Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i NZBusiness+Management

It has been an absolute pleasure to work on a combined business theme across both NZBusiness and Management this month. It’s a first for me and for Annie Gray, the editor of Management – and we hope our cover features on the Maori Economy provide some real insights and inspiration for readers across the business spectrum. The Maori Economy is such a vast topic; we’ve nevertheless endeavoured to capture it from both a small business and a ‘big business’ or corporate perspective across both titles. And with the Maori Economy growing at such a rate, and diversifying into so many business sectors, it’s safe to say we’ll be revisiting the subject more frequently going forward. I know I can speak for Annie too, when I say that the whole process…

“Insect protein is earmarked to be the next big thing and we’re well placed to contribute if we can scale up to meet export expectations.” They taste much like pork crackling or crispy chicken skin; are high in protein, vitamin B12, and have a very good Omega 3 to 6 ratio. They’re excellent dipped in chocolate or candied, and can be stir-fried with vegetables for a healthier, protein-packed meal. You may know them as migratory locusts. A name that goes down better in the food industry is ‘sky prawns’ – and for Dunedin-based Otago Locusts, New Zealand’s first and only food-grade insect farm, they represent a bright future. Malcolm Diack is the owner and sole shareholder in Otago Locusts, and making a living from farming and selling migratory locusts has…

LIKE DEATH, TAX IS A CERTAINTY in life. It is a topic many business owners will focus on in coming months, as provisional tax and GST are due on January 15. With these payments falling in that awkward period of early New Year – a problematic time for many businesses in terms of cashflow – moves need to be made this side of Christmas to ensure y ou can meet your obligations on time. Why? Because IRD will charge interest of 8.22 percent and late payment penalties if you do not pay on the dates it prescribes. Tax can seriously affect your cashflow. So it pays to work on your cashflow management to make sure you are tax-ready ahead of January 15. To that end, Tax Management NZ (TMNZ) offers…

“A successful strategy is one that serves the business and the founder.” There is a lot of commentary about strategy and how important it is to have one. What we’ve found is that some business owners are confused about what strategy is and how it should be applied. In fact, we’ve talked to a number of them that have had a few strategy planning sessions with expert consultants, received a bound strategy document, and than proceeded to never look at it, let alone implement it. Is this something you can relate to? Why do you think this happens? What we’ve found is that often the strategy written for the organisation doesn’t consider the organisation’s capability to execute. Or, the strategy is not aligned to other factors such as the founder’s…

Ulrich Frerk launched Adroit in 2014 as a result of his frustration at the lack of a “well-connected smart world”. “There was a gap in the IoT (Internet of Things) world where, although many smart devices were taking shape, they were not really talking to each other,” he explains. Ulrich is a visionary. His frustration at the inability of different devices to communicate with each other led to his focus on solving the connectivity and installation issues within existing home and building control systems. His vision was to make all devices connectable so they can be controlled from a single screen. Ulrich built up a team dedicated to bringing existing products to life – adding usability and accessibility to appliances while collecting data for analysis – giving clients the ability…

IF YOU’RE READING this magazine, you probably own or manage a SME of some kind. You work hard for your money, you’re proud of what you do, and you’re always interested in new possibilities. You might also reasonably be looking at ways to increase the value of the business or to develop an exit strategy for when you finally want to move on. So if somebody suggests that your business is in some way unique, yet replicable, and offers to help you franchise it, you might be tempted to find out more – and so you should. Franchising is a great way to grow a business quickly using money invested by others, and enables you to upscale nationally or even internationally. But – and it’s a big ‘but’ – it’s…

THIS ARTICLE WAS going to be a moan about the state of commercial leases and how they impose conditions on the tenant that were once the responsibility of the owner. This started when a commercial tenant in a retail premises in a large, central Auckland building contacted me to ask whether or not they should pay a bill from a leading property management company. Briefly, the situation was that last year’s property management year had finished in March and monthly charges had been paid in full and on time. However, an additional bill had been received for an amount in excess of 40 percent of the annual sum and was ‘due in seven days’. The account was unreasonably brief and provided no documentary evidence supporting the additional sum. Having seen…

Anew national group of New Zealand’s leading tech experts has been formed as New Zealand faces unprecedented growth and change in tech – which is now the nation’s fastest growing sector. Tech Leaders has been set up with the support of NZTech and is a group of New Zealand tech, digital and ICT focused-executives from leading organisations who will work together, with the support of NZTech, to use their experience to help address tech related issues of national importance. NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says in a media release that New Zealanders are seeing dramatic tech changes the likes of which have never been seen before. “Electric car charging stations are popping up all over New Zealand and we are seeing the introduction of driverless cars and buses. A string…

NGARIMU BLAIR, A DIRECTOR OF NGĀTI WHĀTUA ŌRĀKEI TRUST which oversees its tribal development arm, Whai Maia, and its commercial arm, Whai Rawa, says the long term vision “is to see that our children are living happy, prosperous, creative lives… we will have our language and know our songs. We will know our responsibility to the land and the Waitemata”. And this intergenerational thinking is reflected in the hapu’s recent experience in securing land lost to the Crown between the 1840s and 1860. As part of its 2012 Treaty of Waitangi settlement, the tribe bought Crown land at Fort Cautley above Narrow Neck beach on Auckland’s North Shore which is used by the NZ Defence Force. It then negotiated a 150-year lease of the land back to the Navy and,…

THIS MONTH: OVERCOMING THE IMPACT OF LATE PAYMENTS PAYMENT TIMES ARE AN IMPORTANT, OFTEN OVERLOOKED, COMPONENT OF TRADE CREDIT TERMS. BUSINESSES MUST PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES OF LATE PAYMENTS. SMILE TO PAY: AI JUST GOT SMARTER E-COMMERCE JUGGERNAUT ALIBABA HAS MADE PAYWAVE TECHNOLOGY SEEM KITSCH BY ALLOWING KFC CUSTOMERS TO PAY WITH NOTHING MORE THAN A SMILE. GETTING YOUR SHARE REGISTER IN SHAPE A SHARE REGISTER IS ESSENTIALLY AN ASSET REGISTER; THE FINAL WORD ON WHO OWNS WHAT IN A COMPANY. READ THE FIVE COMMON MISTAKES COMPANIES MAKE WITH THEIR SHARE REGISTER.…

The CEO and founder of The Instillery, Mike Jenkins, is not afraid of a bit of youth. The average age of the company’s 23 full-time employees is 26.2 years old and 33-year-old Mike believes these millennials bring “unconstrained thinking” into his business, which is resulting in exciting new revenue streams and opportunities. “They are keeping me young and fresh because they don’t know what is not possible,” he says, pointing to the real creative solutions these 20-plus year-olds can bring to solve a client’s problems. “A key part of why we are winning is because we are bringing a fresh, young lens to our clients’ problems.” The Instillery’s website features a very young boy with a hard-wired hat and futuristic looking goggles. Mike says this helps to portray the image…

Rachel Petero wears her passion for the Māori Economy, and for women succeeding in business, on her sleeve. She says her business initiative Rise2025 was born out of frustration. While working for Qatar Airways, she was inspired by Qatar’s National Vision 2030. “At that time there were 150 nationalities at the airline. I was responsible for their nationalisation development programmes to grow future leaders and asking myself, ‘Why are there so few indigenous women in leadership?’ “From there the idea was born. Now it’s a global movement, and business, to develop 100,000 indigenous women through our coaching and leadership programme by 2025. It’s a user pays model and our programme is unique in that it is internationally recognised and embedded in an indigenous experience depending on the country and culture…

ADROIT BUILDERS know paying provisional tax, PAYE, ACC and wages can squeeze the life out of cashflow. But, by using Tax Management NZ (TMNZ). to pay its provisional tax, it alleviated the tension. Adroit co-owner and director Matt Hanna says he and his business partner Oscar Williams recently hired staff as their business is growing. The Auckland-based builders opted for employees instead of contractors because the latter are less likely to be loyal to their workmanship and their company. Not only did that mean Adroit now had wages, PAYE and ACC to pay on top of other expenses, but it also created an extra responsibility of ensuring staff are looked after. Complicating matters, though, is the fact that Adroit does not have a steady cashflow line. Payments are received upon…

NZB: What was your background prior to LINK, and how did the company get established? AARON: My background has been in commercial real estate, being CEO for both LJ Hooker Commercial in New Zealand, and later Knight Frank New Zealand. In both cases I successfully led teams in sales, leasing, valuation and advisory – ultimately selling the businesses to concentrate on LINK. LINK was established in 1996 as a multi-discipline company with a small number of business brokers. I joined in 2001 in an executive role and acquired it outright in 2007. NZB: Where is the business at today, and what’s been the key to its growth since the GFC? AARON: The business has grown from a handful of brokers and rudimentary systems, to the world’s largest business brokerage, with…

IN RECENT MONTHS, we’ve seen some high profile examples of retailers and service businesses going under or losing significant market share – from TopShop going into receivership to Sky TV losing over 33,000 of their satellite subscribers and seeing profits drop by a fifth. So what links those two events? In my opinion, a lack of customer centricity. Sky has been ripped apart by customers for their high prices in the face of significantly cheaper streaming platforms, and certainly didn’t win brownie points when they hiked the price of Fan Pass up. Similarly, TopShop may have created real hype when it landed on our shores, but by mostly selling pieces that hadn’t sold in the UK instead of providing Kiwis with a personalised offering, they shot themselves in the foot.…

RETAILERS ARE CONCERNED about the combination of the possible arrival in New Zealand of Amazon and the loss of sales due to GST charges, a new survey has found. Massey University’s latest Big Issues in Retail survey shows business confidence has declined since 2016, with the “Amazon effect” cited as the main reason for uncertainty. The survey, now in its second year, is conducted by Massey University’s Centre for Advanced Retail Studies in collaboration with Monash University (Melbourne) and Retail NZ. Just under 40 percent of survey respondents expected their sales to increase in the short-term (compared to 50 percent last year). There was also an increase in the number of retailers who expected their sales to decrease – 18 percent compared to 12 percent one year ago. Lead researcher,…

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT, Iain Fraser’s new business book The Business of Portfolio Management – Boosting Organizational Value has already sold in 18 countries and Fraser says that essentially it’s a business book that addresses the challenges and disruptors of todays’ world. “It’s about improving business value by driving performance, speeding up, and reducing waste. These via a value-driven portfolio management approach that fosters successful end-to-end strategic implementation. Its target audience is directors, executives and managers of all organisations." Fraser says the book offers keys to adopting a new approach to business via portfolio management that boosts organisational value. “It proposes a solution that lies in using a value management framework to better link organisational strategy development to portfolio content and to delivery mechanisms. Case study examples illuminate in-depth discussions explaining…

THE CEO OF WAKATŪ, KERENSA JOHNSTON (Ngāti Tama, Ngaruahine and Ngāti Whāwhākia) sums up their over-arching philosophy by saying they tell their business partners that there will still be someone answering the phone [or whatever the equivalent communication device is] in 100 years. And that is just the short-term plan. Johnston says they are in the middle of a review of their five-year-old guiding document, Te Pai Tawhiti, which looks out 500 years. While it’s a real challenge taking their view out 500 years, the guiding document was developed in-house by talking to their owners, families and staff and then distilling down to three main themes by looking backwards 500 years. “What was important then was people, land, values and practices,” she says, and now the Incorporation wants to ensure…

Sitting in our respective bubbles it can be easy to forget what an amazing and uplifting society we live in, where our young people are excelling in all sorts of ways. The world they are going to inhabit in 20, 30 or 50 years is going to be so vastly different from today that it is hard to fathom. The two amazing Maori enterprises that we feature in this issue are looking even further out than 50 years. Both Ngati Whatua Orakei Trust and Wakatu Incorporation are basing all their business decision making around intergenerational considerations. What will be good for their hapu and whanau 50 years from now, 100 years, or even 500 years from now? It’s a very impressive way of thinking and a philosophy, I’d hope, that…

EMPLOYERS FRUSTRATED BY WORKPLACE RELATIONS SYSTEM EMPLOYERS ARE JUST as concerned about New Zealand's 'complex and confusing workplace relations system' as employees. Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has released a report revealing that employees are increasingly reporting breaches of their employment rights. The biggest complaint was the lack of employment agreements, an issue of equal concern for employers according to leading workplace specialists, Employsure. Having witnessed many SMEs struggle with employment agreements, Employsure provide businesses with advice on complicated workplace conditions. Employsure MD Jen Tweed said: “it’s not just employees with concerns, equally, we’re hearing the same from employers and business owners. "We know employers don’t set out to breach employment rights or to fail to comply with their obligations. Rather, they tell us how complex and confusing the workplace…

The shortages and challenges in the housing sector indubitably played a major role in the outcome of New Zealand’s recent general election. However, a shortage of trained local house builders and a more innovative approach to what could be viewed as a global impasse is not being felt as badly in the Waikato, as three local small businesses are proving. In two of the cases, relationship-building has been a decisive factor in their success. Other characteristics like hard work, good systems and values are regarded as essentials – plus technology to achieve innovation, and staff sharing in profits. Lunix Homes was started by managing director Tau Haimona and Peta Taukiri (director and project manager) in February 2016 after learning their trade as qualified carpenters. Undeterred by their relative youth and…

We’ve all heard the clichés about how ‘cash is king’; how cashflow is ‘the lifeblood of your business’; and how ‘without cash, profits are meaningless’. They’re all true of course – they’re based on real-world business experience. So why do so many business owners struggle with cashflow, even when running a seemingly profitable business? Put simply, by GoFi8ure executive director Lisa Martin, “you have to analyse and manage cashflow in order to control it”. Of course, as any builder or trades person in business will tell you – being paid on time is a real issue for New Zealand’s small businesses. Xero’s New Zealand country manager Craig Hudson says a recent look at aggregated data on Xero for business payments found that more than 7.5 million invoices were overdue for…

“A company may already be good at product design, cost efficiency and exporting – but often the missing component is selling – telling that story in a way that wows the customer.” Don’t you just love it? A Kiwi couple helping Americans sell – helping the whole world to sell! The journey that Adam and Millie Blackwell have been on to grow STUN, a creative sales agency that produces customisable digital sales toolkits, has bordered on the audacious. Since STUN was founded in 2011, growth has been 300 percent year on year. Staff numbers are up to 18, spread across Wellington, Australia, the US and Europe, and clients range from start-ups to large corporates such as Vodafone and BP. A typical STUN toolkit has everything a salesperson needs to produce…

We live in a time of fast-moving and unpredictable change. Not. As a futurist I’ve been as guilty as anyone for talking up how fast-moving and unpredictable the modern business environment is. The age of disruption. The trend is so well established it even has its own acronym, VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Now I’m not denying that those factors exist. Or claiming that the future is entirely predictable. If it was, life would be incredibly dull. There’d be no point in ever making any decisions, as everything would already be a predictable foregone conclusion. At the same time if the world was completely unpredictable, we simply couldn’t operate. From eating to sustain ourselves, to operating a business to make a profit, the laws of cause and effect…

“If you are looking at a potential partner whose website has a list of ten services and content is one of them, run. Fast! ” MANY SMALL BUSINESS owners are in a position where they need to outsource marketing because inhouse marketing resource is not an option. Inhouse marketing resource is expensive (well, it is for a good hire) and 40 hours of resource every week is often more than a lot of small businesses need. However, sourcing marketing partners can also be fraught with risk. So how do you spot the snake oil that needs to be avoided? Those people who overpromise and underdeliver (or don’t deliver!). And what kind of marketing partners or specialists should you seek? For small businesses who don’t have the budget or time to…

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IS at the heart of an employment relationship. Put simply, the employer wants a job done to an appropriate standard and is prepared to pay for it, while the employee has their own motivations around remuneration and career ambitions. These two parties come together in the realm of performance management. There is nothing more critical to the employment relationship than the understanding between what is expected and what work is carried out. As such, every business needs to be monitoring and measuring performance correctly. IMPROVING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Performance management is all about communication. Performance management processes have struggled to advance in New Zealand, however, it's not a lost cause. Good performance monitoring and measuring highlights ongoing elements for organisations to consider – levels of competency, training requirements and…

LATE IN SEPTEMBER Air New Zealand released its second artificial intelligence product, a digital human called “Sophie”, powered by IBM Watson. Designed to help travellers through the onboarding experience, Sophie demonstrates that artificial intelligence is no longer the fodder of science fiction. From personal predictive assistants such as Siri or Google Now, to chatbots and purchase prediction on sites such as Amazon, artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming our daily lives. The impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the future of work was a hot topic at Davos this year, where the impact of the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution” was debated by world leaders and business luminaries. For business, the benefits of machine learning and automation are significant in terms of greater efficiency and productivity, freeing up staff from routine…