved in lifting management capability.”

Much of Chapman’s contribution to NZIM was built on his deep understanding of the critical role political policy-making plays in promoting or impeding better learning standards and practices. He was, after all, a private secretary to several key ministers in both the National and Labour governments of the 1960s and ’70s, including Finance Minister and subsequent controversial Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon.

Despite offers, Chapman declined to become a permanent private secretary, opting instead to become a successful travel commissioner for the New Zealand Tourism Department, heading up its offices in Australia and North America.

The personal respect he garnered in the public sector helped him

enhance government understanding of the economic importance of better management education. “He knew the right people to talk to in both the corporate and public sectors and they listened to him,” says Robin Dunlop, former NZIM National chair and top-level public servant.

Chapman won important skirmishes with government authorities over the implementation and nature of Unit Standards and learning programme content and accreditation.

Matheson also acknowledges that Chapman’s determination drove him to create NZIM’s Management Capability Index (MCI) which Chapman then started promoting both at home and abroad. The MCI is increasingly recognised offshore as a meaningful measure of a nation’s level of management performance.

“It was also David’s idea to establish the NZIM Foundation and its management education scholarship programme,” says Matheson.

Chapman left an important legacy at NZIM, but none more than his leadership role model as a caring, committed and people-focused leader.

“My management style is to work through people,” he once told me. “I focus on integrity, respect and trust.” He thought these critical management issues were too often forgotten by leaders and managers operating in today’s self-focused world.

“Valuing and recognising people and building trust are critical to meaningful and effective relationships,” he said.

David Chapman is succeeded by his wife Ann, daughter Kae, son Grant and their families of seven grandchildren. – Reg Birchfield

FEBRUARY 2012

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INBOX

Learning from quakes

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year and a month on from the lethal earthquake which devastated much of the Christchurch CBD, Christchurch organisations will share their learning experiences in the wake of the quakes at TelstraClear Seismics and the City.

Held on March 22 this year, the event will focus on the lessons public and private sector organisations have learnt about business continuity planning and recovery.

The city’s seismic experience has prompted many organisations in New Zealand to consider how to strengthen their capacity to recover from serious disruption which could bring about the loss of critical people, assets, data or systems and to respond with agility. The ability to prevent or quickly recover from a disaster is a critical success factor for organisations.

Concepts of agility and resilience have evolved over the past four decades, with need accelerating in the wake of recent economic and technological changes. Agility began as “lean manufacturing” and has gained further validation through work on organisations as complex adaptive mechanisms.

Resilience has been developing in the domains of enterprise risk management, business continuity management and disaster recovery.

Such ideas are naturally aligned with agility and require new ways of

thinking and business reorganisation to meet the demands of the current risk environment and the pace of change.

Seismics and the City organiser SmartNet says the event will pick up on the responsibilities of boards and senior management teams to prepare for the worst while planning for the best.

Seismics and the City sponsors and supporters include TelstraClear, IBM, University Roger Sutton. of Canterbury, NZIM and Mainland Press.

Confirmed speakers include Roger Sutton, CERA CEO and formerly CEO of Orion, and Dr Colin Harrison, IBM’s USbased technical pioneer in smarter cities.

Other business and thought leaders contributing are Peter Townsend, CECC; Dr Rod Carr, University of Canterbury; Mary Devine, Ballantynes; Dr Allan Freeth, TelstraClear; Joseph Thomas, NZIM; and John Vale, Vynco.

Psychologist Fran Vertue will develop the concept of post-traumatic growth with opportunities arising out of crisis. www.smartnet.co.nz M

Starter pack

Three-year forecasts

MNSBC anchor Richard Lui provides the following advice to anyone wanting to start bridging the gap between business and social philanthropy. (See story on page 28.)

J

Richard Lui. 1. Become part of the social venture community. Go to talks. Meet as many other people as you can who are involved in the venture. You have to live and breathe social entrepreneurship.

ust over 44 percent of business decision makers think they’ll be personally better off financially during the next three years. This compares with 27.4 percent of New Zealanders overall who think they’ll be better off.

Decision makers are also less likely to think they’ll be worse off: 15.4 percent compared with almost 30 percent of all New Zealanders.

Thinking about your personal financial situation, do you think you will be better or worse off financially during the next three years?

ALL NEW ZEALAND

DECISION MAKERS

A. Much better off

4.7%

7.9%

3. Volunteer or work part-time to learn practical lessons. This is essential. Get to grips with the realities of any particular social venture space. Otherwise you’re just talking about what you’ve read or thought but you don’t really know how things work in practice.

B. Better off

22.7%

36.4%

C. Neither better nor worse off

30.2%

32.4%

D. Worse off

23%

13.5%

4. Create new intellectual capital in the space in which you are interested. When you sit down with potential funders this is how you can answer their questions around why they should fund you as opposed to anyone else.

E. Much worse off

6.7%

1.9%

F. Not sure

12.8%

7.9%

2. Similarly, you need to be part of the business entrepreneurship community. Meet everyone, talk with everyone: because guess who’s going to be giving you the capital?

5. Develop relevant credentials and skills. Consider getting certification, working with a certain company or getting a relevant degree. Be aware, however, that many people jump to this fifth point too quickly. They invest a year or more and hundreds of thousands of dollars in an education when they don’t need it. M

8 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

Source: Horizon Research, November 1-5, 2011. 1,614 respondents including 234 decision makers (business managers, executives, proprietors, self-employed, professionals and senior government officials). Weighted. Maximum margin of error +/- 2.4%. On the web: www.horizonpoll.co.nz

INBOX

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A pearl of a prize

M Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

eetings with a posse of heavyweight players in the South China region were part of the programme for two young New Zealand managers recently.

NZIM picked Hamish McBeath and Matt Carter as the two New Zealand representatives to attend the Asian Association of Management Organisations (AAMO) leadership journey to Macau and China’s Pearl River Delta region.

McBeath is general manager of Pacific Coilcoaters and Carter is Otago Polytechnic’s general manager HR and student services.

They are also the winner and finalist, respectively, of the 2011 NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award.

Management magazine picked up the tab for their flights while AAMO funded the rest of their trip.

McBeath and Carter joined young managers from the region’s

other national management organisations to learn about leadership in the age of recovery.

The programme focused on strategic thinking, leading change, employee engagement and quality management.

Highlights included visits to Bright Dairy & Food Co, one of China’s largest dairy production and sales companies, and Amway, one of the world’s largest direct selling businesses. M

IncrediblEdge ticket offer

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rganisers of the inaugural IncrediblEdge summit in Auckland are offering one complimentary ticket to a Management magazine subscriber (see details below).

Scheduled for 5-6 March, the summit brings together thought leaders and change makers from a diverse range of fields. The event is designed to inspire borderless thinking, ideas, innovation and creativity beyond the horizon.

It will provide a catalyst for interdisciplinary dialogue, collaboration, co-creation and experimentation.

Participants span commerce, entrepreneurship, arts and culture, design, science, technology, architecture, manufacturing, fashion, music, film, visual effects,

education, environmentalism, agriculture, economics, media and investment.

The international line-up of speakers includes Nick Egan, the British-born creative icon and director of art, design and film, and Russian entrepreneur and expert in leadership and personal transformation Phillip Guzenuk. M www.incredibledge.com To put your name forward for the complimentary ticket, email summit@incredibledge.com with your name and contact details. Include a short outline of your goals and achievements in making a difference to business, society and/or the environment.

Offer closes 17 February, 2012.

Phillip Guzenuk and Nick Egan.

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FEBRUARY 2012

| management.co.nz | 9

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INBOX

Letter to the editor

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enjoy reading the articles Reg Birchfield writes for NZ Management. I figure there’s plenty more I can learn so he keeps me thinking. In the last issue [December 2011, page 102] Reg wrote an article headed ‘Leading by relinquishing’.

In that article he says, “Governance, as we have suffered it, must change dramatically and increasingly, women are showing the silly old male fools of yesteryear what it takes.”

As I fall into the ‘silly old fools’ category, I couldn’t help but pay attention. Can I ask you a couple of questions – I’m interested in the words, ‘as we have suffered it’ – could you amplify for me please?

Secondly, while I agree that women add a very valuable dimension to the boardroom, in what ways do you think women are showing what it takes?

I enjoy governance and I certainly enjoy learning more about how to do it advantageously so I do look forward to Reg’s comments. I try to

promote Management magazine to all the people I associate with and I know several of them are avid readers – so your labours are not in vain.

All the best for an exciting 2012.

– Tony Hassed, BoardSense www.boardsense.co.nz, tony@boardsense.co.nz Your questions have led me to focus my leadership column (see page 22) for this issue on the state of governance in New Zealand: though to be honest the situation is not unique to New Zealand. My thoughts are based on a lot of additional research including many discussions I have had over recent months. I will follow this up in March with another column on leadership in which I address the other specific aspects of your questioning that I did not go into sufficiently – such as the gender question.

– Reg Birchfield

Driving green change

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emissions while at the same time increasing its business activities.

“We recognise the need for change and we continue to encourage our 23 partners nationwide to provide a sustainable solution to taxi users.

“TaxiCharge is supporting its partners by embracing the carboNZero certification programme.”

Its emissions plan included reducing by 10 percent the

axi billing specialist TaxiCharge NZ has gained carboNZero certification for a third successive year.

In 2009, TaxiCharge was the first company in the local taxi and passenger transport industry to gain certification for measuring, managing and mitigating its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Chief executive Mark Lines says his company has an ongoing commitment to reduce its GHG

YES!

amount of fuel used in company vehicles per year and cutting electricity usage by two percent.

It also aims for 30 percent of all taxi travel to be taken in hybrid vehicles.

Graham Carter, CEO of carboNZero Holdings, describes

TaxiCharge as a company that continually looks at innovative ways to reduce its emissions further.

“TaxiCharge are leaders in their field and backed by carboNZero certification they continue to be leaders in sustainability.” M

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TOP 200 THINKING

WAYNE BOYD QBE CHAIRPERSON OF THE YEAR 2011

WHAT WILL THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT BE LIKE OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NZ BUSINESS PEOPLE?

We’ll continue to have ongoing global financial uncertainty, a multi-speed business environment, and the prospect of multi-year low growth domestically and within many of our traditional trade partners.

Given the size of the New Zealand marketplace, growth for New Zealand-owned businesses at the level necessary to facilitate a lift in prosperity within New Zealand will have to be secured in other geographies.

WHAT SHOULD NZ BUSINESS PEOPLE BE FOCUSING ON? Management should have a strong focus on delivering, and growing, business-generated free cash. Sharp oversight of debtors and stock will be essential.

Post the GFC many will have endeavoured to optimise the mix of equity and debt invested in their businesses. The continuing global financial uncertainty and the prospect of an ongoing low growth operating environment demands further oversight of that debt equity mix.

A timely rigorous review initiated and implemented by shareholders and management almost always leads to a better business outcome than a debt holder-generated review.

Optimal mix of equity and debt, particularly where the operating environment and the term of the debt have been calibrated to reflect the pulse and prospects of the business, allows management to focus on the business.

Focus on, and in, the business should deliver, at the very least, return on capital employed appropriate for the investment risk and the opportunity to plan for growth.

New Zealand business, and indeed New Zealand, may well be located on the edge of the world but is geographically extraordinarily well placed in the Asia Pacific to benefit from what many describe as the ‘Asia Pacific’ century. New Zealand businesses serious about growth should be developing robust and credible strategies that are Asia Pacific centric.

New Zealand has a growing reputation for innovation and indeed we have spawned a number of cash-rich inventors and entrepreneurs. However, New Zealand business needs to spend a lot more on innovation and indeed productivity, often combined with sustainable partnering programmes, with the intention of building scale New Zealand-based businesses with the capability of Asia Pacific, and indeed global, reach.

Business is all about people and talented people have access to a global market place. New Zealand business must embrace and support an environment that attracts and retains talent.

New Zealand business should ensure that at least one of our universities remains ‘safely’ amongst the top 100 universities in the world and they should embrace diversity as a fundamental pillar of their employment policies.

Absent commitment to innovation, productivity, partnering, and the development and retention of talent, growth strategies developed by New Zealand business will not be robust and indeed will lack credibility.

TOP 200 AWARDS 2

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3 1. Doors about to open 2. Nigel Murphy (AUT), Ian Walker (Vero), Sarah Trotman (AUT), Jamie Rihia (PWC) 3. Noel Blackwell (Designworks) presents the Visionary Leader Award for Lloyd Morrison to Tim Brown (Morrison & Co) 4. MCs Carol Hirschfeld and Sean Plunket 5. Natalie Verdouw (Auckland Council), Phillip King (Fletcher Building), Maree Webster (Auckland Council) 6. Wayne Boyd (Telecom) receives the Chairperson of the Year Award from Ross Chapman (QBE Insurance) 7. Thomas Pippos, Justine Smyth, Paul Lockey, Robert Cameron (Deloitte) 8. Gary Sturgess, Joanne O’Connor, Lynda Carroll, Mark Stephens (NZIM) 9. Tom Chignell (Vodafone) receives the Responsible Governance Award from Paul Buetow (Kensington Swan) 10. Sue Watson (Kea New Zealand) with guest speaker Max Harris 11. Don Braid (Mainfreight) with the Company of the Year Award, presented by Thomas Pippos (Deloitte) 12. Guest speaker Chris Mulcare (NZ Trade & Enterprise) 13. 2011’s Executive of the Year Don Braid (Mainfreight) with Toni Myers (Mediaweb) 14. Burton & Jenny Shipley with Murray & Linda Jack (Deloitte) 15. Murray Jack (Deloitte) 16. Stuart & Tracey Robertson, Marilyn Mrkusich, David Lewis (Kensington Swan) 17. Corallie Eagle (Eagle Technology), Young Executive of the Year Hamish McBeath (Pacific Coilcoaters) and Gary Sturgess (NZIM Inc) 18. Neil Paviour-Smith (Forsyth Barr), Joan Withers (chair of Auckland Airport and Mighty River Power), Lorraine & Rick Christie, Phillipa Paviour-Smith, Brian Withers 19. Mark Todd (Kathmandu) receives the Most Improved Performance Award from Grant Milne (Marsh) 20. Gary Langford (Eagle), Jan Langford, Al Wilkinson, Sarah MacDonald (Eagle) 21. Hon Simon Power (MP), Alastair Bell (Deloitte), Cam Calder (MP), Jenny Calder, Peter Goodfellow (National Party president) 22. Grant Milne, Denise Moller, John Clayton (Marsh) 23. Gordon MacLeod (Ryman Healthcare) with the Best Growth Strategy Award, presented by Katherine Percy (Workbase) 24. Noel Blackwell, Russel Douglas, Michael Crampin, Jef Wong, David Black, Devin Fennell, Nikki Chapman, Guy Vasey (Designworks) 25. Pat Chapman, Karina & Mike Kayes, Ross Chapman (QBE Insurance). (All photos L-R.)

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AS I SEE IT

Hamish McBeath General manager at Pacific Coilcoaters, Hamish McBeath was recently acknowledged as the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year.

What are New Zealand’s major challenges for 2012?

In the immediate future, New Zealand must learn to adapt to the changing global economy. Some of our traditional trading partners’ economies are likely to be weak for some time, so we need to invest wisely and look for opportunities in non-traditional markets.

Businesses can become insular under pressure, and narrow in their thinking as traditional markets underperform. It’s important to look outwards and stay open to possibilities; to actively seek opportunities to diversify and expand in to new markets.

Growing GDP and offshore earnings is essential for New Zealand to regain a positive growth position.

How well prepared are Kiwi business leaders to face these challenges?

In general, New Zealand is well positioned around good governance and managing through tight fiscal periods. Kiwis have a history of being pioneering, resilient generalists who can take on most challenges.

Our leaders need to maintain that entrepreneurial spirit while evolving to a more international focus and way of doing business. It’s important for leaders to challenge current business models and identify the most effective structures and strategies to move forward.

We need to identify the areas where we can compete and lead the way, and focus our time and resources on becoming world leading in areas where we can win.

What more could we do as a country to thrive in the current global economic climate?

I’m a keen exporter, and I think New Zealand needs to look further, globally, for opportunities. We have been successful in agriculture, dairy and some tech areas, but we haven’t taken full advantage of our manufacturing knowledge.

Due to our small economy, our manufacturing sector has developed the ability to produce small order quantities and customised product offerings. In my experience, globally there is a demand for this customised product offering, and large economies will pay for this service. M

16 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

MANAGERS ABROAD

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Jake Willis Now managing director of London Shared, a UK-based asset management company, Jake Willis has been working abroad for eight years. His company specialises in shared accommodation for young professionals from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the UK. What prompted you to seek work out of New Zealand?

Like many Kiwis, after university I wanted to see more of the world and rather than just going to Australia, like some of my friends, I decided if I was going to leave my home country it would be to experience a culture that was unknown to me. I was fresh out of university when I first came to England so I didn’t have a firm career plan. After a few years I got an opportunity to work in property. I’d studied hospitality management so always assumed I’d end up doing that kind of work.

How are your experiences overseas shaping your understanding of New Zealand?

My business means I quite often meet the “before” and “after” version of travelling New Zealanders. One day I’ll rent a room to a Kiwi couple who have just arrived and are embarking on their career. The next day I’ll meet another couple who’ve been here for 10 years and are looking for someone to take care of their property so they can emigrate home to start a family. People from both ends of the scale show we’re a very hardworking nation and that, no matter where we are, we make the most of opportunities that come our way.

How can offshore Kiwis contribute to New Zealand?

It’s important to remember that a lot of offshore Kiwis intend to return home at some stage. While they’re overseas they’re building a tremendous amount of international experience in their chosen fields which can be taken home to New Zealand. One of the best ways for offshore Kiwis to contribute to New Zealand is by prospering as much as possible while they’re away. When they do eventually go home – which one in four overseas Kiwis intends to do – they’ll be taking home not only money to pump back into our economy but also skills, contacts and experience. M Jake Willis is a member of Kea, New Zealand’s global talent community. www.keanewzealand.com

FEBRUARY 2012

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NZIM

2012: challenges for NZ managers Priorities, people and promise.

Reg Birchfield lifts the hood on what to expect this year.

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he unequivocal message that things don’t stay the same holds more true now than ever. Problems, opportunities, processes and priorities change constantly – usually markedly so.

For its part, NZIM emerged from 2011 with a brave new internal and external agenda. This is designed to equip the organisation to better help managers and leaders identify, understand and deal with the new priorities. NZIM’s task now is to deliver. It won’t be easy because, in addition to everything else, the country’s post-election economy and leadership environment won’t be a whole lot better than they were last year.

The country remains burdened with public and private sector debt, productivity in most industry sectors languishes at bottom-feeder levels, Kiwi management capability ranks below that of most peer nations’, best practice governance is still a foreign phrase for most corporate directors, and cost cutting is still the preferred strategic approach to managing through our recession-like economy.

The challenge for a skills development organisation like NZIM is to overcome New Zealand’s entrenched leadership reluctance to commit to, and focus on, building competent individuals and managers as the essential ingredient for enterprise success.

As NZIM Inc’s chief executive Kevin

18 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

Gaunt said last year, “managers are under assault from head count choppers in both the private and public sectors. The country needs managers to help rebuild the economy and re-shape organisations for the future.” Consequently, there are just too few managers with the across-theboard capabilities required for the job.

PEOPLE FIRST Organisations that want to fare better in 2012 will focus on their people and adopt policies that attract, retain and extract the best from them. People, not processes, infrastructure and all the other paraphernalia of enterprise, deliver the best products and services.

Talent and skills shortages will, for an array of reasons, worsen in 2012. Skills shortages exist across a range of industry sectors in both New Zealand and Australia. But the shortage of skilled leaders and managers was reportedly particularly acute last year.

Nothing has happened to change that.

“Clearly leaders and managers need to look at their own skill base and ensure their skills are up to scratch,” a 2011 study by consultancy Leaders and Managers Australasia (LMA) warned.

“They must look to potential future leadership and management successors in their organisations and identify and develop talent for both succession and future growth.”

Like other similar studies, LMA identified job satisfaction as critical to attracting and retaining management and other employee talent. Their study found almost 60 percent of the surveyed workforce either “hated” their jobs or lacked a “positive attitude” toward them.

NZIM’s Gaunt agrees employers will need to create more satisfying workplace experiences to compete successfully in this year’s more aggressive talent war. Job dissatisfaction, more than any other single factor, directly or substantially motivates individuals at all levels to exit the enterprises they work for.

GENERATIONAL WARFARE Generational disharmony, another people issue, is also on the rise. The LMA study discovered that baby boomers don’t get on as well with each other as do, for example, Gen-Yers who, ironically, have been considered the workplace’s “problem children”.

Most baby boomers (87 percent) don’t want to work with members of their own generation. And 59 percent of them don’t even want to report to their generational peers. Other generations, like Gen-Y and Gen-X, dislike baby boomers even more.

The vast majority (90+ percent) of these two groups neither want to work with, or report to baby boomers.

With baby boomers filling the majority of leadership and management positions in organisations for at least another

decade, the implications of the finding are profound. LMA’s executive chairman Grant Sexton believes “the days when the challenges of fulfilling the needs of different groups can simply be dismissed as one particular generation just being difficult and demanding” are gone.

“Understanding the needs, expectations and motivations of a given generation could be the difference between keeping and losing some of your best people,” he adds.

Diversity of opinion, approach and experience won’t stop at the generational doorstep. There will, for example, be a dramatic shift in the composition of New Zealand boards. Thanks to some long overdue reforms at both the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) and the Institute of Directors, our corporate boards will be populated by more women.

The appointment of more women to our biggest boards is one of last year’s more positive legacies.

New Zealand’s poor governance standards are legendary, its impact on corporate performance painfully obvious.

An unspoken convention that governance is about regulation and compliance rather than leadership and strategy has prevailed.

Greater diversity of board composition and skill sets (hopefully fewer lawyers and accountants), better working relationships between directors and executives, and the adoption of more ethical and responsible governance practices are both overdue and pivotal to lifting New Zealand’s poor productivity and international competitiveness performance.

Diversity of every kind – ethnic, educational, life experience – is reshaping and enriching the New Zealand workforce. For managers and leaders the challenge is to better understand both the organisational demands and the opportunities that accompany diversity. It won’t come easily for many traditional, generally male, Kiwi leaders and managers.

GLOBAL CHALLENGE NZIM has identified the need to help New Zealand companies step up their global commitment and understanding

as another 2012 challenge. Gaunt warned in July last year that Kiwi businesses are in danger of becoming irrelevant to increasingly dynamic Asian economies.

“Too few of our business leaders understand what is going on in Asia and are making little effort to learn. It will be to our collective cost,” he said.

New Zealand managers are quite capable of operating in the Asian market, or any other markets for that matter. But, according to Gaunt, they are still not making sufficient effort to understand and gear up to meet the reality of the opportunity.

“We need to understand what the market opportunity is and how we must compete to take part in it,” he said.

The implications of the parlous state of the global economy, particularly western economies, the inadequacies of political leadership, increasing complexity of enterprise, the need to adopt and implement more relevant management and leadership practices and developing a capacity to cope with the realities of an increasingly competitive marketplace will all be on the table in 2012.

NZIM has resolved to contribute to managers’ understanding of these and other critical leadership issues. As its chairman Gary Sturgess says, NZIM wants to be recognised as the “go-to” management organisation that all aspiring and practising managers and leaders need to belong to.

Sturgess sees 2012 as the year in which NZIM will reach further into regional New Zealand, taking new opportunities and experiences to businesses.

He expects to broaden and strengthen its membership base, offer a selection of programmes and courses that are nationally consistent, and tailor learning solutions to meet the needs of members, managers and leaders.

This year will be packed equally with problems and potential. It offers most to those unafraid to acknowledge the opportunities and seize the day. M Reg Birchfield FNZIM is a writer on management and leadership. Email: 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 MICHAEL WEUSTEN FNZIM 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: Stacey Coulthard 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: Michael Weusten FNZIM Regional CEO: Joseph Thomas AFNZIM PO Box 13044, Christchurch 8141 Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-3-357 8003 Email admin@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

FEBRUARY 2012

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POLITICS COLIN JAMES

Crunch time for National

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here is a rule: a government is defined by its first year of its second term. That’s what National bosses believe. The pressure is on John Key and his cabinet.

Key made that point by implication when appointing his cabinet in December: he was looking for results and would judge his ministers accordingly.

By results he meant changes that voters will recognise, approve and credit to him and his cabinet – enough to get National a third term in office.

The changes have to be felt at the micro level – household finances, opportunity, direct experience of public services and the like – and sensed broadly, in a more secure economic and social environment.

The Key government was very busy in its first term. That included weathering the global financial crisis and making some public services changes pointing to a modestly smaller state.

It also included making some modestly more business-friendly regulatory changes – plus high-profile but essentially rhetorical law-and-order changes.

That signalled a direction but did not amount to a plan or a vision. This is the year for a stronger sense of purpose.

High on the list is a “better public services” initiative. The Advisory Group’s report went to Key in December, with decisions to be announced in January (after this column was written) or this month.

The aim is to define better what each public service is intended to achieve and devise new ways of delivering those outcomes. This is a five- to seven-year project. It is not just more efficiency.

It involves agencies thinking and acting more collaboratively with 20 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

others, including non-government bodies, to get coherent results instead of just sticking to their turf.

It includes customising services to a public increasingly attuned to doing things online or through their mobile phones and expecting personalised responses.

The result, if successful, will be a much more blurred line between public and private action. Charter schools will be a test case.

A second big initiative also blurs public and private: selling 49 percent of Mighty River Power. If done successfully, Key and Bill English will have begun to detoxify privatisation.

Huge majorities in pre-election opinion polls opposing the partial

exploration and exploitation will also test public attitudes. By moving this year, the Government aims to shift the public debate by 2014 past the “whether” – essentially an environmental argument – to the “how” (to get richer).

The Government also wants to be able by 2014 to point to lower benefit numbers. At one level, this is easily winnable: bashing beneficiaries is popular. But that just pushes costs onto the justice and health systems, which is counter to the better-outcomes ambition of the “better public services” initiative.

Instead, the Government started last year applying more rigorous actuarial-plus-investment analysis to

“Changes have to be felt at the micro level and sensed broadly, in a more secure economic and social environment.” sales were a legacy of the mishandled 1980s/’90s fire sales, some of which went badly wrong for a variety of reasons.

Part of the Government’s presentational difficulty even now will be a perception that the sales owe more to ideology than to pragmatic analysis.

A third area due for rapid action this year is to loosen regulation without ending up with “anything-goes” – the sort of environment where Telecom was able to extract monopoly rents, builders used shonky materials in leaky homes and a mine was not made properly safe. Resource management reform and the labour market will be the main deregulatory focuses.

More and faster oil and minerals

identify the value of more productive interventions.

Next challenge is to apply more science to such issues. Whether the Government will start doing that this year is unclear. So, too, is whether it will translate into action past hints of more resources into science and innovation generally.

But results from more innovation spending would not be evident to voters in 2014. Some parts of defining a government in the first year of its second term deliver results only in a third term. M Colin James is New Zealand’s leading political commentator and NZ Management’s regular political columnist. ColinJames@synapsis.co.nz

BOB EDLIN ECONOMICS

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Forecasts? Take your pick

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Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

hen I went hunting online for cheery economic forecasts recently I didn’t come up with anything too perky. Fair to say, the preChristmas NZIER Consensus Forecasts should not drive anyone to depression.

The recovery will be slower than previously thought, using these figures, but the economy will still grow: 2.2 percent in the year ending March 2012 and three percent in 2013 and 2014.

The Canterbury reconstruction will be a key driver, with the rest of the economy growing more modestly, averaging 2.2 percent over the next three years.

A darkening global economic outlook was among factors influencing our weaker economic forecasts, and a weaker global backdrop (along with a high exchange rate) is expected to slow export growth. Domestic demand will be slower, too. New jobs and living costs accordingly will rise only modestly.

Households will spend less and this magazine’s business decision-makers will be cautious about investing more.

But it’s important to remember the Consensus Forecasts are the average economic predictions compiled from a survey of financial and economic agencies. The range is broad: the average forecast for export growth in the 2012/13 March year, for example, is 1.6 percent, but the range is from -0.9 percent to four percent.

The global outlook has darkened since then. Olivier Blanchard, chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, early in January told Bloomberg Television the IMF would be making a “fairly substantial” cut to its forecast for global economic growth this year.

His chief, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, told reporters in South Africa: “We should all be prepared for a 2012 that will not be a walk in the park.”

The International Business Times

consulted a firm of economic forecasters, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), which had successfully predicted Greece and Italy would default on their debts. It is confident its 2012 forecasts are just as accurate.

From New Zealand’s point of view, let’s hope they’re wrong. The CEBR foresees cracks starting to appear in the Asian economic and political success story, with growth slowing down to just over seven percent in China and to six percent in India. It says the Asian economic and political systems are like a bicycle that has to move at a certain speed to remain stable and even modest slowdowns are likely to lead to popular discontent.

CBN News interviewed Mark Skousen, editor of the influential Forecasts & Strategies newsletter. He was keeping a wary eye on Europe, worried the continent’s spreading debt crisis would take down the European Union. It could seriously hurt the United States, too.

“What you’re facing is the possibility of an unravelling of the eurozone,” he said.

The worst-case scenario? “It’s a major recession. It’s riots in the streets. It’s a collapsing stock market, a stock market crash. All of the scenarios of your worst

nightmare is what people are in fear of.”

Jack Rasmus, the author of Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression (May 2010) and the forthcoming Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few, has been soothsaying, too. He set out his sobering Economic Predictions for 2012 to 2013 in an article in Truthout, a nonprofit organisation in the US dedicated to providing independent news and commentary on a daily basis.

Rasmus’ predictions include the US experiencing a double-dip recession in early 2013 (maybe earlier, in the event of another banking crisis in Europe); two or more euro banks will “fail”; Germany and France will experience modest recession this year; the United Kingdom will experience a more severe double dip; China’s economic growth rate will slow.

Commenting on a blog post which headlined Rasmus’ pessimism, someone has observed: “Just remember that these are just predictions. We need to keep our hope. You and I can predict things too.”

Indeed we can. If readers wish to predict a happier year ahead, go right ahead. M Bob Edlin is a leading economic commentator and NZ Management’s regular economics columnist.

FEBRUARY 2012

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LEADERSHIP REG BIRCHFIELD

Flawed

governance NZ suffers from a lack of competent directors and too many ineffective boards. Reg Birchfield spells out what’s wrong with NZ leadership.

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he fish rots from the head,” according to Bob Garratt’s threetimes-revised book and the Chinese proverb from which he stole the title. Both the book and the proverb are about odorous leadership. Garratt’s analogy specifically targets governance leadership. The proverb is more widely applicable.

The state of governance leadership in New Zealand has long since passed beyond the head. It hasn’t reached the tail as it has in some countries but, make no mistake, putrefaction is advanced.

Honest and competent directors agree, though seldom in public. It is not, after all, seemly to wander into a boardroom holding one’s nose.

A couple of things happened last year that promise to freshen the air a little. The Institute of Directors (IoD) introduced its Mentoring for Diversity programme which, it says, will “increase the number of women on NZX-listed and large company boards”. And the NZX drafted new rules to disclose the gender and other diversity makeup of listed boards and management.

But it took shame and political

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pressure, not wisdom or integrity, for these two bastions of male influence to concede the need to act.

The other important development was a declaration by Transparency International to become more proactive in rooting out organisational and political corruption in New Zealand.

The organisation’s boosted presence here hasn’t come a moment too soon.

(See the upcoming March issue of NZ Management’s sister publication The Director for more on Transparency International’s new focus in New Zealand.)

The IoD and NZX moves, however, provide little more than a whiff of something. The chairmanship of the boards heading New Zealand’s largest enterprises is sadly unimpressive.

Try, unprompted, to recall more obviously competent or inspirational board chairs than you have fingers on one hand. If you can do this without too much effort, either you have an unusually small number of fingers, don’t know what good leadership is about, or should be drafted onto the judging panel of the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200

Awards, of which I have been convenor for the past 22 years.

Choosing finalists for the Chairman of the Year category when there are so few real contenders to choose from, is tougher than filleting anchovies – not impossible but undoubtedly difficult.

New Zealand should, and indeed needs, to be stocked with competent directors.

So why isn’t it? Because, according to a growing school of informed opinion both here and abroad, the governance model of organisational leadership is failing. As one very wise, professional and seasoned director recently confided: “Our boards are in trouble. They can’t attract competent directors and chairs.

Governance is now the Achilles’ heel of enterprise.”

The governance dilemma, however, runs deeper than diversity of board composition. What do companies do, for example, when directors and chairs don’t measure up? Senior managers are, in theory and practice, held accountable for, and evaluated on, their performance.

Director performance evaluation, on the other hand, is “self” administered and collectively appraised. There

REG BIRCHFIELD LEADERSHIP

is effectively no independent or meaningful evaluation. Directors are stuffed to the gills with self interest and invariably lack both courage and conscience. The vast majority of directors are male, self-absorbed and consequently conflicted. Mutual reinforcement keeps them safe.

Directors should be easier to hire and fire: particularly those who gather appointments and boast about the number of boards on which they sit.

It is almost impossible to do either.

Shareholders should not have to wage extended campaigns to rid themselves of obviously incompetent and underperforming directors. But they must. Prevailing rules dictate it.

Along with the urgent need to expand the pool from which directors can be fished, shareholders need greater powers to grace or replace. As Canadian academic and governance expert Richard Leblanc wrote recently: “Troubled boards [of which New Zealand has many] drag their feet, are silent, write letters, conduct studies, avoid meetings and refrain from making the tough decisions.

They do this because they can.”

They are also often ill equipped for the job and don’t know what else to do. The world around them has changed.

Putting aside issues like diversity and the under-stocked gene pool, Leblanc identifies three important governance flaws, all of which prevail in New Zealand.

Directors are, he says, seldom truly independent. They invariably lack the relevant industry experience to know what to do – particularly when so many sectors are faced with dramatic market, technological and competitive change. And they lack leadership, the consequence of which is their capture by management and a “default to process and denial”.

In short, they lack the wit, wisdom, and therefore the courage to make tough choices that are in shareholders’ or other stakeholders’ interests. Local accountants, lawyers, academics, consultants, politicians and even CEOs of unrelated industries should, he adds, always be in the minority.

What is most telling about the poor standard of governance leadership is the way in which it has so steadfastly excluded women from listed boards in particular. Only stupidity, arrogance, fear of being found out, obsession with power, and the protection of perks, or a combination of all these, could have motivated directors to consistently ignore organisational realities.

Logic and abundant research show why women should fill three times as many chairs around board tables than they now do. The exception is the public sector where women hold around 41 percent of the directorships.

How any organisational leader can ignore the input of 50 percent

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of his workforce, customer base, community, talent and intellect, is hard to comprehend. The rationalisation that women are not “skilled” in governance practice is nonsense. Many men don’t get governance, that’s why the world is in the state it is.

Most men only get the rules of compliance and process. They understand the immoral rationalisation that it’s “necessary” to regularly lift their fees and pay organisationally, financially, economically and socially destructive and illogically-high executive salaries to “attract the best people”.

The IoD’s perhaps well intentioned but somewhat patronisingly scripted press release on its mentor programme will show which of the two, mentor or mentee, is the smartest and most competent individual in the room. Given some of the women “invited” onto the programme, the boys had better look to more than their laurels.

Ineffective boards are the expression of ineffective, unthinking and ill-equipped chairs. And the institutions that have kept them in place are their progeny. If you think this stinks and New Zealand needs fresh offerings, don’t look to the established fishmongers. After all, New Zealand women won the right to vote in 1893. M Reg Birchfield is a writer on leadership, governance & management. reg@rjmedia.co.nz

Attention Sales Managers If you are serious about building a high performing sales team, our unique performance improvement programme will equip you with the tools to achieve it. To find out more, call us today or visit our website.

Helping New Zealand’s best performers go further 09 522 9409 | www.steel ip.com

FEBRUARY 2012

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MANAGING SUSTAINABLY DEE CROOKS

Protecting NZ for 2050

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or the past six months this column has told you what the Vision 2050 programme is all about. You’ve heard from the project champion, the project manager and from two of the future leaders involved with the programme.

But enough of the what, now it’s time to talk about the why.

To quote visionary thinker Simon Sinek, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Inspired leaders and their organisations, regardless of their size, all think, act and communicate from the inside out.”

It’s now time to tell you why we are embarking on this ambitious project and start communicating from the inside out.

I personally want to ensure that by 2050 New Zealand is a place where people still want to live, work and play.

I don’t have to live in New Zealand – I choose to live here. I am fortunate enough to be able to live and work anywhere in Europe, yet New Zealand is where my family is, and where I grew up and I would love my children to have the same opportunities I did. I want them to run on the beach, sail on our beautiful harbours and camp at remote spots around the country.

I also want to ensure there are innovative organisations for them to work for in 40 years’ time; I don’t want all our head offices ‘offshored’ to Australia, Asia or even Europe.

This theme is echoed by the future leaders in the programme – they want their children to have the same opportunities and advantages they had, and for them to know their parents tried to make a difference while they still could.

However, even more important, is the fact that we know we cannot continue applying unsustainable pressure on the earth’s already dwindling natural

24 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

Ben MacDonald and Dee Crooks working together on the Vision 2050 project.

resources, particularly as we face challenges around a decreasing food supply chain, increasing levels of poverty and water security. When you add climate change and the accelerating population growth into the mix, the reality is that we have to act now to ensure that in 2050 our planet is still habitable.

Rest assured, the Future Leaders group is not a bunch of greenie hippies out to save the world. We’re all businessminded individuals, under the age of 35. We’re not managing directors, we’re not CEOs and we’re not heads of our business departments – yet. But we will be in the future, and this project is about us ensuring the economic sustainability of the country and of NZ Inc. Naturally, environmental and social sustainability must form part of that vision.

If we don’t act now we will need 2.3 planets to live on by the time we get to 2050. The last time I checked there was only one habitable planet in our solar system so we need to act now if we all want to be able to live well by 2050.

I hope this helps explain the reasoning behind Vision 2050. Keep an eye out for the report we will be publishing in February – it will be a game changer.

On behalf of the Future Leaders group, I ask you to tell me: why is this project not important? Why do you not care about the future of our country and of our planet? I also leave you with the following challenge: what are you personally doing to protect New Zealand for 2050? M Dee Crooks is group communications manager at HSBC and a future leader for the Vision 2050 Project.

BRIAN RICHARDS THOUGHT LEADER

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What’s New Zealand’s ave’ia?

N

ew Zealand’s opportunity to dive into a troubled world has never been better. At present, we feed about 20 million people globally, and it’s possible that we could feed 50 million within the next 25 years. Even then, that will only be 0.5 percent of the world’s population.

Where are these markets? Can we upgrade our product qualities to deliver higher price points for us? And how do we use our intellect to add value in these beautiful islands?

No matter how long we’ve been here, we’re all Euro-nesians with a new eye to the north. We must return to the old world from the new, taking with us our unique IP, regardless of where it’s made.

As our Englishness shrinks away, we’re only just beginning to decide what we replace it with. Being inspired by the environment around us in fashioning our products and services is the key to offering something different in a crowded world of choice.

Like the early Polynesian navigators we have to set a new course: a new star path – our own ave’ia.

As New Zealanders we have to find our own way to reinvigorate this economy.

In our case, our grass is greener but grass alone won’t get us where we need to be.

Long-term sustainable change happens only when people discover their own power. The secret is moving the centre of gravity to where decisions are made: closer to the people in the community and away from a centrally directed, top-down approach.

We need to navigate a new future.

We can no longer mine the land from an agricultural perspective simply to produce commodities.

We are now the world’s leading pastoralists but, sadly, we still have to measure our wealth’s temperature by tiny movements in our exchange rates.

Brian Richards... “We need to navigate a new future.”

When the going gets tough we always do more of the same with a vengeance.

We merge meat companies and promote more tourism. We become obsessed with process improvement as opposed to product improvement.

It’s hard for New Zealanders to get concerned about their place in the global world. There’s a kind of antipodean smugness, not helped by our gorgeous countryside and wonderful food.

That’s easily brought on in most of us. I’ve just returned from San Francisco where a really great parking space can move you to tears.

These aren’t easy times to read. People are desperate to blame some system or leaders. Right at this moment, in the EU the term “spending a penny” has been replaced by “Euro…nating”.

For a long time I’ve spoken publicly about the national identity which continues to elude us. Who are we? And what do we stand for?

At a regional level too many of our cities are still guilty of crashing out new logos, campaigns and taglines, which do little for our souls. They fail to engage

sector-by-sector, life-stage by life-stage and help us connect the dots.

Even many of our large corporates – particularly the utility companies and banks – have an inability to understand local identity in attempting to capture the hearts of New Zealanders.

Most of us are a collection of bits and bytes and dislocated cultures, and in the absence of a constitution we struggle to define who we are.

For me, New Zealand’s brand values are best captured in six words: unaffected, honest, open, young, active and fresh. Understanding these at a national and provincial level is critical.

We’re only just beginning to realise that our journey has to be different.

So my challenge to New Zealand is to ask what the world wants from us at its edge. And how do we deliver it sustainably? Essentially, what’s New Zealand’s ave’ia? M Brian Richards is one of New Zealand’s leading brand strategists. To view Richards’ presentation at the recent global conference of The Competitiveness Institute: BrianRRichards.com and brrltd.com

FEBRUARY 2012

| management.co.nz | 25

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BOOKCASE

Economics: A grand tale GRAND PURSUIT: THE STORY OF ECONOMIC GENIUS

By Sylvia Nasar • Harper Collins • RRP $64.99

For all the stick it gets, economics profoundly impact our world. Even those present at its birth back in the mid 19th century, like the Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle, called it “the dismal science”. Ironically, it was conceived as a means of explaining a process that might release all but a tiny slither of the world’s population that was locked into a life sentence of grinding poverty, deprivation and brutality.

Sylvia Nasar, a storyteller of consummate skill, explains why and how economic thinking came to life. The woman has a penchant for turning the most complex of topics into the most compelling stories.

Her previous book, A Beautiful Mind, is the biography of brilliant but schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr and was both a best seller and successful movie.

Grand Pursuit: the story of economic genius is essentially an exposé of the

THE PRESENTATION SECRETS OF STEVE JOBS & THE INNOVATION SECRETS OF STEVE JOBS

By Carmine Gallo • McGraw Hill • RRP $36.00 and $41.00

Dropping Steve Jobs’ name and reputation into a book title is smart. It has 26 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

way in which business productivity drives economic and social progress. But when Nasar introduces her tale through the works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, you know this 550 pager (including notes) will enthral.

The birth of economics was, in large measure, induced by the investigative writings of British chroniclers like Henry Mayhew and Charles Dickens.

The most important ideas of modern times were hatched in the slums of London, created

by Britain’s industrial revolution and an era of unprecedented growth. Dickens in particular believed money should become a source of social good, rather than booty for the already enriched.

In telling her compelling tale of the works, thoughts, theories and consequences of the world’s most influential economic thinkers, Nasar explains how economics can, if properly deployed, avoid the economic disasters that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Her hero, if there is one, is the largely unsung British economist Alfred Marshall who lived from 1842 to 1924. But all

the leading characters the economic mindset feature, from Karl Marx (for whom she has little time because he was lazy, never in his life even visited a factory and was frequently a stranger to factual reporting) and Friedrich Engels, to Irving Fisher, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Joseph Schumpeter and others, developed the tools required to respond intelligently to world wars, revolutions, totalitarianism and other grand social upheavals.

Nasar is an economist turned writer.

She has written for Fortune magazine and the New York Times. Her editorial skills, she is now the John S and James L Knight Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, bring this both important and highly topical historical account to life.

Some history books have such an impact on your understanding of things that you wonder why you hadn’t previously paid the topic more mind.

Grand Pursuit enhanced my appreciation of the whys, hows and importance of economic thinking. – Reg Birchfield

paid handsome dividends for presentation, media-training and communication-skills coach Carmine Gallo. His first of these two books was a big seller.

At heart they are strictly in the self-improvement genre – learn to sell yourself and innovate by thinking differently about just about everything.

Gallo’s personal inspiration was his decision to analyse the style and approach to business that made Steve

Jobs the best and most successful salesman on earth.

Of the two, Presentation Secrets is more about Jobs than its sequel. There’s no question Jobs was an accomplished and innovative thinker, but how he sold his dream products made all the difference to Apple’s fortunes.

For the individually or organisationally ambitious these books are entertaining and insightful weekend reads. Packed with ideas and profound one-liners, it would be hard to get up from them without thinking at least a little

BOOKCASE

differently about a bag full of different things.

According to Gallo, Jobs was a “magnetic pitchman”. He sold his ideas with a flair that turned “prospects into customers and customers into evangelists”. Getting to the core of Jobs’ innovative philosophies was, however, a little harder.

To do that Gallo interviewed hundreds of Apple observers, users, scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs and executives to identify the personal principles that drove Jobs to think differently.

He obviously didn’t have direct access to Jobs who, he says, believed that

“innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”.

In Presentation Secrets, Jobs is about creating the story; delivering the experience and, refining and rehearsing the delivery.

Follow what Gallo says in his careful analysis of the Jobs’ approach and readers will capture the “passion” required to create stories that “mesmerise” people – as Jobs did.

“His passion was contagious, and infected everyone in his presence. That passion comes across in every [product] presentation,” writes Gallo.

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Innovation Secrets is about Jobs’ insistence on doing what you love; putting a dent in the universe; kickstarting your brain; selling dreams not products; saying no to 1000 things; creating insanely great experiences; and mastering the message.

Jobs may have been “intensely private”, according to Gallo, but he “dropped many clues” on his path to breakthrough success. Gallo implies that many of those clues lie within the pages of his second book. – Reg Birchfield

Organisation learning stories in the wake of the quakes.

Roger Sutton CE, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority

Dr Colin Harrison IBM Smarter Cities, USA

Dr Allan Freeth CEO, TelstraClear

Peter Townsend CEO, Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce

Mary Devine MD, J. Ballantyne and Co. Ltd.

Dr Rod Carr, Vice Chancellor, University of Canterbury

Organisational Resilience Recovery, Rethinking & Refocus • Knowledge sharing forum • Organisation visits • High level networking

www.smartnet.co.nz

Sponsors:

Supporters:

FEBRUARY 2012

| management.co.nz | 27

COVER STORY

BIZ 3.0 Make $$$ and

embrace your inner philanthropist New models for addressing everything from world poverty to food security and affordable education are sprouting up across the globe. Ruth Le Pla wonders if business could, after all, help save the world.

COVER STORY

Photo: Grant Southam, Campbell Photography

W

hen Sacha McMeeking, a self-described “lawyer-come-lobbyist from the Mainland”, steps into the spotlight at the recent Deloitte/ Management magazine Top 200 Awards she poses a simple question.

“What do you get,” she asks the 760-plus business leaders, “when you combine the passion and connectivity of community, with the innovation and drive of business, and the authority of government?”

The answer, says McMeeking, is a business model that,

overseas, has led to a 38 percent drop in deaths from malaria.

It is responsible for installing hygienic toilets in mega-shanty towns, creating employment for tens of thousands of women in Africa and access to micro-credit for hundreds of thousands of SMEs. “These examples matter because none of them are the products of philanthropic largesse,” McMeeking tells New Zealand’s most senior business leaders. “They’re all examples of where business has made good money by doing good things.”

McMeeking calls her vision for the future of commerce,

COVER STORY

Business 3.0. It’s the evolutionary step that binds business to beneficence. And it’s a quantum leap from current ‘good’ business practices that back up worthy causes through sponsorship, donations or grants.

If Business 1.0 was the “undiluted, ravenous pursuit of profit”, as McMeeking tells her audience, Business 2.0 was about doing good by not doing bad. It was triple bottom line

accounting, minimising bad impacts, generous philanthropy and “some fabulous CSR reports”.

“But Business 3.0 is our next evolution so that we can, together, do good stuff while making good money… This is about leveraging our intellect and the entirety of our balance sheets rather than the small trickles that constitute our philanthropic funds,” she says. “It’s about using passion, intellect

Look who’s talking Talk of corporate social responsibility is giving way to a whole new lexicon aimed at defining the space where making money joins up with doing good. Not everyone’s talking about the same thing. There’s a sliding scale of emphasis on either the business or the philanthropic end of the yardstick. The interesting stuff is happening in the middle. Despite the confusion, one thing is clear. There’s a growing awareness that, perhaps after all, a new variant on business-as-usual may provide answers to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

When Sacha McMeeking recently outlined her vision for a New Zealand Business 3.0 she tapped into a rich vein of conversation that has been bubbling up around the world for some time. McMeeking told guests at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards that Business 3.0 is the “next evolution” enabling businesses to “do good stuff while making good money”. It’s a natural progression from Business 2.0 which, with its triple bottom line reporting, was about “doing good by not doing bad”. The earlier Business 1.0 was “the undiluted, ravenous pursuit of profit”.

Back in the 1970s, Grameen Bank founder professor Muhammad Yunus introduced the concept of microfinance for poor villagers in Bangladesh.

Professor Yunus and the bank went on to receive the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for their “efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below”. Two years ago, Yunus outlined his ideas on social business in his book Building Social Business: The new kind of capitalism that serves humanity’s most pressing needs. “By harnessing the energy of profitmaking to the objective of fulfilling human needs,” he says, “social business creates self-supporting, viable commercial enterprises that generate economic growth even as they produce goods and services that make the world a better place.”

In his book A Fistful of Rice, SKS Microfinance founder Vikram Akula outlines how he took Grameen’s original concept of microfinance one step further by introducing for-profit microfinance to large numbers of poor villagers in India.

He says his quest is to end poverty through profitability. http://www.sksindia.com/

30 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

World-renowned management expert C K Prahalad first suggested in 2004 that companies tap the collective buying power of the world’s five billion poor.

At the time, this was controversial stuff. Prahalad insisted there was fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Now his book by the same name is a classic work.

Sessions centred around social entrepreneurship at the latest Harvard Project on Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The concept revolves around identifying a human need and making a business out of it through a scalable, sustainable business model.

A brainstorming session with a few drinks produced Capitalism 24902 at Richard Branson’s outfit Virgin Unite. In his latest book Screw Business as Usual, Branson says it underlines the idea that “every single business person has the responsibility for taking care of the people and planet that make up our global village: all 24,902 circumferential miles of it”. Other people sometimes call it capitalism 2.0 or philanthrocapitalism, he says.

Leading US business magazine Forbes talks about the altruistic capitalism of philanthropic venture capital fund Acumen in an article on its founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz. (“Can Venture Capital Save The World?” Forbes Magazine December 19, 2011.) http://tinyurl.com/76hrr4c

COVER STORY

Making it happen

In Bangladesh where owning a mobile phone was beyond the reach of most poor villagers, Grameen Telecom founder Iqbal Quadir dreamt of providing mobile connectivity. Now, the Grameen Bank provides loans to intermediary “phone ladies” who Dr Peter Dumont buy a mobile phone and provide connectivity to other villagers at a small profit. Today, over 250,000 phone ladies provide mobile phone access to 60,000 villages and about 100 million people. The average daily income of each phone lady is US$12.

Source: Dr Peter Dumont, founder, Genius Institute

“Dow Corning is among a growing number of large corporations – including PepsiCo Inc, FedEx Corp, Intel Corp and Pfizer Inc – that are sending small teams of employees to developing countries such as India, Ghana, Brazil and Nigeria to provide free consulting services to nonprofits and other organisations. A major goal: to scope out business opportunities in hot emerging markets.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal. “Doing good to do well” by Anne Tergesen, January 9, 2012.

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

In India, the Ashoka housing project brings together real-estate developers, NGOs, housing finance institutions and architects to help informal economy workers such as tuk-tuk drivers buy a house. So far it has completed 10,000 houses in six cities. Ashoka targets Vishnu workers who, without an official pay slip, Swaminathan cannot source a government grant or other financial help. It sees its work as tearing down the walls between business and the social sector using the strengths of both to create hybrid value chains and market-based solutions. It insists this is not about philanthropy. (www.ashoka.org).

Source: Vishnu Swaminathan, director, Housing for All programme, Ashoka India

and financial grunt to solve problems that matter to us all.”

Business 3.0 signals it’s time for business folk to embrace their inner philanthropist. It gives the thumbs up to social activists wanting to make peace with their capitalist within.

McMeeking is tapping into a groundswell of activity that has been gathering momentum right round the world for some time now under a wide variety of guises and names. (See box story “Look who’s talking”.)

It encompasses everything from microfinance – where tiny slivers of credit might mean a poor villager can buy a buffalo and sell its milk at a profit – to hands-on practical projects providing housing, education or clean water. Together they aim to find new solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems.

McMeeking sees Business 3.0 as a global step-change occurring across both macro- and micro-levels. At the macro level, global companies are exploring bottom-of-the-pyramid growth strategies, using social innovation models to generate employment that creates the disposable income to increase product sales.

At the micro level, social entrepreneurs are working globally to address social and environmental challenges through for-profit businesses.

Pie in the sky stuff? Not according to business giants Danone, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and a string of other multinationals and Fortune 500 companies.

Not according to leading management thinker C K Prahalad, either, who first alerted the business world to opportunities to help meet the needs of the world’s five billion poor.

FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 31

COVER STORY

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

On the horizon Expect the following four mega-trends to emerge as social entrepreneurship gathers pace.

1 Financing will ease More specialised funds and investors will continue to surface. Wall Street will take more notice as initiatives such as the Giving Pledge continue to gain momentum. (Formally announced in June 2010 by business gurus Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, the Giving Pledge encourages America’s wealthiest individuals and families to donate most of their money to philanthropy. At last count, 69 ‘pledgers’ had signed up. Individual dollar amounts are not disclosed but the first 40 donors are thought to have collectively promised well over $125 billion within the first two months of the initiative’s creation.)

2 More social carve-outs Increasing numbers of larger business organisations will set up ‘social carve-outs’ or internal ventures within their existing structures to address social needs through commerce. Fortune 500 companies will continue to hike their investment in social ventures. This will, in part, be aimed at quelling criticism that they are not doing enough in this space.

3 New market-based models In the past, many organisations have tried to tinker with old ways of helping the poor or needy. In the future, emphasis will switch to the creation of whole new market-based models.

4 Focus on education & energy Both sectors will continue to open up opportunities for social entrepreneurship. In the US in particular, expect to see more social entrepreneurship investment and creative solutions in the education sector. Globally, the increasing energy requirements of Asia will focus attention on new solutions for the energy sector.

Source: MNSBC anchor Richard Lui, speaking at the Harvard Project on Asian and International Relations in the Republic of Korea.

32 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

Nine years ago, he reckoned they were a collective market of US$12 trillion. Some say that’s now likely to be closer to US$14 to $15 trillion.

And not according to influential global entrepreneur Richard Branson or a growing number of next-generation thinkers and do-ers who see the old ways aren’t fair, aren’t working and who are busting to try something new.

Over in Asia, for example, new models of entrepreneurial innovation are already shaping the region’s social and economic future, helping to address developmental issues while providing economic good.

Both developed and developing economies provide plenty of options for individuals and organisations wanting to make money while doing good.

At the Harvard Project for Asian and Intermational Relations (HPAIR) in Seoul last year, MSNBC anchor Richard Lui spells out his own ‘small brush with social entrepreneurship’ across a 15-year period before he got into news. And he pragmatically scopes out new-world career opportunities to a packed room of hand-picked next-generation students.

For those with a bent for figures, there’s the challenge of tackling wealth inequality around the world, he says. For those mulling over a career in healthcare, why stand by as so many people die when preventions and cures are available?

Given global advances in food, nutrition and distribution, why should a billion people around the world go hungry? What can be done to preserve natural resources and protect the environment? For those interested in education, there are issues around access, spend and performance to be resolved.

Then there are gender issues. (“Why was the female death

COVER STORY

rate from tsunamis in 2005 and 2011 three to four times greater than the male death rate?” Lui asks.) And access to technology. (“Eighty percent of the world hasn’t heard a dial tone,” he says.) And a plethora of problems around physical, psychological and social security.

In the enthusiastic cut and thrust of conference presentations, a social entrepreneur is broadly defined as anyone with entrepreneurial spirit. They may be a government servant, working for profit or not, effecting change from within or outside a company, or simply from home.

“They’re anyone who’s not happy with the status quo.

They believe that, even at the margins, they can make a small difference to change the world and make it a better place.”

Here in New Zealand, McMeeking’s Business 3.0 resonates with an additional layer of our uniquely antipodean values.

Its business model brings together the collective power and potential of business, government, community and, importantly, iwi.

McMeeking (Ngai Tahu), who holds a Master of Law degree and was an inaugural Fulbright Harkness NZ Fellow in 2010, recently transitioned from a role as GM strategy and influence with Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu to found her own boutique consultancy.

She argues that New Zealand – with its unique talents and pressing issues – should be a leading contributor to this global step change.

Founded on a strong social ideal, New Zealand, with its established entrepreneurial talent and a culture that expects DIY innovation, has immense potential to demonstrate Business 3.0, she says.

“Iwi and Maori organisations will be unique contributors to social innovation in New Zealand,” she says. “Iwi have a responsibility to create social, cultural and environmental

outcomes for their tribal members, and tribal businesses will be the perpetual revenue stream for creating these benefits.”

McMeeking conservatively estimates the iwi/Maori economy at somewhere around $37 billion. With that set on a rapid growth trajectory, she says iwi face a choice.

“They can choose to create a perpetual legacy. They can do this through a very small profit stream – maybe each organisation has $5 million to $20 million annually for education scholarships and all those types of things and we can wait decades to recreate ourselves as the proud and integrated people that we have been for over 1000 years.

“Or iwi can choose to adopt the model of Business 3.0…

Iwi can leverage the entirety of their balance sheet to create change: to change the world in a way that honours our tupuna and provides for our mokopuna.

“To me, that means iwi are pioneers of necessity in a New Zealand application of Business 3.0.”

Back at the Top 200 Awards, McMeeking acknowledges Business 3.0 is still in its infancy.

“Iwi will be learning Business 3.0 – no doubt on occasion on the front page of the newspaper – and in doing so that will enrich our New Zealand identity. What is most critical in realising the full potential of Business 3.0 is the very purpose of this evening: it is leadership, it is integrity and authenticity.

And only together can we create what that means.

“Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi: when an old net is worn, a new one will be made. It’s a nice polite way of talking about succession planning. Business 3.0 is the succession plan for our collective future.” M Ruth Le Pla travelled to the Republic of Korea and attended the Harvard Project on Asian and International Relations with the help of an Asia New Zealand Foundation Media Advisory Grant.

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FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 33

PRODUCTIVITY

Solving NZ’s

productivity puzzle In the first of a major new NZ Management series on productivity, Reg Birchfield explains why understanding the word is so important.

Illustration by Frazer Williamson

34 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

P

roductivity increases are supposed to lift the lot of individuals and nations. The experts describe it as the process by which we do more with less and, as a consequence, become individually and collectively richer.

That explanation is the good news side of the story. For many, particularly employees, productivity is often discussed in less glowing terms. Critics call it code for cost cutting and labour lay-offs.

Some, both managers and employees, equate productivity with working harder. Others on the flipside insist it’s about working smarter.

So what’s in a word? If it’s productivity, then a lot of confusion apparently. Little wonder then that many business leaders opt to let it lie fallow rather than plough more productive fields through organisational change and thinking.

But New Zealand’s business pastures, with the current exception of those ploughed by the agriculture sector, are not as green as they were. The global financial crisis and its following recession are making business life difficult.

America’s debt plight and political ineptitude, coupled with Europe’s war of fiscal attrition, don’t help.

Facing lower global demand, frightening levels of national indebtedness and with some dramatic demographic changes looming, managers must now overcome their ignorance of the concept

and get to grips with what productivity means and how to recover a market economy’s holy grail.

YES WE CAN We can do it. Our agriculture industry is a shining example of productivity in action. Since the sector was deregulated by the 1984 to ’89 Labour government, agriculture’s average annual productivity rate has climbed to 4.5 percent. The measured sectors of the rest of the economy have managed just 2.1 percent growth a year.

If, over the past 10 years, New Zealand’s across-the-board productivity had averaged 4.5 percent, our economy would be 25 percent larger than the roughly $200 billion it is now.

We would be richer, somewhat closer to Australia, and governments of the day would have had markedly more tax income to squander on whatever bought votes and political power.

For every one percent lift in the nation’s productivity, each and every one of our 2.2 million strong workforce would be $450 a year better off. As it is, our slug-

gish performance means we don’t keep pace with the rest of the world. “Our income has not kept pace with that of our peers and neighbours, and it has certainly not kept pace with our needs and wants,” says Shamubeel Eaqub, principal economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER).

The productivity problem, according to recent research by global management consultancy Hay Group, is serious and becoming more so – both for New Zealand and, interestingly, for Australia. Given that Australia’s gross domestic product per head is reportedly US$61,040 compared with our US$35,880 and America’s US$49,340, the comparison the Hay Group study draws between New Zealand and Australia is surprising.

According to Henriette Rothschild, Hay’s general manager Pacific, productivity is the “next big challenge” for both countries. If so, surely its findings are even worse news for New Zealand than they are for Australia. As it stands, our consistently poorer productivity performance means we are steadily falling further behind our

Exclusive new series This is the first of a three-part series of articles on productivity by Reg Birchfield. In next month’s issue, he looks at how organisations might manage in ways that help boost productivity. He also examines some of the impacts new technologies are having on productivity and management processes. In April’s third and final article, he examines productivity measures and asks how relevant and meaningful they are. He wonders if there are other ways to look at this increasingly critical management and organisational issue, and suggests alternatives.

FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 35

PRODUCTIVITY

Human Synergistics’ Shaun McCarthy.

trans-Tasman neighbour and far too many of us are moving there for more than just Gold Coast holidays.

THE REALITY The Government now seems to recognise the reality of our plight. It has, for instance, finally given up on its ill-advised campaign to promise a living standard catch-up with Australia by 2025. And last April it did something more tangible than talk and established a Productivity Commission, a mini version of Australia’s.

“New Zealand’s inability to lift its productivity performance is a longstanding problem,” says Eaqub. And a growing body of research shows just how profound the problem, and how elusive the solution, is. The Productivity Commission should help with additional research and better considered policy advice, but identifying the root causes of the nation’s flaccid productivity performance won’t come easy.

The productivity puzzle is a governance and management jigsaw. Researchers and management consultants think directors and managers are largely to blame for perpetuating the problem.

Outdated work practices, old-fashioned responses to unfamiliar and changing market circumstances and a reluctance to commit to much-needed people development programmes don’t help.

36 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

The Productivity Commission’s Murray Sherwin.

Last year’s Hay study, for example, found that chief executives set growth targets that consistently outstripped readily available economic forecasts.

Business leaders expected employees to be dramatically more productive, but at the same time admitted that their employees were already overstretched.

Worse, they acknowledged that company culture and values positively impacted effectiveness, but only 17 percent of them said they aligned their business strategies with their plans for cultural change.

“Far too many managers and directors are confused about what productivity means and consequently don’t know how to deliver it,” says Shaun McCarthy, chairman of organisational culture experts Human Synergistics. “Productivity means different things to different people and the result is invariably leadership confusion.”

COMPETITIVE REALITY Competition, not competency, rates higher on the fault line identified by New Zealand’s first productivity commissioner Murray Sherwin. “The degree to which business leaders understand productivity is defined by the extent to which their businesses are exposed to competition – either at home or abroad,” he says.

“Companies that are exposed to real competition understand it. And they say they need a two or three percent

productivity gain every year just to stay in business.”

If this is true, the increasing global competition which this country seems bound to confront should rapidly lift productivity literacy in future.

Higher productivity, according to Sherwin, is about creating a better-performing economy – one which generates higher average incomes, greater individual opportunities and improved personal wellbeing. Countries with strong economies are more resilient to the inevitable “shocks and adversities” that nations face.

Whatever other political, natural or geographic factors contribute to it, enhancing productivity is still fundamentally about the adoption or rejection of best management and governance practice and thereby organisational performance. It obviously also needs the right business environment, generated by having the right policy settings, laws, regulations and institutions in place.

Helping to create that environment is part of the new Commission’s job.

For her part, Rothschild is clear about what impacts productive performance most. Clear direction, organisational design, reward, leadership, performance management, engagement and diversity are, she says, all at the heart of issue.

“Productivity can seem like the management equivalent of the Rubik’s cube

PRODUCTIVITY

NZIER’s Shamubeel Eaqub.

– each time one bit of the puzzle shifts it exposes more work to be done. We think that while the organisational levers are interconnected and interdependent, they work together. Rather than creating more work, improving one factor often creates momentum and improvement in other areas.”

Australasian business leaders are, she says, too reliant on the cost lever to stay afloat. “They need to refocus on growth by pulling the performance lever.” According to Hay researchers, New Zealand companies routinely get performance management wrong.

Less than a third of our enterprises align their performance management approach to their company strategy – and so the disconnect between words and action continues.

CULTURE & VALUES And when it comes to aligning organisational culture and values – a critical factor in changing entrenched and outdated attitudes about productivity – Kiwi leadership performance is even worse. Hay found that just 17 percent of our companies tailor their performance management to their company’s culture and values – a far lower rate than the global 24 percent average.

There are two strands to the productivity tangle: macro- and micro-thinking,

Hay Group’s Henriette Rothschild.

and action. The macro action that lifted agriculture out of the ditch was industry deregulation. The micro transformation comes from daily, cumulative and incremental improvements in management practices and processes, competitive and innovative thinking and particularly improvements in people capability.

New Zealand’s agriculture industry has successfully exploited its natural advantages to boost its productivity – much like Australia’s mining industry which, through a rather less sophisticated business, digs up the nation’s precious metals and ships them off to China. Many of the preconditions for agriculture’s success, such as climate, technology, scientific knowledge and management processes, existed when the government moved to deregulate.

“The suppressive regulatory environment that existed prior to deregulation coddled the industry and sucked all the innovation out of it so it didn’t need to be competitive and highly productive,” explains Eaqub. “When the industry was opened up there was a massive incentive for it to become more productive and invest in itself. And that is what farmers did.”

It is, however, difficult to see another New Zealand industry sector similarly well placed to benefit from a macro strategy shift. Generally, enhanced productivity accrues from the cumulative impact of

micro changes across enterprise. It is about businesses doing things better. Consequently, it takes time to see the impacts of changes in productive performance.

New Zealand hasn’t changed the economic environment much since the reforms of the 1980s – partly because economic conditions until 2008 were pretty good. “There was little or no real incentive for New Zealand to over-focus on productivity and growth,” says Eaqub.

“Governments don’t make painful policy decisions unless they have to.” Take a look at Europe.

In a report written for his former employer, the OECD, the Productivity Commission’s new director research and analysis Paul Conway said New Zealand had the “most unhelpful economic geography” of any OECD country. He considered this an important reason for our “poor long-run economic performance”.

But, he said, it wasn’t “the whole story”.

Too many companies were inefficient.

FISCAL SLIPPAGE According to Sherwin, New Zealand’s macro policy settings are “broadly okay”.

It is on the micro regulatory side that things slipped – such as fiscal management in the last year or so of Helen Clark’s Labour government. But, he adds, “there is still too much [enterprise] suspicion” around the word productivity.

FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 37

PRODUCTIVITY

“Employees see it as something that is done to them rather than something they should look to act on. Employees and their representatives [unions] must understand that productivity is the pathway to better jobs and higher incomes.”

Educating both employers and employees about productivity will not, however, be the Commission’s core focus. Finance Minister Bill English and Treasury believe policy advice based on sector research projects will deliver the greatest national benefit. The Commission will use its specific inquiries, such as the one on housing released just before Christmas, as “platforms” from which to generate wider discussion. “We also need research on broader productivity issues to underpin the work done in our enquiries,” Sherwin adds.

Productivity is, it seems, now about sustained improvement through consistent and constant micro-management activity. But getting management to

38 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

commit isn’t easy. The upshot of our inattention to detail is that countries like Australia get away on us.

“We have too many down periods instead of keeping up a generally steady pattern of productivity growth. Drop off a couple of percentage points over five years in 30 and suddenly we are 20 percent behind the rest of the world,” says Sherwin.

Macro or micro options and policies notwithstanding, it isn’t reasonable to lay the entire blame for New Zealand’s poor productive performance at management’s door, according to Eaqub.

“Many of our smaller enterprises (SMEs) are good businesses that work hard at what they do. They try to make the most of their opportunities. Poor productivity isn’t simply a lack of management capability. The problem is not that simple.

I am not sure exactly what causes poor productive performance, but clearly there is something getting in the way. There is something we are not doing very well.”

Last year NZIER compared the productivity performances of New Zealand and Australia. It found that, with the exception of agriculture and mining, neither country was very good at anything else. “We haven’t finished our work but, productivity is a complex issue and there aren’t any easy answers to the problem,” says Eaqub.

New Zealand is a small economy. It suffers from constraints of scale, geography, management capability and other inefficiencies. But even the experts can’t put their finger on why New Zealand is so productively challenged. They do, however, agree that our businesses are not making the money they should and workers are not earning high enough wages. “There is a disconnect somewhere,” agrees Eaqub. M Reg Birchfield is a writer on leadership, governance & management. reg@rjmedia.co.nz Illustration by Frazer Williamson.

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nd t su oun s b i g a u e b p ace o i e to w rk nd o l y We h ve n u r d no mous ama e a d we e th r f re bo t o be he e i i n s of np e ed n ed c h ow s n ur n e mon y in a t c l r t ge h r w th a rge omm tm nt o f nds om e t al G v rnm nt a ts o f ow F ve ig su s ay o ay r : ■ M k ng u e ca i al l nd in he c y a a n ■ Po ul ion yn mi s: t e pop l t on f 400 00 h s d op ed r s s mp s i n o a p t n a n w Ch s c u ch t ba e a o nd he v n R er nd a l y P rk s by 8 00 Mo t p op e e e o ed y he h s c u ch ty o n i o e co ag co mu i y om e t o he u u e f he ty l ve he c y i s whe e he r b s n ss s omp e e y d f r nt CECC r wr te he C v l De e ce t e r ho se oc a l e and w e e The g od n ws i un mp oym nt bo k on b s ne s e ov ry t s t e r k ds re n s ho l : h y wi l n Chr t hu ch s owe t an t e mo e t an i s a d k ts nd o ch s r bu d n t o al v r ge nd t e v l e of bu r l c t ng! CECC et p a ■ De ay a c nc r t at a s way r de hr ugh he or of L t e on s we s te nd a l c n re s ec l y at s ; c n i ued e sm c a t v y 3 % p on t e s me t me a t y ar a to et a h to M s to ay w ges ( 000 f e s oc s) e a s n ur n e wo e r h gh EFT OS an a t o s The G ve nme t s m l ym nt and co om c ac v ty ema n w th n 5% o th N w ea nd Su s dy ch me ( p to $ 00 p r ■ Pe c p i n: a e r o go ng b ck ve a e and 5% of orm l e e s emp yee er w ek or up o e g t to he CBD whe e 52 00 Not ad wh n ou c n i er we we k ) s w th t omp ny f l ut pe p e we e emp ed o t We h ve een h ou h t e gr a e t New wa a mos ne l g b e a e not o ng b ck o t e Old Ze and a u al i a er o a l im !

■ Th re w l be no mou opp r u Chr t hu ch o 150 e rs e a y M Tow s nd s d Auc l nd r ca : n i s in he u l i g in u t y The c n r l c y wi l o k and e l ■ L a n a ot r m Ch s ch r h Wa ch ut i wi l et ig ho gh t s a k u t e n w T e pa hw ys or omp ni s o be nv l ed w l be v a c n r l g v rnm nt oc l ov rnm nt nd a ew [ i ] c mpa i s The u im te e t w l be wi l ur g a dc i d en nd g e t g an ch d en s y t i is he m st mod rn c y in he wo d c nic f rw rd oo ing w er we wan to l ve w rk nd p ay I y u wa t o b i v l ed EMA d i e you a i n w th a h i ch r h ba ed om any t ey i l e g en i s o t o on p o c s Fa ng h t f r u t er f rm t o co t ct t e C n e bu y Ea t qu ke Re ov ry Au h r y www ce a ov nz

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Competing by Collaborating

When more is more Twenty years ago Michael Enright helped New Zealand learn how to innovate through industry clusters. Now heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s back, spearheading a new project to nudge us into the next phase of international competitiveness. He spoke with Ruth Le Pla. 40 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

COMPETITIVENESS

T

o most New Zealanders, Professor Michael Enright is one of the trio behind the groundbreaking 1991 report ‘Upgrading New Zealand’s Competitive Advantage’. The report unleashed a wave of new thinking around how New Zealand could lift its game by crosspollinating ideas and actions across industry groupings.

Now heading his own firm Enright, Scott & Associates based in both Hong Kong and Singapore, he’s back in New Zealand. He’s working with a sponsor group that includes New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Science and

Innovation, Department of Labour, Economic Development Agencies New Zealand (EDANZ), and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED).

Why are you here?

I’m looking at New Zealand’s competitiveness today and where it might go in the future. This project unpacks the various international sources on competitiveness.

There’s a tendency for countries to focus on the aggregate indices from a limited number of sources such as World Economic Forum or IMD competitiveness reports.

So I’m taking apart data from about 12 to

15 different major sources to delve into different aspects of competitiveness.

These include reports on economic freedom by The Heritage Foundation and the Fraser Institute, World Bank indices on the knowledge economy, Transparency International’s reports on corruption, and studies from other sources on corporate governance and city competitiveness.

The key thing is that the single aggregated indices that these groups come up with are all interesting but, by their nature, they have to be one-size-fits-all.

That means sometimes the measurement scheme isn’t really appropriate for individual economies that have their own idiosyncrasies.

FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 41

COMPETITIVENESS

The wired world is a two-edged sword.

– Michael Enright

Photo: Jan-Michael David

How can New Zealand use that information?

All these indices are made up of many components. In my view, these are more useful than the aggregates. We’ll line up what New Zealand does, and doesn’t do, well.

The interesting ones are where New Zealand doesn’t score as well as it should. It’s also interesting to focus on areas where New Zealand needs to score well in order to compete globally and where there’s potential to do something about that.

New Zealand doesn’t score particularly well in terms of its infrastructure, for example. In itself, that’s an interesting piece of information. But couple that with the notion of a small economy far away from major markets, and you see that you can’t afford not to have infrastructure that’s absolutely world class.

Anything that creates additional friction between New Zealand companies 42 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

and individuals interacting with the rest of the world is a concern to me.

The idea is to identify all of the things out there that are potential influencers and then start to piece together the story about what they mean for New Zealand’s economy.

Twenty years on, what’s new or different about businesses clustering together to innovate?

The reality of clustering hasn’t changed.

But the way people think about it has.

Historically, people used to think of clusters as vertically integrated production chains. People now understand that you can even have clusters of individual activities within a production chain.

These days you’ll see companies doing their advanced R&D in Silicon Valley, and their process engineering in Singapore and Taiwan. They can be doing part of their software development in the US and another part in India.

They can have their call centre in The Philippines and their manufacturing in the Chinese Mainland.

International companies are now slicing up their activities into smaller and smaller bits and placing each bit in its optimum location. This is being facilitated by modern communication technologies and management systems.

Do companies still need to be physically close to each other in an increasingly wired world?

Do you mean: if distance is dead, is location dead? The answer to that turns out to be a resounding ‘no’. Activities are not dispersed evenly over space.

Why do we have over 300,000 people in Bangalore – and 160,000 people in Dalian, China – engaged in the IT sector?

These things should be dispersed to the four winds but they’re not because skills, capabilities, organisation and management are involved. There is

COMPETITIVENESS

critical mass in terms of generating the infrastructure, attracting the people and having competition among firms.

The wired world is a two-edged sword. Industries tend to disperse if they are not too scale-sensitive and where the knowledge that’s required can be readily codified.

But exactly the same mechanisms that allow those industries to disperse, result in other industries where the creative process is critical. Those are the industries that tend to centralise. Both Hollywood and Wall Street are much more dominant now than they were 20 years ago.

You’ve said stories of failure can bind a cluster together. How does that work?

In industries where innovation, research and development are critical, there are many reasons why geographic co-location is an advantage. These places tend to be a repository of expertise. There tends to be a more common understanding of what the problems are. If you have multiple companies, you have multiple different approaches going on. And you have local rivalries involved.

But one of the key reasons, in my view, why research-intensive industries tend to cluster is what I call the value of negative information.

If a company is successful in an innovation or research project, sooner or later the rest of the world finds out. But when projects are failures, very rarely does that information get out.

Where there’s a lot of informal com-

munication, people learn about the failures. That’s the value of being in a local community. Anyone working in an R&Dtype operation knows full well that 80 percent of the time is spent on dead ends.

And if one can limit the number of dead ends it hugely increases the efficiency of investment in innovative activities.

This is one of the untold stories of clustering. People inside the cluster know about other people’s failures. People outside the cluster don’t.

How worried should we be about many New Zealand managers’ relative lack of international experience?

It’s a significant concern. There’s a dichotomy. A subset of the New Zealand population is out there: either they’ve left the country or they’re based here but they have travelled widely and know what’s going on.

But the bulk of the business community is not so widely travelled and New Zealand is not in the centre of the mainstream information flows for much of the world’s economy.

As a result, there are some lost opportunities. International markets, how to segment them and the speed with which some of them move, are not well understood here.

An understanding of international competitors and how they’re moving in third markets is perhaps lacking.

We see some collaboration in New Zealand. But because that way of thinking is not as advanced here as it is elsewhere, there doesn’t seem to be as much

of a tendency to coordinate with other companies to go out and get information.

Should we be setting up companies as potential international players right from the get-go?

In any country, most firms never go beyond their national borders. But in other small countries we tend to see a much greater tendency to go out.

We need to think about the extent to which New Zealand companies can tap into the advent of modern communication technology and globalisation which allow companies from anywhere to potentially harness global resources.

Companies from the rest of the world are doing so. I’ve worked with companies that start up in California and never intend to have more than 20 employees there.

From the start, they’re thinking not only about a domestic or international market, but they’re also thinking about doing their production in China, and having their back office in India and their call centre in The Philippines.

They do it right from the start because that’s what companies are doing these days. My sense is because there’s not such a precedent for that in New Zealand – there are not obvious examples of the company next door doing that – there’s less of a tendency for that to happen.

The irony is that way of thinking probably has the potential to have a greater impact on New Zealand than on virtually any other country in the world. M

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FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 43

FACE TO FACE

Brad Clark

Relentless & inspired What’s it like to wake up every morning knowing your work helps save lives?

Nick Grant goes walkabout with Starship Foundation CEO Brad Clark to find out.

B

rad Clark mentions “genuineness” a lot. Evidently he sees it as a crucial part of any business transaction, whether it involves a client or a staff member. It’s a quality that Clark, Starship Foundation’s CEO, appears to have in abundance.

When he talks about being inspired every day by the people he works for, and with, what could seem like pure platitude comes across as entirely sincere.

Although Auckland’s Starship Foundation is a registered charity and thus an

44 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

independent entity, its 16 staff members are crammed into a small corner on level 15 of the Starship Children’s Health building. The lack of salubrious surroundings, however, is more than made up for by the proximity to the medical frontline, which assists in aligning the Foundation’s activities with the hospital’s needs.

It’s here in his nondescript, windowless office that Clark takes time to talk about what led him to this, his first chief executive role.

Born and raised on the east coast of Canada, Clark had initially decided to pursue a career in sponsorship because it offered the opportunity to combine his love of sport with his marketing-skewed business degree from Nova Scotia’s Acadia University.

By the time he graduated his parents had moved to New Zealand, thanks to father Ken being headhunted by Canadian broadcaster CanWest to lead TV3. “I thought, ‘Sweet’,” says Clark, “I’ll come over, use their place as home-base,

FACE TO FACE

Photos: Jan-Michael David

see Australia and travel around New Zealand.”

Long story short, he fell in love with the place and so, 19 years later, here he remains, now well and truly settled with wife and child.

One of his first Godzone gigs was at insurance company Sovereign, which at the time was enjoying explosive growth. There, under the tutelage of Paul Dryden, Clark got to “do a lot of groundbreaking work sponsoring rugby, theatre and community stuff ” and learnt the value of a project management approach.

“We had people from different parts of the organisation contribute to these project teams,” he recalls. “I could see how working that way not only got buyin from those parts of the organisation that you need to bring along on the journey with you but was also a great leadership tool to ensure everyone feels a sense of ownership in what you’re doing.”

It’s a discipline he’s now introduced

to Starship Foundation in response to a perceived need on the part of staff “to be able to easily articulate where this organisation is going”. As a result they’ve just signed off on agreed-upon one-, three- and-five-year strategies, backed up by 90-day goals, a mix of the “big, hairy and audacious” and the more prosaic. An example of the latter is for

each team member to “adopt a ward or part of the hospital programme”, with the aim of better understanding the needs of frontline medical staff and their charges, as well as improving internal communication of the Foundation’s functions within the hospital.

While at Sovereign, Clark also realised there’s a relatively low ceiling for sponsorship jobs in New Zealand’s tiny market and that he therefore needed to become more of a marketing generalist.

Inspired by the example of Dryden, who he describes as “an amazing mentor”, Clark made his way as a marketing contractor after leaving Sovereign, broadening his experience before landing what obviously still counts as something of a career highlight: America’s Cup project manager for American Express.

“I thought it was a pretty good accomplishment to create the brand ‘American Express Viaduct Harbour’ and get people to say that,” he grins.

Following this were stints as group manager at Brand Advantage and the Takapuna Beach Business Association’s general manager before securing his penultimate role, general manager of FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 45

FACE TO FACE

marketing and fundraising at CanTeen, the charity for young people with cancer.

During his three years there, CanTeen contributed half a million dollars to Starship’s oncology unit. As a result, Clark got to know both the Foundation and its then-CEO Andrew Young, who he credits with running “a steady ship that was also very innovative in its fundraising” (something that’s continuing under Clark’s watch with such new product offerings as

Cuddle corners & confidence Brad Clark is possessed of a certain relentlessness that’s belied by his soft-spoken, Canadian-accented manner. It’s readily apparent he sees the occasion of being profiled by NZ Management as a golden opportunity to tout his organisation to the magazine’s corporate readership.

And so, while he happily answers questions about his background and personal management philosophies and practices, he persistently, politely, steers the conservation back to the work of the outfit he’s led for the past year.

Such an approach could be enormously frustrating for a journalist but when the interview subject happens to be the CEO of the Starship Foundation charity, it’s impossible to begrudge it – especially after Clark cannily contrives to show his interlocutor around the children’s hospital his organisation helps fund.

We begin in the atrium of the Starship Children’s Health building, the centre piece of which is a playground that was made-over six years ago in a fantasy rain forest theme chosen by the young patients.

Clark points out an enclosure tucked off to one side that bears the legend ‘Ella’s Cuddle Corner’.

“This is a really cool development in the environment here,” he says. “Little Ella was a patient at Starship a couple of years ago, and her family would smuggle the family cat into the loos over there because she was really missing her pets. The staff kinda knew what was going on but turned a blind eye because Ella was palliative – she wasn’t going to make it – and so anything that could make her life better at that stage was a positive.

“That experience got us thinking about how we could accommodate pets in the hospital, and to make it more sanitary we created this area. So now if you have a long-stay patient here and want to bring in your pet for a visit, it can be arranged. Also, every Wednesday the SPCA brings pets in and the patients can come down and interact with them, which really helps in terms of their positivity.”

Next stop is level 7, the hospital’s oncology ward and something of a showcase for the institution.

“This is what we’re striving for in a modern hospital,” says Clark.

“If we could have every floor in Starship like level 7 as far as services, facilities and equipment go, we’d be home and hosed.”

46 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

Having enjoyed a comprehensive refurbishment courtesy of Starship Foundation’s fundraising, the oncology ward is indeed impressive in the way it meets the aim of “providing a world-class facility for the kids of this country and creating a healthcare environment that’s conducive to families supporting their children”, as Clark puts it.

There are dedicated kitchen areas where families can prepare their own meals, and in the single rooms that are more the norm than the exception there are pull-out beds for parents – sponsored, according to discreet-yet-hard-to-miss plaques, by Mercury Energy.

We pass the six bed unit that – in a first for New Zealand – is specifically set aside for adolescents “because it’s important for them to have their own space”, notes Clark, a space that teenage patients were integral to creating, having been consulted on its design.

Then there are features like the dedicated treatment room equipped with such distractions as a light show that plays on the ceiling, enabling procedures to be done without recourse to anaesthetic, while in the playroom, along with the standard-issue blocks, books, toys and puzzles, there’s a mini MRI machine on which a doll is being scanned, “because it’s not so scary for the littlies if they see dolly can do it”.

Level 6 makes for a stark contrast. A high throughput area that houses Neuroservices and Medical Specialties, it’s distinctly threadbare compared to the floor above it, the consequence of having received a minimum of maintenance in the 20 years since the building was constructed.

Most rooms contain four beds; parents who want to spend the night with their child get a mattress on the floor if they’re lucky, with trying to sleep in a chair the more likely prospect; equipment lines the corridors because there’s not sufficient storage space; the décor is drab and – with prolonged exposure – almost certainly depressing.

“It’s definitely not the best environment for sick kids and their families,” agrees Clark. “That’s why the level 6 rebuild is our key focus at Starship Foundation at the moment. The window of opportunity for that happening is November 2012 to June 2013, and we’re looking to raise $6 million to get it done. There’s still a $1.5 million gap, but we’ve already given Starship Health the thumbs up that we’re confident we can get there. And we will.”

FACE TO FACE

a line of Anne Geddes/Starship gift wrap).

When Young decided to step down after seven years as chief executive, “I was chomping at the bit to try and get myself in here,” says Clark. He loved the organisation and its work – making a meaningful contribution ranks high in the hierarchy of things he looks for in a job – and saw stepping up into a CEO role as a logical progression.

“It made sense for me, professionally and personally. I enjoy leadership, being the go-to guy and taking on that responsibility. While I’d had a kinda supporting career in different areas, I’ve always tended to put my hand up to lead small teams within those roles, so this feels like a natural space to be in.”

Clark favours a consultative, teambased approach to managing, something he attributes to having participated in a lot of team sports over the years in a variety of roles – “captain and coach and player and player/coach” – as well as a particular problem-solving exercise he vividly remembers from an early business course; a real world NASA exercise, albeit one set on the moon.

“It involved a mishap on the moon and having to get home from there,” he recalls. “Pretty much without fail if you tried to do it by yourself, you died; if you did it as a team, you lived. It really demonstrated that the more brains around the table, the better.”

In keeping with this insight he’s spent his first year as Starship Foundation CEO doing a lot of listening to “the huge brains on the team here”. As previously noted, this has resulted in the introduction of project management systems for the sake of clear, shared goals, and will soon see the team participating in personality profile testing, “because understanding each other better will help us work more collaboratively”.

Clark has also sought clarity from the management of Starship Children’s Health around the process that’s used to prioritise how the funds the Foundation raises are spent. This is because “the past year has seen the biggest ever ask of the Foundation, I personally felt the need to be more comfortable with that decisionmaking process, and it’s crucial to be able to clearly and genuinely communicate to donors – whether it’s ASB Bank, which has been with us for 20 years, or Mrs Jones from Invercargill – exactly what their money has contributed to”.

Starship Foundation enjoys a strong brand that means “we hopefully tend to be top-of-mind when people are looking for a good cause to support”, notes Clark.

However, a growing shortfall in government funding, tough economic times and the amount of charitable money that’s been directed to Canterbury earthquake relief all contribute to an environment in which, now more than

ever, “delivering value to the customer, to the donor, is an equation we can never forget about”.

When it comes to corporate donors that value must be more than the private knowledge of the difference their money makes to the lives of sick children and their families; anonymous altruism is simply a non-starter as a business case.

“In our game, our world, there are very clear deliverables – not just the feel-good factor but on the business side too,” Clark says. “We need to be as commercially savvy as any business, and ensure we’re consistent with our message and that how it’s communicated meets the needs of a corporate client. That might, for example, be around customer engagement – the sense that ‘you’re a good company so we’ll continue to do business with you’.

“Recently one of our corporate partners showed us research that indicates their support of Starship does bind their customers to them more strongly, because they see the association as a form of added value.”

Clark wishes more corporate donors applied that kind of scrutiny to their charitable giving.

“There are other things that could be measured too, like employee satisfaction and turnover,” he points out. “You know, are your employees happier in their jobs and do they turn over less because you’ve engaged with a great cause like Starship?

Do you get a better quality of candidates applying for jobs because you have a social responsibility policy?

“In theory, and anecdotally, the answer is ‘yes’. In practice there’s a lack of research at the moment. I’d love if there was more measurement of those things because while it’s great that corporate donors know in their hearts it’s a good thing to do, it’s even better to have it confirmed that it makes sense commercially as well.” M • To support Starship Foundation, see starship.org.nz/donation Nick Grant is a freelance journalist. nof.grant@gmail.com

FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 47

The inaugural Premier

Taste of New Zealand

Awards

The Premier Award is the highest achievable Taste of New Zealand Award (TONZA) and recognises only the finest expression of regional cuisine in the country.

Te Whau Vineyard Restaurant

By John Clarke

Chef Marco Edwardes.

Arriving at Te Whau Vineyard Restaurant on Waiheke Island, the spectacular views over the Hauraki Gulf to Rangitoto Island and Auckland City in the distance, encompassing the appropriate elements of sea and sky, could tend to focus attention on being a tourist. However there is something in the convivial, matter-of-fact attitudes of service staff, the open kitchen and a decided lack of glitz that gives this vineyard dining room more of the air of family auberge France than it does Michelin Three Star.

Without question Te Whau Vineyard Restaurant has a very special atmosphere, one that gives an impression that this is a place for serious food and wine. This is a restaurant where food is important, and service is in support of food, not in place of it. A place of substance, not glitter. So the meal before us was a chance to see just how deep the Te Whau commitment to genuine cuisine is.

Chef Marco Edwardes comes with the sort of CV and reputation that has the admiration and respect of this country’s best chefs. After training in Germany at a Michelin-starred restaurant, Edwardes was appointed head chef at the renowned Pegasus Bay Winery & Restaurant in North Canterbury. He left there to spend three years as head chef at an exclusive guesthouse and restaurant in the Swiss Alps, returning to New Zealand to take over as Te Whau’s head chef in December 2006.

Since his arrival, Te Whau has been named “One of the {five} most memorable meals of the year” by Jerry Shriver of USA Today in December 2007, was awarded “Winner-Best Rural Restaurant” in 2008, 2009 & 2010 in the Metro/Audi Restaurant of the Year Awards and in 2011 was the recipient of a Premier Taste of New Zealand Award (TONZA) for its fine expression of regional cuisine.

With a cooking style described as fresh and modern New Zealand/ European cuisine, Chef Marco says he likes to keep things simple and flavoursome using only the best and freshest ingredients available.

This may be true, but Edwardes also has that ability to construct his dishes around taste and each dish is an exquisite example of what can be produced from local resources.

Te Whau Vineyard was established in 1993 by Tony, Moira and Caroline Forsyth. The vineyard was planted in 1996 and the wines, the awardwinning “The Point” and Te Whau Chardonnay were first made in 1999.

“We can’t just pretend to find the best local suppliers,” says Edwardes. “We have to actually find what is good, why it is good and make dishes that reflect its excellence.”

Owner Tony Forsyth suggests this is a very personal thing for Edwardes, and that he has the attitude that is essential for making a high class kitchen work. Well organised, he is committed to creating fine food and maintaining standards, and – essential in a New Zealand environment – is a hands-on operator, not a chef who stands and delivers orders to those around him. But he has that special thing that makes the difference – taste.

Both Forsyth and Edwardes have worked assiduously to ensure that the best of what is available locally finds its way onto their menu and wine list. Some suppliers have nationwide reputations, so dealing regularly with them is a no brainer. But for others, it is a matter of tracking down growers who will regularly deliver local products that meet Te Whau’s exacting standards.

Te Whau features a collection of prestige Bordeaux wines from

leading châteaux, but Forsyth also takes great care to ensure that the best of local wineries are on show. He is not satisfied just to tick the various wine company boxes to keep them all happy. The Te Whau wine list includes the very best of New Zealand wines, with an emphasis on mature vintages of hard-toobtain Waiheke Island wines including obviously the stunningly good wines from the Te Whau Vineyard.

Ultimately, though, for me, it is the dishes that Edwardes’ palate and skill have created that have made Te Whau Vineyard Restaurant Waiheke Island’s most notable dining destination.

Every dish is an experience of local and individual, of a place and a person who through his kitchen role is elevating the experience of dining locally into an art form. One made of green pastures, warm seas and that oddity off the coast of the Big Little City that is not Auckland but uniquely Waiheke Island.

Indeed, for those with the palates to see what Forsyth and Edwardes have achieved, dining at Te Whau is a travel adventure, an exploration of the foods of the northern region of New Zealand. www.tewhau.com

Tony and Moira Forsyth.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Switching on the

green light S

Many Kiwi businesses are lagging behind global uptake of sustainable practices. Hayley Barnett asks local energy efficiency experts why more of our companies aren’t tapping into environmental opportunities and what some businesses are doing to go green.

taggering savings, increased productivity, a reduced carbon footprint and a better reputation are just some of the payoffs for businesses that decide to go down the road of energy efficiency. Yet convincing Kiwi companies to go green is still a monstrous challenge.

It seems businesses, large and small, have the best of intentions but, when push comes to shove, talk of lowering our carbon footprint might just be a lot of hot air.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) is mandated

50 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

to educate businesses on the benefits of saving energy. It does this by focusing on what corporates tend to value most – their bottom line.

Last year, the Government launched its Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, part of which involves assisting businesses to improve their energy productivity.

EECA chief executive Mike Underhill says Kiwi companies have more to gain than they think.

“To be frank, most businesses haven’t read the strategy,” says Underhill. “Most see energy as such a small part of their

total operating costs that they think there are more important things to focus on.

“At the other end of the spectrum, some companies pay well over $2.5 million a year on energy consumption, but it’s mainly those in export-driven markets because they see the value in having a green reputation overseas.”

Underhill says the real challenge lies in getting SMEs to look beyond the initial cost and see the ongoing costeffectiveness and myriad other benefits of saving energy.

“Commercial buildings alone eat up around $2 billion a year on energy. If you

save 10 percent of that it’s an awful lot of money, so there are some really significant savings to be made. We find it useful to talk about the dollar savings because it goes straight to a company’s bottom line.”

A study carried out by EECA in mid-2011 found the majority of New Zealand businesses consider their brand and reputation to be their most important business driver, with relationships coming in second, profitability third and managing energy use down at number eight.

Underhill says energy efficiency isn’t top of mind for businesses that are only just coming out of a recession.

EECA is promoting subsidies for energy audits and will be launching a number of other schemes in an effort to change such thinking.

“If I were running a small business in New Zealand, the sad fact is I probably wouldn’t be aware of the opportunities,” says Underhill. “But even if I were, I’d be more worried about how I’d survive next

year so I wouldn’t want to waste time and money on energy efficiency.”

Underhill says EECA is about to launch new schemes looking at how to give energy management advice to the owners of buildings. The schemes will also look at part-funding energy consultancy to new buildings and part-funding energy-savings projects in existing buildings that wouldn’t otherwise go ahead.

“We will use third parties to go out and promote that and offer the services,” he says.

Energy audits are now subsidised by the Government, but Underhill says few SMEs are aware of this.

“What we’re trying to do is tell people they don’t need to be an energy expert – someone can come in and say, ‘Here are the energy gains you can make’, and they’re authorised by EECA so you can have confidence in them.”

EECA research shows that switching to energy-efficient lighting is one of the best returns on investment available

for businesses looking to reduce their energy use.

Over the past 15 months Philips has sold over 16,000 energy-efficient light fittings for commercial offices. Combined, the switch to this lighting product results in 610 fewer tonnes of carbon emissions and provides energy savings of $554,000 (based on 15c/KWh).

When energy efficient lighting is combined with lighting controls like occupancy sensors and daylight controls, Philips says energy savings of up to 70 percent on lighting costs can be achieved.

“The technology has been around for quite some time and it’s only just starting to take off in New Zealand. Only a small number have realised the benefits,” says Philips Lighting NZ commercial manager Gordon Wiffen. “There are several reasons for this, the main one being that a lot of buildings are owned by developers and companies are just tenants, therefore they get what they’re given. The developer is obviously looking for their best return FEBRUARY 2012 management.co.nz | 51

Photo: Jan-Michael David

Philips NZ’s David Procter... “Investing in workplace lighting can contribute to greater employee wellbeing and performance.”

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Philips Lighting’s Gordon Wiffen. Pure Advantage’s Duncan Stewart. EECA’s Mike Underhill.

Westpac’s energy-efficient headquarters.

on investment and, because they don’t pay the power bill, of course they don’t care.”

Philips tries to involve building owners in its next-generation lighting presentations and convince them that new technology attracts a higher rental fee.

A recent Australian Property Institute study found that for higher energy rated ‘green’ buildings, owners could charge up to a nine percent premium and value the tenancy based around having energy-efficient lighting.

“For tenants on a longer term lease the reduction in their energy bill will be paid well before their lease is up and therefore the overall cost of the upgrade will pay for itself.”

And it’s not just money that businesses can save on.

A study commissioned by Philips found that improved lighting design increased worker productivity by up to 23 percent.

“Our research has shown that investing in workplace lighting can contribute 52 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

to greater employee wellbeing and performance, as well as reducing employee stress, absenteeism and industrial accidents,” says Philips NZ marketing manager Dave Procter. “So far only a very small percentage of companies here have adopted new lighting technology so there’s a lot of potential.”

There are, of course, good examples out there. The New Zealand banking sector, in particular, has embraced energy efficiency with open arms.

Westpac started a project in 2008 called ‘Our Tomorrow’, which comprised a four-year sustainability plan. One of the goals was to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2012. There was also a four-year initial target to reduce energy use by 10 percent.

Westpac commissioned Smart Power to develop an energy management plan which found that 93 percent of the company’s energy use went to power HVAC, lighting and signage, and office equipment.

In the programme’s first two years, energy use fell by 21 percent and CO2 emissions declined by 28 percent. Last year, Westpac was named winner of EECA’s Energy Management Award.

Similarly, ASB Bank is saving around $1 million a year with new energy initiatives and Kiwibank is saving $20,000 with energy-saving software.

But since this doesn’t look to be becoming the norm anytime soon, a group of business leaders have taken it upon themselves to target New Zealand’s corporates.

“New Zealand businesses consume about 73 percent of the country’s total energy consumption so it’s a pretty significant proportion,” says Pure Advantage campaign manager Duncan Stewart.

To help combat the problem, Pure Advantage will establish its Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) next year, comprising 15 to 20 large businesses, iwi, NGOs and local government organisations.

“The CLG members will be focused on making low-carbon and sustainability changes both within their own enterprises and throughout their supply chains,” says Stewart. “We are also discussing the possibility of including a transformational project which would see each leader select their own initiative to make a low-carbon leap forward in their industry. For example, a bank might choose to roll out a finance product which funds the capital cost of solar panels or energy-efficiency projects in business.”

The CLG has EECA’s full support.

“We have plenty of fresh water, plenty of renewable energy and some of the most fertile land on earth and when you look around the world at the problems of getting water, energy and food, we have some real advantages here,” says Underhill.

“Pure Advantage is saying corporates can have a very profitable business exploiting New Zealand’s environmental opportunities.”

Only time will tell if they do. M Hayley Barnett is Mediaweb’s writer-at-large.

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

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From large corporates to small businesses, community partnerships to individuals – there’s a category for all.

Could you be a 2012 EECA Award winner? For full details on how to enter call 0800 358 676 or visit eeca.govt.nz. Entries close Monday 20 February 2012. Winners will be announced in May 2012.

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PETER TYNAN EXECUTIVE HEALTH

H

ow are your New Year’s resolutions going? If they’re already just a distant memory, you’re not alone.

Each New Year, Kiwis up and down the country make a vow that this will be the year they lose weight, get fit and/or save money. Some will even succeed. However, come February, a large number of people – no matter how well-intentioned – will have let their resolutions fall by the wayside.

For many people, a barrier to achieving health goals is the lack of a realistic plan. Good planning is at the heart of every successful business project – and improving your own or your team’s health is no different.

With the warm weather (and waylaid resolutions) lingering, February is a great month to get started on a workplace health and wellness initiative. To get the best return from your investment, and real results for your team, consider the following ideas before you get started.

MARKET RESEARCH • Find out what’s important to your employees, and what they need healthwise. Are they keen to get fit, lose weight, stop smoking or de-stress? Do they want help making provision for their day-to-day or elective healthcare needs?

Some may simply be short on time or motivation. If so, a supportive workplace can assist.

• Research other businesses that have

tos.com ockpho thinkst Photo:

Plan for good health

M

health initiatives. Find out what has worked for them and if there were any challenges along the way.

PROJECT PLANNING • The SMART mnemonic – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely – is a really useful test to apply. Be clear about what you would like to achieve. Set out how you’ll go about reaching the goal, what the timeframe is, and what measurements you’ll use to track progress.

• For those starting out, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Start small and generate momentum by building upon successes.

RESOURCES • An investment in improving employee health has been shown to pay for itself many times over through reduced absence, improved productivity, reduced turnover and more. But if your budget can’t be budged, it’s great to know that even small, inexpensive initiatives can help to reduce absenteeism and improve staff engagement. Low-cost or no-cost options could include flu vaccinations, offering more flexibility around working hours for exercise, starting a lunchtime walking group, or hiring a nutritionist to hold a seminar on healthy eating.

EVALUATION • Make sure you set aside a time to evaluate what the impact has been, and if any adjustments need to be made. Be sure to ask your team for feedback and ideas.

Finally, make your own health a nonnegotiable for 2012. Management roles can place a strain on the waistline.

Without a plan in place to manage the demands of long hours, networking, lunches and deadlines, healthy eating and exercise can easily get pushed to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list.

One planning solution is to lock exercise into your day, as you would a meeting. Aim for first thing in the morning – that way the day’s activities can’t take over from your best intentions.

Another tip is to stock up on healthy snacks to keep on hand in the car and at work for busy periods. M Peter Tynan is chief executive of Southern Cross Health Society.

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

FEBRUARY 2012

| management.co.nz | 55

M

EXECS ON THE MOVE

Thomas Pippos

Deloitte New Zealand has appointed Thomas Pippos to succeed Murray Jack as chief executive. Jack now assumes the role of chairman. Prior to his appointment, Pippos was the firm’s managing tax partner and a member of the management group, having been in both roles since 1999.

Yusuke Mizoguchi

As part of an increased investment in the New Zealand market, Yusuke Mizoguchi has been appointed to the newly created role of managing director Canon New Zealand.

He has recently held several senior roles in Europe, the US and Japan.

Wayne Pickup

NZ Lotteries has appointed Wayne Pickup to succeed Todd McLeay as chief executive. Pickup, who has previously worked for NZ Lotteries in various roles, has more recently held senior management positions with gaming technology company GTECH Corporation, in Australia and Europe. He takes over as chief executive in March.

Tim Cossar

New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, trading as Te Puia, has appointed Tim Cossar as its new chief executive. Most recently chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association,

Cossar has a strong history in tourism and management in New Zealand including driving the development of Positively Wellington Tourism.

Neal Blackburn

New Zealand accounting firm Staples Rodway has appointed Neal Blackburn as chief operating officer to manage the company’s strategic direction and oversee its marketing, operations and technology functions. Blackburn has held management and consultancy roles in a variety of businesses and professional services firms.

Craig Herbison

Former Telecom director of brand and marketing, Craig Herbison has joined BNZ as its new chief marketing officer (CMO), and will oversee the bank’s brand and marketing function.

Philip Kearney

The University of Otago has appointed Philip Kearney as its next director of development and alumni relations, succeeding associate professor David Gerrard, who returns to the university’s division of health sciences. Kearney was most recently general manager, education at the New Zealand Charities Commission in Wellington.

Sanchia Yonge

Kenexa, a global provider of business solutions for human resources, has announced the appointment of Sanchia Yonge as managing director for its JRA (John

Robertson & Associates) operation in New Zealand. In this capacity, she assumes the leadership role with responsibility for revenue growth, consulting services and customer satisfaction.

Colin McKenzie

Cavalier Corporation’s chief executive and managing director Wayne Chung is to retire from his executive role in March, when he will be replaced by Colin McKenzie. McKenzie joined Cavalier Bremworth as general manager of manufacturing in 2003, becoming group general manager operations in 2005 and chief operating officer in 2008.

Belinda Moffat, Adam Hunt

The Financial Markets Authority has completed the recruitment of its strategic leadership team with two further appointments. Belinda Moffat, most recently head of dispute resolution at Westpac New Zealand, has been appointed as head of enforcement.

Adam Hunt’s new role is head of strategic intelligence. He comes to the FMA from Oracle Corporation where he was director of tax solutions and strategy.

Theodore Zorn

A specialist in management communication, workplace wellbeing and organisational change has been appointed as the head of Massey University’s College of Business. As Pro Vice-Chancellor of the college, Professor Theodore Zorn will oversee more than 300 staff there and at the university’s Manawatu and Wellington campuses, the teaching and research programmes provided for about 12,000 students internally and through distance learning each year.

Plan, Do, Sustain – The Essence of Change Management The use of project-based approaches in a change environment is seen as crucial for sustainable success. For bold ideas, a compelling track record and pragmatic advice, contact us today.

Go to www.projectplusgroup.co.nz or call 04 495 9100 56 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

MEGAN ALEXANDER

TOP TIPS

M

How to lead remote teams

W

orking remotely is an increasing trend in New Zealand businesses and Robert Half data shows many Kiwis harness the power of technology to ‘check in’ when away from the office.

Almost two thirds (62 percent) of New Zealand finance and accounting professionals surveyed say they regularly stay connected to the office remotely or do work-related tasks after hours and while on holiday.

There are several reasons why businesses embrace the remote working model; it can help valued staff achieve better work/life balance, or may make the difference in convincing top talent to join the business.

Underpinning the trend are technological advances that make it easier than ever for remote professionals to work cohesively with other team members from anywhere in the world.

Robert Half’s general manager Megan Alexander says in an environment where we are encouraged to do more, with less time, leading remote teams is a commercial reality for many managers.

Still, many find it challenging to effectively lead a geographically dispersed team of employees.

“Even with the latest communication tools, remote working arrangements come with their own challenges and provide limited opportunity for the everyday interaction that helps supervisors keep employees motivated and engaged,” says Alexander. “It can be harder to gauge how much structure these workers need and leaders risk either micromanaging or not providing enough support to them.”

Alexander offers the following advice

for building positive relationships with remote team members:

1

Clearly identify their part in the bigger picture

The better remote workers understand project goals and how their contributions meet company objectives, the easier it is for them to contribute at a higher level. Work with remote staff to establish timelines for achieving objectives and ensure they have the resources they need for success.

2

Communicate openly and regularly

Maintaining a positive relationship and strong communication channels with remote employees is crucial to keeping tasks on track and workloads under control. Book in regular face-toface meetings to discuss strategies and progress. Meetings in between these visits can be conducted via phone if geographic constraints make it difficult to get together often.

3

Make good use of technology

While technology can’t overcome every challenge in remote working relationships, managers should take advantage of what is available. Tools like video conferencing and web conferencing can allow more ‘face time’ and help create a more human experience.

Online collaborative work tools allow remote employees to contribute to projects and stay apprised of changes.

Internal use of social media can also help far-flung teams build camaraderie to boost overall workforce morale.

Megan Alexander

4

Be inclusive and give praise

Off-site personnel should never feel left out – managers should ensure they have the same or similar opportunities as their on-site counterparts. Enable remote workers to listen to important company announcements via conference call or watch a meeting online. If the company offers training, they can allow off-site staff to participate virtually or attend the session in person. Don’t forget small gestures such as sending a holiday gift to employees who can’t attend the company party.

Managers should always personally and promptly praise remote workers for outstanding performance and share their achievements with other staff.

Acknowledgement of contributions will help remote workers feel valued and raise their profile throughout the firm.

“The bottom line is that so long as communication channels are kept open and used wisely, motivating remote staff and keeping them on track can be as effective as managing on-site employees,” says Alexander. M Megan Alexander is general manager of Robert Half International.

FEBRUARY 2012

| management.co.nz | 57

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EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT Sponsored by The University of Auckland Business School Short Courses www.shortcourses.ac.nz 0800 800 875

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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.

Your team have motivated and engaged our people.

Michelle McBride, Southern Cross Health Society

Make a REAL difference to your organisation 0800 800 875 | www.shortcourses.ac.nz

58 | management.co.nz | FEBRUARY 2012

FEBRUARY 2012 VOL 07 NUMBER 01

ISSN 1177-5815

ON MANAGEMENT

NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT IN ACTION

Training for the Frontline F

rontline managers hold one of the most important leadership roles in any organisation.

As team leaders, managers, supervisors and coordinators they play a vital role in engaging and influencing other employees – and customers.

“Your frontline managers have a major influence on how others see your company,” says NZIM Northern general manager, business development, Tait Grindley. “The performance of your staff depends to a significant extent on their standards, ethics and values, and their effectiveness as leaders and decision makers.”

NZIM has recently reviewed its NZQA-registered Level 5 Diploma in Frontline Management (DipFLM) course, which is designed to give aspiring and new managers practical experience in obtaining results through people. The Diploma consists of a minimum of 12 workshop-based units, grouped under four key themes (leading by example; leading, coaching, facilitating and empowering others; creating best practice; and, creating an innovative culture). By completing the DipFLM assessments candidates will also gain the National Certificate in Business (FLM) (Level 4).

“Participants can achieve the Diploma in just 6-7 months while they continue working,” says Grindley. “It is probably one of the most practical courses we offer. Everything you learn, you can take straight from the classroom and apply directly in your workplace. That hands-on element is vital when you’re building the leadership capability of emerging talent.”

For many, the DipFLM provides their first formal insight into the breadth of responsibilities a management role involves. Others recognise it as an opportunity to consolidate and formalise skills they have already acquired on the job, while for others, it opens up new career opportunities.

Nigel Ball has been with Waratah NZ, the world-leading Tokoroa-based manufacturer of hydraulic tree harvesters, for around five years, mostly on the technical side building up a new manufacturing and engineering department.

“Having a new team to manage was the impetus to get more formal management training.

It’s a really good foundation course for relatively new managers. A lot I’d figured out for myself but it reinforced I’d been doing it right and helped to tie everything together. I use a lot of those management tools in my day-to-day work now.

“Completing the Diploma also gave me the confidence to apply for a role that wasn’t really my niche – in September I became supply chain manager. I’ve got quite a learning curve over the next 6-12 months and I wouldn’t like to be entering this role without those skills.”

December Graduates (L to R) Peter Craig, Blake Aston, Rubina Tautari, Nigel Ball, Thomas Coulter.

Mico Plumbing store manager Thomas Coulter admits he had reservations at first, but quickly became a big fan.

“When I first started the course I thought I already knew what I was doing. But it streamlined what I was doing and gave me more of a structure. Now I’m actually doing more in less time because of the time management skills, being able to adapt to change, plus things like developing and building on strategic alliances – it’s fantastic. The Frontline Management course has all the key elements for running a business.”

“One of the reasons I undertook this course was the change occurring throughout our organisation,” says Auckland District Health Board payroll officer Karen Nicholls. The ADHB is a member of the Health Alliance which provides shared services to the four northern DHBs. Although not yet in a management role, Nicholls sees the planned merger of payroll services as an opportunity.

“There are going to be major changes and I thought it’s time to upskill, and to look at a managerial role.”

For senior architectural draftsman Peter Craig completing the DipFLM is the first stage in his plan to switch to construction project management, aiming to be involved at an earlier stage in development advice to clients.

“To me it’s all about widening your options. I have some 25 years of construction experience and intend to marry that with more general business and financial knowledge, as well as furthering my [construction management] study at Massey University. The Diploma will give me another strength in terms of being aware of how to manage people.”

The workload is not for the fainthearted.

Participants need to complete around 20 assessments plus a major workplace project, and also keep a reflective journal during the course.

Little wonder they rate the time management unit covered early in the programme so highly.

“I found this course very challenging – it is a big commitment,” says Karen Nicholls. “Right from day one, everything I learnt, I implemented the processes into my work. I structured my work flow, and got rid of the backlog of work that built up while I was on the course, and I’ve been keeping it that way ever since. This was awesome, as it alleviated a lot of pressure. It has also brought a lot of clarity to my role. It was a lot of pressure but the key is that a lot of the information is held at your workplace – it was all there, I just had to look for it, and ask questions.”

“As a mother wearing three different hats, I thought I was pretty good at time management,” says Nuplex Pulp and Paper’s Karen Harris. “The course helped me prioritise a lot better.”

As well as foundation skills such as H & S and time management, units relating to people skills often provide revelatory insights.

For Peter Craig it was recognising the power of explaining reasons why when giving instructions.

For Thomas Coulter it was understanding that, although he personally embraces change, people cope with the psychological impacts of change in different ways, hence the need to consider potential impacts and proceed with empathy.

Participants and their managers do their homework before committing to the DipFLM. Many comment that although there are cheaper courses, and the NZIM’s is tougher, it offers more substance, better support and more resources.

“I did quite a bit of research as to what other companies were offering,” says Karen Harris.

“Interestingly, my husband was doing a similar [non-NZIM] programme in-house. My course was a lot more in-depth and I got more out of it.

The resource material was there, I had support at all times and I could go back to my notes and work through the processes to make decisions.”

Focus on Management

Metro Glasstech Celebrates Employee Success At Graduation 2011

I

n December, NZIM Northern once again celebrated the end of our professional development calendar with the annual end-ofyear graduation ceremony and Christmas party.

The event marked the remarkable achievement of individuals and businesses who have demonstrated their commitment and academic prowess whilst at the same time working in full-time professional roles in a very challenging economic climate. Awards received on the night saw individuals graduate with business and management qualifications ranging from the National Certificate in Business – Level 3 through to advanced Diploma-level

programmes that are recognised at an NZQA Level 6.

One success story of the evening was the graduation of a team of dedicated employees from the firm Metro Glasstech. The executive team at Metro Glasstech first contacted NZIM last year to deliver an internal qualification to a group of identified emerging managers within their organisation. The focus was to enhance the group’s already sound product and technical knowledge with the skills required to become successful managers within their branches and internal teams. Employees from Metro Glasstech’s Avondale, North Shore, South

Auckland and Bay of Plenty branches attended the three training sessions, which covered an Introduction to Management programme, Interpersonal Communications Skills and an Effective Business Writing workshop.

Balancing huge workloads, product demand and uncertain shifts based on the workflow created from the 2011 earthquakes, each member of the Metro Glasstech group worked through these challenges and submitted quality assessments, demonstrating their full understanding of the material by using resources and evidence from their own work environments. With the full support of their company and colleagues, every one of the employees completed the required work and achieved the National Certificate in Business – Level 3.

The team at NZIM Northern would like to congratulate the team at Metro Glasstech on achieving this nationally recognised qualification and acknowledge the effort that went into getting everyone over the line. A special mention also goes out to all of the participants’ families, who supported their partners whilst they were studying, working and still contributing to family life. Well done!

All photos from the December Graduation can be found on NZIM Northern’s Facebook page.

NZIM LAUNCHES NEW HR AND RECRUITMENT TRAINING FRAMEWORK FOR 2012 A

new initiative for NZIM Northern is proving to be a winner following our investment in developing relevant, up-to-date materials and programmes to fill a gap in the market for recruitment and human resource professionals in New Zealand.

After reviewing current programmes that serviced the need for practical, hands-on training solutions in this specialised field, NZIM found that there were very few providers that could demonstrate the right mix of theory and practical elements to add value to organisations, agencies or aspiring HR or recruitment participants.

By working with a number of experienced human resource professionals, executive search and generalist recruiters and internal recruitment managers, NZIM Northern has found the answer – a four-stage framework that will assist participants in developing the right skills that can be immediately applied to the workplace and into action.

Focus on Management

Internally known at NZIM as ‘HR1’, the first stage is called ‘Recruitment Frameworks for Success’. This programme, as the name suggests, is an end-to-end practical approach to the recruitment process that can be immediately applied the day after you do the course. Resources galore, templates and the opportunity for high level skill practice make this programme appropriate for individuals or as part of an induction process for agencies or internal recruiters.

‘HR2’ then moves into ‘Managing Performance’.

NZIM acknowledges that performance improvement is the role of every manager and knowing how to get the very best from your team can be the deciding factor in success or failure.

Again, a practical approach through commercially experienced facilitators will put you on the right track and your team will reap the benefits.

‘HR3’ leads you into ‘Implementing Aligned People Strategies’ and focuses on ensuring that internal people strategies are in line with and

support the overall organisational strategy.

Understanding the organisational strategy is just the beginning, in high-performing organisations every other strategy then clearly links back to the overall strategy, vision or principles that govern the business.

Finally, ‘HR4’ is dedicated to ‘Human Resource Management’. With a full introduction to Human Resource Management, this programme delivers sound practical understanding of the key components of HR whilst at the same time enabling the participant to understand how to generate added business value. We split the two days into specific sections including Operational HR Management, Strategic HR Management and HR Legislation.

This is a fresh, exciting and practical approach to all elements of Human Resources and Recruitment and one NZIM is committed to delivering throughout 2012. Check out www.nzimnorthern.co.nz for more information.

Grant Miller MNZIM, presenter Irene Ohler and Ruiqing Liang.

Young Professionals Event with Irene Ohler The 21st century skills – relating across cultures and nationalities

T

his topic attracted 40 Young Professionals on November 15 to listen to Irene Ohler, an executive coach who specialises in intercultural competence development. I attended this event and encouraged some of my colleagues to attend as my overseas experience has made me aware of the importance of developing and improving our skills and competencies in this area.

Irene pointed out that you no longer need to leave Wellington to find yourself working with international customers or as part of a multicultural team: “The ever-changing face of NZ’s population and the effects of globalisation are hard to ignore – the forces of demographic shifts and globalisation have led to greater cultural diversity in New Zealand work environments and our customer/client base.

“With this shift in the way we work, it is now important that we equip ourselves with the mindset and skills to effectively relate to people who may have a very different way of doing and seeing things. This has become essential for our effectiveness, productivity and success today and into the 21st century,” she said.

With just three questions, Irene demonstrated the diversity of cultures in the room and soon there were only four of the 40 people in the room left standing who had a grandparent born in New Zealand. While this result was possibly influenced by the fact the audience was sensitised to and interested in the topic, it showed the level of diversity now present in our society and workplaces.

Irene facilitated exercises and discussed key strategies: • Suspend judgement −−Observe rather than jump to conclusions.

• Active listening −−Listening to both the words and the context: who says what to whom and where? What body language can you observe? −−Checking our understanding regularly to avoid misunderstandings or unmet expectations: “So, what you’re saying is ….”

Dates for your Diary NZIM Young Professionals Event 23rd February 2012 For more information on upcoming events or seminars or to register, please visit our website www.nzimcentral.co.nz.

• Storytelling −−The art of engaging, connecting and sharing your world with others.

• Flexibility −−With your own range of styles as well as to allow others to communicate in a range of ways. Experiment!

• Cultural mentoring −−Share your own awareness of differences and insights on how to close the ‘cultural gap’.

Some personal observations and opinions….

The Kiwi OE tradition, travelling and visiting other cultures around the world or to work overseas provides valuable insights that are very relevant in our workplace. The re-use of these experiences and their value as a workplace skill can be easily overlooked by employers and prospective employees.

In addition to the above experience, there will be organisations in New Zealand operating across geographic and cultural boundaries that would benefit from coaching on inter-cultural diversity.

One of the objectives would be to “open minds” within our organisations and facilitate the identification of the root cause of any “misunderstandings”. In particular, for organisations operating offshore to develop or implement products or services, or to deliver or receive support, we need to challenge the idea that time delays, cost overruns, defects and “deliverables not to specification” are always due to “them”. The benefits would be reduced risk to time, costs, quality and relationships that undermines our competitiveness. Baselines already exist in many organisations that could be used to quantify and measure the ROI and results.

The challenge is for all of us to communicate, and encourage people to consider: • the importance and implications of this major change in our society • why it is relevant to everyone from economic, community and family viewpoints • why and how it will impact their children’s education, development and employment prospects • attending future events to improve understanding and meet some new and interesting people.

NZIM is to be commended for providing these relevant events. I consider the Young Professionals initiative to be an excellent investment in the future of New Zealand from both an economic and community viewpoints.

Managing your time T

here is only so much time in a day.

No one can control time – after all there are only 24 hours in a day.

However, what we can do is improve our productivity through using our time effectively.

Managing Your Time is an essential workshop for anyone who wishes they had more time, or who wants to achieve more in their day. If you feel you’re too busy to attend this course, then you will benefit most from the programme!

On successful completion of this programme, it is expected you will have the tools to be able to: • Distinguish between productive and non-productive work • Learn to plan your day, week, month, and year • Create a “To do list” which is effective, achievable and productive • Conquer procrastination and learn to manage competing priorities • Learn the art and importance of delegation – internal and outsourcing • Develop strategies to improve meeting performance and outcomes • Learn to manage paperwork, including emails and your work station • Develop a “Time Log” and identify your own areas of improvement • Learn to handle interruptions – good and bad – and how to say ‘no’ • Create strategies to continuously improve your time management The programme is fast moving, interactive, and involves the sharing of your own experiences combined with practical solutions to improve your performance and productivity.

Tony Brindle

Date: 24 February 2012 Members: $700 + GST Non-members: $875 + GST Facilitator: Tony Brindle

– Grant Miller MNZIM Focus on Management

Fellows Function O

n Wednesday 23 November, NZIM Southern held its annual Fellows Function at The Russley Golf Club.

Seventy-seven attendees enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere with drinks and nibbles before formalities got underway. MC and CEO of NZIM Southern Inc, Joseph Thomas, opened proceedings with a salute to all Southern Life Fellows, Emeritus Fellows, Fellows and Associate Fellows, noting that their continued and loyal support of NZIM Southern is valued, respected and appreciated. Certificates were presented to: Dan Coward AFNZIM, Rod Gordon AFNZIM, Michael Murphy AFNZIM, Mark Todd AFNZIM, Alan Ogle FNZIM, and Michael Patterson FNZIM. Fellows were honoured to have Sir Eion Edgar as guest speaker. Sir Eion maintained a captive audience with his presentation on his views on “the outlook for New Zealand”. A great evening was enjoyed by all.

Left to right: Michael Patterson FNZIM (GM Copthorne Commodore Hotel) receiving his Fellows Certificate with his father, Tom Patterson.

IN MEMORIAM I

NZIM SOUTHERN INC – A FRESH APPROACH T

he events of 22 February 2011 in Christchurch have launched NZIM Southern on a new pathway and journey that will strengthen its position and relevance in the adult education and learning and development market. The business has been refreshed. The rate of change over the last six months was accelerated by the Christchurch earthquakes, which provided a platform from which courageous, challenging but necessary and timely decisions were made by the Southern Board and management.

“As hard as it was in an extremely uncertain environment, we had to undertake an immediate assessment of our business model and create a very clear vision of where the business needed to be if it was to survive, recover and eventually thrive,” recalls CEO Joseph Thomas. “In fact in those earlier days it was very hard to see past survival and recovery, we were all hurting from the devastation and tragic loss of life in our city. It became a matter of pursuing that vision in a staged process, setting priorities, timeframes and most important of all, remaining on track and sticking to the plan

t was with much sadness that on 1 December we learned of the passing of Patricia Thornton, following a courageous battle with cancer. Patricia was a highly respected and valued member of our team and family at NZIM Southern Inc for the last nine years. Her positive outlook, courage and strength inspired us all. Her integrity and professionalism earned the respect and trust of others, which allowed her to achieve outcomes that were far greater than the sum of the parts, and of real benefit to all concerned. We were very fortunate and privileged to have such a wonderful, loyal friend, mentor and coach as part of our team. Patricia will be sadly missed but we will be comforted by the fond and treasured memories that will live on with us. Our deepest and most sincere sympathy to John, family and friends. Rest in Peace Patricia.

Focus on Management

with some flexibility, to achieve the desired outcome.

“The market for our public programme collapsed to zero income for 4–6 weeks as companies shifted their priorities, and rightfully so, to the welfare of their staff and families, and the recovery of their businesses.

Clients from outside Canterbury were also reluctant to travel to Christchurch at that time, and we could not guarantee their safety.”

Fortunately, NZIM Southern had contracts for delivery of learning and development programmes on the West Coast that provided much needed cash flow to top up an emergency payment received as part of Southern’s Business Interruption insurance policy.

“Faced with the reality of the above, the strategy was simple – get the house in order and be well positioned for when the market returned,” says Thomas. “It is encouraging to now be in that very space – house in order, with the right capability and capacity to deliver, and a market that is showing very strong signs of recovery.”

The business model for NZIM Southern is based on getting the basics right. There’s a new approach to engaging and connecting with members and clients. More effort and priority is being given to understanding the market, taking the time and making the effort to understand the needs of current and future clients. This feeds back into the design of relevant learning and development products and matching this with capable facilitators and a delivery model that matches the requirements of the clients. A greater understanding of the value proposition for members is also being formed through these higher levels of engagement and interaction.

This refreshed approach is all packaged and ready for delivery from our new-look premises at 303 Blenheim Road. We look forward to presenting to you at your place soon.

NORTHERN

CENTRAL

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

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

FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY

Start National Certificate in Business – Level 3 Start National Certificate in Project Management – Level 4 Start NZIM Diploma in Construction & Engineering – Level 6 15-16 Workplace Assessment 15-17 Accounting for Non-Accountants 16-17 Problem Solving & Decision Making 17 Effective Time Management 20-22 Building Effective Teams (Team Leader 2) 22-24 Introduction to Management 23-24 Consultative Sales Skills 28-29 Coaching and Mentoring MARCH Start National Certificate in Adult Education & Training – Level 4 Start NZIM Diploma in Project Management – Level 5 Start NZIM Diploma in Management Advanced – Level 6 1-2 Corporate Storytelling with Wade Jackson 1-2 Negotiating for Results 1-2 Presentation Skills 5-6 Conflict Resolution Strategies 5-6 Think on Your Feet 6-7 Human Resource Management (HR4) 7 Conducting Effective Meetings 7-9 Professional Administrator Skills 8-9 Essential Sales Fundamentals 12-14 Business Ethics 13 Managing Quality Customer Service 14 Developing a Workplace Learning Environment 14-15 Facilitation Skills 19-20 Key Account Management 19-20 Managing Performance (HR2) 19-21 Operational Management (Team Leader 3) 21 TetraMap – The Nature of Behaviour 22-23 Train the Trainer 26-28 Four Quadrant Leadership 26-28 Leadership, Motivation and Team Building 29-30 Train the Trainer 29-30 Finance for Non-Financial Managers

APRIL

Start National Certificate in Business – Level 3 Start National Certificate in Business – Level 4 Start NZIM Diploma in Frontline Management – Level 5 2-3 Project Risk Management 3 Manage Effective Workplace Relationships 3-4 Operations Management 4-5 Needs Analysis & Programme Design 11-13 Essential Skills (Team Leader 1) 11-13 Project Management Fundamentals

21 24 27-29 27

Effective Business Writing Managing Your Time Project Management Report Writing

1 1 5-6 7 8 12-13 14-15 15

Introduction to Management (starts) Speed & Power Reading Presentation Skills Emotional Intelligence Train the Trainer (NCAET) (starts) Negotiation Skills Advanced Negotiation Skills NZIM Diploma in Management Advanced (starts) Strategic Management (Dip Mgmt Advanced) Budgeting for Non Financial Managers Professional Administrator Skills Accounting for Non Accountants Coaching & Mentoring Skills for Managers Diploma in Project Management Managing Your Time Strategic Thinking Tools

MARCH

15-16 19-20 19-21 21-23 26-27 26-27 29 29-30

APRIL

2-3 Recruitment Frameworks for Success 2-4 Project Management 5 Manage Operational Plan (DFM Modular) 6 Facilitate & Capitalise Change & Innovation (DFM Modular) 11 Customer Service Skills 11 DFM Project Day 11 Diploma in Frontline Management (starts) 12 Manage Personal Work Priorities & Professional Development 12-13 Marketing, Planning & Control 12-13 Operational Management (Dip Mgmt Advanced) 16 Memory and Mind Mapping 17 Peer to Peer Mentoring Skills 18 What Part of Me Don’t You Get? – Myers Briggs Workshop 19-20 Problem Solving and Decision Making 23-24 Dealing with Difficult Behaviours 27 Diploma in Management Advanced Presentation Day 30 Managing Your Time 30/04 Workplace Communications (Cert in -1/5 Mgt)

MAY

2-3 Developing Influencing and Motivation Skills 2-3 Project Risk Management 4 Lean Six Sigma – Yellow Belt 7-8 Business Ethics (Dip Mgmt Advanced) 7-8 Managing Small Projects (Cert in Mgt) 10 Manage Effective Workplace Relationships (DFM Modular) 14-15 Human Resource Management (Dip in Management Advanced)

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

FEBRUARY

14-15 Accounting for Non Accountants – Stage I C 15-16 How to Manage + Lead Successfully D 16 Effective Use of Time C 17 The Aging Workforce – Challenges + Options (New) D 17 The Generation Challenge D 20-22 Team Leader – The Essential Skills C 23-24 Building Relationship Versatility C 27-28 Practical Project Management C 27-29 Four Quadrant Leadership I

MARCH

1-2 Essential Selling Skills I 2 Dealing with Different People & Handling Conflict C 5-6 Presentation Skills I 5-6 Building Relationship Versatility D 6 Managing the Performance of Your Staff I 7 Essential People + Communication Skills I 8 Effective Business Writing I 8-9 Facilitation Skills Certificate in Adult Education and Training D 8-9 Accounting for Non Accountants – Stage II C 12 Core Business Writing C 13-15 Four Quadrant Leadership C 15 Effective Use of Time Q 15-16 Accounting for Non Accountants – Stage One I 19 Effective Meeting Management (New) D 19 Email Etiquette (New) D 20 Professional Reception Skills D 21 Essential Skills for the Administrator D 22 The Art of Minute Taking D 23 Project Management for Administrators D APRIL 2-4 Team Leader – Leading the Work Group C 4-5 Introduction to Performance Management C 10-12 Team Leader – Building Effective Teams C 13 Courageous Conversations C 13 Thrive on Stress C 18 Delivering Great Customer Care I 18 How to Handle Difficult Customers I 19 How to Manage Your Manager + Your Office I 23-24 Counsellor Salesperson C 26-27 Accounting for Non Accountants – Stage I C 26-27 Work Place Law C 30 Governance in Practice D 30-1/5 Introduction to Marketing C 30-1/5 Team Leader – The Essential Skills C MAY 1 Business Ethics I (New) 2 Employee Engagement I (New)

Focus on Management

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

MEMBER PROFILE:

Sir Eion Edgar

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 Michael Weusten FNZIM 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: Stacey Coulthard 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: Michael Weusten FNZIM Regional CEO: Joseph Thomas AFNZIM PO Box 13044, Christchurch 8141 Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-3-357 8003 Email admin@nzimsouthern.co nz Website www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

S

ir Eion Edgar says he is proud and delighted to be a member of NZIM Southern Inc. He has been a loyal and valued member since 2009 but his association with NZIM Southern extends back to the 1990s through Forsyth Barr, which has had a long association with NZIM. Sir Eion believes that his association and connection with NZIM has been very relevant and played an important role in his personal and professional development and advancement during his extensive and exemplary career.

“Through Forsyth Barr I have always taken an interest in the NZIM courses and have encouraged our staff to participate,” says Sir Eion. “NZIM has a key role to play in upskilling organisational staff, team leaders, supervisors, managers and executives, which is an important ingredient to advancing one’s career. Building the capability of managers and leaders is essential for organisational and economic development.”

Over the years, Sir Eion has enjoyed NZIM membership events and functions, catching up with old friends, meeting and making new friends and hearing interesting speakers and presenters. “I was proud to be made a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management, it attracts attention and is recognised in business circles.”

More recently, and in return, Sir Eion has become a highly respected advocate for NZIM Southern as the organisation has recovered and been refreshed and repositioned post the 22 February Christchurch earthquakes.

Sir Eion is currently chairman of Forsyth Barr Group, a Dunedin-based firm of sharebrokers and investment bankers with 19 branches nationwide.

He joined the company in 1972 after a period with Dunedin accounting firms and broking houses in Auckland and London. He has overseen the firm’s expansion nationally and has extensive experience in advising on equities, fixed interest and corporate matters.

Sir Eion is also chairman of the Central Lakes Trust, the Winter Games NZ Charitable Trust and the Queenstown Resort College. He is a director of Fundit Holdings, Martinborough Vineyards Estates, and Vero Insurance NZ. He is a trustee of The

Graeme Dingle Foundation, The Halberg Trust, the Rhododendrons for Dunedin Trust and The Skeggs Foundation. He is president of the Otago Rugby Football Union, the patron and a trustee of the Queenstown Trails Trust and patron of Diabetes NZ, Shelter Box NZ and the Wakatipu Wilding Conifer Control Group.

Previously, Sir Eion has been chairman of the NZ Stock Exchange, a director of the Accident Compensation Commission and the Reserve Bank of NZ. He is past president of New Zealand Soccer and Tennis NZ. In 2009 he retired after seven years as president of the NZ Olympic Committee, and was made honorary president. He is also a former trustee of The Arts Foundation of New Zealand.

Sir Eion graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Otago in 1967 and completed his accounting professional qualifications the following year. He was awarded a Fellowship of the College of Associate Chartered Accountants in 1996, and awarded The Valued Contribution to the Profession in 2003. In 2003, Sir Eion also completed five years as Chancellor of the University of Otago and had a total of 23 years on the University Council. The university awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Laws for this outstanding service.

In 1995 he was awarded the Dunedin Citizen of the Year for his contribution to the arts, business, education and the sporting community. In the 1996 Queen’s Birthday Honours List he received the Companion of New Zealand Order of Merit.

In 2003 he received the Distinguished Companion of NZ Order of Merit. This changed to a Knight Companion of NZ Order of Merit in 2009.

In 2004 Sir Eion was named The NBR New Zealander of the Year and was one of the six 2004 laureates to be inducted into the Business Hall of Fame. In 2007 he was recognised as NZ’s Visionary Leader at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Companies Awards. In 2009 he received the SPARC Services to Sport Award and was made a Life Member of Diabetes NZ. Last year he was awarded the title of “Senior New Zealander of the Year” at the inaugural New Zealander of the Year Awards.

He and his wife Jan have made substantial philanthropic gifts; the main ones being $1 million to each of the Edgar Sports Centre in Dunedin, The Edgar National Centre for Diabetes and Obesity Research and the Edgar Olympic Foundation. They have also contributed to securing the naming rights of the new covered Forsyth Barr Stadium at the University Plaza. His interests are family, all sports, travel, the arts and education.

Sir Eion has a strong belief in education and has supported a number of educational institutions over the years including the Roslyn Kindergarten and John McGlashan College, and served on the University of Otago Council, and more recently as an advocate and supporting the establishment and promotion of the Queenstown Resort College.

He believes that continuous education and professional development are essential for personal and professional development which also provides benefit to family and the wider community.

“With higher unemployment it is becoming even more important for everyone to continue to upskill themselves.”

Finally, some words of wisdom Sir Eion has for current managers and leaders: “I have always found that the harder I work the luckier I get and my aim in life is for everyone to owe me a favour.”

– Joseph Thomas, CEO, NZIM Southern

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