NZ Management August 2012

WHY ASB’S CHAPMAN WANTS MORE WOMEN IN HIGH PLACES PAGE 40

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STATE SECTOR CANTERBURY QUAKES DRIVE CHANGE P26 FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT P51 AUGUST 2012 $7.10 INCL GST

BUCKING THE TREND: RATING OUR FINANCE SECTOR P34

Ethnic diversity: how come managers still question its value? p16 Gratitude attitude p21 Geek-speak: the strategic benefits of the cloud p44

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Sharing ideas

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spent a few days in Beijing recently on my way back to New Zealand from Europe. Many years ago I’d lived and worked in Taiwan where I’d had to learn to speak some Mandarin to get by. So I was keen to see how much Mandarin I’d retained. I soon found myself inhabiting a grey zone with enough residual memory to still be able to confidently ask most questions but not quite enough to always reliably understand people’s answers. If anyone strayed from my expected script I was soon lost. The experience provided endless opportunities for both parties to innovate our way through the language barrier.

I can, for example, still rustle up the Mandarin for Beijing/Peking and restaurant but couldn’t for the life of me remember the word for duck. So maybe having someone mimic the sound of a duck when giving me directions to the nearest Peking duck restaurant wasn’t the most orthodox approach but it worked: as one demised duck and one very full stomach soon proved.

All of which is a long way to say there’s always more than one way to skin a cat, or duck in this instance, and such highly creative ways can be refreshingly different and equally as effective.

Nor could the Chinese ever be accused of being afraid to nail their colours to the mast.

Among the plentiful street signs was a series invoking people to embrace the Beijing spirit of patriotism, innovation, inclusiveness and virtue.

While some of the taglines may differ, that same spirit of outspoken innovation has long been invoked in pockets of New Zealand’s economy. It is an established catch-cry of our IT, agri-tech and creative industries to name but a few.

That it is now being given serious

exploration in our state sector is a seismic shift indeed. (See Reg Birchfield’s cover story on page 26 “State sector shake up: Canterbury quakes drive change.”) I’m mindful that all such moves are relative, of course. I’m also mindful that public sector innovation is long overdue and any change is welcome. As Reg notes in his article, the mantle of responsibility to open up public sector agencies to new behaviours carries with it an inherent opening up to risk. Politicians will need to reframe their expectations of the public sector, and of its leaders and managers, for this approach to succeed.

In the same spirit of openness, I’ve teamed up with the New Zealand Institute of Management to invite the CEOs and senior executives of our leading Top 200 companies to join us in a series of breakfasts over the coming few months.

Alternating between Wellington and Auckland, the breakfasts are an open forum for sharing ideas on the vexatious issues of the day, examining recent innovations and celebrating the successes that hold these organisations at the top of their game.

The first session, “Productivity in the workplace – Can we really make a difference?” will be held in Wellington on Wednesday 5 September. For more information turn to page 39 of this issue or go to www.nzim.co.nz to book a seat at the table. I look forward to hearing your ideas over breakfast and I promise there will be no duck on the menu, Peking or otherwise.

Ruth Le Pla, Managing Editor

www.management.co.nz A MEDIAWEB MAGAZINE PUBLISHER Toni Myers MANAGING EDITOR Ruth Le Pla editor@management.co.nz CONTRIBUTORS Sam Barclay, Reg Birchfield, Bob Edlin, Nick Grant, Tait Grindley, Colin James, Vivienne McLean, Tim Roberts, Peter Tynan BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Rod Myers, 09-372 6444, 027-484 8046, admanager@management.co.nz ADVERTISING MANAGER Trish Day, 027-561 6556, trishd@mediaweb.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 7 • ISSN 1174-5339 (Print), 1179-3910 (Online)

AUGUST 2012

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contents 26 COVER STORY

State sector shake up Canterbury quakes drive change The Christchurch earthquakes have boosted government resolve to drive through the most radical overhaul of New Zealand public sector management in at least 20 years. Could management innovation finally flourish in the corridors of power? Reg Birchfield reports.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

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INBOX: News and views

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FOCUS: Leadership NZ Leadership Week Dinner; NZ PMO Symposium

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AS I SEE IT: Tait Grindley

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MANAGERS ABROAD: Sam Barclay

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NZIM: Diversity – fact or fad? Reg Birchfield

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EXECS ON THE MOVE

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EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT

OPINION 18

POLITICS: Government role gets rethink Colin James

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ECONOMICS: UK bends minds over tax Bob Edlin

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LEADERSHIP: Calling all state sector leaders Reg Birchfield

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THOUGHT LEADER: Adopt the gratitude attitude Tim Roberts

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BOOKCASE: Management theories and fads Reg Birchfield

ADVICE 50

EXECUTIVE HEALTH: Open all hours Peter Tynan

AUGUST 2012 • Vol 59 No 7

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features 34 Stories of NZ Enterprise

Bucking the trend

Success

How well does our finance sector stack up in the new realities of a post-GFC world? And has it picked up on the risk management lessons that the GFC provided? Nick Grant goes in search of answers.

40 Face to Face: Wanted: Women in high places

New NZX rules could help give women an almighty shove into top business roles. ASB boss Barbara Chapman is all in favour, she tells Ruth Le Pla.

44 Technology: Head in the cloud?

Forget the geek-speak, cloud computing brings business a great big bunch of strategic benefits, Vivienne McLean reports.

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NZIM’s Focus On Management

NZIM mentoring expands; Member comment from Dan Coward; Regional news; Upcoming management courses.

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Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

SHAPING UP A GREEN STRATEGY A new report from the New Zealand Initiative identifies three lines around which New Zealand could develop a national environmental strategy.

In “Navigating an uncertain future: Environmental foundations for long-term success” (see report at www.nzinstitute.org) authors Rick Boven, Catherine Harland and Lillian Grace suggest New Zealand considers adopting “no-regrets” and “mini-max” strategies, and developing NZ’s capability in selected areas.

No regrets strategies, they say, would allow New Zealand to take advantage of, or respond to, expected changes in ways that realise benefits or have only low costs if changes do not occur as anticipated.

Such strategies should include growing high-value agri-food based exports, developing a more technologically advanced economy and growing the green economy.

Mini-max strategies would protect against catastrophes by minimising the maximum loss.

“Such strategies should be prepared in case there are more catastrophic outcomes. They include ensuring supply chain security for critical inputs, selectively investing in self-sufficiency for essential technologies and other inputs, and reviewing security and foreign policies,” says the report.

Boven, Harland and Grace also advocate developing New Zealand’s capability to manage and adapt to expected and uncertain environment futures.

“New Zealand should establish a futures-focused institution, build organisational capabilities to anticipate, navigate and respond to unexpected eventualities, broaden economic performance metrics, pursue institutional innovation and build public understanding.”

Rick Boven and Lillian Grace are respectively director and associate of Stakeholder Strategies. Catherine Harland is a research fellow with The New Zealand Initiative.

For more information see NZ Management magazine’s July 20 Executive Update. www.management.co.nz M

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New Horizon poll Maori split on whether they own water rights While 90 percent of Maori don’t think state energy assets should be sold off until the Waitangi Tribunal reports on the issue, less than half believe Maori own water in the country’s rivers and lakes and should be able to attach a value to it.

Forty-four percent of Maori believe, in general, that Maori own the water. However, 55.6 percent say they don’t own it (35.3 percent) or are not sure (20.4 percent).

The findings come from a nationwide survey of 400 Maori aged 18+ by the specialist Horizon Research Maori Panel.

Weighted, the survey has a maximum margin of error of 4.9 percent.

While more Maori might believe they don’t generally own water and can attach a value to it or are not sure about this, they overwhelming oppose government plans to sell up to 49 percent in state-owned energy companies.

Only eight percent support this, while 82.9 percent oppose. Just over seven percent (7.3) are neutral and 1.8 percent not sure.

Seventy-six percent support the move by the New Zealand Maori Council and 11 other parties to take the water rights and energy issues to an urgent hearing of the Waitangi Tribunal.

Just over sixty-eight percent (68.4) also support the move to hold a referendum of registered electors on the Government’s proposal to sell 49 percent of shares in four energy companies and Air New Zealand.

Almost 19 percent (18.8) oppose the move to force a referendum.

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YOUNG EXEC’S TALENT SHINES THROUGH

Ta NE lk W to Ta RE xi L Ch E ar AS ge E N S O W !

A strong ability to articulate a vision and get people on board with what she needs them to do has helped drive Glenys Powell’s selection as this year’s Wellington Central NZIM Young Executive of the Year.

For many years now, these awards have applauded and rewarded the talents of New Zealand’s executives aged 35 and under.

Powell is general manager – sales and marketing at Medical Assurance Society New Zealand (MAS) where she is part of the senior leadership team and reports directly to CEO Martin Stokes.

When nominating Powell for the award, Stokes commended her structured approach to planning which results in staff having a clear direction and understanding of what is expected of them in their roles.

“She is very responsive to new ideas and requests, and always aims to deliver within expected timeframes.

“Glenys has made an enormous contribution in the short amount of time she has been here, leading, managing and embedding some Glenys Powell. overdue changes which will benefit MAS for some time to come,” said Stokes.

“She has shown maturity beyond her years in going about this challenging task and has worked collaboratively at all times to ensure success.”

Powell has direct responsibility for MAS’ new business generation, all elements of marketing and product management. There are 10 direct reports to the position and 69 indirect reports.

Prior to her appointment, the sales and marketing functions had been led by two separate executive level managers.

Stokes praised Powell for her outstanding work in combining the two roles. “The two areas now work much more closely together, planning is better co-ordinated, and resourcing is more efficient.”

Guy Spence, manager – Gisborne office at Opus International Consultants, was selected as a finalist for the Wellington Central NZIM Young Executive of the Year.

The judges commended him as a highly skilled and passionate young executive, and an excellent team leader who has a real passion for change in his environment.

In his short time in his new role as a manager, Spence has had a significant influence on the performance of Opus in the area, the performance of the local businesses, and further enhanced relationships between Opus and clients.

A letter nominating Spence for the award says that, since his appointment, he has gained the trust and respect of staff across all age groups and disciplines. He has also built, through clear communication and influence, support and commitment from staff for the vision and direction he has developed for the Gisborne office.

“As a result, the office is undergoing quite a cultural shift, resulting in a renewed sense of urgency and empowerment within the team, and changing behaviours which support high performance for existing clients and align the team with the expectations and values of the medium- to long-term opportunities he foresees.

“To date, this cultural shift along with a strong focus on project management and better alignment of staff roles within project teams, enabled profitability of the office to catch up then exceed expected business revenue and profit targets by four percent and 25 percent respectively by the end of the year, within a significantly declining local work base from our traditional sources due to the current economic climate.

“Overall, Guy has demonstrated leadership, professionalism, developed and communicated a strategic vision, introduced change management and mentoring processes, provided valuable input to our larger Central North Island business and has always represented Opus in a positive professional manner.”

Glenys Powell will now go forward to the final nationwide selections where she will pitch up against other NZIM regional winners to determine who will be this year’s NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year.

Those results will be announced at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards on Thursday 29 November. See www.management.co.nz/top200 for more information. M

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AUGUST 2012

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INBOX

Letter to the editor I would like to take issue with the Inbox article in the June issue under the heading “Meet your coach, it’s your manager”, which is indicative of confusion between coaching and mentoring. What the quoted authority is advocating is unlikely to be effective as an in-house line management function.

In my experience as an NZIM accredited management mentor, I inevitably encounter conflict situations that are unlikely to be revealed to a superior who may be seen as the cause of it.

Coaching is a different matter in that it contains elements of advising and directing that fall outside the scope of mentoring. Managers will also be perceived as lacking in objectivity and fail to recognise external factors that could involve privacy issues.

I agree that coaching is a primary management function and if correctly applied can enhance individual and team performance.

– Ralph Penning, FNZIM

Charlotte Henley.

WHO SHOULD OWN YOUR BRAND? Before you file any trade mark applications, or any time your business structure or strategy changes, it is worth giving thought to who should own your brands.

Why does it matter? For three key reasons. Firstly, trade marks are an important asset of any business. They give exclusive rights and can be sold or licensed to third parties for value. As with any valuable asset, ownership gives control. Secondly, it is the brand owner who will need to act to enforce its trade mark rights if necessary. Thirdly, the validity of a registered trade mark can be challenged if it is not used by the owner (or a person authorised by the owner) within three years of registration in New Zealand, so it is important to ensure there is a chain of control of use between the owner and any authorised users of the brand.

So what are the most common ownership positions? Generally a trade mark is registered in the name of the company that operates the business that has created and is using the brand, rather than any individual directors or owners of the business. It is important to ensure the full current name of the company is specified in the trade mark application, and that this name is updated on the Trade Marks Register records if the company name changes in the future (or if the brand is transferred to another entity).

If the company is part of a group of related companies, consideration should be given to whether the trade mark should be owned by the operating company that is making use of the brand, or alternatively the parent or a holding company. This is often the case for multinational companies or those with trans-Tasman operations. There are pros and cons to both situations, but whichever is selected, there should be a licensing arrangement in place if the entity that uses the brand is not the brand owner.

In many situations brands are owned and licensed to unrelated third parties, often for payment of royalties. Again a licence agreement must be in place detailing the terms of this licence. Some countries require such licences to be recorded on the Trade Marks Register, although this is not the case in New Zealand. Check the situation for those markets the brand is to be used in by the licensee.

A tailored trade mark ownership and protection strategy suited to your business should be developed with your IP advisor. M

Charlotte Henley is a partner at Kensington Swan specialising in Intellectual Property matters.

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UNLOCKING LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL Prominent New Zealand and international business leaders and executive coaches are among speakers at the first ever leadership summit to be held in Australasia by the International Coaching Community (ICC).

The summit, which is being hosted by the Auckland and Sydney-based executive development and coach training company ilume International, is being held in Sydney from October 26-27.

Speakers include New York-based Kiwi, Derek Handley, founder and chairman of The Hyperfactory; Andrew Hamilton, CEO of The Icehouse; Martin O’Halloran, chairman and CEO of DDB Australia and New Zealand; Bruce Hassall, CEO of PwC New Zealand; and Kerri Mather, CEO of Sydney Airport Corporation.

They are joined by the UK-based founder of the ICC, international executive coach and keynote speaker Joseph O’Connor; Andrea Lages, master trainer, executive coach and author; Otto Laske, CEO and director of education of the InterDevelopMental Institute; and Frank Bresser, leadership expert, and leading business consultant and author.

O’Connor is also holding a leadership thinking workshop on October 25.

The summit is targeted to CEOs, high level executives, upper and middle management, and active and aspiring executive coaches.

Ilume director Angela Neighbours says the summit is interactive, and designed to provide strategies and tools for delegates to become more effective and inspiring leaders.

“This is the first opportunity offered by the ICC in Australasia for executives to tap in to the expertise of some of the world’s foremost experts on business leadership,” she says. “In our current climate this will help our leaders to discover how to create more successful and effective teams, workforces and businesses.”

Ilume, which this year is sponsoring the best growth strategy award at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 awards, is the only accredited ICC coach trainer in Australasia.

For more information about the summit or to register go to: www.iccleadershipsummit.com or phone ilume International 09-377 3262. M

Payments on the hoof Although much focus centres on the mega-companies, Netherlands-based independent payment solution provider Payvision predicts that heavily-funded, innovative start-ups will drive the global mobile payments revolution into the next phase, in alliance with financial institutions and global acquirers.

Irrespective of whether they are industry giants or small innovative startups, the company says key players will have to understand the great differences in regional consumer needs, concerns and user expectations.

Payvision explores the different m-payment methods, and the challenges stakeholders face to mitigate risk and overcome regional differences in order to gain consumer acceptance in its report “Mobile payment: A shifting landscape. A future in which cash is mobile” (http://www.payvision.com).

It also highlights hot, innovative, agile startups in a payment industry with great promises in a “bright future without boundaries”. M

SIP’s ‘Performance Advantage’ If you are serious about improving the performance capability of your team, our unique Four Stage Performance Transformation Process may be the answer.

To find out more, call or email us today for a ‘Performance Advantage’ brochure.

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

AUGUST 2012

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DO NEW AUDIT REGULATIONS GO FAR ENOUGH? While changes which came into force last month under the Auditor Regulation Act 2011 are to be applauded, New Zealand is still lagging behind the sort of rigorous corporate scrutiny being contemplated in the Northern Hemisphere, says accounting firm Grant Thornton New Zealand.

The new act, which took effect on July 1, means that the auditor of any company that issues shares or debt to the public will now have to be licensed and a member of a registered firm and undertake on average a minimum of 150 hours of auditing annually.

Audit firms will have to demonstrate and prove to the satisfaction of the Financial Markets Authority that they have a sound governance structure to address issues such as auditor rotation, risk management and quality control, says Mark Hucklesby, Grant Thornton’s national technical director. He says this may well prove difficult for some of the smaller audit firms in the market.

Hucklesby says the Government has also upped the ante, and brought New Zealand into line with other countries, with the creation last year of the External Reporting Board – an entity that independently governs the development and issuance of auditing standards.

“While these changes in New Zealand are well overdue, the rest of the world has moved on yet again,” Hucklesby says. The European Commission has published

proposals for further far reaching changes to the audit process including: • Audit firms being required to rotate after a maximum engagement period of six years with a cooling off period of four years before the audit firm can be engaged again by the same client.

• Audit firms being prohibited from providing some non-audit services to their audit clients if these fees exceed 10 percent of audit fees.

• Public-interest entities being obliged to have an open and transparent tender procedure when selecting a new auditor.

• Prohibiting contractual clauses limiting the selection of audit firm choice (eg, only very large firms).

Hucklesby says a recent Grant Thornton International business survey of 1000 European Union businesses shows that a majority (54 percent) supported mandatory rotation of audit firms, although every 10 to 12 years was felt to be sufficient.

He says the accounting profession here, in consultation with the business sector, should be considering whether some of these latest Northern Hemisphere proposals are appropriate for New Zealand.

“The audit landscape is changing. While many still view an audit as a commodity service that simply adds compliance costs to businesses, the reality is that auditors play a pivotal role in assessing the quality of financial statements.”M

Grant Thornton’s Mark Hucklesby.

The Editor’s Breakfast NZIM and NZ Management magazine managing editor Ruth Le Pla are inviting CEOs and their senior executives from the Top 200 NZ companies to join them at The Editor’s Breakfast.

This new series of breakfast conversations provides senior level networking opportunities and a discussion panel by policy shapers and opinion leaders as they examine recent innovations and help solve current issues affecting everyday business.

The Editor’s Breakfast series launches next month in Wellington.

“Productivity in the workplace – Can we really make a difference?” September 5th, 7-9am, Wellington.

“CEO pay soars while worker pay stalls. Is that fair?” October 3rd, 7-9am, Auckland.

Price per session: $75. For more information please visit www.nzim.co.nz. To secure your place at The Editor’s Breakfast please contact Liz Fernyhough. liz_fernyhough@nzimnorthern.co.nz or call 0800 800 NZIM. M

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INBOX

Up the organisation With an abundance of qualifying courses and following CPD opportunities at their disposal, young business executives are well prepared in theoretical terms to aspire to career advancement in their respective companies, or are they?

While case-based study supported by role play can go a long way to enhance the learning process, it lacks the real live application in the company of experienced mentors to be groomed for leadership corporate positions.

Drawing on my own early experience as an up-and-coming young manager in a supportive employment relationship I was able to supplement my essential skill sets for further promotion with active involvement as a volunteer director on the board of a non-profit membership association.

Rubbing shoulders with older and wiser colleagues from business and professional backgrounds in a team environment I was able to test my ability to manage projects for the public benefit that involved negotiations with external decision makers.

To my employers, this provided two-fold benefits. Allowing me time to develop additional competencies at little cost to the organisation, while at the same time meeting the company’s objectives as a good social citizen, was seen as a good investment by my superiors, which I rewarded with my further career in the sponsoring corporation. The receiving voluntary organisation benefited from my enthusiasm and fresh approach with the prospect of succession to higher elected office.

Many New Zealand incorporated societies and charitable trusts,

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regardless of their history and track record find themselves in decline due to their inability to infuse new blood and fresh ideas to meet the needs and expectations of a younger and more demanding constituency.

While not lacking in emotional intelligence and know-how at board level, their leaders are unable to hand over the reins in the absence of new recruits to enable the association or foundation to fulfil its necessary role in society.

While it can be argued that this is indicative of a lack of perception in the wider community, it stands to reason that complacency and lack of forward planning are also contribution factors.

Drawing on my early experience as a corporate volunteer loaned executive I can vouch for the effectiveness of grooming for higher office in terms of career advancement. Enabling my employer to engage with an NFP or charity of its choice, involved a better understanding of the social and societal needs of its customer base in marketing terms.

Assigning its younger executives in an external relations capacity could also be applied in its relationship and representation as a member of its own industry body. The New Zealand Association Resource Centre Trust is able to provide advice and a matching service to interested individuals and companies interested in a longer term commitment with expectations that meet their respective objectives and are to their mutual benefit. M

Ralph Penning is an NZIM accredited management mentor and acts as an advisory trustee.

The world’s leading experts on safety – all in one place

11th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion

Connecting pathways for a vibrant and safer future 1-4 October 2012 • Wellington • New Zealand

Come and join the world’s leading injury prevention and safety researchers,

The programme features dynamic and innovative Keynote and State of

practitioners and advocates in Wellington in October, 2012. The world-class

the Art speakers, 7 concurrent streams, interactive poster sessions and

scientific programme will cover a broad range of injury prevention and safety

an exciting social programme including a welcome reception and an

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Find out more and register at safety2012.org.nz

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5 Leadership NZ Leadership Week Dinner 1 Sacha McMeeking (Catalytic), Dan Walker (Samsung) and Albert Wendt (CNZM – author and poet). 2 Participants of the 2012 Leadership Programme. 3 Jo Brosnahan (Leadership New Zealand). 4 Christchurch mayor Bob Parker. 5 Claire Caldwell (pianist) and Isabella Moore (soprano).

NZ PMO Symposium

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6 Rommy Musch (PMO Corp), Iain Fraser (Project Plus) 7 Iain Fraser (Project Plus), Frances Mainwaring (Moxie Communications), Brian Carson (IRD), Amanda Gleeson (Contact), David Green (Siemens), Rommy Musch (PMO Corp), Richard Tague (Project Plus) 8 Frances Mainwaring and Nic Cunningham (Moxie Communications). 9 On the panel, from left: Christian Carter (Transpower), Peter Reutlinger (ASB), Dean Compton (ANZ), Iain Fraser (Project Plus). 10 Ann Desmond, Poh Boey, Britta Fraser, Iain Fraser, Richard McTague, Catriona Brimble, Abby Leota (all Project Plus).

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AS I SEE IT

Building on strengths Tait Grindley, GM, business development at NZIM Inc, Northern, is passionate about building leadership and management capability in NZ. What are New Zealand’s major challenges for 2012?

I see a number of current challenges that face the New Zealand business environment as many businesses are still working through recovery strategies from the recent global recession and Canterbury earthquakes. Although there are positive signs across industry of an increase in spending and the rebuild of the general workforce, organisations are still battling to keep their best and brightest from leaving New Zealand. This issue is not just about losing skilled workers to Australia, the UK and Europe, we are also saying goodbye to our emerging leadership talent and young managers who are being trained here but applying their skills and experience abroad. This is creating a widening gap in the middle management landscape that will become more apparent once our senior managers and business owners start retiring over the next five to 10 years.

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

The strength in Kiwis is that we can adapt, personally and professionally.

Business leaders are recognising that a major challenge is to retain staff at all levels and award and recognise achievement. My observation working with a wide range of Kiwi businesses is the drive to protect their biggest people assets through providing an achievable and dedicated professional development pathway for emerging managers and aligning these ‘up and comers’ with experienced mentors. Kiwi business leaders are becoming more prepared in this area and acknowledging the valuable contribution Gens X and Y make to all businesses.

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

We need to encourage wider business opportunities with the growing and diverse ethnic groups in New Zealand. The reality is we have a broad range of cultures in New Zealand that Kiwi businesses need to embrace. Often we place the responsibility on these groups to create their own personal and professional networks and more often than not they remain working and living within their own created communities. If we are truly going to grow and develop as a nation we need to be proactive in these connections, learn and understand these cultures and be more inviting to utilise the broad range of skills on offer. Surely as a result we will see increased opportunities to communicate more effectively and do business in the home countries of our newest Kiwi citizens. M

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MANAGERS ABROAD

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Making connections Sam Barclay is EVP and managing director, North America, for CRM software company StayinFront.

What prompted you to seek work out of New Zealand?

I worked for The Great Elk Company in Auckland, and in 1997 I was offered a position in New Jersey to train and develop our US partner. Over time the partnership with the US company became a merger, and that company today is StayinFront.

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

I have never heard anyone say anything bad about New Zealand in my travels. The almost universal response is ‘I hear it’s a beautiful country!’. But beyond that, the level of knowledge about modern New Zealand is very low. Instead of ‘what a beautiful country’, we need to hear ‘what amazing technology is coming from New Zealand’. That would be exciting.

I think that New Zealanders are perceived as fun, hard working and smart – which is a great combination. Kiwis are great generalists because we grow up knowing how to do a little bit of everything.

But we also have to be careful not to over rely on our ‘number 8 wire’ mentality. In the US and Asia a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude may be taken for a willingness to settle for second best.

How can offshore Kiwis contribute to New Zealand?

I personally believe that the Kiwi diaspora is New Zealand’s most underutilised asset. I love what Kea is doing to help New Zealand get more out of that invaluable overseas network.

Offshore Kiwis can contribute enormous local knowledge and connections to NZ companies entering an overseas market.

Kiwi companies sometimes underestimate how important local connections and a local base are. In our business you can’t sell by phone. People want to meet you on short notice, and people want to know that you have a local base. The most important thing an in-market Kiwi can provide is an introduction to the right person at the right time to get a foot in the door of a potential sale. Reach out to in-market Kiwis through any means. In my experience they will go out of their way to provide any help they can.

I also see potential for capital investment from the Kiwi diaspora – particularly early stage venture capital to get export-based ventures off the ground. With the investment would come in-market connections and resources. The potential to accelerate the growth of New Zealand through the global network of Kiwis is enormous. M Sam Barclay is a member of Kea, New Zealand’s global talent community. www.keanewzealand.com

AUGUST 2012

| management.co.nz | 15

NZIM

Diversity

– fact or fad?

Many managers still question the value of ethnic diversity, writes Reg Birchfield.

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iversity at the top and in the ranks of a workforce boosts organisational performance.

Managers and directors who ignore the evidence of the difference diversity makes do their enterprises no favours.

The focus is currently more on gender than ethnic diversity. The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), for example, is making much of its new rule requiring listed companies to disclose the level of gender balance on boards and in top management tiers.

But ethnic diversity is equally critical.

Sadly, a recent survey of New Zealand and Australian workforces suggests that while ethnic diversity is seen as generally positive, just half the respondents think it delivers organisational benefits.

Conflicting perceptions and ingrained bias notwithstanding, NZIM chief executive Kevin Gaunt sees diversity as both topical and important. It will be one of management’s critical strategic issues for the next 20 years, he says.

New Zealand’s changing demography will change attitudes toward the importance of diversity, as will the growing influence of Asia. “The centre of balance of the world economy is shifting to India and China. Employers will need to appreciate the value of employing people who are often, sadly, now seen as interlopers,” says Gaunt.

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A Leadership, Employment and Direction (L.E.A.D.) survey conducted

by Leadership Management Australasia (LMA) recently found that fewer than a third of employees want more diversity in their future workplace. “The results suggest that ethnic diversity is more tolerated than embraced,” said LMA’s executive chairman Grant Sexton. “There’s a reasonably positive attitude toward ethnic diversity but mixed feelings about the value of extending it.”

More than 2000 Australian and New Zealand business leaders, senior and middle managers and non-managerial employees were surveyed for the L.E.A.D. study. A third of respondents at all three levels were opposed to increasing the levels of ethnic diversity in their organisations. Leaders were, nevertheless, 37 percent more likely than their employees (25 percent) to favour more diversity. Sexton thinks this suggests a better leadership-level understanding of the potential benefits and advantages a more diverse workforce delivers.

The study also showed that attitudes toward diversity are driven by existing experiences and outlooks. The future challenge for leaders and managers, therefore, is to create an environment that celebrates diversity, and leverages and harnesses its potential rather than fearing and resisting it, according to Sexton.

Gaunt thinks companies wanting to do business offshore must embrace ethnic diversity or risk limiting trading opportunities. First-generation immigrants undoubtedly struggle in the New Zealand workplace, he says. “But the children of immigrants grow up with local language skills enhanced by an understanding of the countries their parents came from.

They know how to connect with these countries and these markets. This makes them more valuable to an organisation

Gender defender After conducting research into gender diversity in management, the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) earlier this year recommended that: 1. The Australian government set aspirational targets for women in management.

2. An independent government and working group be set up to agree and publish best practice case studies on women in management.

3. Best practice management standards for gender diversity be linked to “at risk” executive remuneration.

4. Companies sign up to the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles.

5. All companies implement clear guidelines that support flexible work for all employees.

than a New Zealander who hasn’t got these links to China, Singapore, Vietnam, India or wherever,” he adds.

Internationally, diversity has shot to the top of the management agenda – earning it fad status. It’s a reflection of changing leadership attitudes and values.

Successfully managing diversity is both the new challenge and the new opportunity, as much as anything because more diverse workplaces deliver demonstrably better outcomes.

Diversity is even being called a strategic asset. Thinking of it as such reportedly lifts performance outcomes and boosts productivity. According to American diversity coach Jim Rodgers, interpreting diversity as a strategy allows management to challenge an organisation’s existing paradigm and introduce new thinking about people.

But like quitting smoking or any other entrenched practice, organisations must be “ready” to effectively implement a diversity strategy. And, according to Rodgers, “readiness” includes having a CEO who is committed to, and vocal about, the benefits diversity brings.

He identifies the three biggest barriers to effectively managing diversity as: • poor management skills – the inability to recognise, appreciate and capitalise on individual differences; • ethnocentrism – belief that my way is the only way; • stereotypes – beliefs about a group applied to an individual.

NZIM is partnering with the Department of Ethnic Affairs to identify ways to bring the strategic need for more enlightened strategic thinking to business leaders. “We think this is very important to New Zealand enterprise,” says Gaunt.

“It brings more petrol to the nation’s gas tank and recognises the critical role of enhanced long-term productivity.

And it is available now if we can only recognise it.”

New Zealand’s record on gender diversity at senior management and board level is, by global standards, appalling.

Some research completed by the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) ear-

lier this year is, however, helping NZIM sell and build a more compelling case for greater gender diversity in management.

In Australia, as in New Zealand, women remain under-represented in management and leadership roles. The AIM research was designed to tackle the seemingly intractable nature of gender inequity in leadership. It asked two key questions: what is stopping Australia (read New Zealand) from moving forward? And how could AIM most successfully intervene to accelerate change?

NZIM is now working closely with AIM to share management development experiences, and analyse and measure management performance in the two economies. AIM this year adopted NZIM’s Management Capability Index, an indicator of management performance.

AIM’s gender study concluded that, given the limited public understanding of Australia’s gender equity issue, the country needs a “national attitudinal change campaign” to get the point across. The campaign would sell two key messages: • women want to work for companies that support them; • society will not support companies that perpetuate inequality.

It also came down with five fairly hard-nosed recommendations (see box story “Gender defender”).

New Zealand enterprise should look carefully at what is happening in Australia. Diversity – gender, ethnic and otherwise – is not widely or enthusiastically embraced here. It is certainly not considered a strategic asset or even a way of thinking about enhanced management and organisational performance.

“That will have to change if we want to make better progress,” says Gaunt.

“The evidence and logic supporting the case for greater diversity at all levels of the organisation is one we believe all managers and members should embrace.

It’s an important issue. Organisational, and even political, leaders can’t afford to keep walking away from it.” M Reg Birchfield FNZIM is a writer on leadership, governance & management. reg@rjmedia.co.nz

INSPIRING MANAGERS Our aim is to build management capability through membership, development and research.

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.

NZIM Inc CEO: Kevin Gaunt FNZIM, FAIM Email kevin_gaunt@nzimnorthern.co.nz Auckland Offices Contact: Tait Grindley PO Box 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, 0800 800 NZIM Email enquiries@nzimnorthern.co.nz Website www.nzim.co.nz Wellington Offices Contact: Shaun Sheldrake PO Box 11781, Wellington 6142 Ph 0-4-495 8300, 0800 800 NZIM Email enquiries@nzimcentral.co.nz Website www.nzim.co.nz NZIM Southern Regional Director: Michael Weusten FNZIM 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

AUGUST 2012

| management.co.nz | 17

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POLITICS COLIN JAMES

Government role gets rethink

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t’s five years from the first stutterings that turned into the global financial crisis – time enough for governments to have stopped treating symptoms and hoping for the best. The world is not going back to old business-asusual. Some think it is time to rethink how governments operate.

After the 1929 crash and subsequent depression, governments took to planning, which gave us social security and the mixed economy. After the 1973 oil crisis and collapse of the Bretton Woods system, governments ditched planning as futile in favour of “more-market” economies which were assumed to tend always to equilibrium.

The GFC was a powerful disproof of equilibrium theory. It underlined historian Niall Ferguson’s analysis that economies and societies are complex adaptive systems which can suddenly fall into chaos. The 1929 crash, the 1973 oil crisis and the GFC are examples.

A recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report agrees but insists strategy is relevant. While the future cannot be predicted, future scans and scenario planning can prepare governments and firms for the future, however it turns out. BCG instances Singapore.

The trick is to be clear about goals but flexible about methods, the opposite of pre-GFC practice. BCG suggests governments adopt “policies that will be attractive under a wide range of scenarios”, hedge against severe risks, protect some assets and policies “even under acute short-term pressure” and make some “core bets”.

Some say elections are the enemy of strategy. Not necessarily, BCG says: conviction politicians can drive major change (as Sir Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson did here from 1984-

18 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

92); wide consultation to develop consensus can deliver strategy (the Land and Water Forum may turn out to be an example here); and independent institutions can be created to manage contentious policy (one example here: the Reserve Bank since 1989).

There is some modest attention to innovation (far less than Singapore) but the thinking otherwise doesn’t get much beyond more cows (to which there are environmental limits if the fresh/safe/natural brand is to be preserved) and more tourists (currently in reverse) plus oil, gas and minerals if foreigners decide to exploit them.

These methods are nearer the pre-GFC fixed than BCG’s flexible methods mode.

For the fiscal goal, the methods are potentially much more flexible if the Better Public Services Advisory Group’s report is eventually fully implemented. The Government

“The GFC was a powerful disproof of equilibrium theory.”

How does the Key government measure up against the clear-goals, flexible-methods yardstick?

At one level, not well. In their rhetoric most ministers still treat the GFC as a blip – a very big blip that isn’t going away fast but a temporary aberration.

Actually, the game has changed. Most developed economies are deep in private and government debt, from which they could take decades to dig themselves out. There is a long and widely flapping tail to this crisis, which is normal for a major financial upheaval.

At another level, the Government does have two clear goals: get back to fiscal surplus and rebalance the economy to be driven principally by the tradables sector (earning our way), not the domestic sector (living off debt).

For the rebalancing goal, ministers’ methods are still essentially pre-GFC ones: get the regulatory rules right, build infrastructure and it will happen.

has picked up some of the report.

Separately, it has also adopted an actuarial/investment approach to welfare reform which, if widely applied, has significant potential.

But much of the report is yet to be picked up. The “goals” and “results” into which the government has translated the group’s “outcomes” recommendations are short-term and narrow. Though worthy and, being measurable and comprehensible to the public, a big step on from “outputs”, they do not add up to the sort of goal or goals BCG has in mind.

Of course, BCG might be wrong – and the Government right to hope that the complex, chaos-susceptible global system “muddles through” the continuing GFC. By 2022 we might know. 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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UK bends minds over tax Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

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ax collectors were given a longer leash to chase tax dodgers, among other tax-gathering measures in the Budget in May. These collectively would net $1.73 billion over the next four years, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne told Parliament’s finance and expenditure committee. This revenue to the Government reduced the likelihood of direct tax increases being called for.

On the Inland Revenue website, meanwhile, taxpayers who suspect they have been involved in a tax avoidance scheme are encouraged to correct their tax affairs by making voluntary disclosures.

Every little drop helps, as the Government aims to reduce its operating deficits over the next three years and return to surplus in the 2014/15 fiscal year. This daunting fiscal task calls for higher revenues as well as tight constraints on discretionary spending.

Core Crown tax revenue is forecast to increase over the next four years, reaching $71.2 billion (27.8 percent of GDP) in 2015/16.

As the Treasury explains in Budget documents, all major macroeconomic drivers of tax revenue (compensation of employees, entrepreneurial income, operating surplus and domestic consumption) are forecast to grow at above four percent a year.

In addition to the impact of economic growth, the fiscal forecasts include several policy changes including alterations to tobacco excise, fuel excise and road user charges.

But maybe the British can teach us how to pull in even more revenue without having to chase up tax miscreants.

Richard Thaler, a professor of economics and behavioural science at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, showed us the way in a recent

British behaviour benefits budget.

column in the New York Times.

Pushing his own line of academic expertise, he mused on what might happen if a Council of Behavioural Scientist Advisers was set up to counsel the President of the US, to complement the advice that flows from the Council of Economic Advisers. After all, economists teach us that monopolies are harmful, so should they be the only social scientists with anything useful to contribute to the efficient running of a government?

Thaler – who is involved as an unpaid adviser – can point to a British government initiative to show what might happen. It’s the Behavioural Insights Team; a tiny branch of government led by a social psychologist and set up by the Conservative Prime Minister shortly after David Cameron’s centre-right coalition took office nearly two years ago.

One of the team’s mantras is simple: make it easy if you want to encourage some activity. It was invoked in the team’s quest for a way of collecting taxes from people who fail to pay on time.

As in this country, most British citizens pay their taxes promptly because it is collected from their pay.

But small-business owners and individuals with significant non-payroll income are expected to file a return, and if they miss the deadline, they will receive

a letter asking for payment within six weeks. Tougher – and more expensive – measures are taken if that doesn’t work.

Could this be improved? Indeed it could, by following the advice of Robert B Cialdini, an emeritus professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University. His observation is that people are more likely to comply with a social norm if they know most other people are complying, too. An example: seeing other dog owners carrying plastic bags encourages others to do likewise.

This suggested a statement added to the tax collector’s hurry-up letter – noting that a vast majority of taxpayers pay their taxes on time – could encourage others to comply. Even better, some local data should be added to fortify the message: “nine out of 10 people in Exeter pay their taxes on time”, for example.

Sure enough, trial letters achieved a 15-percentage-point increase in the number of people who paid before the six-week deadline, compared with results from the old-style letter. As Thaler points out, if rolled out across the country, this could generate £30 million of extra revenue annually.

Not bad for a team whose entire budget is less than £1 million. M Bob Edlin is a leading economic commentator and NZ Management’s regular economics columnist.

AUGUST 2012

| management.co.nz | 19

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LEADERSHIP REG BIRCHFIELD

Calling all state sector leaders

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Some of the authors that contributed to the Victoria University’s School of Governance book Future State think this latest round of public management changes will be different from those rammed through by the transforming Labour government of the 1980s.

Rather than changes to the ‘hardware’ of government architecture, in other words organisational structures and systems, it’s the ‘software’ that needs upgrading – the mental models and everyday practices used in the public sector.

They’re talking about culture change.

And so is the Prime Minister. His BPS programme calls for a state sector “change in culture” which, he said, “the Government expects and is going to support”. The language is disturbing.

It sounds like he and his ministers see themselves as somehow removed from and not at all responsible for the actions and outcomes of their 35,000 employees.

Nothing could be further from the truth. As internal public sector surveys and external academic studies show, ministers and politicians effectively set the tone for the good or bad public sector performance. Few ministers would qualify on any yardstick as good managers or leaders. Reflect momentarily on Foreign Minister Murray McCully’s handling of his Ministry’s recent reorganisation. And he had one of the best chief executives in the business, former NZ Post boss John Allen, working for him.

Culture, just like the fish in Bob Garrett’s best selling book, rots from the head. If the Advisory Group is looking at private sector parallels, it should start with state sector governance. Boards of directors, try as they often do, can’t divorce themselves from an organisation’s performance and they determine the organisational culture – good and bad. Ministers and politicians do the same, and they can’t shirk the responsibility.

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

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eadership is the single most critical success driver in any change management programme. It’s hardly surprising therefore, that the Advisory Group behind the Government’s agenda for once again revamping the nation’s public services recognised the fact.

But identifying the obvious and recommending actions to successfully deliver better public sector leadership will be challenging. Many trolls lurk under many bridges on the route to this political destination – Prime Minister John Key’s house of Better Public Services.

That we need better public management to meet the more exacting demands of an increasingly complex and unpredictable world is self evident. On the other hand, we can say the same of New Zealand’s private sector. Its leadership and management record doesn’t offer many examples of best practice management in action. It struggles, for instance, with lifting productivity, developing management competency, growing successful global businesses and, according to statistics, is becoming more corrupt.

But back to the state of the State. Public servants can obviously do a better job when challenged, as indeed they were by the Canterbury earthquakes (see this month’s cover story), and society and the economy need them to do so more often. As Key pointed out in his BPS speech, the state services account for the management of almost 25 percent of the economy. But, like employees of any enterprise, they need best practice management and sound leadership to perform to their best.

So what’s actually wrong with our public services? Unlike our private sector, New Zealand’s public sector has, from time to time, ranked among the world’s best. On most international measures it still rates among the least corrupt, most transparent, business friendly and efficient in the world.

Many trolls lurk under many bridges on the route to John Key’s house of Better Public Services.

When ministers, straight faced, talk about their commitment to a state sector culture change, taking risks and embracing innovation it should scare the hell out of you. As many senior public service executives testify, performance for them is more about “keeping ministers happy”. Performance, more often than not, is about delivering political agendas.

The BPS Advisory Group is right though.

The BPS programme is about leadership.

Which set of leaders, however, is not so clearly identified. This exercise may yet prove to be just another public sector restructure to deflect public attention from the manifestly numerous real issues confronting our nation’s political leaders.

Scapegoating is a long practised and wellhoned political art.

The introduction of new, no doubt more highly paid and therefore publicly accountable chief executives and managers, will need more than just private sector experience to overcome the real and complex issues facing New Zealand’s state sector. Time will tell if they deliver.

Time and past leadership experience are not, however, on their side. M Reg Birchfield is a writer on leadership, governance & management. reg@rjmedia.co.nz

TIM ROBERTS

THOUGHT LEADER

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Adopt the gratitude attitude

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eaders face unprecedented challenges and wave upon wave of change. Uncertainty and unease may be the new working landscape, and although harmless in and of themselves, the meaning that we invest in all pervasive uncertainty or unease can cause powerful tides of anxiety.

This anxiety is fired by worries about a future state at the expense of being firmly present in what is here and now.

In short, we sacrifice our immediate experience with all its lifegiving energy for a mindless rumination that drains us.

Anxiety feeds alienation, which eats away at healthy working culture.

Consequently, leaders need practices

to live more engaged, healthier lives and to contribute from places of strength. We can’t be grateful in the past or the future.

To be grateful is to be here now, to return to our heart to inhabit our self.

Gratitude is one of the most potent qualities available to humanity. It has the power to strengthen individuals and improve relationships, which is valuable to those building community and culture. Practising gratitude is alchemy – it can turn anxiety to acceptance, cynicism to joy, and bitterness to engagement.

I believe it can heal alienation – which is rife at times of organisational turbulence, offer a sense of

“Many leaders are exploring wisdom practices or spiritual disciplines to complement their leadership practice.” that offer access to nourishing immediacy, presence, greater resilience and an enhanced ability to focus in busyness.

The technical interventions that the leadership industry has traditionally sold, although valuable, are limited here, and many leaders are exploring wisdom practices or spiritual disciplines to complement their leadership practice.

Mindfulness is one such discipline that is gaining popularity. Less well known but equally important and perhaps more accessible is the use of gratitude as a deliberate discipline. In fact gratitude may be the holy grail of resilience – it is deeply energising and centring, making it a balm against pervasive stress.

Although mindfulness and gratitude are foundational spiritual practices they are also sound, scientifically-verified, commonsense approaches that allow us

meaningfulness and restore wonder. In short, we feel alive and free again.

Gratitude researcher professor Robert Emmons notes that: “Specifically, we have shown that gratitude is positively related to such critical outcomes as life satisfaction, vitality, happiness, selfesteem, optimism, hope, empathy, and the willingness to provide emotional and tangible support for other people, whereas being ungrateful is related to anxiety, depression, envy, materialism, and loneliness.

“Collectively, such studies present credible evidence that feeling grateful generates a ripple effect through every area of our lives, potentially satisfying some of our deepest yearnings – our desire for happiness, our pursuit of better relationships, and our ceaseless quest for inner peace, wholeness, and contentment.”

Tim Roberts.

In addition, gratitude is the key to successful ageing and may be associated with longevity. Positive emotions, such as gratitude, are psychologically beneficial because they can undo the harmful effects of negative emotions. This may have huge implications for those of us struggling to overcome past hurts.

A gratitude practice is a disciplined way of noticing all that is good and given around us, including acts of kindness, things we benefit from or enjoy, and the beauty of our surroundings.

You forge a gratitude practice by setting time aside daily or weekly to review what you are grateful for.

Journaling is massively powerful here. M Resources “Living in Gratitude” Angeles Arrien “Thanks! How practicing gratitude can make you happier” Robert Emmons Tim Roberts is a coach working with senior leadership teams in New Zealand and is a Visiting Fellow of the University of Chester, UK. tim@timrobertsltd.co.nz

AUGUST 2012

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BOOKCASE

Management theories and fads MASTERS OF MANAGEMENT

By Adrian Wooldridge • HarperCollins • RRP $49.99

Masters of Management: How the business gurus and their ideas have changed the world – for better and for worse, is a sequel. The original was called The Witch Doctors: Making sense of management gurus and Adrian Wooldridge wrote it with his colleague from The Economist magazine, John Micklethwaite back in 1996.

Micklethwaite has written only the foreword for this update.

Masters of Management is a less iconoclastic look at the musings of the world’s most influential, high profile or consistently published management writers. Even so, Wooldridge believes there has only ever been one management thinker worthy of the title guru. He, of course, was America’s Peter Drucker.

Wooldridge is The Economist’s management editor and ‘Schumpeter’ columnist. Whether as a consequence of age-inflicted mellowing or simply a desire to be more positive about the contribution management theory makes to the world, the book is a cynical shadow of its prequel. It is, however, a well constructed and insightful read.

With less focus on the absurdities of management theory, the book delivers a generous assessment of some of the more useful ideas created by both academics and the new genre of management writer which the author calls “journo-gurus” – the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and New Yorker magazine’s Malcolm Gladwell for example.

Wooldridge summarises and analyses most of the industry’s more valuable 22 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

management theories and fads. He puts them into the context of a world that has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. His review of what is good and relevant in management theory is timely, if rather less entertaining than the focus on the dark side that he and his colleague delivered last time.

The internet has, he says, changed the way the world works. It is also changing the concept of the organisation. The world of management has been turned on its head. Management theorists and writers, therefore, must think differently and come up with some new ideas if they want to sell their books, seminars and consultation services.

Management theory was created, written and thought about in the United States, says Wooldridge. Now it is being thought about in the emerging world. And that transition will have a profound impact on managers in the western world.

Wooldridge identifies the fads that have impacted, positively and otherwise, management theory. And, so long as management writers need to make a living, they will find ideas, good and bad, to peddle.

Management is a “fad driven industry”. The world, on the other hand, is a confusing place and people turn to gurus for advice – sometimes any advice. Management is addicted to fads – perhaps more now than ever.

Its exponents are driven by the desire to think of a distinctive idea. In turn, practitioners crave something that might give them a competitive or performance edge.

Some management gurus have done significant damage – others less so. Now they have some major issues to ponder and interpret – such as the nature of capitalism and the concept of the company. Are these organisational cornerstones of business still relevant?

Are they headed for history’s archives?

And if, as Wooldridge suggests, management theory has so far spawned only one genuine thinker, where does the world now turn for some visionary thinking? Management surely needs to focus on what makes organisations, communities, countries and the world work better.

– Reg Birchfield

LIKE A VIRGIN: SECRETS THEY WON’T TEACH YOU AT BUSINESS SCHOOL

By Richard Branson • Virgin • RRP $37 99

Richard Branson’s latest book Like a Virgin provides an unmitigated dose of positivity backed by an impeccable track record in listening to others and learning on the hoof.

Branson’s collection of 76 easyread short pieces – most run to just four pages – are pulled from his widely syndicated columns originally written for the New York Times. They span micro-advice for wannabe entrepreneurs to insights into lifting your game as a leader of a large organisation.

BOOKCASE

Branson has the knack of providing commonsense answers to frequently-asked questions while keeping it real with examples from his own experiences.

He’s the master at seeing the best in everyone without being taken for a fool.

He practises the art of “catching” people doing something good and praising them for it. He’s the walking embodiment of the positive power of good customer service.

When his businesses grow too large and cumbersome, Branson sub-divides them back to niche players with inbuilt agility.

And right from a business’ first days he tries to free them from the constraints of “overly-rigid structure, micro-management or overregulation”.

As he puts it, “while guidelines are useful for establishing a framework for the tasks ahead, a hardshelled setup will hinder creativity and risk-taking”.

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Branson knows how a leader can walk the thin line between always protecting their own reputation while not being afraid to make mistakes.

This book may contain few surprises for anyone who has read many of his previous works.

I’ve reviewed both Screw It, Let’s Do It and more recently Screw Business as Usual – his book on doing good while making a buck.

But Branson’s sunny attitude, practical turn of mind and ability to see the good in (almost) everyone remains a winning formula.

My advice? Read it. It won’t take you long and you may just come out with a dose of Branson’s pragmatic positivity.

– Ruth Le Pla

AUGUST 2012

| management.co.nz | 23

COVER STORY

STATE SECTOR CANTERBURY QUAKES DRIVE CHANGE

COVER STORY

The Christchurch earthquakes have boosted government resolve to drive through the most radical overhaul of New Zealand public sector management in at least 20 years. Could management innovation finally flourish in the corridors of power? Reg Birchfield reports.

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ublic sector agencies such as Inland Revenue and the Ministries of Justice and Social Development may be pushed to cut through patch-protection, break down silos and regroup around some big shared goals. It’s part of a government initiative which challenges all public sector agencies’ targets, structures, cultures, incentives, accountabilities and measurements.

A clutch of compelling case studies of so called “innovative” public service responses to the organisational chaos that stuck Canterbury after its devastating September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes is effectively validating the Government’s plans to push through its Better Public Services (BPS) programme.

BPS is designed to introduce wide-ranging public sector management reforms on a scale not seen in New Zealand since the late 1980s and early ’90s. “A betterperforming public sector is central to what we will be doing as a Government over the next three years,” Prime Minister John Key told the Auckland Chamber of Commerce when he announced his BPS strategy on March 15.

And events in Christchurch have seemingly strengthened his hand. Canterbury’s public sector responses to disrupted essential services illustrate what can happen when public servants are forced, this time through disaster response, to think outside the square and work more cooperatively with each other and with the private sector.

Eight carefully chosen case studies have provided so much grist to Key’s reform mill that last month Cabinet agreed to cement in some of these Canterbury-initiated practice changes on a permanent basis and to roll some of them out nationwide.

The Government’s public sector reform blueprint was drafted by the Better Public Services Advisory group, an eight-member public and private sector think panel, set up last year to help design a public service fit for 21st century purpose.

AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 27

<< JONATHON COLEMAN: The Christchurch experience has helped his government feel confident that its reform programme is achievable.

PETER TOWNSEND: > Business as usual wasn’t an option in Christchurch after the quakes. “We were all forced to innovate and that included the public services,”

<< STEVEN JOYCE: Heading a super-ministry that aims to strengthen the public service’s ability to work on business policy, regulation and engagement.

JOHN KEY: > Departments will, in future, work together more.

New Zealand’s state sector had, they said, an “enviable” international reputation and was generally “well-regarded” at home, but the Government’s commitment to reform had diminished in recent years, just when public management needed to keep up with a rapidly changing world. “The role of the state must be progressively redefined,” the Advisory Group’s report said. The system had not, therefore, been very effective in delivering improved social, environmental and economic outcomes.

New Zealand’s public sector accounts for almost a quarter of the nation’s economy. It therefore needed to “become more innovative, efficient and focused” on delivering what New Zealanders want and expect, said Key when he announced his BPS initiative. He simultaneously revealed the establishment of a new super Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment by integrating the ministries of Economic Development, Labour, Science and Innovation, and Building and Housing.

The “business-facing” department would, under the command of his fourthranking Cabinet minister Steven Joyce, strengthen the public service’s ability to work on business policy, regulation and engagement, said Key. The plethora of departmental silos delivered by the radical public sector reforms of the 1980s’ Labour government would go and departments will, in future, work together more, he added.

Government agencies will have to contest the provision of some services; be required to more aggressively deploy new digital technologies; collect, use and publish better performance information; and centralise some capital spending, including accommodation.

None of the 10 challenges set out in Key’s programme needed ratification.

They were a political fait accompli. But the Canterbury case studies have galvanised the argument for change, within the public service and, obviously, the Canterbury business community. Even the state union, the 55,000 strong PSA, accepts a majority of the proposed changes, though with some reservations. It is not,

COVER STORY

for example, keen to see a reduction in the public sector workforce or the outsourcing of more services to the private sector.

The PSA’s joint National Secretary Brenda Pilott is, for example, enthusiastic about the idea of introducing more “innovative” management into the public sector. But, she warns, it won’t happen without management attitude and practice changes at the top. “Old style command and control management is still entrenched in many agencies,” she adds.

There is, says Pilott, a need for more flexible management with a “high level of trust” between leaders and employees.

“We are in favour of picking good people and letting them get on with the job. But this is not common practice in public service management.

“There are hints about (adopting more innovative management) in the BPS report but little or no detail on how to get there. Changing a whole systems-based management approach is a big step that will require a massive culture change and new people with new skills,” she adds.

Innovation in the public sector may not, however, be the anathema it once was. As the recently published book Future State by Victoria University School of Government academics and edited by Bill Ryan and Derek Gill suggests, pub-

lic sector managers and staff are being encouraged to innovate to improve efficiency and effectiveness of government policies and management. And the PSA’s own Modern Public Services project is adding to the transition process.

And offshore, a recent McKinsey global consultancy report claimed there was “an extraordinary” amount of innovation happening in the United States government. The driver was the US government’s embrace of the idea of “open innovation – unleashing the power of the private sector, the academic sector, the non profit sector and the public” to get more done, rather than leave it to the government to do everything itself.

New Zealand may not have reached America’s level of inter-connectedness between the public, private and academic research sectors but, the Christchurch experience is building the case for another round of public management reform.

As Ryan and Gill also suggest, “fiscal and other pressures have introduced a greater urgency, along with technological possibilities for realising [government] policy and service delivery objectives”. In future, governments, ministers and public officials will need to recognise when and how things must be done differently and where business as usual won’t work.

Better Public Services: At a glance • Closer working relationships between and across government agencies.

• Taking the public service online through greater use of digital technologies.

• More citizen-focused delivery and a commitment to continuous service improvement.

• Sharing functions, services, accommodation and purchasing of goods and services.

• Contestability with private sector to provide some services – private prisons and employment of private individuals in defence services.

• Results-driven management with better performance measures and reporting.

• More innovative management processes including performance benchmarking.

• Sharper focus on costs.

• Appointment of sector-wide and not single agency CEOs. • Enhanced financial flexibility to support a stronger results focus.

• Reduced duplication and greater consolidation of agencies and activities – Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

• Greater transparency and better presented information.

• Stronger agency leadership and management.

• Employment cap of 36,475 full-time equivalent employees.

Business as usual wasn’t an option in Christchurch after the quakes. “We were all forced to innovate and that included the public services,” says Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Townsend. “We simply had to do things in new ways.”

The Recover Canterbury project, a hub set up to connect local businesses to a range of support services to help them recover from the quakes, is one of the eight identified by Government as an example of innovative public and private sector cooperation. “We have a collaborative model in which the private sector and government – both central and local – are working together to deliver good business outcomes,” says Townsend.

“Government departments found there were both new and indeed better ways of doing things,” he says. “Being forced to innovate resulted in them adopting innovation. And I reckon this change in approach is sustainable.”

The State Service Commission rides shotgun on the Government’s public sector change programme. Its minister, Jonathan Coleman, thinks the Christchurch experience has helped his government “feel confident” that its reform programme is achievable.

The necessary legislative changes will take time to get through, meanwhile he expects the public service to “reorganise itself around the expectations” the legislation will facilitate. “We won’t be able to move appropriations around prior to passing the legislation but there will be a clear direction that agency heads will be working to.”

The minister is also happy with the “positive” reaction of the public service generally. While he doesn’t make the comparison, BPS is potentially as great as any public sector management change that has proceeded it, certainly anything since the late 1980s which saw New Zealand leading the world in public management reform.

“The level of enthusiasm for some of the things that were done in Christchurch is very high. The expectation that some of these things will change across the board is positive,” says Coleman.

AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 29

Lessons from Canterbury Case studies for change Eight Canterbury Innovations projects have been ratified by Cabinet for study and possible roll out nationwide. Branded “Seismic Shifts”, they demonstrate innovative design and delivery of public services, according to Helen Walter, senior advisor, machinery of government at the State Services Commission and the person charged with overseeing the project.

The first four are up and running. The second four have been identified as projects for rebuilding Christchurch.

Recover Canterbury A support hub for businesses affected by the earthquake and driven by a partnership comprising four government departments including the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), Department of Labour (DoL), Inland Revenue (IR), and NZ Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and the Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) and the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce (CECC).

Earthquake Support Coordination Services (ESCS) Ministry of Social Development (MSD), IR, Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) teamed to deliver a support service for households and families impacted by the quakes.

Justice Service Recovery Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Police, Corrections, the judiciary and lawyers worked together to keep court hearings operating. The MoJ implemented centralised scheduling of facilities across multiple jurisdictions and created new capacity for District and High Courts.

Helen Walter.

Shared Care Record View (eSCRV) A system established to allow information to be electronically shared online between health professionals. Made faster diagnosis, treatment and care possible and due for roll out later this year.

Emergency Services Hub A central hub for the coordination and deployment of fire and ambulance services, and local and central government civil defence and emergency management.

Education Rebuild The renewal of the education network across greater Christchurch, building on arrangements trialed following the earthquakes eg, shared campuses, use of portacoms, shared facilities with community services.

Shared Front of House Shared premises and “front of house” services by IR and MSD at service centres at three sites across the city region.

Shared Government Offices Shared office accommodation for regional management and corporate support functions for multiple government agencies as an ‘anchor project’ in the rebuild of the Christchurch central business district.

30 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

Innovation, of course, implies some level of management risk taking.

How does that fit with a public sector that is ultimately accountable to politicians? Ministers are invariably conditioned to avoid risk and are certainly disinclined to take the blame when things go wrong.

Therefore, introducing changes such as those envisaged by Key’s BPS programme look set, as Ryan and Gill warn in Future State, to force serious consideration of how “Westminster-based conventions regarding relationships between ministers and officials will need to keep evolving”.

Apart from lifting ministerial competency, they may need to chip away at our inherently adversarial parliament.

“As in business, there will need to be space for sensible and calculated risk taking,” says Coleman. “We will look carefully

at both the up and down sides of that. We would not want people taking risks with catastrophic downside. But we do want people to feel they have the support of senior managers and ministers to come up with innovative ideas and, through the cabinet and public service processes, to manage the risk.

“You could say it is a double-edged process,” he adds. “We don’t want to stifle innovation and risk taking but, things have to be carefully thought through and our processes should be able to cope with that. It is not as if individuals will be charging off taking risks without others in the consultation process knowing. There will always be checks and balances.”

What happened in Christchurch was definitely innovative, particularly by traditional public sector standards. It was not particularly risky. What the Government wants now is to capture and sustain those kinds of innovations.

As SSC Deputy Commissioner John Ombler, who has been involved with the Christchurch recovery process almost since day one, says: “What happened in Christchurch was by necessity. There is a chance now for it to be done by design.

We’ll be looking for stronger functional leadership with more collaboration across departments to deliver more challenging results.”

Agencies are now being asked to examine the Christchurch findings and undertake more in-depth evaluations of the costs and benefits of the lessons learned.

The SSC will deliver a consolidated report to Cabinet later this year.

“These may be exciting developments and have the sector energised, but we must examine them thoroughly before rolling out decisions more widely,” says Ombler. “Christchurch provided an opportunity to challenge the status quo and to look for improved ways of doing things.

“Tragic as it was, Christchurch proved that necessity can be the mother of innovation. The stories that came out make you feel proud to be a public servant,” he adds.

There are, of course, still private sector critics of the way in which the public sector, including local government bureaucrats, reacted and tried to impose a business as usual approach to problem solving.

But Townsend, who has been in the thick of the action throughout, is generous in his praise of the attempt to create a new regime of public and private sector cooperation and innovative problem solving.

There is, he concedes, some residual schizophrenia. “There are some areas in both national and local government that try to cling to a business as usual approach with an earthquake tacked on.

“They don’t accept that we are now in a new world. The earthquakes are all encompassing in terms of how they changed AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 31

COVER STORY

Leadership, culture & capability The Better Public Services Advisory Group says leadership will be the single most critical driver in successfully changing New Zealand’s public sector.

The overall balance of decision-rights in the state services needed to move from individual agencies and towards the needs of the system, including sector leadership for results, function and systems, they said.

They recommended, and the Government has agreed, to formally designate the Commissioner of State Services as the Head of State Services, accountable for the overall performance of the state sector.

He will be empowered to: • appoint sector leaders; • determine functional system-wide leadership roles and appoint chief executives to these roles; • move CEOs and second and third tier leaders to critical roles across the service.

The Commissioner will also lead a “culture-build” process by: • defining the behaviour expected of state employees – integrity, innovation, continuous improvement; • communicating and reinforcing these expectations; • aligning the formal parts of the system to incentivise, support and reward behaviour.

our world and our business environment.

The pockets of resistance usually come down to entrenched individuals who feel threatened by change,” he adds.

The earthquakes have, says Townsend, “forced a change in culture and that has done us all a lot of good. Senior bureaucrats and politicians understand just how important the lessons from Christchurch are to the better and future functioning of this country. And they seem to be listening and learning from our dreadful experience.”

The New Zealand Institute of Management is watching the evolution of the BPS programme. It hopes any new spirit of cross sector cooperation will extend to sharing experiences about innovative management and leadership. “If the Government is serious about introducing more innovative management into the public sector, NZIM has a lot to offer,” says NZIM chief executive Kevin Gaunt.

“The Government might want more innovative public service management and leadership, but delivering it will require a significant culture shift. We can help address those issues and facilitate closer working relationships with private sector innovators. Last year we identified New Zealand’s need to build better public 32 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

Bill English.

Christchurch proved that necessity can be the mother of innovation. services through restructuring, efficiencies and cost reduction as one of the five challenges this country needs to tackle to lift its ranking in the Swiss-based IMD Global Competitiveness survey so we are very focused on this whole BPS process,” says Gaunt.

There is, according to PSA’s Pilott, plenty of evidence that her union members want management change. A survey of members showed that, above all else, public service “employees wanted to be trusted to get on with the job”.

The realities for public service management include the tendency for politicians to interfere in the detail, to demand the ability to blame someone else when things go wrong, and of senior managers to micro manage because they are risk averse because of the nature of the relationship with their ministers.

“No matter what ministers say – and some of them, like Finance Minister Bill

English, exhort us to take risks – they set the tone on risk aversion. The level of tolerance of failure is very low. Almost zero actually,” says Pilott. “No one really believes ministers when they suggest we take risks. When things go wrong in the public service look out! When they go well, the minister is out there taking the credit. When they don’t, you won’t see them for dust. It’s left to the CEO or responsible manager to carry the can.

“To introduce innovation into the public service, ministers and senior executives will have to increase their appetite for risk. The two are inextricably linked. You simply cannot have an innovation environment and not tolerate failure. Politicians will have to reframe their expectations of the public service for this approach to succeed.” M Reg Birchfield is a writer on leadership, governance & management. reg@rjmedia.co.nz

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yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 23rd Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 November 2012.

ENTERPRISE SUCCESS

Bucking the trend

How well does our finance sector stack up in the new realities of a post-GFC world? And has it picked up on the risk management lessons that the GFC provided? Nick Grant goes in search of answers.

F

or the New Zealand finance sector, the past decade has seen both the best and the worst of times. Until the advent of the global financial crisis, which king-hit our economy in 2008, everything seemed to be going gangbusters. Since then, of course, performance has been mixed.

In the context of what’s now widely acknowledged as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Deloitte enterprise risk services partner Richard Kirkland cautions that headline financial

34 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

figures don’t necessarily provide an indication of underlying performance.

An example? A perusal of Deloitte/ Management magazine Top 200 Awards figures shows that while Westpac’s total assets grew from $39.96 billion in 2004 to $72.78 billion in 2011, the rate of growth has slowed, with last year’s result 0.9 percent down on 2010’s. Meanwhile, IAG’s total assets have grown in a mainly slow and steady manner, from $1.62 billion in 2004 to a tad under $2.07 billion.

In general terms, New Zealand’s

finance sector has weathered the storm about as well as could be expected.

“Yet, were it not for events like the global financial crisis, you’d never really know what your robustness or capability is,” says Kirkland. “We’re in the fortunate position of having come through that and even been able to see it as a learning experience, as opposed to one that completely wiped out our balance sheet.”

So what have we learnt? As far as our banks go, the past few years have provided an opportunity to stop worrying about

ENTERPRISE SUCCESS

Stories of NZ enterprise success This is the fifth article in a major eight-part NZ Management series: Stories of NZ enterprise success. Leading NZ business journalists Nick Grant and Vicki Jayne conduct a sector-by-sector review of the underlying drivers of success in key parts of New Zealand’s economy.

Next month: retail and wholesale.

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

and learn to love – or at least live with – the fact they’re mostly Australian.

“We have an advantage in having a large number of Australian banks,” notes Peter Neilson, CEO of the Financial Services Council (FSC). “If they’d been Austrian, American or UK banks we would have had a bigger problem. Because the banks here and in Australia did not get into securitisation of mortgages, were still asking the question, ‘can you pay this back and what is the state of the house?’ – were keeping that documentation and keeping

the risk on their own balance sheet – we didn’t have the foreclosure crisis that occurred in the US and other places.”

It’s thanks to the banks’ prudent approach, he says, that New Zealand companies’ capital requirements are currently well catered for. “The only gap in our marketplace is development capital for companies with huge potential but no positive cashflow available for, say, the next three to five years.”

While insurance companies were navigating themselves through the GFC

relatively well, Kirkland says it’s easy to understand why many insurers were caught short by the Christchurch earthquakes.

“It’s just part of our mental heuristics. Nothing happens for decades and decades and we get complacent. That’s human. Then all of a sudden we’re starkly reminded of exactly what the risks are.

Now being humble and vigilant – and contemplating such stressful scenarios in a way that in the past may have been pooh-poohed – is pretty much a reality.”

While noting there were “very visible” finance company failures during the period, Financial Markets Authority CEO Sean Hughes has been at pains to point out “those collapses in the finance company sector were a very small part of the total fundraising opportunities available to New Zealanders throughout the ’90s and into the last decade”.

And, according to Tower Investments CEO Sam Stubbs, although some of the collapses have created the impression the finance sector is the preserve of “rogues and vagabonds”, it’s vital to remember two things.

“The vast majority of people in the business are just trying to earn a reasonable living and doing it in a proper way.

And it’s easy to underestimate the impact of the global financial crisis. The tide was going out on the entire industry; in fact the entire world.”

Kirkland says issues underlying the collapses are self-evident in hindsight: a failure of governance and risk management, including “the whole issue of related parties, the money-go-round and lack of independence”, and thin capitalisation.

AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 35

ENTERPRISE SUCCESS

Investment Savings and InGIVE ME REHAB surance Association of New Even though factors beyond Zealand to recast itself as the control of New Zealand the Financial Services Counentities created many of the cil and refocus its activities finance sector’s current chalaround a more consumerlenges, the public’s percepcentric model. (See box story tion of the sector remains “First fruits”.) jaundiced. It’s an attitude Neilson says his members’ with which Stubbs has some Deloitte’s Richard organisations didn’t collapse. sympathy.

Kirkland.

“But given that many people “There’s been a big crisis don’t know the difference of confidence in the savings between a bank, finance comand investment sector that pany or stockbroker, you goes right back to the ’87 can’t just stand aside from crash,” he says. “And the inthat. You’ve got to accept dustry hasn’t given investors that perception is reality, deal any particular reason to feel with that perception and start positive about it up until the turning things around quite advent of Kiwisaver. That’s dramatically. surpassed all expectations, Tower Investment’s “That includes saying, which were pretty low be- Sam Stubbs.

‘We’re clearly not in favour of cause of people’s opinion of the industry. So there’s been a bit of resur- having crooks in the industry’, and ‘we’re rection of confidence in that one product clearly in favour of making sure consumers are well informed and understand but not in the industry as a whole.”

The local finance sector’s recognition what they’re getting’.”

He acknowledges this has implications of the need to rehabilitate its image was a key driver in last year’s decision by the for financial literacy. “And we’ve got to be

Funny money

able to take a view and lead on issues of public importance that are of interest to our members. We can’t expect others to do that for us.”

THROW IN A RULE BOOK? A related consequence of the GFC is the (sometimes grudging) acknowledgement that regulation isn’t undesirable by definition. That said, there’s hardly an abundance of appetite for it. Indeed, there’s been push back against regulations already enacted. This is an attitude with which Financial Markets Authority’s (FMA) Sean Hughes has expressed some impatience.

“For goodness sakes, we’re only 12 months old, and the review of the Securities Act hasn’t even been completed yet. So it’s a little early to be calling for a paring back of regulation and regulatory powers,” Hughes noted in June.

“When we compare the FMA, and the Reserve Bank for that matter, with the sorts of power, responsibilities and roles that peer regulators occupy overseas …

I can confidently say that there’s not an excess of regulation in New Zealand.”

The finance sector is keen for it to stay that way. While there’s acceptance of the need for some statutory oversight, says Neilson, “it’s also obviously tempered by

Suzanne Snively, chair of the NZ chapter of Transparency International, sees an inherent threat and opportunity for our economy in the UN Convention against Corruption (CAC). An initiative initially supported by the NZ government, we’ve yet to ratify it because we haven’t yet satisfied all its requirements, including passing legislation against money laundering.

“Other countries are a bit surprised we manage to be perceived as the country in the world with the least corruption without having ratified CAC, so that’s important,” she points out. “And, of course, if we ratified on CAC we’d have been able to stay on the White List in Europe.”

By walking that talk about our squeaky clean image, Snively also sees opportunities to improve both our terms of trade (“it’s a big potential competitive advantage”) and our capital costs (“we’d be able to go out and say, ‘look, we should be paying a lower cost of capital due to this good reputation’.”).

Photos: thinkstockphotos.com

36 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

ENTERPRISE SUCCESS

the view that it’s got to be effective and the best way of achieving the solution you want. For example, can we make sure the product information provided to consumers is accessible and that we don’t just end up writing longer and longer documents that virtually nobody will read? A shorter amount of concise information that can be relied upon and is comparable is probably much more valuable than endlessly extending the requirements for reporting and disclosure.”

Stubbs acknowledges he’s a glaring exception in his enthusiasm for regulation.

“Look, it’s been tough to enact and expensive, and everyone’s favourite whinge is how much regulation there is,” Stubbs says, “but at the end of the day we were operating in a pretty loose environment before the GFC. “Investment bankers like to use the phrase ‘expensive capital drives good decisions’,” he continues. “In other words, the more expensive your money, the tougher you have to think about how you’re going to make money and you’ll generally make better decisions. Same with regulation; more regulation generally obliges better business practices.

It’s harder, not easier. But it is better.”

As well as arguing for the business benefits that flow from the requirement to be more rigorous, Stubbs reckons enforcement with bite is a good thing.

“A lot of people have operated in the New Zealand financial services sector without being particularly fearful of the regulator, and you should be very scared, because that also forces good decisions. The FMA, now it’s much better resourced, is showing a lot of courage and doing a good job of demonstrably going for people who are committing malfeasance in the market.

“The more people see in the papers that people are being brought to account,

First fruits Right from the get-go, widely canvassing membership opinions was chalked up large on Peter Neilson’s ‘to do’ list. In the middle of last year, the newly-appointed CEO of the Investment Savings and Insurance Association of New Zealand was keen to take the pulse of the organisation.

One of the chief things he gleaned, he says, was the desire for the group to be seen as the credible voice of the finance industry.

Members wanted to articulate a message that positioned it “as part of the solution, not part of the problem”.

“They saw the organisation as not being able to talk on a FSC’s Peter Neilson. strategic level,” he says. “Instead, it appeared to be either on the defensive or sounding like it was only talking about its own interests. So it really needed to be able to answer the questions, ‘what’s good for New Zealand?’ and ‘how can the industry help?’ as opposed to, ‘what do we want this week?’”

When the organisation rebranded as the Financial Services Council (FSC), its new direction included a determination to front-foot issues related to the building and protection of New Zealanders’ wealth, to demonstrate sector leadership and counteract the average New Zealanders’ lamentable lack of financial literacy.

The first fruit of this was the June release of the FSC’s first major research project Pensions for the Twenty First Century, a report “produced to provide the basis for New Zealand-wide consideration and debate” about the future of retirement incomes. Later in the year, the FSC will release the results of its research into the issue of under-insurance in New Zealand.

It was also deemed important for the FSC to have a wider membership base. “We need to try and cover the value chain,” says Neilson. “So rather than being an organisation of product manufacturers, it’s got to include the distribution networks, the advisors, the whole chain of what the customer sees in their experience of financial services.”

With three years to reach its objective of representing over 90 percent of the finance sector value chain, Neilson estimates it already has 75-80 percent. Its 21 member companies and 17 associate members manage more than $60 billion in savings and provide financial services to more than 1.8 million New Zealand investors and policyholders.

Another goal is to promote best practice in the industry, through the publication of guidelines and working with other bodies.

“The previous structure was designed to ensure major companies who were members effectively had a veto to prevent some things from happening,” says Neilson. “It’s now much more collaborative.

“We’re no longer trying to be in the enforcement business. In other words, we’ll probably try to promote best practice through the official regulator or government, rather than anyone who doesn’t want to comply with the FSC’s rules having to leave the organisation. We’re saying, ‘we want better performance from the whole industry, whether they’re members or not.’”

AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 37

Power plays “Banks are all clamouring to move from product-centric to customercentric business models,” says Grant Frear, lead innovation partner at Deloitte. “There are a number of reasons for this but, irrespective of why each individual bank decides to move to this orientation, it’s clear the consumer has wrestled back some power from a traditional relationship where the bank was holding all the cards.”

Four of the main drivers of this shift are macro trends that are currently affecting all businesses, says Frear: • Mobile technology: with the consequent customer expectation of being able to access services anywhere, anytime.

Deloitte’s Grant Frear.

• Social: “We’re seeing a shift from social media to social networking to social business, and are rethinking the way we do business and interact with customers as a result.”

• Cloud computing: the most significant aspect of which is the way it reduces the barrier to entry.

• Big data/data analytics: now providing “the tools, technology and computing horsepower to do micro segmentation and mass customisation”.

For an article by Frear analysing this phenomenon, including influential customer trends, see www.management.co.nz.

what you will get – after the initial shock, outrage and loss of faith – is trust rebuilding in the industry because people will start to believe there’s a regulator looking after them,” says Stubbs. “So, yes, it’s expensive; yes, it raises the barriers to entry; yes, it makes business tougher. But at the end of the day, is the business going to be fundamentally healthier, is it going to get the trust of its clients, is it going to grow as a consequence of all that? Yes, it will.”

Even so, Stubbs’ advocacy for regulation has its limits – “you can overdo it”. And, other than some outstanding anti-money laundering legislation (see box story “Funny money”), he’s pretty satisfied with the regulatory framework now enacted, or in the process of being so.

CHOPPY WATERS AHEAD When NZ Management speaks to Stubbs, he’s nursing a cup of coffee, having been up at 2am for a briefing on the rapidly unraveling situation in China.

“It looks a lot worse than we thought 38 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

in terms of growth,” he says. “The Chinese have massive fiscal horsepower to do something, but markets hate uncertainty and this’ll cause quite a lot.”

Asked when he reckons things will “get back to normal”, he laughs and asks when they ever have been. “But if you mean when we’ve got over the GFC hangover, then we’ll be dealing with this for at least the next 5-10 years. Short to medium term, it’s going to be very choppy.”

On a more positive note, Stubbs believes New Zealand’s fiscal discipline will underscore the strength of our economy relative to others. “You’re starting to see that now. The New Zealand dollar is generally considered a risk-off trade, so you buy it when you’re happy about the world and sell when you’re nervous. But increasingly, the reason our dollar stays so high is that people are buying it when they’re getting nervous, or they’re less inclined to sell.”

Neilson agrees it’ll be a while yet before things shake out.

“I worked in Asia during their property

market problem in the ’90s,” he says, “and it was probably seven or eight years before property prices started to move again and the economies were picking up at a reasonable speed. So on the basis of this being a worse-than-typical property market asset collapse cycle, you’d expect it to be at least two or three more years before we went back to strong, positive growth.”

Kirkland also forecasts ongoing uncertainty: “The outlook is cloudy,” he says. “There are a number of factors that still need to be played out. It’s not going away and we need to be absolutely vigilant about that. We’re an export-driven economy dependent on demand and the extent to which the rest of the world is not performing. So we’re going to wear the consequences of that, from tourism to our commodities.”

Even so, he sees a silver lining: “The whole GFC experience has taken the risk management of our financial institutions to the next level – the quality of the thinking, the discussions, and catering for the future…”

On that basis, Kirkland declares himself “pretty optimistic; and not without foundation. When things do start to right themselves, we’ll be in a strong position to bounce back. In the headlong race of global competition, sometimes simply not going back as much as others puts one ahead of the pack.” M Nick Grant is a freelance journalist. nof.grant@gmail.com

The Editor’s

Breakfast with NZIM & NZ Management magazine Productivity in the workplace – Can we really make a difference?

September 5th, 7-9am, Wellington

CEO pay soars while worker pay stalls.

Is that fair?

October 3rd, 7-9am, Auckland

NZ Management magazine’s managing editor Ruth Le Pla invites CEOs & their senior executives from the Top 200 NZ companies to a networking breakfast, followed by a panel discussion with policy shapers and opinion leaders as they examine recent innovations and help solve current issues affecting everyday business.

For more information please visit www.nzim.co.nz.

To secure your place at The Editor’s Breakfast please contact liz_fernyhough@nzimnorthern.co.nz. 0800 800 NZIM

Wanted:

Women in high places New NZX rules could help give women an almighty shove into top business roles. ASB boss Barbara Chapman is all in favour, she tells Ruth Le Pla.

F

rustration at the ongoing dearth of women at the helm of New Zealand businesses energises ASB CEO Barbara Chapman.

Together with a drive for simplicity and innovation these are the characteristics of a woman whose own remarkable career has seen her dovetail an early start in HR and marketing into senior roles in the financial services sector.

Barbara Chapman ping-ponged back

40 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

to ASB and New Zealand in April last year after a five year secondment with parent company Commonwealth Bank of Australia where she was its Sydney-based group executive, HR and group services.

She’s now ASB Bank’s chief executive and MD, and a non executive director of Sovereign Assurance Company’s parent, ASB Group (Life). Albeit now on a higher notch, she’s returning to familiar hunting ground. Before heading off to

Sydney, Chapman had worked for 12 years as a senior executive at ASB specialising in marketing, human resources and retail banking, and then as MD of Sovereign.

Just shy of 18 months back on home turf, Chapman remains concerned about the dearth of women in high places. The majority of the NZX 100 companies have no female directors. Women currently hold about nine percent of private sec-

FACE TO FACE

There’s been a real appetite in Australia to get more women into senior business roles.

tor directorships in New Zealand and 21 percent of management positions reporting directly to the CEO. “It wasn’t too long ago that we had a female prime minister and governor general,” she notes. “Theresa Gattung, Ann Sherry and Rosemary Howard were heading up Telecom, Westpac and TelstraClear. There were so many highpowered female role models in business and in government. And when you look around now it’s not like that anymore.”

Chapman reckons the reasons why we’ve slipped back are several and interrelated. For starters, we simply haven’t been very good at growing female talent

in business. “So now, when you look at talent pipelines there aren’t really that many women at the level below the CEO.” Instead of keeping up momentum gained from an era in which female leaders loomed large, we’ve squandered time working on the metrics of why this should be a good idea in the first place.

“There’s been a huge amount of justifying,” she says. “You can trot out any number of figures... any number of reports.”

(She quoted in a recent speech a Goldman Sachs report that concluded New Zealand’s economic output could rise by 10 percent if women’s labour and talent were fully tapped.)

“All the big consulting firms have a wealth of data as to why it’s a good idea,” she says. “So let’s park that. We haven’t translated the idea into action and outcomes, and that’s the piece that needs to happen. We need to put more energy into that part.”

Not surprisingly, then, Chapman welcomes a recent move by stock exchange regulator NZX requiring publicly listed companies to disclose in their annual reports the gender composition of their board and senior management teams.

The new rule, which kicks in on December 31 this year, will provide the “huge catalyst” necessary to propel us in the right direction, she says. Listed companies must also provide information on their diversity policies and share how they stack up against them.

She draws encouragement from similar moves across the Tasman where the ASX put pressure on large Australian companies through new corporate governance guidelines on diversity.

Over in Australia, Chapman saw first-hand how such measures galvanised boards and CEOs to hike their performance around diversity. “And it’s paid dividends,” she says. “There’s clear evidence that it’s bringing tangible results and that diversity reporting has helped boost the number of women in both management and governance roles.”

According to law firm Chapman Tripp, within 18 months of the ASX’s rule changes there was a 50 percent increase in the number of women directors: although it noted this “dramatic rise may be explained in part by the federal government’s threat to impose quotas unless gender diversity on Australian boards improved”.

The threat of strong-arm tactics aside, Chapman says she has a sense that there’s been a “real appetite” in Australia to get more women into senior business roles.

“The economy there has been growing very strongly and why wouldn’t you look at all your pools of talent as you’re going into a growth phase? So there’s probably been quite a business imperative to do it as well.”

Does she agree with a recent comment

by Fahrenheit Wellness Fund’s Bridget Liddell that many New Zealand CEOs have come to see gender diversity as a “distraction” from hard-core business imperatives?

Certainly, Chapman believes current market difficulties are focusing business minds on how to make their own operations successful: which leaves less room to look at how we can make things better overall.

“I hate the term survival mode because that’s too stark but, certainly, it hasn’t been easy and when that’s the case, AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 41

FACE TO FACE

On Oz, mobile banking apps and being back After five years in Sydney did you see New Zealand through different eyes when you first came back last year?

ASB is a big organisation. We’ve got close to 5000 staff in New Zealand. And yet I’d come from an environment of close to 50,000 staff and I’d seen what was possible there. So the best learning I brought back with me from Australia is that the size and scale of this organisation is such that we can do anything.

If I’d been here the whole time my perspective would have been that this is a big organisation and we can’t achieve some of these things because we don’t have that nimble agility.

That’s been really good for my way of thinking about this business.

Could you give an example?

Some of it’s around process. In a large organisation like ours you have quite formalised stages through a project management office. Sometimes, it’s like, ‘Come on, guys. Actually, we can just do this.’ Process is important but it’s not for everything.

So there are instances when you cut to the essence of what you’re trying to achieve and just do it differently?

Yes. That’s how we did our new mobile banking app. It was our people but we took the project right outside our normal frameworks and just did it. The adoption rates of mobile banking are phenomenal. It’s growing four times faster than internet banking did. And that was fast.

Over 37,000 people registered for our new mobile banking app in the first five days after we launched it.

Many New Zealanders reckon Australians play hardball in business more than we do. Would that be a fair assessment?

Bearing in mind that the four big banks here are owned by the four big banks there, it’s a very similar market dynamic in my sector. But it is very competitive over there. I found Australians very positive to deal with.

Australians are very deep specialists, usually, and very good. In New Zealand, you’re working with generalists with much broader expertise and it’s different. No one way is better or worse than the other but combining both is a real strength. So coming back here I’ve been able to know which specialist over there to talk with and bring learnings across. That’s been really beneficial.

The Kiwi generalist approach would be very appropriate to a CEO’s role.

Yes. A lot of us have had quite broad careers. I’ve been in HR, marketing, retail banking, life insurance... that’s the New Zealand story. People have moved around here but less so in Australia.

Are you back in New Zealand for good?

My story is probably different to most. Most of my family are still in Australia. We’ve made a choice that I live and work in New Zealand and they’re still over there. Our son is finishing school over there. All that means is I travel across the Tasman every week. Will I be doing that forever? I’m not sure. Nothing’s forever. Ralph [Norris] used to say seven years was the optimal because then you need someone to come in with fresh ideas. I don’t know where I’ll be in seven years from now.

Is there a sense that you’ve come back to the country or you’ve come back for this particular role?

I’ve come back for the role. But it’s also great to be back in New Zealand. This is an amazing job. It’s a real privilege. I never thought I’d end up with this job.

42 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

I’m not sure whether gender diversity is a distraction but it’s that you just focus on what you have to do to get through the difficult times.”

Whatever the language applied to the problem, Chapman reckons we’ve moved beyond the stage where individual CEOs or boards can spark widescale effective change through positive initiatives at single organisations.

“That hasn’t worked,” she says. “So something has to shift and I think the NZX approach will bring about that change.”

All of which raises the question of how Chapman herself has managed to defy the odds and rise to the top. She says she’s been lucky to have had people who have supported her career and opened up possibilities for her along the way. Chief among these would be Ralph Norris who, when he was CEO of ASB and then CBA, spotted enough talent in Chapman to champion her move over the Tasman and subsequently back again.

“It’s interesting when you look at someone like Ralph,” says Chapman.

“He’s given Vanessa Stoddart [now Air New Zealand’s group GM people and technical operations] an opportunity at the airline. He’s been a CEO who’s completely balanced and prepared to choose his people on their abilities.

There haven’t been that many people like Ralph Norris so I’ve been lucky.

“Similarly,” she says, “Hugh Burrett, the CEO here after Ralph, gave me an opportunity to go and work as the CEO of Sovereign. That was a real boundary jump for me: it was a different industry and a role as a CEO. “And way, way back in my career I had an opportunity to move from an HR role into marketing. They are completely different disciplines and somebody, a man to whom I will always be grateful, took that risk and gave me that opportunity.

It doesn’t happen without people believing in you and giving you the chance to do it. And I’ve had those people so I’ve been fortunate.”

Which begs the question of what, modesty aside, these supporters may

FACE TO FACE

have been seeing in Chapman.

“I guess if I had to use words about myself, I’d say I’m pretty focused and very driven. And I think it’s those things that have probably helped my performance in my role,” says Chapman.

“As a child, I was never sports mad.

My sense of competitive spirit comes from being able to achieve with what I’m doing. So at school that was around academic things and in the business world it’s around the job that I’m doing.

I’ve always been like that.”

Such a competitive spirit saw Chapman crowned as the inaugural winner of the TVNZ/Marketing Magazine

Simplicity is one of the hardest things to execute.

Marketer of the Year award in 1997, prove an insightful judge in later years on similar selection panels of her peers and be inducted into the NZ Marketing Hall of Fame.

She says her years spent immersed in the “positive energy” of marketers’ creative conversations – generating ideas, throwing them out and starting again – has probably honed a lot of her thinking and how she goes about making decisions.

“One of my close friends said she and I are the perfect pair. I’ll have 100 ideas of which 99 will be dreadful and one may be amazing. But she says I should never be allowed to implement it. She says I’ll get bored so she’ll go off and implement it while I can think of the next lot of ideas.”

Marketing, she says, is “hugely” about getting strategy right and then getting people around it to execute it.

“So that’s similar to CEO jobs which are about strategy, thinking about what’s coming next and posing questions.”

The essence of an HR discipline – her other core line of past expertise

– she says, should be about helping an organisation to build capability.

“An HR team should help an organisation define what will make it better.

What are the five things that we are going to excel at? How do we develop the skill in our people so that we can be like that? That’s where HR can really make a difference to an organisation.”

At ASB, Chapman says “powerful conversations” have drawn corporate focus to bear on both simplicity and innovation as key differentiators.

“Simplicity is one of the hardest things to execute: particularly when you’re an organisation of our size. But if we can ruthlessly focus on keeping things simple for ourselves and our customers, that’s going to pay dividends to our shareholders.

“We also really believe in innovation as part of our DNA. This world and banking are changing fast around us.

We need to stare into the future and think about the bets we’re going to make around innovation and which ones we, as a team, think are the right ones. “ How does a CEO embed innova-

tive thinking throughout such a large organisation? Chapman says she works on “quarantining” it in a few people. “It’s about giving people rope and scope to spend time to do the thinking and to implement stuff.”

ASB, she says, may pair technology and business people in bite-sized mixed teams to gnaw away at such innovations.

“We don’t want the team to get too big.

We give people the opportunity to really have a go.”

Time spent working with Ralph Norris taught her the power of possibility.

“When we went into CBA, the business – by any metrics – was underperforming to its potential. It was losing market share, staff were pretty down and customer satisfaction was at an all-time low.

“Ralph set the goal for CBA to be number one in customer satisfaction.

And everyone wondered how we were going to do that because there was a huge gulf of a gap. But he lined everybody up behind this goal and right now if they’re not number one they’ll be a hair’s breadth away from it.

“That was leadership. It taught me the power of having a single unifying goal.

“The other part of leadership is your own passion, energy, enthusiasm and love for the business. You can’t come to work and not believe in, or be passionate about, what you’re doing... especially as the CEO. That would be a disaster.” M AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 43

IT

Head in the

Cloud?

Forget the geek-speak, cloud computing brings business a great big bunch of strategic benefits, Vivienne McLean reports.

44 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

IT

To boldly go Cloud computing provides a platform for innovation re-examine an existing business model to understand which may have a similar productivity benefit to that of how it creates value for customers and where emerging steam, electricity and microprocessor technology. Busiinformation technology offers opportunities to improve nesses that previously did not make economic sense that value. can now be created or expanded.

Framing a suitable response and having it adopted We can think of cloud computing as a supercomputer within the business is, of course, a significant challenge. at the end of a credit card. Literally thousands of procThere are four major information technology trends essors can be orchestrated to act in unison to address a currently driving innovation: namely, mobility, social single problem, and then turned off. Only what is used media, cloud computing and analytics. However, close is paid for. behind is the evolution of the “internet of things”, A start-up can tap into virtually unlimited levels of which is intertwined with each of these trends and ofDr Michael Snowden. computing resource. Established firms such as Eli Lilly fers enormous potential for innovation. perform new drug research on Amazon’s cloud.

The “internet of things” refers to sensors embedded in products or In five years, computing power will likely be around 12 times greater resources which transmit data, usually wirelessly, for processing into than today, at a similar cost. Business leaders must identify early on actionable information. how massive enhancements in information technology capability will With an ability to collect prodigious volumes of data, slice and dice create opportunities. it with business analytics software, all delivered from the cloud using Radically new innovative business models will be made possible. supercomputing resources paid for with a credit card, businesses have Business model innovation is seen as a primary source of innovation, acan opportunity to invent new ways of doing business and create value cording to a majority of respondents to IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Survey. for their customers.

Existing and rising competitors will disrupt current business models Any business which doesn’t want to be caught in the headlights with newly enabled information technology. Disruptive innovation may needs to be continually aware of new and emerging IT capabilities, be described as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, unthreatening until it is too test and experiment with newly-enabled business models and be bold late. in its execution.

How should a business respond? One approach is to constantly Source: Dr Michael Snowden, CEO, OneNet.

S

avvy executives see cloud computing as an opportunity to finetune costs, strengthen capability and lift innovation. They recognise a way to build a more responsive IT department and, ultimately, a better organisation. It’s another tool in their strategic toolkit.

In technology terms, cloud computing uses the internet – the cloud – to deliver IT capability, whether it be for

CRM applications, data storage, productivity tools or enhanced business collaboration.

And while much conversation focuses around the technology, it is sometimes hard to appreciate the business potential the cloud opens up.

“It’s really about a change in business models rather than technology models,” says Ben Kepes, managing director of Diversity, a consultancy specialising in

cloud computing, collaboration and business strategy.

“Right now cloud is a massive buzzword… It’s for everyone but not for everything. Pretty much every organisation is going to have some use for cloud but it’s an incremental process.”

To Phil Sheehan, an IBM cloud specialist with 36 years’ experience in the New Zealand IT industry, cloud is best seen as a new consumption and delivery model.

AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 45

IT

For those looking for business transformation, it allows businesses to scale up operations easily and enables faster time to market. It can be used to store information about user preferences, enabling the product or service to be customised.

Sheehan says people are experiencing Facebook, Skype and Google Mail at home and now expect the same type of connectedness at work. “[With cloud], we’re seeing social collaboration but in a business sense. We can have instant messaging at an enterprise grade quality, do Facebook-style interactions with our colleagues, and collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. The people I’m collaborating with can be on the other side of the world – it really doesn’t matter.

“That’s the sort of thing that companies need to be thinking about. What can cloud computing do to help drive their business forward?”

According to Kepes, one of the

cloud’s core benefits is how it enables companies to initiate proof-of-concept style projects.

“In the old days if you wanted to set up a social media application you’d have to put in a requisition for servers and

Industry observers say New Zealand is two or three years behind the US in terms of uptake of the cloud but there’s a sense we’re accelerating and it will take less than three years for us to catch up.

“We do need to move fast on this,”

People are experiencing Facebook, Skype and Google Mail at home and now expect the same type of connectedness at work. development time before you could even start building an application.

“With the cloud it’s simple: just set up with a provider. If an initiative is successful, you can scale up rapidly.

The cloud reduces the barriers to entry for projects which formerly might have been marginal.”

says Kepes. “The great thing is we can utilise the lessons and the mistakes of those in early-adopter countries to make the right decisions.”

IBM’s CIO Index has seen the number of CIOs planning to implement cloud computing in the next five years jump from 39 percent in 2009 to over 60

Big bang for smaller bucks The cloud is all about providing services. It enables organisations to swap part of their IT department for a SLA (Service Level Agreement).

These services offered fall into three general tiers: Software as a Service (SaaS).This is the top of the pyramid and, as some would argue, the whole point of the cloud. Perhaps the best examples of this are Salesforce, Office365 and Google Desktop. You are using an application housed out there on someone else’s servers.

This particularly suits applications that are fairly generic with just a few customisations required for each customer. Applications include CRM, email, intranets, accounting and enterprise management.

Platform as a Service (PaaS). PaaS is the black box that developers use as a base for their applications. These applications can then go on to be offered as SaaS. So it’s no real surprise that the big SaaS players just happen to have a PaaS offering as well. APIs (Application Programming Interface) rule here, they are the bits of code developers (and in some cases almost anyone) talk to in order to put data in and get a result. It may be as simple as putting in a debtor’s account number and getting the average days they take to pay, current balance and credit status. Or it could be a matter of putting a Google map on your website. Some of the best-known providers are Facebook, Google App engine, NettApp and Salesforce/Force.com.

46 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This is the layer underpinning the whole cloud. It is the storage, the computing resources and the network connections. Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure are among the best known: but there are plenty of local examples including Webdrive and Maxnet. It is your data centre but without the walls or scalability problems.

The most important attributes of the cloud that really make it something more than just outsourcing your data centre are: • The ability to scale up or down to demand. This hopefully means that you pay for what you use and that when use ramps up, so do resources available to deal with it (and I daresay the bill). This is really turning computing into just another utility.

• Self-service provisioning. Facebook and Google Mail are good examples. Users can set themselves up and have the ability to gracefully stop using the service when they choose.

• APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

• The charging model, a pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-use type model.

The cloud gives small businesses access to software that used to be available solely to big business or at least big wallets. Big businesses get to eliminate some of their scaling problems and offload some of the boring generic process away from the IT department.

Source: Stephen Taylor, director of strategic IT solutions company SkyOps.

IT

percent last year; a significant shift in a very short space of time.

Common misconceptions about cloud computing abound: notably that it’s cheap, easy to set up and manage, always works, will put IT professionals out of a job and, in particular, that security is a major headache.

“People are really worried about security and where their data is going to be stored,” says Kepes.

“However, all but the biggest organisations in New Zealand are going to have poorer security than the large cloud vendors.”

Data sovereignty is also problematic. The IRD currently requires that New Zealand tax data remains within this country. However, IRD recognises that in this case technology has moved faster than the law and is reviewing the situation.

With cloud computing, data may be physically hosted on a server in Singapore or the US, but going to cloud does not necessarily mean going offshore.

IBM has invested around $80 million establishing a new data centre in Auckland.

Kepes believes cloud computing enables an IT department to become a real strategic partner of the business.

“Rather than simply a cost centre, IT can become a value-adding department that is actively involved in delivering solutions that drive benefits,” he says.

“As with any major technology shift, however, this change also introduces challenges that need to be proactively managed.

“The key thing is finding people who understand the technology landscape but are business-focused, which is

Who We Are

challenging in a small market like New Zealand. If I were to give any advice around cloud, it’s not around adoption or where you want to go or what products you want to use.

“It’s around making sure that you’ve got a team on board that can both understand the technology landscape and also be strategically aware. It’s rare to have that mix of skills and abilities.

“A lot of the issues around cloud computing come back to education.

So it’s simply a matter of an organisation having enough knowledge so they can ask the right questions and make informed decisions. Use the resources out there – many of them are free – and get an impartial idea of what it all means. Then just try some stuff out.

“Don’t be scared. This isn’t about technology. This is about allowing you to deliver on what your managers, board or CEO are demanding; which is increased agility and reduced cost.” M Vivienne McLean is a freelance business writer.

What We Do

Target Market

• NZ market leader in cloud computing

• Run your software on our servers

• 1 to 5,000 user firms wanting to:

• Established for 29 years

• Deliver your software to your users

• Lower IT costs

www.OneNet.co.nz Work with a OneNet Business Partner by contacting

• Culture of innovation

• Use enterprise-class computing

• Gain stronger IT security

Steve Victor, Business Partner Manager on (09) 376 7643 or steve.victor@OneNet.co.nz

• Reputation for excellence

• Simple per user, predictable fee

• Build an innovative future

Contact OneNet directly on 0800 66 36 38

AUGUST 2012 management.co.nz | 47

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EXECS ON THE MOVE

Colmar Brunton has promoted Jacqueline Ireland to chief executive officer, replacing Harry Papafloratos, who passed away earlier this year.

Ireland was previously managing director of Colmar Brunton Auckland.

As a result of the change, executive director Chris Vaughan will broaden his role to management of the Auckland quantitative team and driving innovation.

recently leading the master plan for the redevelopment of Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum.

The International Federation of Health Plans (iFHP), the London-based global network of health insurance chief executives, has appointed Dr Ian McPherson, group chief executive officer of Southern Cross Healthcare Group as a joint vice president.

The Institute of Directors in New Zealand (IoD) has appointed Diana Price as external relations manager.

She joins from Todd Energy where she spent a year covering maternity leave as communications manager. Prior to that she was communications and external affairs manager for BP New Zealand.

Studio Alexander has appointed David Hebblethwaite to the new position of general manager.

He joins the design agency from Auckland Museum where he was artistic director, most

Angela Neighbours, a director of Australasian executive coaching company ilume International, has been appointed to the faculty of the London-based Global Master Coach Academy. A global coach trainer of the International Coaching Community, Neighbours is also an international speaker on executive development and leadership.

Business stalwart John Shewan will help the next generation of students prepare for life in the fast lane by taking up the position of adjunct professor of accounting at Victoria Business School. The retiring chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers New Zealand, Shewan currently chairs the Victoria Business School Advisory Board, sits on the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research (CAGTR) Advisory Board, and was a member of the Victoria University of Wellington Tax Working Group.

Rhema Broadcasting Group has announced the appointment of Mike Brewer as the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next CEO, effective December. General manager of Taranaki Newspapers, a division of Fairfax Media, for the last nine years, Brewer previously spent 10 years with Radioworks, starting in sales and culminating in sales and

general management. He has also worked overseas in Australia and the UK in the telecommunications and security industries.

The New Zealand Drug Detection Agency (NZDDA) has appointed Chris Hilson as chief executive officer, replacing Kirk Hardy who is now Global CEO for IDDA (the international side of the business).

Hilson was previously national sales manager for Wattyl/Valspar (NZ).

Selina Deadman is the newly appointed national sales manager, responsible for DHL Express in New Zealand. In a career with DHL spanning 18 years, Deadman has spent the last seven based in the US as senior director, global financial & professional services Americas.

Waitangi National Trust has appointed Greg McManus as its new CEO. Most recently director of the Rotorua Museum of Art and History, McManus comes to the position with an impressive mix of commercialism, entrepreneurship, marketing, museology and cultural skills.

Media intelligence company Sentia Media, formerly the Media Monitors group, has welcomed David Schnellenberg as its new general manager in New Zealand.

Most recently external communications manager for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Schnellenberg has also held senior roles with Meridian Energy and Maxim Group.

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EXECUTIVE HEALTH PETER TYNAN

Open all hours

I

t wasn’t too long ago that being ‘on call’ was just for medical professionals. Fast forward 20 years and senior employees in a range of industries and roles are expected to be available to their employer at all times of the day and night.

In a survey released by recruitment firm Ranstad in March, three out of 10 New Zealand employees said their employer expected them to be available 24/7.

Where we were once prepared to wait days for a document to be posted, emails are now expected to be replied to within hours – if not minutes. This ‘speeding up’ is also changing business culture. Thirtyone percent of those in the Ranstad survey were not bothered by people answering calls or emails during business meetings, while 39 percent feel they ‘fall short’ if unable to respond immediately.

Another change in the working landscape is the sheer volume of information we are expected to process.

Where once information was relayed through a phone or face-to-face conversation, we now have endless email trails, Twitter tweets, Facebook comments and blogs.

These influences are behind an emerging trend of ‘work-life blend’. This is a new approach to lifestyle management in which the boundaries between work and private life are blurred.

This trend signals something of a 180-degree turn from the once holy grail of ‘work-life balance’. According

to the Department of Labour, work-life balance is about effectively managing the juggling act between paid work and other activities that are important to us – including spending time with friends and family, taking part in sport and recreation, volunteering or undertaking further study.

There’s a school of thought that keeping up this juggling act – and finding blocks of time for all these activities – is unrealistic, and in itself a source of frustration and stress that can impact our health.

For many of us, blending is a reality.

The Ranstad survey found 44 percent of employees surveyed handled private matters at work and 56 percent handled work-related matters at home. Whether the employees were freely doing so in agreement with their employer, and making a conscious choice to let work and life blend, was not explored.

Work-life blend may not be for everyone. How well we cope mentally with this new approach may depend somewhat on our comfort with technology and ability to quickly process information.

Recent research commissioned by the British Psychological Society found that the stress levels of 100 professionals increased based on the number of times they checked their texts and email.

According to BusinessWeek, work-life

blending is more likely to be favoured by Generation Y who, having grown up with technology, have developed an in-built ability to manage the fast and endless flow of information.

Despite this, there is also an emerging resistance to ‘on-call’ expectations. Last December, the Brazilian government passed legislation enabling workers to request overtime for work emails answered out of hours. In the same month, German car giant Volkswagen formed an agreement with workers to switch off Blackberry work emails after hours.

Rather than let digital technology rule your roost, try these strategies: • Set expectations around your responsiveness and availability with your employer, colleagues and employees.

Let them know the rules – eg, I won’t be looking at emails during the weekends or after 6pm at night.

• Create time during the day when you ignore phone calls and email, and turn off the mobile or smart device for an hour. Switch off during meetings and check messages at defined intervals.

• Try an email, Twitter or Facebook ‘free’ day – you’ll be amazed at the results.

• Prioritise. Unless you’re a doctor on call, many things truly can wait until the morning. 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

50 | management.co.nz | AUGUST 2012

AUGUST 2012 VOL 07 NUMBER 04

ISSN 1177-5815

ON MANAGEMENT

NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT IN ACTION

NZIM mentoring expands ANNOUNCING N

ZIM is excited to be expanding its mentoring programme to Auckland. This highly successful one-year programme has been operating in Wellington since 2003, helping hundreds of managers identify and achieve their career goals.

Mentoring (not to be confused with counselling or coaching) helps individuals grow both personally and professionally by tapping into the knowledge and insights of their mentor’s experience. NZIM mentoring manager David Brown says demand for the Institute’s mentoring service from middle and senior managers has grown dramatically over the past year.

“People are working long hours, under immense pressure and they want somebody they can bounce ideas off – how can I do it better and how can I get a better work-life balance?

Mentors help by acting as a sounding board, providing encouragement, listening with Kate Calvert. empathy, sharing experiences and generally helping the protégé develop greater insight. This includes feedback on managerial skills and guidance on performance related issues, and – increasingly – career development advice.

“When we first started, a lot of protégés were managers who wanted to manage their current areas better and more productively. Now about 80% of them are talking career – where do I want to be in three years, what are the options, how do I get there?”

The secret to the NZIM programme’s success is the care taken in matching the protégé to exactly the right mentor, starting with a searching interview establishing exactly what the protégé wants to achieve and building a profile of the appropriate mentor.

“When you match two people together you can look at their achievements, and academic and work records, but you never know how their personalities will mix, so that’s why we have what we call the ‘no obligations’ meeting between protégé and mentor. We’re dealing with people’s lives and careers so we don’t rush it, we do it once and do it right and that’s why we have such a good record,” says Brown.

Every protégé works with their mentor to make up a mentoring plan. Protégé and mentor review progress at six months and complete an evaluation and feedback process at 12

months, when the formal mentoring relationship concludes. All proceedings between protégé and mentor are completely confidential.

“Mentoring works well when both parties have clear roles and expectations, trust is high, mentoring meetings are planned by both parties, the protégé does most of the work – and also most of the talking!” David Brown says.

One protégé interviewed for this article was encouraged into the programme by a senior manager, who recognised she needed someone in addition to her manager with whom she could debate her sometimes challenging views.

“He thought a mentor would be good for me and he’s been right. However, first I had to become very clear about what I wanted out of it. For the first time in my life I had to do a long-range personal development plan. It’s surprising how useful that has been.

“From the time we were matched the process has been brilliant. I wanted seniority, life experience and an interest in strategy and organisational performance systems in my mentor. David recommended someone who also had a science background, like me, so we have a common language of evidence-based decision making.

“It’s been marvellous. He’s helped me reorient my thinking by focusing on what is best for my organisation. The sessions are a lot of work mentally and you’ve got to invest your time and attention but it’s repaid immediately. I’m getting the benefit of all his learning, and it’s changing the way I work. It’s a bit like being fed royal jelly – my learning is being given a turbo-boost!”

Kate Calvert brings a dual perspective, having become a mentor after her experience as a protégé.

“In 2006 I had been promoted into a senior general management role and thought it would be useful to have a mentor to help make the transition. I really wanted someone who’d been there, done that – probably a CEO – because I wanted to be clear on the expectations on general managers from a CEO perspective.

“I was more than happy with the mentor David matched me with. One of my biggest challenges – and a key goal – was work-life balance, because I tend to get really involved in what I do and like to perform well. During my mentoring relationship one of my managers left

Four Months Free Membership for all new NZIM course participants!

D

id you know NZIM joins together more than 2000 professionals and over 1500 companies around New Zealand? We’d like all NZIM course participants to experience the benefits of being a NZIM member so we’re offering you four months membership for FREE! What you will get: • One complimentary issue of NZ Management magazine • A one-on-one meeting with a NZIM consultant • One complimentary lunchtime seminar event & member pricing for all other networking events • Member pricing for all courses during the duration of your four-month membership To experience the benefits of joining the NZIM network, just ask about your free four months trial membership when you register for your course.

and I had to do their role plus my own. That was hugely challenging, so for a couple of months I never met with my mentor.

“When I did, and explained why, he pulled me up, but in a good way. He said ‘what happened to that work-life goal – you haven’t been here for two months – what do you think you’re doing?’ He was absolutely right and it was so good to have someone providing an external, objective perspective. Every session started with the mentor asking what’s been happening, so you get a chance to talk, and then it’s about where this fits in terms of your goals, and what you could have done or can do.

“Both parties have to be committed and you’ve got to put effort in – it’s not coffee and a chat. My mentor recommended me as a mentor and I wanted to do it because I’d had such a positive experience, and to give something back,” says Calvert.

Proof of the successful matching process is the high percentage of protégés and mentors who stay in touch long after the formal programme concludes.

NZIM also helps companies and organisations set up internal mentoring programmes, including assistance with matching, mentor workshops, protégé briefing and advice around administration, including evaluations and the code of ethics.

Focus on Management

NZIM AAMO Asian Management Challenge N

ZIM is pleased to announce that there are two teams representing New Zealand in this year’s AAMO Asian Management Challenge. NZIM is a member of the Asian Association Management Organisation (AAMO) and we are pleased that two New Zealand teams will be joining in on the largest online management game in the world. The AAMO Asian Management Challenge has been running for almost 20 years and teams from 18 different countries including India, Nepal and Australia will be challenged on their real world business acumen.

How the game works: Each game round requires five financial quarters of decisions and the team that has achieved the highest share price wins.

Decisions surrounding marketing, finance, production and human resources are entered online according to the game calendar schedule.

At the end of each financial quarter the team receives a management report from the game administrator detailing the latest economic consequences and company’s performance after such decisions.

Once each team has finished their five financial quarters a winner will be announced with the overall team receiving a sponsored free trip to Macau to join other young managers from countries around the world to visit worldleading companies such as Amway and Ryobi.

Congratulations to our two teams, Auckland Council and the group of Wellington managers, and good luck on your business quest.

NZIM/Eagle Technology

Young Executive of the Year N ow in its 17th year, the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award was established by NZIM and NZ Management magazine to recognise outstanding individuals who are prepared to go beyond perceived limitations and strive for personal and organisational excellence.

NZIM was overwhelmed by the calibre of applicants for this year’s award and we wish to congratulate all our applicants and acknowledge the brilliant work they are doing in their organisations around New Zealand.

This year’s winners in the Northern and Central regions are: Northern Region NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year winner: Lauren Voyce, Head of HR and Talent, McDonald’s Restaurant.

Since joining McDonald’s Lauren has overseen a complete overhaul of all HR and talent processes, providing more rigour and process in performance management and personal development. The significant improvement in the people part of the business saw McDonald’s Restaurant recognised, for the first time, as Retail Employer of the Year (large employer) for 2011. The improvement has also, without doubt, contributed to the significant improvement Lauren Voyce. in McDonald’s customer satisfaction scores and ultimately broader business results.

Thank you to our Northern region judges: Peter Garnett, Pamela Deal and Kieran Bird.

Central Region NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year winner: Glenys Powell, General Manager – Sales and Marketing, Medical Assurance Society (MAS) Glenys joined MAS in 2009 and quickly made a significant impact including year on year double digit growth in three out of four of the company’s core businesses, the highest level of new customer satisfaction for a decade, and very effective control of costs leading to some material savings.

Glenys leads a team of 10 direct reports and 64 indirect reports, she undertakes her regular one-on-ones where she provides feedback on objectives as well as coaching around areas of strength and improvement. As a result staff members have a clear understanding of her expectations and obtain regular feedback and coaching on their performance. Overall Glenys has made an enormous contribution in the short amount of time that she has been at MAS. Thank you to the Central region judges: Theresa Gattung, David Brown and Shaun Sheldrake.

Glenys Powell.

KiwiRail developing managers

to deliver Turn Around Plan K

iwiRail has engaged NZIM to help develop management capability, equipping managers with the tools and skills needed to achieve the goals outlined in the KiwiRail Turn Around Plan (TAP). TAP aims to see the rail freight business become sustainable within a decade by getting it to a point where it funds its costs solely from customer revenue.

The first round of NZIM workshops focussed on quality performance conversations and objective setting. The sessions on objective setting have helped managers to break down the TAP and create relevant goals for each

Focus on Management

member of their team.

“The demands of our Turn Around Plan require all managers in our organisation to be well schooled in current positive leadership practices.

The series of HR focussed modules we’re rolling out give our managers the tools of the trade to lead their teams through this challenging time,” says Tania Hawkins, KiwiRail organisational development and training manager.

Feedback from participants included the comments, ‘exactly the communication and tools I was looking for’ and ‘timely techniques that we can use to deal with current situations’.

NZIM

NZIM GRADUATES –

AUCKLAND AND WELLINGTON

C

ongratulations to all of NZIM’s midyear graduates. Time seems to be moving faster than ever and it’s important to stop and celebrate the amazing accomplishments of those that have spent many hours completing assessments, researching and learning from group classroom time with expert facilitators.

NZIM would like to congratulate our Auckland graduates • NZIM Diploma in Frontline Management Level 5, National Certificate in Business Level

4: Louise Elia, Karen Nicholls, Linda Norris and Warren Mann.

• NZIM Diploma in Management Advanced Level 6: Helenmary Walker, Patrick Long, Paula Seymour, Erehi Tua, Sajeewa Dayaratne, Tania Garrett, Mark Weaver.

• National Certificate in Adult Education and Training Level 4: Stacey Coulthard, Justine Harvie.

• NZIM Diploma in Project Management Level 5: Denize Hooten, Shannon Thomas, Cathy Lawson, Peter Cunningham.

Graduates Cathy Lawson, Shannon Thomas, Denize Hooten and Peter Cunningham who completed the NZIM Diploma in Project Management.

• NZIM Diploma in Supply Chain Management Level 6: Manuel Efaraimo, Dean Hodgson, Leandra Murray.

• NZIM Diploma in Management Advanced in Engineering and Construction Level 6: Rosy Kurera. … and our Wellington graduates: • NZIM Diploma in Frontline Management Level 5, National Certificate in Business Level 4: Louise Ioane, Chris Osborne, Stephen Grant, Tracey Hiroa.

• NZIM Diploma in Project Management Level 5: Ian Hawij, Michael Smith, Kevin Hayton, Marie Lockwood, Graham Thomas.

• National Certificate in Adult Education and Training Level 4: Libby Norriss, Judith Grootjins, Kristin Murray.

• NZIM Certificate in Management: Fleur Taylor.

If you are interested in furthering your career opportunities through practical study please contact us at 0800 800 NZIM or www.nzim.

Are you a Wellington graduates Chris Osbourne, Louise Ioane and Steve Grant, who completed the NZIM Diploma in Frontline Management Level 5, and the National Certificate in Business Level 4.

leader on the land?

L

NZIM RESIDENTIAL OSH DIPLOMA

TAKES OFF IN WELLINGTON

andcorp and the New Zealand Institute of Management invite you to be part of the 2012 Agricultural Leadership Programme (ALP).

ALP is a programme specifically designed to prepare and develop future leaders of New Zealand’s vibrant agricultural sector.

This 7-day residential programme will be held at Margrain Vineyard in Martinborough in November 2012.

A $5000 NZIM scholarship will be awarded during the course.

To find out more and to book your place, call 0800 800 NZIM.

n an action-packed, two-week residential programme at the Mercure Hotel in Wellington, NZIM once again successfully delivered the NZIM Diploma in Health and Safety Management to a motivated group of aspiring OSH leaders.

The programme, unique in New Zealand due to the high intensity of its delivery and multitude of health and safety presenters, ran from June 17-30 led by international OSH expert, Gavin Johnson and a team of local subject matter experts and commercial industry managers. Sixteen participants were put through their paces in the interactive and challenging format, including site visits, a live audit and completing their assessments at night after attending 14 full days of training.

Not for the uncommitted, the programme drew participants from a wide variety of industry sectors and organisations including NZ Fire Service, SCIRT, Fulton Hogan, Transpower and Ballance Agri-Nutrients. The goal for these individuals and that of NZIM is to build the management capability of future leaders in this specific field of occupational safety and health as it plays such a vital operational and compliance role in all New Zealand businesses. NZIM is committed to running this programme again in 2013 but early registration is recommended as interest in the course is already high.

For more information, contact Tait Grindley on 0800 800 NZIM.

Photo: thinkstockphotos.com

I

Focus on Management

From sunshine

to snowmen C

hristchurch was a winter wonderland for the opening of the Advanced Management Programme on Sunday June 10. CEO NZIM Southern, Joseph Thomas and board member James Jorgensen welcomed Professor Ron Fry and 12 participants from across New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. This programme has a long history, and Professor Fry has led the opening of this programme for 30 years, building a strong national and international reputation for this high-quality executive leadership programme.

Telikom PNG has sent staff in middle and upper management positions on this programme for the last three years. The weather offered a striking contrast for five participants from Papua New Guinea, as they travelled via Perth to Christchurch, from sunshine to snowmen, in a matter of hours.

It was a busy time at the programme venue – the Copthorne Commodore Hotel – as the Irish rugby team was also in town. Participants had an opportunity to meet the team, and the hotel organised tickets, meals and transport to the game on Saturday night.

Apart from this rich cultural experience, why travel so far for a professional development programme? I joined an activity designed to make us really think about work, quality, cooperation and competition and followed this with a chat with the staff from Telikom.

Collectively they agreed the greatest value they had gained from the course was the human element. They had been challenged to look at their work differently and increased their awareness of strategies to maximise engagement for the people they are working with. This was a total immersion experience that removed them from their day-to-day, task-focussed work and provided an opportunity for reflection, so they would return refreshed and ready for new actions at home.

– Therese La Porte

L-R: Back row – Gordon Maitava, John Avira; front row – Moses Tedumo, Elizabeth Boyd and Xavier Victor.

Focus on Management

INTRODUCING ROGER GABITES W e are delighted that Roger has joined the NZIM Southern team as a learning and development consultant. Roger has an extensive background in executive management from both sales and marketing and operational perspectives. He brings a rich understanding of the leadership and capability needs of the agricultural, construction and DIY, building and hardware industries.

In addition he has had a long standing association with NZIM, joining in 1982 when as a young manager he completed the Certificate of Supervisory Management.

Roger’s initial contact with NZIM sparked a passion for learning and an interest in the development of others, which he has managed alongside his own career. As part of his own professional development he also attended the NZIM Southern ESCO – Personal Discovery course. This programme challenges participants and encourages personal and professional growth. Roger went on to become a member of the faculty contributing as facilitator, presenter and course director. In all he completed 23 runs of the programme, a commitment which he undertook in his free time, annual leave and whenever he could fit it in. This interest spurred him to gain the Certificate and Diploma in Adult Teaching and Learning.

“All of these learning experiences are an opportunity to spring clean the mind, clear

out that ‘stinking thinking’ that holds us back and can limit our experiences. It is all about transforming learning and transforming lives,” says Roger.

His is a great example of the portfolio career, bringing business, academic and practical experience to the role of learning and development consultant, enabling him to balance the needs of industry with the needs of professional development and building capability. Roger can be emailed at roger@nzimsouthern.co.nz or contacted by phone on 029-770 9670.

Business Excellence

on the West Coast

N

ZIM Southern was proud to be a Gold Sponsor of the recent West Coast Leading Light Business Excellence Awards. Now in its second year, this Development West Coast initiative recognises successful West Coast businesses and the valuable contribution they make to the local and national economy.

Attended by over 200 guests, and with 21 finalists across seven categories, the awards ceremony was held at Shantytown on the West Coast.

We pay special tribute to Jeff Evans Plumbers, winner of the Service Award sponsored by NZIM Southern. We were also honoured to present a $5000 training voucher to Westland Milk Products as the overall winner of the supreme Greymouth Star Super Nova Award.

West Coast businesses are committed to enhancing the capability of their leaders and managers and NZIM Southern is proud to be a part of this ongoing process of development and capability building. We look forward to continuing this valued relationship with West Coast businesses and communities, providing solutions that meet local needs and contributing toward long-term economic development on the Coast. Congratulations to Development West Coast and the West Coast community on an excellent initiative and a very successful awards ceremony.

Jeff Evans, left, receives the Leading Light Service Award from NZIM Southern CEO, Joseph Thomas.

L-R: Brett Kokshoorn (Greymouth Star), Rod Quin, Matt O’Regan and Leo McIntyre (Westland Milk Products – winner of the Super Nova Award) and Joseph Thomas (NZIM Southern CEO).

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

AUGUST

AUGUST

Start National Certificate in Business, L3 Start National Certificate in Project Management, L4 Start NZIM Diploma in Project Management, L5 Start NZIM Diploma in Management Advanced, L6 6 Emotional Intelligence 7 Introduction to Social Media Marketing with Linda Coles 8-10 Building Effective Teams (Team Leader 2) 9-10 Key Account Management 9-10 Dealing with Difficult Behaviours 13-15 Accounting for Non-Accountants 16 Risk Management (DFM) 16-17 Needs Analysis & Programme Design 17 Manage an Operational Plan (DFM) 20-21 Coaching and Mentoring 21 Effective Time Management 22-24 Project Management Fundamentals 23 LinkedIn: Growing Business Connections with Linda Coles 23-24 Change Management (DMA) 27-29 Advanced Training and Facilitation Skills (Part 1) 28 Facebook for Business with Linda Coles 28-29 Conflict Resolution Strategies 30-31 Sales Management SEPTEMBER Start National Certificate in Business, L3 Start National Certificate in Adult Education and Training, L4 3-4 Advanced Training and Facilitation Skills (Part 2) 3-5 Introduction to Management 6-7 Recruitment Frameworks for Success (HR1) 7 Speed and Power Reading 10-12 Professional Administrator Skills 10-12 Strategic Management (DMA) 12-14 Operational Management (Team Leader 3) 13-14 Developing Influencing and Motivating Skills 17-18 Train the Trainer 17-18 Project Risk Management 19-20 Human Resource Management (HR4) 20 Social Media: Mastering the Big 4 with Linda Coles 21 Introduction to Microsoft Project 24-25 Applied Management (DMA) 24-25 Train the Trainer 27 Developing a Workplace Learning Environment (DFM)

OCTOBER

Start National Certificate in Business, L3 Start National Certificate in Business, L4 Start NZIM Diploma in Frontline Management, L5 Start NZIM Diploma in Supply Chain Management, L6

1 Diploma in Management Advanced Presentation Day 1 TetraMap: The Nature of Behaviour 2-3 Dealing with Difficult Behaviours 6 Managing Your Time 6-7 Finance for Non-Financial Managers 7 Diploma in Project Management starts 9-10 Negotiation Skills 13-14 Strategic Thinking Tools 15 Peer to Peer Mentoring Skills 16 Manage Quality Customer Service (DFM Modular) 20-21 Strategic Management (DMA) 22-24 Four Quadrant Leadership 23-24 Interpersonal Communication Skills 27 Effective Business Writing 28 Training Needs Analysis (NCAET Paper) 29 Programme Design (NCAET Paper)

SEPTEMBER 10-12 12-13 13 14 17 17 18 19 19-21 20-22 24-25 25 26-28 27-28

Project Management Sales Management Operational Management (DMA) What part of me donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you get? Myers Briggs Workshop Project Risk Management Manage People Performance (DFM Modular) Manage Effective Workplace Relationships (DFM Modular) Manage Projects (DFM Modular) Leadership, Motivation and Team Building Introduction to Management Conflict Resolution Train the Trainer (NCAET Paper) starts Accounting for Non Accountants Managing Small Projects (Cert in Management)

OCTOBER

1-2 Coaching & Mentoring Skills for Managers 1-2 Think on Your FeetÂŽ 3-5 Team Leader Skills-Essential Skills (Cert in Business) 8 Managing Your Time 11 Customer Service Skills 15 Memory and Mind Mapping 16 Social Media: Big 4 Overview 16-17 Building a Business Case 18 Ensure Team Effectiveness (DFM Modular) 18-19 Change Management (DMA) 23 Business Finance (DMA) 23-24 Developing Influencing and Motivation Skills 29-30 Presentation Skills 29-30 Strategic Management (DMA) 31 Emotional Intelligence

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

AUGUST 6 6 7 8 10 13-14 16 17 17 21-22 21-22 22-24 28 29

Business Ethics C Professional Reception Skills I Effective Meeting Management I Art of Minute Taking I Essential Skills for the Administrator I Introduction to Performance Management C Courageous Conversations I Mentoring in the Workplace C Time and Self Management I How to Manage & Lead Successfully Q Practical Project Management C Four Quadrant Leadership C Emotional Intelligence D Managing Stress D

SEPTEMBER

Persuasive Business Report Writing C Essential Selling Skills D Change Management I Effective Use of Time C Effective Business Writing D Assertive Behaviour Strategies C Team Leader- The Essential Skills D Managing the Performance of Your Staff D 7 Essential People & Communication Skills D 10-12 Team Leader: Understanding NZ Employment Law C 11 Governance in Practice I 12-13 Emotional Intelligence C 17-18 Organisational Strategy and Development C 17-18 Strategic Management I 18-20 Team Leader: The Essential Skills C 19-20 Accounting for Non Accountants Stage 1 D 19-20 Introduction to Marketing C 22-29 ESCO Personal Discovery C 24-25 Workplace Law C 25 Professional Reception Skills Q 26 The Art of Minute Taking Q OCTOBER 1-2 Developing Effective Teams C 1-3 ABC of Win Win Relationships C 4-5 HR for Non HR People C 15-17 Four Quadrant Leadership C 17 Employee Engagement D 18-19 Accounting for Non Accountants Stage 1 C 19 Courageous Conversations Q 24-26 Team Leader: Building Effective Teams C 25-26 Building Relationship Versatility I 25-26 Presentation Skills C 27-3/11 Excellence in Management C 29 Problem Solving and Decision Making C 29 Process Mapping & Continuous Improvement I 30 Project Management I 3 3-4 3-4 4 5 5-6 5-7 6

Focus on Management

INSPIRING MANAGERS Our aim is to build management capability through membership, development and research.

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.

NZIM Inc CEO: Kevin Gaunt FNZIM, FAIM Email kevin_gaunt@nzimnorthern.co.nz Auckland Offices Contact: Tait Grindley PO Box 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, 0800 800 NZIM Email enquiries@nzimnorthern.co.nz Website www.nzim.co.nz Wellington Offices Contact: Shaun Sheldrake PO Box 11781, Wellington 6142 Ph 0-4-495 8300, 0800 800 NZIM Email enquiries@nzimcentral.co.nz Website www.nzim.co.nz NZIM Southern Regional Director: Michael Weusten FNZIM 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

MEMBER COMMENT:

Dan Coward Currently on secondment from the NZ Fire Service to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority as senior advisor, government service, Dan Coward was the Southern regional winner of the Young Executive of the Year Award in 2009, and is deputy chair of the National Board of NZIM.

I

’ve been with the Fire Service now for 16 years and, since my first management appointment in 2005, have had a variety of roles and functions around New Zealand, from logistics and project management, to Christchurch area commander, the strategic redevelopment directorship and a variety of senior leadership and management roles.

That diversity probably helped me transfer those skills into a totally different work environment with CERA, the State Services Commission, and the Christchurch Innovations Project, which is about identifying and evaluating innovations across the public sector. To go from the Fire Service to being part of this project team is a unique opportunity. Not many cities get to redesign and redevelop not only their layout and their infrastructure but also the flow of services and safety of their city.

I’m learning a whole range of new skill sets, working within the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) around the government project and the blueprint design.

There are relevant principles and philosophies from the Fire Service role – about partnerships, communication and engagement and the fundamentals and principles around management and leadership – it’s just that they’re being applied in a completely different environment and role from where I gained them.

I joined the NZ Fire Service as a recruit – a fire fighter – in 1996, and progressed through the ranks through its exams and time served. It was about learning the trade, and seizing opportunities as they came along, and also ensuring that I leveraged off the fundamental skill sets that tertiary study provided.

Some of it has been making the right decisions around the opportunities that came along, plus a lot of discipline and application to both learning and listening (which I think is one of the biggest things – the ability to listen and then learn from that) and also being willing to be flexible in terms of moving around the organisation and the country. One of the key things has been that when opportunities have come up I have been prepared and able to consider whether this is the next big step – it’s about being prepared and not chancing it.

I came across NZIM in 2005-2006. Part of my personal development plan was having some

professional membership, and having access to NZIM’s knowledge and their courses and also the Young Professionals group in Wellington and networking, all enabled me to widen my knowledge of different work environments and different professions. Maintaining some of the relationships from those years is probably what’s driven me to be on the national board today.

I’ve found it really advantageous in terms of the knowledge, the contacts and the relationships that have come out of NZIM. The Southern Young Executive of the Year Award and the NZIM Foundation scholarship I won in 2009 – these are things that I’ve received from NZIM – and being on the board is about giving back to both the organisation and to the wider membership.

NZIM is a professional network that opens up insights into so many organisations and so many management and business functions. It enables people to really grasp the knowledge component – that’s the huge part – and as the generations change it’s being able to access a source of that information, to have a reference point and to be able to apply the information in your own work environment. That’s crucial for the long term – growth for our economy will come from having the right businesses and the right knowledge and that comes from being aligned to a professional network.

Communications and engagement are really critical.

International studies show that both during and post disaster the need for communication and information is greater than at any other time but it’s about how we manage that flow and how we prepare for the transition phase where we can’t be the crutch for everybody. There has to be some resilience that comes back into the community, and one of the principal bases for that is how we communicate information.

I think another critical factor in making decisions is being strategic enough to put the different lenses on – have a look at your decision and its impact and make sure that it is as informed and as robust as you can make it. It’s those principles and fundamental beliefs – the foundations of your leadership style – that enable you to make critical decisions in a timely manner in disaster situations.

Managing expectations is also critical. We’re working to really tight timeframes that impact not just on the people of Christchurch but also on New Zealand Inc in terms of investment and growth. You’re constantly mindful that you’ve got the people part, that’s really critical, especially with a vulnerable community, but we also have a responsibility at another level, in that the decisions we make are also fundamentally and directly linked to our national economy and growth.

NZIM can play an important role for the young executives who are sitting there thinking, ‘what next’? They have that opportunity to get engaged with a professional membership base that is so diverse, it has a wealth of knowledge that is just sitting there ready to be shared with people, it has the ability to share short, sharp information bites through the courses that can keep you current, keep you challenged and continually make you think about the different opportunities that exist. If I had any advice for aspiring managers it would be; be true to your values, have a goal and seize the opportunities!

Anne Salmond at

The Cathedral The Inaugural reeves lecture Holy Trinity Cathedral, 2012 Dame Anne Salmond, New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foremost historian and anthropologist, will give the inaugural Bishop Sir Paul Reeves Memorial Lecture on the dramatic changes New Zealand is facing.

This stunning public evening, hosted by Chris Laidlaw with performances by Selina Tusitala-Marsh, Karam Meuli and David Hamilton with the St Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Schola choir will be a memorable milestone event.

Be there.

7.30pm, Friday 17th August Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Auckland Tickets $30 at www.ticketmaster.co.nz More info: 09 309 3749 / www.leadershipnz.co.nz Proudly brought to you by:

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