The result did remind me of the article in the Business Herald on Friday 25^th November by Sir Richard Branson. Sir Richard was writing about his new book, ‘Screw business as usual’ saying, “it’s time to turn business on its head”. Maybe I missed something that the NZ voters knew – time to turn the business of government on its head. Enough already – I will let it go – promise.

In a conversation regarding sustainability and corporate social responsibility, Sir Richard said, “the people in all of these organisations – large and small – have the combined power of a hurricane to effect change. It should no longer be just about typical ‘corporate social responsibility’ where the ‘responsibility’ bit is usually the realm of a small team buried in the basement – now it should be about every single person in a business taking responsibility to make a difference in everything they do, at work and in their personal lives.”

He then went on to say, “Long-term sustainable change happens if people discover their own power. The key is moving the centre of gravity in the decision-making, moving it closer to the community, in the field, and so forth – and away from a centrally directed, top-down approach.” Is that what the Greens have done to gain a greater percentage of party vote or have they changed their plan to be closer to commerce therefore getting things more in balance?

Balance is a great word that conjures up images of time spent reconciling bank accounts or just the day’s takings with the sales register. But like the workings of a watch it can be a very delicate compilation of many interactive factors. If you pull too hard on one of the components of your business equation, I am sure you know that it can put the rest right out of balance, making your business behave a bit like the wheel whose axle is off centre. I do admire greatly those people who can make sense of economics.

For 2012 may I suggest that success in business will be based on the balance between risk and innovation? It is my prediction that well managed organisations with a positive attitude and an innovative plan will grow in 2012.

It can be yours if you decide.

Check out all the success stories on our website.

Mum2Mum also featured in the recent Deloitte Fast50 and are exporting to 900+ retail outlets around the world. A great business developed by two Waikato mums wanting better products for their babies.

The last two weeks in Hamilton has again highlighted the need for planning – do you have a succession plan. One of the best nuggets of advice is that when you start business – start with the end in mind – how will you move away from the business when you want to spend more time with your families or at the beach or using your dream boat? At a recent seminar I heard of a great plan – for the first year a 40/4 plan then the next year a 30/3 plan followed by a 20/2 plan to a final 10/1 plan. The first number is the number of weeks per year you will work and the other number is the number of days per week you will work until you are spending more time with your loved ones and friends than servicing your loan or meeting the needs of your customers.

Recently I met two experienced businessmen who have set-up a professional operation working with the right businesses, investing in them, both financially and operationally, and assisting the owner to work a 10/1 plan. If you would like to discuss this option further please let me know.

Sometimes it seems like there is a lot of bad news about. A message from Admark.
At Admark Visual Imaging, we wanted to let you know about a good news story happening in Hamilton. We tend to fly a bit under the radar, but we’ve recently won a number of international awards, making Admark one of the best printing companies in the world. We recently got awards for our work in competitions in the USA and Australia, and just celebrated our 40th birthday.

Very few people come into the Chamber office without commenting on how awesome it. We can thank lead architect for the project, Tim Horne. Tim was then working for Chow Hill as part of the contract for refurbishment of Wintec House. Tim and colleague Nathan then set-up MOAA and they have just won an award for the office fitout for U Leisure a 2011 NZIA Local Branch Interior Architecture Award.

Judges comment – A fresh, contemporary and colourful interior, appropriate to its youthful inhabitants, has been set within a 1960s Waikato University building, retaining the original circular floor plate and timber ceiling. Plywood cabinetry and bespoke desks combine well with the solid, oak-framed partitioned spaces inserted within the fitout. The Architect has pitched the design perfectly to the purposes of the facility, a joint venture between the University and the Student Union.
If you have something to crow about, because there is no point in hiding success, please let us know and we are keen to support positive stories about business success in this region.

Congratulations to everyone who made the night at Claudelands possible.

With the Maui gas line fracture and the business interruption that it caused I was intrigued that so many large businesses had no back-up for business continuity. The gas supply was obviously a key part of productivity and sustainability, what are they thinking when the supply of a finite resource can cripple their business. Risk management is a huge part of business management aligned with business continuity planning. It would be like having 50 guests for dinner and part way through cooking the meal on the barbeque the gas bottle runs out. I don’t know about you but I like to know I have a spare in reserve or can get hold of some at very short notice.

As a country we have recently seen a range of issues that have impacted on the continuity of business. If nothing else let’s learn from these examples and make a plan to mitigate the impact of this type of scenario by; not cutting corners, ensuring copies of vital data are stored off site and easily retrieved, a back-up supply of vital resources and staff knowledge is recorded.

We consider this region to be the safest in New Zealand and people joke that we will not have a tsunami – but what if a dam up the river is broached. Christchurch had the same earthquake rating as Hamilton – are you and your business prepared for a range of possible business interruptions? How many times have you heard the story of a person not renewing their health insurance or their car insurance only to find they need that back-up sooner rather than later.

The other side of the Maui discussion is the relevance of monopolies. If we are going to increase our productivity as a region and a country we need to know we have options for competition that ensure we are getting the best service for the market rate. Competition keeps the market honest and is part of the productivity equation; doing more with less.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Tony van Deursen who died on the weekend as a result of a water ski accident. Tony was an extremely talented man. His skill in filming events or the essence of an event plus his editing prowess enabled him to create magic on film. Tony will be sadly missed by me and the Chamber team as the head creator of the audio visual impact of the Westpac Waikato Business Excellence awards. RIP Tony. Our condolences to Sandra and the rest of Tony’s family.

How often have we heard of a situation where a challenge has been created and the process for managing that challenge and the ensuing reshuffling of staff has been the best thing that happened for the business?

You can no doubt see the movement in this conversation from permission to courage.

How many of you have had the courage to take a bird’s eye view of your organisation and identify skills in people already employed by you that could be better utilized in another part of the business. Even when a situation presents itself it can be hard to step back and identify the right people for the right seats on the organisation bus. Sometimes it takes reviewing the destination of the bus that enables you to clarify the skills required for each role that helps you see more clearly the make-up of the team.

Recently at the Chamber we had a staff member leave and I took the opportunity to discuss with the team the roles and the right people for those roles.

This has seen a reshuffle in the office with past membership coordinator Alison Robinson moving over to Events coordination and the recruitment of a new membership coordinator Alan Mac Dougall.

Alan may be known to some of you in the Agricultural, finance and insurance sectors. Alan is a Waikato boy with a passion for the region and a passion for the development of business. After selling the family farm he started on a journey of finance to support the improvement of farm and personal situations. We are excited to welcome Alan to the team and his wife Meagan to the Chamber team social fraternity.

As the reshuffle beds in we look forward to ensuring a positive value proposition for you our members with a variety of events, membership initiatives and tools to ensure you have the right tool in your tool box when you need it.

In my most basic math’s and then tertiary economics and finance, I cannot make $9M equate to $1.25M. $1.25M goes into $9M more times than $9M goes into $1.25M. Then there is the swiping of food and beverages in the supermarkets, the employment of extra cleaners in the motels, the rolling numbers at the petrol bowser, the drinks and food enjoyed with mates in Victoria and Hood streets, the unofficial ‘Official Holden Bar’ and the unofficial ‘Official Ford Bar’ (in Huntly) – what will they do now that their bumper week due to the V8’s will be gone after 2012?

What about the worldwide television coverage that we got for free? Now someone will have to pay to attract visitors to Hamilton/Waikato. You may have already heard me say, ‘Commerce enables Lifestyle,’ and if we enjoy the lifestyle that events like the V8’s enabled for Hamilton we have to find more events to fill the gap.

Enough already, it’s done and if there is a next time I hope we may embrace it with a different attitude and enable Hamilton and Waikato to maximise the opportunity.

Speaking of opportunities, I am very proud to present the new Electronic Chamber Voice. This was a result of our desire to continue to produce business focused, interesting, up-to-date information while reducing printing, postage and handling. As we are not specialists in the process of design, production and preparation of magazines we set about to find partners who had similar values to bring together a 100 percent electronic business based magazine for our members.

With the superb design skills of Kieran Barry from Seal, the amazing production skills of Waikato Business Publications and the technical skills of the GEON team, we have been able to distribute our first e-magazine. I hope you enjoy it and that you may one day soon consider advertising in it.

Making sure we are relevant in the information we put together for our members depends on what you, our members are looking for. We need to know what is hot and what is not – we hear it from members at events, we hear it from members who are not happy but we don’t know what is happening for members who are busy working away to ensure sustainability in the business.

As the organisation that offers to advocate on your behalf we need to know what’s hot and what’s not. Please let us know what you think about; the V8 decision, the European financial situation, the New Zealand financial situation or maybe just the price of fish – but please keep in contact so we can continue to provide relevant information and support for you our members.

From the Intelligent Community Forum website I found the following, and instead of trying to summarise it for you I copied it because I can, and to make sure you get the real oil.

In a study funded by the Province of Ontario, Canada, the Intelligent Community Forum defined five critical success factors for the creation of Intelligent Communities. This list of Intelligent Community Indicators, as the study termed them, provided the first conceptual framework for understanding all of the factors that determine a community’s competitiveness in the Broadband Economy. In its work since then,

ICF has also identified a number of success factors for Intelligent Communities in both industrialised and developing nations.

Broadband Connectivity
Broadband is the new essential utility, as vital to economic growth as clean water and good roads. Intelligent Communities express a clear vision of their broadband future and craft policies to encourage deployment and adoption.

Knowledge Workforce
A knowledge workforce is a labour force that creates economic value through the acquisition, processing and use of information. Intelligent Communities exhibit the determination and demonstrated ability to develop a workforce qualified to
perform knowledge work from the factory floor to the research laboratory and from the construction site to the call centre or Web design studio.

Digital Inclusion
As broadband deploys widely through a community, there is serious risk that it will worsen the exclusion of people who already play a peripheral role in the economy and society, whether due to poverty, lack of skills, prejudice or geography. Intelligent Communities promote digital inclusion by creating policies and funding programs that provide “have-nots” with access to digital technology and broadband, by providing skills training and by promoting a compelling vision of the benefits that the broadband economy can bring to their lives.

Innovation
For business, broadband has become to innovation what fertilizer is to crops. Intelligent Communities work to build the local innovation capacity of new companies, because these produce all of the job growth in modern economies, and invest in e-government programs that reduce their costs while delivering services on the anywhere-anytime basis that digitally savvy citizens expect.

Marketing and Advocacy
Like businesses facing greater global competition, communities must work harder than ever to communicate their advantages and explain how they are maintaining or improving their position as wonderful places to live, work and build a growth business.
Effective marketing shares this story with the world, while advocacy builds a new vision of the community from within.

The Intelligent Community Indicators provide communities with a framework for assessment, planning and development, as they work to build prosperous local economies in the Broadband Economy. The Indicators also reveal the interactions that can create a “virtuous cycle” of positive change. Broadband connectivity feeds the development of a knowledge workforce as well as creating the foundation of digital inclusion programs. Both contribute to a rising level of innovation in the community as well as increasing demand for connectivity. And Intelligent Communities make this wave of change the core “value proposition” in economic development marketing.

How would you rate Hamilton and is your rating objective?

The importance of a Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) is hard to miss from this article. As part of the planning process for this region a survey has been developed to understand your requirements.

Please follow the link and complete the survey. Jack Ninnes, from UFB team tells me that this is your chance to

influence the plan for UFB in this region – so please follow the link and complete
the survey.

We appreciate your feedback.

I added spend to the list as I wanted to create some sense of balance but in saying that, you may enjoy the sport, I may enjoy the spectacle, and others enjoy the spend part of an event. Then at the next event we may have a different view, I may enjoy the sport, you the spend and others the spectacle. Each event is different and will attract diverse levels of audience. At the end of the day, whatever your attraction or not, they add colour, interest and commercial value to the city.

Most of you will have read about Triple bottom-line – the balance between people, place and profit. We need to ensure we consider each of these in any decision we make. If you put too much pressure on one then the others are negatively impacted – balance is the key to the smooth running of a machine or community.

I made the point that commerce enables lifestyle. If you consider towns where the commerce has been reduced or removed then you find the lifestyle is negatively impacted. The same happens when the appeal for a town or city changes – look at Wellington. For many years this was a city with a bad rap both internally and externally. Now, after some strong leadership and a message that created internal pride, it’s the place to visit, full of culture, arts, sports and spending opportunities.

From my perspective we need to stop playing at the pawn level and start playing at the King and Queen level – looking at ways to create a strong positive legacy for the region, not personal legacies.

Part of the conversation included the Home of Cycling – a story I have heard before, and I am strongly supportive of because commerce enables lifestyle. We have a wide range of infrastructure in the region that offers events flexibility, sporting opportunity, arts and cultural experience and employment. The Home of Cycling would add to the machine by offering sporting at community and elite levels, health benefits through fitness and rehabilitation, employment as the base for the 50 staff of BikeNZ and an increased tourism opportunity.

One of the least known facts of the Home of Cycling story is that the Council contribution is one QUARTER of the financial requirement and it is the Council contribution that is needed to secure the charitable entities contribution.

I am happy to contribute to a healthy, vibrant, diverse and flexible region to enable me to enjoy the lifestyle I like – aren’t you?

We appreciate your feedback – email me your thoughts: wayne@waikatochamber.co.nz

A great time to take stock of who we are, what we are doing and why. Like many organisations we at the Chamber have just completed the Strategic Plan process and look forward to working with our Vision; ‘Champions of Waikato Business’ to become even more relevant to the wider business sector.

For those of you who completed the Business Confidence survey last week, I say ‘Thank you’. Your insights are important in a local and national sense. We topped the number of responses for the Northern region (I am not competitive) excluding Auckland – a great record that we have had for more than two years of surveys.

One of the discussions we had as part of the strategic plan process was the identification of a feedback loop for members to ensure we are advocating in the right area. Things like the rates review Hamilton City Council are now looking for consultation on are easier to advocate for because the current system sees businesses charged double rates because they are a business. We are keen to see this change even though personally this will impact on my rates. The message Hamilton sends to existing businesses and potential businesses is that we value you and the part you play in the commercial wheel that enables the lifestyle we all enjoy.

Then there is the Home of Cycling, another valuable opportunity for Waikato, not only for the value of the build but the connection with other key infrastructure. With the possibility of BikeNZ moving its New Zealand team to Cambridge and the marketing of the state of the art Velodrome to New Zealand and the world – our patch will be great thanks. The growth in Commercial value to the region is huge plus the healthy benefits for the public alongside the elite cyclist are positive stories adding to our diversity and attraction.

What would the feedback loop look like for you – What would make it easier for you to communicate with us to ensure your voice is counted? We currently have a wide range of events where we get to talk with many of you, we have a presence on facebok, we have a blog, http://wktowayne.workpress.com/, email wayne@waikatochamber.co.nz and our good old fashioned telephone system for those who want to chat or find out more about how regional initiatives will impact the whole region.

If there is another form of communication that you would prefer please let me know through any of the above options.

We appreciate your feedback – Thank you!

He talked about New Zealand’s need to increase productivity and to increase the opportunity for investment in overseas countries especially countries where we are trading.  He suggested we need to make New Zealand attractive for some of our best minds to stay here or at least come back here and to do that we may need to create some incentives.  We also need to modify our culture – he compared the Australian, ‘ Win at all costs’ culture to our NZ culture of ‘burn no bridges, build relationships’ culture.  We are so concerned with being friends with everyone that we are not competitive.

His suggestion was that we should be having conversations about increasing productivity around the kitchen table. Be prepared to challenge thoughts, beliefs and norms at the dining table. Where did the ‘OE’ come from – we are the only country that has this phenomenon? What about the need to attend University away from your home town – where did this come from – in countries around the world students attend University closer to home?

After my walk (Global Corporate Challenge) yesterday morning I heard an interview on TV One Breakfast with Dr Rhema Vaithianathan, from Auckland University – talking about the skills of Managers.  She linked New Zealand’s below average management skills to our lower productivity.  Her comments were especially around the management of people, getting rid of people who don’t fit the organisation, recruiting the right people to fit your organisation and the empowerment of people to keep them stimulated and happy with their workplace. Once dissatisfaction creeps in good people look for better opportunities and a lot of the time it’s off shore? So what are the answers?

Would a greater investment in R&D help your business, would education support your desire to increase your productivity – assuming of course that you want to increase your productivity.

For those of you considering further education we have a scholarship with the Waikato Management School that enables one person each year to half price fees for the Post Management Diploma in Management Studies – a qualification in its own right but also the precursor to the MBA – Master of Business Administration. If you want to learn more about this scholarship and the Post Grad Dip or MBA please don’t hesitate to make contact with me – I will even buy you a coffee!

We appreciate your feedback – wayne@waikatochamber.co.nz – Thank you!

For many it’s a time to take a short stint overseas in the sun to recharge their vitamin D levels and start the trek to Labour Weekend. For those who enjoy the snow and the diversity winter brings, we are seeing shots of friends in action on the slopes also recharging their vitamin D levels as they prepare to work hard for the next few months.

How do you keep your teams motivated as they deal with sick children, cold houses and shorter days? Only one of the skills required by managers and leaders – but like all the others, significantly powerful in the continuation and sustainability of business.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for motivating your team through this time of year we would be pleased to hear them. We can put them up on our facebook page to assist those challenged by the temperature and the weather.

Positive stories about New Zealand companies doing very well in an international market have been the theme for our business luncheons and this week is no exception. I have had the privilege of hearing this week’s luncheon speaker at a European business expo in Auckland a year or so ago. The story of Jade Software is compelling and the delivery by their young Managing Director and CEO Craig Richardson added interest to an already awesome story.

Before joining Jade in 2009, Craig was Chief Financial Officer for ASX-listed anchor bottler, Coca-Cola Amatil in New Zealand, with responsibility for strategy, planning, mergers and acquisitions and finance. He also had operational responsibility for business units in Australia, North America and Europe.

Before joining Coca-Cola Amatil, Craig was vice president of Finance for BlueScope Steel’s integrated manufacturer New Zealand Steel, with consolidated turnover of $1 billion. He managed the regions finance and IT functions, and had operational responsibility for manufacturing and construction business units in the Pacific. Craig has also held senior executive roles at Vodafone in Australia and Europe.

Just like you we are working on inspiring the people we influence, our loyal members, with positive messages and like all of our recent speakers, Craig has a wealth of knowledge with a great delivery.

We appreciate your feedback – Thank