management august 2010
DESCRIPTION
leadership, sustainability, whistle-blower, management, private schools, business women, overachiever, CEOsTRANSCRIPT
7
WA
NTED
: GR
EAT N
Z LEAD
ERS
AU
GU
ST 2010
9 421902 251030
AUGUST 2010 $6.95INCL GST
In this issue: NZIM’S FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT P55
Wanted:
Great NZ
T O P 2 O O
Deloitte/ManagementMagazine
A Bold Spirit
Caring CEOs of the future p34
The curse of the overachiever p38
Shipley’s ‘escalator’ for women p43
Tobacco whistle-blower on Kiwi ethics p48
PAGE 30
leaders
INSIDEAUGUST 2010 • Vol 57 No 7
WHAT NZ NEEDS FROM ITS LEADERS
New Zealand is rich in potential, says Reg Birchfi eld. But it does not have the leaders required to realise that
potential. He has been talking to top Kiwi leaders about where New Zealand
is weak and how we need to grow.
Wanted:Great NZ
leadersTHE TOP 200 CAMPAIGN
This year’s Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Companies
campaign, ‘Understanding the New World’, examines six
major contemporary issues and opportunities for business. This
month, an analysis of leadership issues.
30 COVER STORY
Und
erst
andi
ng th
e ne
w w
orld
T O P 2 O O
Deloitte/ManagementMagazine
A Bold Spirit
5 EDITOR’S LETTER
6 IN TOUCH: News & Views
11 FOCUS
12 ON THE MOVE
13 EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT
15 VOICE: Phone the future, ET
28 NZIM: Bounce the bonus Reg Birchfi eld
JUST GOOD BUSINESS
16 CASE STUDY: The cost of disability Vicki Jayne
18 SUSTAINABILITY: Business saving the planet Peter Neilson
OPINION
20 BOOKCASE Reg Birchfi eld, Brenda Ward
22 POLITICS: What style is our leader? Colin James
23 AS I SEE IT: Luke Dallow
26 ECONOMICS: It’s a question of management Bob Edlin
ADVICE
42 HEALTHY LIFESTYLES: Under the knife Peter Tynan
61 DIRECT MARKETING: New ways to engage Fiona Woolley
64 TOP TIPS: Ten things to learn about Facebook Linda Coles
42
48
46
44
34 LEADERSHIP: CARING CEOs OF THE FUTURE
The new business world is becoming so fast and so complex, the job description of a leader has had to change. Brenda Ward asked the experts what you need to succeed.
38 LEADERSHIP: THE CURSE OF THE OVERACHIEVER
If you believe too many executives think, “It’s all about me”, you’re right. Research shows that an ethos celebrating individual achievements has been shoving aside other motivations, including empowering people, say Hay Group Boston’s Scott W Spreier, Mary H Fontaine and Ruth L Malloy.
41 LEADERSHIP: CEOs STRUGGLE TO COPE
Many CEOs feel inadequately equipped to deal with the complexities of modern business.
42 LEADERSHIP: A MAN OF PASSION
The young people who will follow our leaders into society give inspirational Kiwi Graeme Dingle confi dence in New Zealand’s future. Brenna Cukier, 17, interviewed him.
43 LEADERSHIP: ESCALATOR WOMEN
How can women move to the next level in management? Dame Jenny Shipley tells Brenda Ward about an exciting new initiative from Global Women.
44 LEADERSHIP: ENERGY TO BURN
Young engineer Brett Christie has gathered 3000 young professionals into networking groups around the country – and this overachiever still fi nds time to be a fi tness instructor. Janine Ogier is amazed.
46 SMART COMPANY: A BIG FISH IN THE POND
Daniel Robertson was a university student when he launched an online book retailing company. It’s now turning over $50 million a year, proving that a small Fishpond can swim in a big net, says Brenda Ward.
48 FACE TO FACE: JEFFREY WIGAND – ‘DON’T CALL ME A WHISTLE-BLOWER’
Just how different is Jeffery Wigand from the character Russell Crowe played in The Insider? Reg Birchfi eld found that the man who exposed tobacco’s deadly governance practices is even more heroic in real life.
52 EDUCATION: THE RIGHT SCHOOL
Private schools are no longer the sole domain of the wealthy and privileged. Those involved in the industry say they are an important way to exercise choice in education.
55 NZIM’s FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT
Young Executive of the Year – looking for that wow factor; Regional News; Member comment: Phil Ker FNZIM, chief executive, Otago Polytechnic
FEATURES
ANZ National Bank Limited was Rated No. 1 for ‘Most Trusted Advisors’ in the Peter Lee Associates Large Corporate and Institutional Relationship Banking New Zealand Survey 2010. Conducted from February to March 2010.
Copies of any applicable disclosure statements prepared under the Securities Markets Act 1988 in relation to ANZ and any relevant staff, are available on request and free of charge. ANZ National Bank limited. ANZ0301MMA
In a perfect world, your business would fund itself.
In the meantime, talk to us.
anz.co.nz
Day-to-day running of a business can be hard enough, let
alone trying to expand it. Because we know how hard it
can be, we’ve been helping a long list of New Zealand
businesses succeed with our innovative funding solutions.
And we’ve been recognised for our efforts by industry
specialists Peter Lee Associates, who awarded us ‘most
trusted advisors’. To add your business to that list, speak to
one of our relationship managers today.
EDITOR’S LETTER
www.management.co.nz
A MEDIAWEB MAGAZINE
EDITOR Brenda Ward
09-575 8830, [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Reg Birchfi eld
CONTRIBUTORS
Linda Coles, Brenna Cukier, Bob Edlin,
Mary Fontaine, Colin James, Vicki Jayne,
Ruth Malloy, Peter Neilson, Janine Ogier,
Scott Spreier, Peter Tynan, Fiona Woolley
ADVERTISING MANAGER Clara Iqbal
09-271 3711, 021-930 887,
DESIGNER Rachel Walker
COPY & WEB EDITOR Gill Prentice
PRODUCTION MANAGER Fran Marshall
NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS
www.management.co.nz/subscribe
SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES
$76.45 (GST incl). Overseas (airmail only): Australia $NZ130; rest of the world $NZ250.
Enquiries: Mediaweb Limited, PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141, New Zealand. Phone: 09-845 5114, Fax 09-845 5116, [email protected]
www.management.co.nzNew Zealand Institute of Management enquiries to:
National Office, Box 67, Wellington; Northern, Box 26001, Epsom; Central, Box 11781, Wellington; Southern, Box 13044, Christchurch.
Vol 57 No 7 • ISSN 1174-5339 (Print), 1179-3910 (Online)
NZ MANAGEMENT magazine is independently owned by Mediaweb Limited and is published 11 times a year. It is the officially recognised magazine of the New Zealand Institute of Management Incorporated. Editorial material does not necessarily reflect the views of NZIM.
Copyright © 2010: Mediaweb Limited.All material appearing in NZ MANAGEMENT is
copyright and cannot be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher. Editorial contributions are welcomed. Letters to the editor are also welcomed, but pen names are not acceptable.
NZ MANAGEMENT is printed by Benefitz.Subscriptions: One-year NZ subscription (11 issues)
Phone 09-845 5114, Fax 09-845 5116
www.mediaweb.co.nz
PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141
Jane McCann of Thought Partners consultants tells me she’s clocked CEOs
completing 300 transactions before morning tea each day. We may be answering
the emails and going to the meetings, but how are we shaping up as leaders? The
statistics tell a worrying story.
The fi rst blow was the government-sponsored research Management Matters
which told us our managers were consistently underperforming and were merely
‘middling’ (‘Oops – our slip is showing’ – July issue).
Then IBM’s latest global CEO study (page 41, this issue) shocked us again. It
told us more CEOs in New Zealand and Australia than anywhere else in the world
admit they aren’t ready to cope with the complexity of modern business.
When associate professor Roy Stager Jacques of Massey University’s manage-
ment department told me he’s observed that much of Kiwi business culture has
not yet realised the importance of the fact that people are not machines, (‘Caring
CEOs of the future’, page 34) I thought it was time to re-evaluate leadership and
what it means in the modern world.
So for the third part of our Top 200 campaign ‘Understanding the New World’,
we’ve themed this issue on what it means to be a great leader.
It’s become clear that there are some fundamental changes happening in work-
places that require a new kind of leader and a new kind of direction. Words like
‘caring’, ‘transparency’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘authenticity’, which would seldom have
been heard in business a decade ago, are common now I found as I researched
how leadership is changing. And I discovered a whole new area where CEOs can
damage workplace morale and productivity – by overachieving, as Hay Group’s
researchers found in ‘The curse of the overachiever’, page 38, reprinted from the
Harvard Business Review.
If you’re a leader in New Zealand today or if you aspire to be one, there’s lots
in this issue to make you stop and think. I hope it helps you consider new ways
of leading people into this new and challenging business environment as we
prepare to take New Zealand to the next level.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 5
Wanted: Great leaders
T O P 2 O O
Deloitte/ManagementMagazine
A Bold Spirit
Brenda Ward, editor
6 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
intouchREPUTATIONS ON THE LINE
study was conducted in Australia for
the fi rst time last year.
MacRae says Hay Group has been
delighted with the response rate to
the New Zealand survey, which has
exceeded response rates achieved for
this kind of survey elsewhere.
“The quality of the responses
was also excellent, with 70 percent
of respondents classified as chairs,
directors, CEOs, general managers,
partners or executives. The remain-
ing 30 percent were other managers
or organisational leaders. There is
no question that the quality of the
response makes this a robust piece of
research and bodes well for the future
of the survey in New Zealand.”
Birchfield says the comments of
participants also unearthed a wealth
of material on why organisations were
chosen. “We’d like to thank all those
who responded to the survey for the
time and effort they put into it. The
end result is a very good overview of
what makes organisations reputable
in the eyes of their peers.”
Participants were canvassed on
12 reputational factors. “Strong and
effective leadership was something
that ranked highly in responses,” says
Birchfield. “It is one factor that seems
to have a significant impact on lead-
ers’ assessment of other organisations’
reputation.”
The findings of the survey along
with interviews with category finalists
and winners will provide the basis
for a comprehensive feature that NZ
Management will be running in its
September issue as part of a focus on
brands. M
There will be some surprises when
results of a comprehensive study
of New Zealand’s most reputable
organisations is published in the
September issue of NZ Management
magazine, says the study coordinator
Reg Birchfield.
The survey of the organisations
that managers and directors perceive
as our most reputable was conducted
by NZ Management in conjunction
with global management consultancy
firm Hay Group.
Birchfield says the New Zealand
findings reveal the name of our sin-
gle most reputable organisation and
the identities of our most reputable
companies, state-owned enterprises,
government departments and not-
for-profit organisations.
The five top choices and one win-
ner will be named in each category,
with the overall winner of the most
reputable organisation drawn from
these.
Ian MacRae, managing director
of Hay Group NZ, says the New Zea-
land survey has been modelled on the
iconic Fortune magazine ‘World’s Most
Admired Companies’ survey which
Hay Group helps the magazine put
together annually in the US. A similar
Reg Birchfi eld... a wealth of material on what makes companies reputable.
Ian MacRae... response to New Zealand survey exceeded expectations.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 7
Today’s leaders are having to cope with
a phenomenal volume of transactions in
comparison to their predecessors.
Thought Partners’ Wellington-
based director Jane McCann says in the
1980s research clocked leaders complet-
ing 100 transactions a day – mainly
phone calls, letters, faxes, or meetings.
THE BUSY CEO“In the 1990s, I clocked leaders doing
200 transactions a day – mainly email.
But now, I’ve found the 21st century
leader can be doing up to 300 transac-
tions before morning tea time.”
McCann has discovered that most
CEOs spend 85 percent of their days
in formal and informal meetings. So
the time that remains is valuable. “Also
you’ve got to make a meeting matter and
it’s got to happen with speed.”
McCann says communication skills
are crucial in a business world run
mainly in open-plan offi ces, where lead-
ers are expected to be more accessible
than ever before. M
Caring CEOs of the future, page 34
CHECK IN AND WINMost organisations have a formal review process in place for moni-toring staff ’s progress. However, it is important that staff wellbeing is checked more regularly than this, ar-gues Auckland-based business coach Jhanna Culver. She recommends monthly individual ‘check-ins’ of around 15 minutes only.
Culver says this enables manag-ers to be consistently in the loop and on the pulse of staff ’s performance – their successes, challenges and out-look. “You know exactly what your staff are working on and what they are planning to work on next,” she says. “You have monthly opportunities to know what is challenging, enjoyable, successful, and even their current learning and development needs.”
Culver says the rewards of being up-to-date for a manager are being able to act in the moment and nip issues in the bud to prevent any fur-ther trouble brewing. It also provides a substantial base for any pending ‘offi cial’ performance review.
She says there may be a few em-ployees who feel micro-managed or defensive about the process, but the majority of staff will feel noticed and value the time invested in them. “Ac-cordingly, you’re laying a solid foun-dation for an increase in productivity and ultimately, if your staff are on track, you’re on top of a signifi cant proportion of your work.” M
An Auckland woman is offering the hottest new trend in executive team-building – Japanese cooking classes.
Sachie Nomura-Siu says cooking to-gether is a great way to build team bond-ing and get to know colleagues or clients better. And you can eat the results.
“It’s not intimidating and much more appealing than climbing trees or sitting in a restaurant – and it’s really creative, a great way to give the analytical brain a break.”
The Auckland-based Japanese-born chef says there are always lots of laughs
SUSHI BONDING
On the web: www.sachieskitchen.com.
Sachie’s sushi.
Sachie’s cooking class.
Sachie Nomura-Siu.
in her classes, as students discover rolling your own sushi in seaweed wrap is not as easy as it looks.
For every class at Sachie’s Kitchen, the owners donate a meal to a hungry child through Nourish the Children. By mid-June, they had fed 53 children. M
8 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
One of the world’s most comprehen-
sive studies of leadership and leader-
ship development will show whether
confi dence in our business leaders is
continuing to slide.
NZ Management magazine has
joined forces with global HR con-
sultancy Development Dimensions
International (DDI) to present the
2010/2011 DDI Global Leadership
Forecast which will have its own New
Zealand and Australian section.
Christien Winter, director of Shef-
fi eld, which is the exclusive licensee for
DDI in New Zealand, says the com-
prehensive survey will point the way
to best practice in leadership develop-
ment and management innovation. It
builds on signifi cant trend data and
fi ndings from fi ve previous bi-annual
DDI Leadership Forecast studies.
The 2008/09 survey had more than
14,000 leaders and HR professionals
participate across 76 countries and
provided some stark and sobering
insights on leadership practices and
trends, says Winter.
“The 2008/09 survey identifi ed a
dilemma for leaders the world over.
On the one hand, 75 percent said
that improving or leveraging talent
was their top priority. But on the
other, less than half the leaders in the
survey said they were satisfi ed with
development opportunities they were
provided with.”
A concerning outcome of this lack
of quality development programmes
is that the crucial transition from one
level of leadership to the next is too
often a failure, Winter says. DDI’s re-
search shows many people who move
into strategic roles aren’t prepared for
the changes and demands involved.
“As people move into more com-
plex strategic roles, they’re no longer
leading teams, they’re leading leaders
so this requires a real shift – not only
in how they need to think about the
organisation and its requirements, but
also in how they execute their respon-
sibilities. The competencies for success
shift and change. Organisations that
enable staff to transition seamlessly
spend a lot of time preparing them.”
Successive DDI surveys have also
shown that confidence in leaders
has been steadily declining over the
past decade. This is a worrying self-
reported trend, suggesting that leaders
are not meeting the current and future
anticipated needs of their organisa-
tions, says Winter. It is of particular
concern in New Zealand where lead-
STARK LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
ership talent shortages continue to be
an issue.
“Has the recession finally pro-
vided the impetus for organisations
to review the effectiveness of their
development offerings, and make
meaningful change? We hope the
answer will be ‘yes’, but we have our
doubts,” Winter says.
“Organisations continue to dem-
onstrate a reluctance to build a
learning culture – despite all the
evidence that shows that businesses
that endure are those that learn and
continuously evolve.”
Winter believes that with the
economy at a low point, organisations
must innovate and reinvent them-
selves. Understanding the best ways
to do this will be a key aspect of the
2010/11 Leadership Forecast.
DDI has partnered with US pro-
fessor Gary Hamel, a specialist in
management innovation, to include
an innovation section that will ex-
plore systems and processes that dif-
ferentiate traditional from progres-
sive cultures. M
See also: What New Zealand needs from
its leaders, page 30.
Christien Winter… the crucial transition from one level of leadership to the next is too often a failure.
PARTICIPATE NOW The research phase of the DDI Global leadership Forecast is now underway. As the exclusive licensee for DDI in New Zealand, Sheffield and New Zealand research partner, NZ Management magazine, encourage you to participate, and help make an impact on leadership thinking and future development. All levels of managers working in organisations with more 50 employees are invited to participate in the survey.
The extensive global report and Australasian regional reports will be available for all New Zealand participants. In addition, participants can receive a customised organisational benchmark report when more than 30 leaders participate from their organisation. This report will provide an overview of how your organisation’s HR and leadership practices stack up against global findings.
To participate in the survey visit http://tinyurl.com/238qvby
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 9
Manage your TaxiSpend with Innovation
and Technology tel: 09 306 1790email: [email protected]
For the fi rst time in New Zealand, mo-
bile phone users will be paid for their
old and unwanted handsets as part of an
innovative phone recycling and recovery
scheme.
Money4Mobiles.co.nz aims to fully
recycle as many mobile phones as pos-
sible within New Zealand, and give
corporations and individuals the chance
to put extra money in their pockets and
help the environment too.
The phones recycled within New
Zealand will be on-sold to emerging
and developing nations including India,
CASH CALLING! Russia, South America and China.
“There are around 1.8 million un-
used mobile phones gathering dust in
cupboards and drawers within New
Zealand alone,” says Money4Mobiles.
co.nz director John Wilson.
“Money4Mobiles.co.nz encourages
both individuals and businesses to send
in their old mobiles for recycling and
eventual sale to emerging and develop-
ing countries experiencing high demand
for mobile phones.”
Users will be given a price based on
their input. Prices start from $1 for old
phones and go up to $512 and payment
will be made within fi ve working days.
The company aims to recycle 75
percent of all phones received. M
Old mobile phones that would have been junked can be reused or used for parts.
A new data colocation facility in
Christchurch has reduced business
costs with its power-saving cooling
technology.
Jamie Cairns, a director of The Colo-
cation Company, says the centre’s power-
saving cooling technology makes it much
more affordable for users to locate servers
and ICT equipment on the site.
The Christchurch facility uses the
ambient air temperature to cool water
in closed-circuit pipes, enabling micro-
climate control for each of 14 data pods.
“This free-cooling enables us to operate
more than 80 percent of the time very
economically and with greatly reduced
energy demand. Clients pay for the elec-
tricity to run their gear, but avoid high
cooling costs often incurred in older
centres,” Cairns says.
Even the building is recycled. The
former Lane Walker Rudkin clothing
factory in Sydenham was turned into a
centre for The Colocation Company as
part of a multimillion-dollar project by
the founders of Snap Internet.
Cairns says Snap, the TUANZ 2009
internet service provider of the year, is
one of the centre’s fi rst clients, along
with local ICT integrator Computer
Concepts and other high-profi le local
hosting and service companies.
“At $0.61 per kWh consumed, the
cost of locating equipment in our facility
is simple, transparent, and scales well,”
he says.
“But this is not just about lowering
costs. We’re aiming to create an ICT
equivalent of a farmers’ market. Once
a company is in the facility, it will be
able to subscribe to services offered
by providers at the location with very
cheap connection costs. These could be
internet, security, backup, integration or
voice service providers, to name a few.”
The Colocation Company’s man-
ager, Ian Falconer, says there is capacity
for 224 racks in 14 self-contained pods,
each with individual air temperature and
humidity controls. “Each pod houses a
client’s network, server and storage gear
in a totally protected state from below
5kW rack density up to 30kW.” M
GREEN DATA
Ian Falconer, general manager of The Colocation Company.
10 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Skilled Brits have been queuing to
get into an expo on immigrating to
New Zealand.
By the time the doors opened at
the Opportunities New Zealand Expo
in Manchester late last month there
was already a long queue, says Kylie
Barker, marketing manager of Working
In, the company organising the event.
Working In was set up in 1998 to help
people fi nd out about new opportuni-
ties down under and to help overseas
Kiwis return home.
The expo moved from Manchester
to London the following week. Final
visitor numbers are yet to be released but
on-line ticket pre-sales predicted around
5000 attending. Johannesburg will be
the next city to welcome the event, on
September 18 and 19.
The British events were a tremen-
dous success for New Zealand employ-
ers, says Barker. “They attracted high-
calibre migrants with the skills that New
Zealand needs. “Nearly a third of the
visitors who said they intended to move
to New Zealand held a Bachelors degree,
and 17 percent held a trades qualifi ca-
tion. Additionally, 17 percent of the
migrants had a Masters or PhD.
“Visitors to the expo were more than
just curious about New Zealand, rather
they were fully committed to making the
move,” says Barker.
Two-thirds of visitors said they
would move within the next 12 months,
and a quarter believed their move
would happen within the next one to
two years.
Working In’s director Hayley Roberts
says: “The impact of the recession is still
being felt in the UK and our expos show
that people are more interested than ever
in moving. Skilled migrants consider
New Zealand a prime destination, for
its lifestyle and opportunities.”
BRITS HEAD DOWN UNDER
On the web: www.expo-newzealand.com
On the web: www.shapenz.org.nz and
www.nzbcsd.org.nz
Job ads attracted interest at the expo in Manchester.
executivepulse
Only 17% of senior New Zealand busi-
ness decision makers favour a profi ts-
only role for their organisations.
Some 75% believe business should
generate profi ts, but balance that with
contributing to the broader public good.
PROFITS-ONLY APPROACH RUNS DISTANT SECOND
Generally speaking, which of the
following best describes the role that
businesses should play in society?
Source: ShapeNZ nationwide survey June 17-July 7, 2010. 2094 respondents including 520 business decision makers (managers, proprietors, self employed, professionals). Weighted to represent the national population. Maximum margin of error on the national sample +/- 2.2%.Shape NZ is operated by the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development.
All
Business decision makers
Focus solely on providing the highest possible returns to investors while obeying all laws and regulations
15% 17%
Generate returns to investors but balance with contributions to the broader public good
75% 75%
Other 11% 9%
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 11
focusLEADERSHIP NZ CAFE SERIES: Members and alumni of the Leadership NZ programme met for a Cafe Series event in Auckland on July 14, on the Generation Gap. 1 Vicky Pond Dunlop of Leadership NZ (left) and Sina Moore (MC). 2 Denise Lazelle (left) and Renee Schick. 3 Speaker Simon Telfer of Springboard. 4 Danielle Fuemana (left) and Chelsea Bracefi eld. 5 Speaker Marie Hull-Brown (left) and Carron Blom of Anguillid.
GLOBAL WOMEN LAUNCH: Dame Jenny Shipley, Mai Chen and MP Patsy Wong launched The Global Women ‘Women in Leadership BreakThrough Leaders Programme’ at a cocktail party in Auckland on June 30 at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts. 6 From left, Jenny Shipley (Global Women), Joanne McCrae (Deloitte) and Leigh Teece (Mt Beautiful Wines). 7 From left, Susan Wood (SWC), Liz Read (Reputation Matters) and Pam Tregonning (South Auckland Health Foundation). 8 Mai Chen (Chen Palmer). 9 From left, Michelle Embling (PricewaterhouseCoopers), Bruce Baillie (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and Wendy Pye (Wendy Pye Publishing). 10 Chris Caldwell (Fonterra), Sally Doherty (Microsoft) and Joanne Fair (Fonterra). 11 Pansy Wong (MP).
™
™
1
3
6
9 10 11
7 8
4 5
2
12 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
on the move
MARILYN WRIGHT
Kensington Swan has promoted Wright to senior associate in its corporate and commercial team in Auckland. She advises on all aspects of corporate and commercial law, with an empha-sis on mergers, acquisitions and restructures.
LISA NEIL
Neil joins Project Plus as a senior consultant. Her experience includes government, telecoms, transport, banking, re-tail and construction from the UK and NZ. Most recently she was senior projects adviser at the Department of Labour.
RICHARD KLEINERT
Deloitte has announced the relocation of Kleinert as leader of its New Zealand and Asia-Pacifi c human capital consulting practice teams. Kleinert, who will be based in Auckland, was previously a partner with Deloitte Consulting in the United States, where he held a number of industry and geographic leadership roles.
PETER WALES
Wales has joined the executive management team of Canon New Zealand, heading up
both the fi nance and credit control functions in the role of assistant general manager – fi nance. He was most recently commercial manager at SmartPay.
TONY VAN CAMP
Bayleys Auckland has appointed van Camp to head a new company sales division which will focus on the sale of medium to large scale businesses. For the past four years he has been a business broker for Auckland company Sales & Acquisition and has been involved in the sale of a wide range of businesses.
NICOLA BILBROUGH
The New Zealand Institute of Valuers has appointed its fi rst woman president. Bilbrough brings 25 years’ industry experience to the posi-tion. She replaces Blue Hancock of Nelson who has held the position since 2007. As president, Bilbrough also joins the board of the Property Institute of New Zealand.
MONTIE BASKETT, JO GIBONEY,
LOUISE HOLDEN Buddle Findlay has announced the appoint-ments of three senior solicitors in its Auckland offi ce. Baskett joins the corporate and com-mercial team; Giboney the fi nancial services team, and Holden the litigation team.
Leadership is Key in a Change Environment!Todays environment means change is required to empower more
front line customer facing resources. Our leadership workshop and coaching options suit different levels of an organisation. These will also assist your
organisation succeed in the brave new world!
www.projectplusgroup.co.nz
ANDREW MCCORMACK
New Zealand HR consultancy Clarian Hu-man Resources has appointed McCormack as business development manager. He brings many years of experience in recruitment and placement to the role, having practised in both the UK and Auckland.
RICHARD VALINTINE
In his new Auckland-based role Valintine will have responsibility for the professional develop-ment of Harcourts’ auctioneers and for train-ing sales consultants in the auction process. He replaces Phil McGoldrick who is auctioneering for Harcourts in Canterbury.
ANDREW SAYERS,
DONNA HARKNESS
WHK has made two appointments in its Auckland tax consulting division: Sayers as principal and head of the division, and Hark-ness as associate principal.
JOHN VALENTINE
3D business software company Right Hemisphere has appointed Valentine as vice president of en-gineering with responsibility to lead the research and development team. He was most recently with RHE & Associates, a software development and integration services company. M
Lisa Neil.
Andrew Sayers.
Donna Harkness.
Andrew McCormack.Nicola Bilbrough.Tony van Camp.
dit control functio
Richard Valintine.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 13
executivedevelopment
CAse study 1
25-26 MENTAL FITNESS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
26 NOT-FOR-PROFIT GOVERNANCE ESSENTIALS. Auckland. Institute of Directors. www.iod.org.nz
30-31 PROJECT MANAGEMENT. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
30-31 ADVANCED TRAIN THE TRAINER. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
31-Sept 2 NEGOTIATION. Christchurch. David Forman. www.davidforman.co.nz
September1-2 FORECASTING, BUDGETING AND STRATEGIC PLANNING. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
2-3 INFLUENCING & PERSUADING SKILLS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
6-7 FINANCE FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
6-7 MASTERING CHALLENGING INTERPERSONAL MANAGEMENT SITUATIONS. Auckland. www.conferenz.co.nz
8-9 HOW TO INTEGRATE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS STRATEGIES. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
16-17 MASTERING NEGOTIATION SKILLS. Wellington. Bright*Star Conferences & Training. www.brightstar.co.nz
17 GOVERNANCE ESSENTIALS. Dunedin. Institute of Directors. www.iod.org.nz
18-19 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
18-19 FINANCE FOR NON-FINANCIAL MANAGERS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
18-19 PROJECT LEADERSHIP. Wellington. Project Plus. www.projectplusgroup.com
19 STRATEGY ESSENTIALS. Dunedin. Institute of Directors. www.iod.org.nz
19-20 DEALING WITH DIFFICULT & DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES. Wellington. Conferenz. www.conferenz.co.nz
23-24 ASSERTIVENESS, INFLUENCING SKILLS & CONFLICT MANAGEMENT FOR WOMEN MANAGERS. Auckland. Bright*Star Conferences & Training. www.brightstar.co.nz
23-24 DEVELOPING STRENGTHS INTO TALENTS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
23-24 STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
25 REDUCING WORKING CAPITAL. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
NZIM courses SEE PAGE 55www.nzimnorthern.co.nz, www.nzimcentral.co.nz, www.managementsouth.co.nz
August 9-10 ADVANCED STRATEGIC PLANNING. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
9-10 NEGOTIATION SKILLS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
9-11 FRANKLINCOVEY: THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. Auckland. David Forman. www.davidforman.co.nz
10-11 INCREASING YOUR RESILIENCE. Auckland. Conferenz. www.conferenz.co.nz
10-11 ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR MANAGING PROJECTS. Wellington. Project Plus. www.projectplusgroup.com
11-12 PORTFOLIO AND PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
16-17 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
16-17 MANAGING PEOPLE. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
16-17 MEDIA TRAINING AND FUNDAMENTALS OF PR. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz
Sponsored by The University of Auckland Business School Short Courses www.shortcourses.ac.nz 0800 800 875
For more detailed diary listings, visit Management‘s website www.management.co.nz
S H O R TC O U R S E Ss m a r t e r f a s t e r
14 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Developing skills for work
By up-skilling existing employees, many with English as a second language, the company continues to strengthen and develop its staff, promoting them internally, says Percy. Deane Apparel has reduced recruitment costs, retained and further developed company knowledge and experience, and as a side benefit has seen an increase in employee loyalty.
Richard Thumath, former CEO of Deane Apparel, says: “The downside of losing a skilled person is the cost of recruiting and it’s the cost of mistakes new people make as they learn with customers. Those costs just go on and on, much more than people realise. We don’t always get the perfect fit with new staff, so for us it’s better to invest in-house.”
Percy says a quote from Alvin Toffler is more relevant than ever: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
The New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy DevelopmentKatherine Percy – Chief Executive
phone: 09 361 3800 email: [email protected]
ADVERTORIAL
Any employer can tell you about the competitive advantage of an appropriately skilled and flexible workforce. For many employers, finding and retaining skilled people is an ongoing issue.
The labour market remains tight and there are skill shortages in a range
of industries. The dilemma for many employers is that both their existing and potential employees do not have the literacy, language, numeracy or ICT skills needed to keep up with changing demands.
Effective performance today requires a complex mix of literacy and numeracy skills. They are needed for implementing production and job schedules; ensuring health and safety requirements are met; estimating quantity and weight, and measuring accurately; and solving problems and contributing in team meetings.
Around 260,000 (12%) of employed New Zealanders have considerable difficulties with workplace documents. Another 610,000 (28%) have problems with complex or unfamiliar information, especially when faced with changing demands. These figures include migrants who may have strong technical skills and qualifications, but who do not have English as a first language. It is hard to have a flexible or innovative workplace and to implement change when your employees’ literacy and communication skills are inadequate.
It is understandable that errors and rework will occur when employees are asked to measure to “a two mil tolerance” when you realise they do not know that ‘mil’ refers to millimetre, and have no idea what ‘tolerance’ means. The incomplete forms, when employees are asked to report workplace hazards,
are understandable when you realise that many do not know the meaning of the word ‘hazard’ and find it difficult to write more than a few familiar words. The lack of employees’ contribution to process improvement ideas is understandable when you realise that many do not have the communication skills needed to present their ideas.
Katherine Percy, CEO of Workbase, a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in improving workplace literacy, says people underestimate the importance of literacy.
“You can’t expect people to be able to understand how to operate new systems or software if they can’t read the technical documentation, if they don’t understand the instructions they are given, or if they can’t make themselves understood with their colleagues.
“The skills needed in workplaces are changing, and employees more and more need to be able to learn new skills and adapt to new work environments. Literacy and numeracy are part of the basic tool set all employees need to ensure they can meet their work demands.”
Deane Apparel, an Auckland-based company, provides literacy training for its employees, with funding support from the Tertiary Education Commission’s Workplace Literacy Fund.
Richard Thumath
VOICE
The business of mobile.
If you want to reach your market, think small. 4cm x 4cm to be precise. Through mobile you can speak directly to your audience.
For mobile marketing case studies that’ll fuel your creativity, text Altaine to 8080.
www.altaine.com Texts cost 20c
The hottest tool in marketing right now
is one you will have in your pocket
everywhere you go. And it will offer you a
world of information and services you can
only dream of right now.
Some of the most exciting marketing
plans around the world are being based
around smart phones, says marketing
commentator Michael Carney of Net
Marketing. But we have yet to see the real
impact of the m-marketing techologies
here, he says.
“New Zealand has its own challenges,”
Carney says. “Our penetration for smart
phones is only 20 percent, whereas it’s
more like 50 percent in the United States.
Right here, right now, it’s not necessarily
enough. But it’s a huge growth area and
yes, it’s only going to grow.”
He predicts that soon all phones will be
smart phones with internet capability and
GPS, making location-based applications
even more exciting.
Locally, Subway is about to release a
world fi rst for the chain – New Zealand’s
fi rst iPhone fast-food ordering application.
Direct marketing manager Jo Reynolds
explains: “For the fi rst time you can order
via an iPhone or iPod Touch – and you can
also use a geolocator to tell you where your
nearest Subway store is.”
The chain already uses
text and internet ordering,
which Reynolds says is cur-
rently a small but growing
part of their business. In
the UK, Subway loyalty card
holders can also use 2D bar-
code scanning technology.
The application is provid-
ed on iPhone, BlackBerry and
many other popular handsets.
A 2D barcode is embedded
within the App and custom-
ers scan this at checkout time,
to acquire or redeem points. Customers
can also see their recent transactions and
current points balance.
Reynolds says we’re likely to see that
here soon too, when the company makes a
decision on which scan technology to use.
“Subcard customers here are already used
to scanning technology,” she says. “We use
it for household mailer offers. The iPhone
application is the fi nal step.”
In the United Kingdom, insurance
company Direct Line has a free “On the
Road” App for iPhones, which includes
a route planner and live traffi c updates
to help plan journeys around traffi c, says
Warren Tobin of Altaine.
It also features an easy-to-use ‘help
for accidents and claims’
tool, should drivers have an
accident.
This function enables
them to immediately record
and store key information,
such as the other motorist’s
car insurance and vehicle de-
tails – including photos of any
damage – on their iPhone in a
simple step-by-step notebook
at the scene of an accident. The
details go straight through to
the claims team so your claim
can be approved quickly.
Says Tobin: “The convenience with
which customers can request a breakdown
service or instantly fi le a claim – and be
guided through the process – compels
consumers to engage. These services pull
customers towards a brand and engage
them with a valuable proposition.”
American-born Kevin Ptak of the
Auckland Social Media Club says the
US is more advanced in smart phone
applications; about a year ahead of New
Zealand in how mobile savvy their popu-
lation is, he says. Social media marketing
via Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare
will build as local smart phone penetra-
tion increases, he says. M
Phone the future, ETThe revolutionary new tool in marketing can be held in your hand, say the experts. And you might even make a call from it every now and then. Brenda Ward looks at a smart phone future.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 15
JUST GOOD BUSINESS CASE STUDY
THE COST OFDISABILITYShe’s intelligent, attractive, a skilled communicator – and she’s visually impaired. Minnie Baragwanath tells Vicki Jayne how her job as a disability adviser has helped people understand the true cost of accessibility.
There are days when Minnie Barag-
wanath’s usual path to work is beset
with difficulties most people would
never experience.
“Because I live with a disability I see
it and get it every single day. I struggle for
different reasons to cross roads – if the little
audio signal isn’t going, I can just get stuck
there on the pavement. It’s cellular. I live
and breathe those frustrations…”
Born with a rare type of vision impair-
ment that wasn’t formally diagnosed until
she was 15, Baragwanath learned early
about adapting to a world that kept throw-
ing up new and demanding challenges.
It’s what makes her such a passionate
advocate for the need to create an environ-
ment in which those who experience some
sort of an impairment – whether related
to mobility, sensory input or intellectual
ability – are not excluded from community
participation because of it.
“People might have an impairment –
but it’s the environment that renders them
disabled,” says Baragwanath.
That’s a message she’s been spread-
ing through a whole plethora of means
– whether at local government planning
and strategy levels or via conferences, com-
munity pressure groups and media – since
she was appointed programme adviser,
disability, at Auckland City Council Com-
munity Services back in 2001.
The fi rst person to hold such a role in
New Zealand local government, she has
had a big hand in helping put disability
issues on the map – not just in Auckland
but throughout New Zealand. Whether
the focus is on planning a major event –
like next year’s World Cup, or daily health
and employment issues, the mantra for
Baragwanath is 100 percent accessibility.
And people are listening.
“A lot of it is not about needing to
reinvent processes but about getting
people to understand why you do cer-
tain things and the value of it. Then it’s
completely logical. Say a kerb isn’t cut for
wheelchair access and because of that, a
young person going to a job interview
can’t get up it. Well cutting the kerb
might cost $200, but the cost to society
of that person’s inability to get a job runs
into millions. It goes from loss of income
and tax revenue to the loss of mental
health related to social exclusion.
“Then on the fl ip side, you could look
at the potential contribution those people
make to society and it’s enormous – this is
a highly innovative group of people used
to problem solving and thinking creatively
on a daily basis. What if we harnessed that
and used it as a strength? Imagine what we
could do with that.”
It’s a sizable pool of talent she’s talking
about – 77,000 people in central Auckland
and around 250,000 in the wider region
have some kind of impairment. More than
half of those fall into the mobility category
(54 percent), one third in the hearing and
11 percent vision.
“We could look at what answers this
group might have for our aging population
– the demographic time bomb countries
like Japan are already dealing with,” says
Baragwanath. “Baby boomers are a big
demographic and although they’d never
call themselves disabled, their abilities do
change with age. I’m really interested in in-
novative leadership and how that relates to
economic development. It’s where I think
we can add value as a council – and a lot of
that comes from personal experience.”
Born with a condition called Stargatz
(stargazer), Baragwanath was initially just
diagnosed as short-sighted, but her visual
impairment was an uncommon juvenile
form of macular degeneration that affects
the central part of her vision.
“Also it deteriorates rapidly during
adolescence, so I couldn’t read books or
see things on the blackboard and though
I’d started off playing sports, I had to stop
because the coaches didn’t think I’d be
able to manage. I couldn’t even recognise
people’s faces. And there was no way I
could drive.”
With a supportive mother reading and
recording her textbooks (“they were pep-
pered with comments like ‘whoops, just
spilt the tea’,” laughs Baragwanath), she
earned a Bachelor degree in English Lit-
erature from Massey and, later, a Bachelor
in Communication Studies from AUT. In
between she travelled and went into busi-
ness with what was possibly New Zealand’s
fi rst mobile coffee cart.
She remembers the despair of walking
into her fi rst computer class, turning the
machine on and realising she couldn’t see
a single thing on the screen.
“There was no adaptive software then.
Even now I have to buy it separately. The
software I use with our standard work
computer is nearly $3000. In my fi rst job I
had to wait six months before getting ap-
proval (and government funding) for soft-
16 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
ware I needed to do the job. I was just lucky
to have such a supportive employer.”
At the time she was a TV researcher/
presenter for the Inside Out disability
series. When told about the council job in
2001, Baragwanath had to get her mum
to read the job description before suc-
cessfully applying for what was initially a
six-month contract.
It proved a turning point.
“It wasn’t easy for me to get work and I
completely understand the barriers to em-
ployment and how they impact on you. So
we could be running a whole lot of fabu-
lous community development initiatives
but it’s still key that people get work.
“The greatest thing that made the
biggest difference to my life is having
a job because then I can be part of my
community. I can go somewhere each day
and feel I have a purpose. Once I started
earning an income, I could buy my own
home. I can afford to buy the computer
equipment I need and not wait until the
government decides whether I’m worthy
of it. We don’t place enough emphasis on
that side of the puzzle.”
But things are changing.
Through her work with the council,
Baragwanath has ensured all its various
arms – from roading and traffi c to library
services and the zoo – know what disability
means for Aucklanders and for their own
work programmes. It was a huge exercise
but through relentless communication and
relationship building, a whole bunch of
protocols, policies and best practice guide-
lines have now been established. And these
are increasingly being taken up by other
local and central government bodies.
“We did a lot of work around physi-
cal auditing because that was very tan-
gible – so that auditing was applied to
all our libraries, community facilities,
swimming pools, rec centres etc and a
programme to implement those recom-
mendations started.”
She also made a conscious decision to
undertake the post-graduate diploma in
Economic Development at AUT two years
ago as she saw it as essential to her effective-
ness as an advocate for disability.
“Most people don’t ever think of dis-
ability through an economic development
lens, they apply a charity or medical view
which is terribly limiting.”
She’s proud that Auckland City is on
the front edge of change.
“I think we should feel good because
we have helped trigger disability pro-
grammes all across New Zealand that have
drawn inspiration from our programme.
“For instance, we’ve developed
guidelines for accessible information
and communication that will hopefully
ensure everything we send out to cus-
tomers and citizens in the new Auckland
Council is accessible.”
After completing the Leadership New
Zealand (LNZ) one-year programme in
2007, Baragwanath has been working with
former LNZ chief executive Lesley Slade,
diversity consultant Philip Patson, AUT,
IHC and Yes Ability to develop the “Step-
ping Up” leadership programme based
around the LNZ template, but specifi cally
designed for people from the disability
community. It will take in its fi rst cohort
next year.
Also in the offi ng – a major new eco-
nomic development programme based
around disability issues.
“It’s about how accessible business is
good business,” explains Baragwanath.
“It’s being led by Auckland City and we’re
partnering with Tourism Auckland, Dis-
ability Resource Centre and Squiz on
working with businesses around accessible
tourism. Many people don’t realise that
baby boomers, often with higher rates of
disability, are our largest and most affl uent
tourist group – yet we’re not meeting their
access needs.
“A major aim of the World Cup
programme is generating legacies that
benefi t New Zealand into the future –
and we’re helping them deliver that. This
is a catalyst for massive social change for
the disability community.”
It all points to what Minnie believes
is a step change in attitudes toward
disabled people.
“What I see now is that there has been
enough initial change to the built envi-
ronment, to education and to employ-
ment that we have more disabled leaders
and champions coming through who are
articulate, have skills and can open doors
for others. I wonder if we haven’t got to
a tipping point where the momentum is
unstoppable.” M
Vicki Jayne is a freelance Auckland journalist.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 17
JUST GOOD BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY
18 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Business saving the planetby Peter Neilson
Chief executives globally are more
convinced than ever of the need to
embed environmental, social and cor-
porate governance issues within their
core businesses.
The imperative to act is moving from
a moral to a business case, according to
the fi ndings of the largest-ever global sur-
vey of CEOs on their sustainable business
views and practices.
In many ways it mirrors the values of
New Zealand business decision-makers.
The latest report by Accenture for
the UN Global Compact business group
should send a chill through the large
numbers of New Zealand businesses
which think they are behaving sustain-
ably (62 percent) – and the number who
actually have a sustainable development
strategy (38 percent).
The latest nationwide ShapeNZ-Fair-
fax survey of New Zealand businesses on
sustainable practice, fi nds 75 out of every
100 senior executives and New Zealanders
overall believe businesses should make a
profi t and contribute to the social good.
This translates into 25 percent
actively buying goods and services for
their organisations from suppliers who
act sustainably. Only 29 percent say they
don’t care who supplies goods and serv-
ices, provided they are at the best price.
Another 44 percent say they practise
something in-between these two op-
tions. So between 25 and 69 percent of all
business people buying in New Zealand
will be saying to themselves “The price
might be right, but…”
They know that the damage to
reputation, sales, and ability to attract
and keep valuable skilled staff depends
on their organisation behaving properly
toward the environment and the society
they live in.
The Global Compact business
group says: “It is a decade that CEOs
believe could usher in a new era where
sustainability issues are fully integrated
into all elements of business and mar-
ket forces are truly aligned with sus-
tainability outcomes. Conversations
conducted as part of this landmark
study make clear that today’s CEOs are
more convinced than ever of the need
to embed environmental,
social and corporate gov-
ernance issues within core
business... The imperative
to act has shifted from a
moral to a business case.
Furthermore, executives
see significant progress
in executing their plans to
integrate sustainability.”
Here are Global Com-
pact’s fi ndings:
• 93 percent of CEOs be-
lieve that sustainability
issues will be critical to
the future success of their
business.
• 72 percent cite “brand,
trust or reputation” as one
of the top three factors driv-
ing them to take action on
sustainability issues.
• 58 percent identify consumers as the
most important stakeholder group that
will impact the way they manage societal
expectations. Employees were second
with 45 percent.
• 91 percent report that their company
will employ new technologies to ad-
dress sustainability issues over the next
fi ve years.
• 96 percent believe that sustainability
issues should be fully integrated into the
strategy and operations of a company.
• 49 percent cite complexity of imple-
mentation across functions as the most
significant barrier to implementing an
integrated, company-wide approach to
sustainability.
Here and abroad the worst recession
in 81 years has barely dented support for
sustainable practice. In New Zealand, only
three percent more businesses are buying
on price alone.
Globally chief executives see sustain-
ability as one area where doing the right
thing is helping reduce costs and lift
profi ts when revenue is hardly moving.
Here companies are adding millions
to their bottom lines from measuring
and managing emissions – which leads
them to plans to cut energy, water, travel
and other costs. At the same time it cuts
waste and emissions and boosts the use
of smarter technology.
For business, sustainability is about
getting a balance between profi t, people
and the planet.
Just know that when you go to do a
deal in New Zealand you’ll have to come
up with something better than a sharp
price with 71 out of every 100 of the
people you want to sell to.
Buying cheaply without regard for
your community or our quality of life will
get you expensively offside with 75 out of
every 100 New Zealanders. M
Peter Neilson is chief executive of the New Zealand
Business Council for Sustainable Development.
www.nzbcsd.org.nz, www.shapenz.org.nz
For business, sustainability is about getting a balance between profi t, people and the planet, says Peter Neilson.
Win this award and become one of New Zealand’s stand-out Top 200 Companies. Investors, employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders view responsible governance practices as a measure of organisational integrity. It is an expression of
T O P 2 O O
Deloitte/ManagementMagazine
A Bold Spirit
Governance as ...
The 2010 Kensington Swan Responsible Governance Award for outstanding stakeholder commitment
All potential Top 200 Companies will be invited to complete the Kensington Swan Responsible Governance entry form.
To ensure delivery of your entry details or for further information please email Tania Vela at [email protected], go to www.management.co.nz/top 200
The fi nalists and winner will be announced at this year’s 21st Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards, held in Auckland at SkyCity on Thursday, December 2, 2010.
Join us at this year’s event where you will meet those who are already writing the new rules for a new world.
Winners of the former Kensington Swan Ethical Governance Award include: 3M New Zealand, NZ Post, Methanex, Norske Skog Tasman, Mercury Energy, NZ Aluminium Smelters, Honda New Zealand, Snowy Peak.
a board’s commitment to ethical and outstanding business performance and leadership. And for those enterprises that embrace, articulate and demonstrate responsible governance, it delivers competitive advantage.
This year’s Kensington Swan Responsible Governance Award, a major category award within the 21st annual Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards programme, has been revised, enhanced and broadened in scope to refl ect the changes that impact on local and global market acceptance and success. Every successful, sustainable, responsible and future-focused enterprise should aspire to win this award. It refl ects a company’s genuine understanding of our new world in which responsible, ethical and sustainable governance defi nes real success.
The Kensington Swan Responsible Governance Award questionnaire has been expanded this year. The New Zealand Securities Commission’s Corporate Governance Principles and Guidelines* have been used as a reference, along with advice from leading responsible investment adviser Dr Rodger Spiller and the highly regarded Canberra-based CAER (Corporate Analysis. Enhanced Responsibility), which monitors NZX 50 companies for AMP Capital. The questionnaire now addresses the Commission’s expectations of best practice as a prerequisite to entry. The outcome will build on the 11-year history of this award as a coveted acknowledgement of outstanding commitment to best practice governance that provides stakeholders with a positive indication of organisational integrity.
*Principles 1 and 9 respectively state, in part, that “Directors should observe and foster high ethical standards...” and that “The boards should respect the interests of stakeholders...”
... responsible leadership?
Bookcaseby Brenda Ward and Reg Birchfi eld
DAMNED IF SHE DOES, DAMNED IF SHE DOESN’TBY LYNN CRONIN AND HOWARD FINE • FOOTPRINT BOOKS • RRP: $42.62 (EXC GST)
Women are still struggling in today’s
business world, playing a game with
rules that work best for men, argue
Lynn Cronin and Howard Fine.
The couple, who started out
in the same business together
only to see Fine’s career grow eas-
ily while Cronin’s dragged, wrote this
book seeking answers as they watched
their children head out to work. Lynn
Cronin is now a consultant for Fortune
500 companies, and Fine runs a human
resources consultancy.
Pay figures that show differences
between salaries show only a snapshot in
time, they say. In fact, the longer one stays
in the workforce, the greater the disparity
in pay between men and women.
The pair say women are marginalised
in team environments. They can’t win.
Too easy-going and they are seen as
weak; too vocal and they are ‘dominat-
ing’. “Most companies are still haunted
by cultures in which employees are most
comfortable when women are quietly
supportive,” say the pair.
Women also miss out on mentoring
and advocacy opportunities, waiting like
the girls at the dance, to be asked, without
the easy chemistry of business relation-
ships between men.
The book also covers the paradoxes of
women’s commitment to a job while rais-
ing a family, how they bond
with co-workers and how
they fi nd it diffi cult to chal-
lenge the power structure.
Despite the issues, the
writers are optimistic that
all of us want gender parity
– we just need to fi nd a so-
lution, the gender-neutral
corporate structure of what they call a
‘co-ed’ company.
This is a fascinating analysis of the
issues that will appeal to both sexes,
rather than a guide with all the answers.
However, senior managers will fi nd con-
sidering the problem is already half of the
answer. • Brenda Ward
THE WHY OF WORKDAVE URLICH & WENDY URLICH • MCGRAW HILL • RRP $54.99
The world of work has changed, and
many of us are still trying to fathom the
consequences, up side and down, of that.
To cope with and benefi t from constant
and signifi cant change, it helps to know
the why.
To keep managers and professionals
engaged, we need to know why we are
doing what we do.
And as work is the
thing we do most dur-
ing our waking hours,
we are better equipped
to cope and succeed
when we understand
the why of it.
David Ulrich is
one of America’s leading business think-
ers, based at the University of Michigan.
Wendy Ulrich is a psychologist there.
Their book focuses on seven key
questions:
• What am I known for? – identity.
• Where am I going? – purpose and
motivation.
• Whom do I travel with? – relationships
and teamwork.
• How do I build a positive work environ-
ment? – effective work culture or setting.
• What challenges interest me? – person-
alising and contributing work.
• How do I respond to disposability
and change? – growth, learning and
resilience.
• What delights me? – civility and
happiness.
The Why of Work is well considered,
thoughtfully constructed and tackles an
interesting and increasingly complex is-
sue – how to keep focused on the meaning
and personal value of work beyond the
dollars and when all around things seems
less than ideal and personal exploitation
prevails. • Reg Birchfi eld
OPINION
20 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
OCTOBER 2010SPECIALFEATURES
TOP 200 THEME: SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS For further information contact
Clara Iqbal on 021 930 887 or email [email protected]
AD
VER
TISING
BOOKING DEADLINE 8 SEPTEM
BER
Med
iM
edi
edia
Web
aWeb
aW M
G
and when it does you wantQBE on your side
QBE-019 MGMT Rapport Ls
Imagine: torrential rain leading to landslides.
People losing their homes. They’ll look to find someoneto blame and to pay.
What follows will change the financial landscape fora number of businesses. The legal onslaught will engulfnot only the builders and sub-contractors who haveworked on the properties, but also the developers,engineers, surveyors, architects, and local authorities– in fact anyone who had provided professional adviceor services.
Would your business survive the risks of the realdisaster – its after effects?
QBE has more than 200 different liability and propertyinsurance policies working to help protect New Zealandbusinesses. So when it hits the fan, you want QBEon your side.
Talk to your insurance broker today aboutQBE Insurance.
www.qbe.co.nz
POLITICS
by Colin JamesWhat style is our leader?
As the world changes, so do
politicians’ leadership styles.
It’s not business as usual. After every
big technology-induced economic
boom and crash, things are done
differently. After the “great financial
crash”, politics, like business, requires
a different sort of leader and a different
sort of leadership.
This is only partly because govern-
ments think they need to re-regulate
those who caused the crash. It is also only
partly because most governments in the
rich world have mountains of debt and
huge budget defi cits to defray.
There’s a critical shift to which
political leaders will need to respond
– the different structure of business
driven by digital technology. Rote neo-
Keynesian or neo-liberal doctrine will
miss that point.
The digital revolution changed
forever the globalisation of finance,
production and markets (along with
information, people and ideas). This
in turn has been helping the tectonic
global economic and political rebalanc-
ing that goes with Asia’s rise.
It will be some time before the
global political-economy settles into a
relatively predictable new pattern – as,
for example, happened for four decades
after the second world war, before dig-
ital technology started really to change
economies and societies.
The opportunities in science, new
technology and goods and services in
the fast-enriching economies come
with the complication for us of having
to learn how to operate in unfamiliar
cultures, notably Chinese and Indian.
The true leaders in business here over
the next 20 years will be those who can
make this transition.
The same goes for politics.
Helen Clark was Eurocentric. She
did the free trade deal with China and
recognised Asia’s rising and future im-
portance. But she was more at home in
Europe and with Spanish-speaking Lat-
in America. Teaching of Asian and Chi-
nese studies and language languished at
the very time when a future-oriented
leader would drive an urgent shift of
focus in schools and universities.
Clark was a “consolidating” prime
minister in the three-way classifi cation
Victoria University political leadership
specialist Jon Johansson uses. She settled
the country down after the 1980s-90s’
radical shifts to neo-liberal economics
and bicultural social policy. Put another
way, she was a transactional manager.
John Key, in Johansson’s model,
is “preparatory”. He is a tail-ender of
the baby-boomer generation of which
Clark was a standard-bearer. That delin-
eates him as a transitional leader from
that generation to the generation-Xers
coming up.
The third Johansson leadership
classification is “achievement”. You
might also call that transformational.
Sir Roger Douglas, with David Lange as
his translator and presenter to a public
that was alternately mesmerised and
stunned, was such a leader.
The challenge for the generation-X
leaders waiting in the party ranks will be to
lead the sort of policy transformation that
will fi t New Zealand economically, socially
and politically into the 2010s-20s digital
and geopolitically rebalanced world.
Key has shown little sign he can
morph into that role. He is pragmatic
and cautious and closely watches polls
(which point backwards). He suits mana-
gerial government aimed at maintaining
a majority in a society of vote-drifters. If
he is preparing us for something differ-
ent, as distinct from soothing us before
a future leader’s ‘something different’, it
is not obvious yet.
Key has a decentralised style of
cabinet management in which good
ministers do well and less competent
ones muck up. His take on China and
the global rebalancing amounts to lit-
tle more than trade, trade, trade. He
is miserly and unadventurous with
research funds. He has not pushed of-
fi cials, researchers, business and policy
wonks to see whether “clean-tech” or
“green growth” will be big in the post-
crash economy and, if so, how New
Zealand fi ts.
Instead, his big word is “balance”.
That sounds more like consolidating
Clark’s consolidation than preparing
the next big leap.
But, as polls tell him, voters have
little appetite for a big leap. Business
as usual is much more comfortable,
even if it is the last epoch’s “usual”
rather than the “usual” to come – as it
surely will. M
Colin James is New Zealand’s leading political
commentator and NZ Management’s regular
political columnist. [email protected]
“THE TRUE LEADERS IN BUSINESS HERE OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS WILL BE THOSE WHO CAN LEARN HOW TO OPERATE IN UNFAMILIAR CULTURES, NOTABLY CHINESE AND INDIAN.”
OPINION
22 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Luke DallowRestaurateur and entrepreneur
What is New Zealand’s identity?As a small nation we tend to look out for our own. When we travel, we often treat fellow Kiwis like brothers and sisters – some of us in weak moments have even been known to greet Aussies in similar tones. Our isolation from the rest of the world bonds Kiwis and enhances our patriotism. We’re engrained with a No 8 wire mentality as children and this is what sets us apart from the rest of the world when we are facing daily challenges.
I believe New Zealand’s Maori culture and how it is evolving gives us a unique outlook on life and is something we need to embrace more. And it’s not only the Maori culture that stands out here in Godzone. This country embodies so many different nationalities and I think that’s a great thing. It all adds up to a rich and colourful multicultural nation.
I’ve travelled a fair bit and every time I come home I am reminded how stunningly beautiful New Zealand is. And for our size we seem to produce more than our fair share of high-achievers – be it in sport, fashion, business, hospitality and many other areas. Although we aim for the sky, I reckon we’re pretty gracious when we reach it – and when we don’t.
What will be our next major challenge?As a country, we need to work on helping people in the lower socio-economic groups. There is a growing gap between these groups and middle-income New Zealand. Poverty is a vicious cycle and as a nation we need to support the less fortunate. But we won’t do it by offering them hand-outs. We have to grow the pie so each person’s share is bigger – there’s no point in carving up bigger slices for selected groups by taking share off others. Another challenge is the great Kiwi brain-drain. We’re an exceptional country of not only educated people, but also skilled, very hard-working and talented staff. We need to get the world coming to New Zealand, rather than New Zealand going to the world. And that’s why I am a big supporter of immigration. We’re the same size as the UK with around one fi fteenth of the population. We are sought out as an immigrant nation and we can take advantage of that, encouraging others to join us in our growth.
What do we need to do to prepare ourselves for that?We need to grow our pie so that everyone’s share of the country’s wealth grows. We also need to help out those struggling with poverty by providing mentors and inspirational Kiwis prepared to help others. The ever-present tall poppy syndrome needs to be washed out. Although that phrase has now become clichéd, it does exist. We need to applaud successful Kiwis, especially those who overcome obstacles to achieve. Rather than criticising their work we should be celebrating their accomplishments. Because New Zealand is both small and comprises many successful people, petty jealousies can be hugely counter-productive. Rather than congratulate, it’s easier to knock achievers. We need to look beyond the present and realise there is a bigger picture. We shouldn’t look too much into our neighbours’ problems and be quick to judge someone if they’ve made a mistake.
AS I SEE IT
Luke Dallow is a hospitality veteran and the owner of Auckland’s Sale St bar & Dallow’s restaurant, Chapel Bar &
Bistro as well as the recently launched Radio Ponsonby.
by Bob Edlin
ECONOMICS
It’s a question of management
Finance Minister Bill English obvi-
ously enjoys answering patsy Par-
liamentary questions that have been
crafted to allow him to claim or infer
that his economic management is greatly
superior to that of his Labour predeces-
sor. An example: an innocent-sounding
question from MP Amy Adams about
challenges in the economy to creating
permanent and sustainable jobs.
English replied saying there was little
point in having the job creation that oc-
curred under the previous government,
“based as it was on a temporary property
boom, or a back-room bureaucracy that
the economy does not need and cannot
afford. That gave many New Zealanders
false hopes, which have been dashed. That
is why we are working on creating better-
quality jobs in an economy focused on
saving and exporting.”
But another recent question inadvert-
ently drew attention to the benefi ts fl owing
from a good policy initiative by the Clark
government, the negotiation of the free-
trade agreement with China.
National MP Colin King wanted to
know what reports Agriculture Minister
David Carter had recently received on the
state of New Zealand’s primary sector. He
was told the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry had just launched its annual fl ag-
ship publication, Situation and Outlook for
New Zealand Agriculture and Forestry. This
“shows that our primary producers are at
the forefront of New Zealand’s export-led
recovery and, despite a number of chal-
lenges, can look forward to a mainly posi-
tive outlook over the next fi ve years”.
So what were the key fi ndings of the
report and what signifi cant trends did
it pick for the sector in coming years?
Carter replied that it identifi ed a robust
economic outlook for our primary sector
“on the back of an increasingly strong
demand from developing economies,
most notably China”.
Agricultural and forestry export earn-
ings from China rose from $1.47 billion
to $2.19 billion in the year to December
31, 2010 (up 49 percent), with whole milk
powder increasing from $250 million to
$610 million. Forestry export earnings
increased from $529 million to $864 mil-
lion (up 63 percent).
China didn’t show up among New
Zealand’s top 10 export markets two
decades ago. It now sits in the number
two position.
On his recent visit there, Prime Minis-
ter John Key said he wanted to double the
two-way trade between the two countries
to $20 billion within fi ve years. But his
fi gures ($4 billion export revenue and $6
billion import payments in the year to 31
May) are for merchandise goods trade
only. New Zealand has a growing trade in
services with China which has even more
growth potential, as Wellington Employ-
ers’ Chamber of Commerce spokesman
Charles Finney pointed out.
Finney reckons Key has understated
what is achievable, especially when serv-
ices sector exports are included, and he
noted that doubling the trade amounted
to less than 15 percent growth per annum,
which is much less than New Zealand’s
annual growth in exports to China since
the Free Trade Agreement was signed. It is
not much more than the levels of annual
economic growth China has been experi-
encing in recent years.
Let’s not forget, then, that in May 2003,
when the Clark government was being
criticised for its handling of diplomatic
relations with the United States, Trade
Minister Jim Sutton was sanguine. He was
focused fi rst on the Doha round of World
Trade Organisation negotiations to liber-
alise global trade, and then on a free-trade
agreement with the US. But he said: “To
me, there’s no trade and economic rela-
tionship more important for New Zealand
for the 21st century than our trade and
economic relationship with China.”
It’s worth wondering what would
have happened to our economy without
China’s trade during the recession. Total
merchandise exports fell 7.5 percent in
the year to May 31. Receipts increased in
just one of our six markets – China (up
23.8 percent).
China was willing to negotiate
a free trade partnership on terms
generally acceptable to people in this
country. The United States – so far – is
not. This makes it hard to disagree with
Sutton’s judgement. M
Bob Edlin is a leading economic commentator and
NZ Management’s regular economics columnist.
OPINION
26 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
COMPANY PROFILE
QUEST Serviced Apartments New Zealand and Fiji has made the business of travel a highly successful venture with a property portfolio worth over $250 million, and turnover in excess of $35 million per annum.
The largest serviced apartment network across the region represents 27 properties stretching from Invercargill to Suva, and is poised for further expansion with 4 more planned over the next 2 years.
Launched in 1998, following the success of the model in Australia, Quest has grown at a steady rate of 2-3 new properties per year. Each property is based on 40-50 apartment complexes, mixed with studio, one and two bedroom apartments.
Well located in business hubs, each property is closely aligned to location features including conference venues, restaurants and bars. All Quest properties are Qualmark rated 4 or 4.5 star standard and the majority of the network has also achieved
Bronze Enviro status for their commitment to sustainability.
Quest guests are both short and long stay business travellers; they are professionals whose working lives involve regular travel or relocation. Then on weekends and holidays, Quest often welcomes the very same business travellers back as leisure guests.
Guest feedback highlights a number of reasons for choosing Quest; at the top of the list are value for money rates and the conveniences that come with a fully self contained apartment (7 day per week reception, daily room cleaning, laundry/valet, internet access, breakfast packs, pre-arrival pantry shopping service and restaurant charge back). With the independence of the Quest experience, guests can avoid high costs often associated with food, beverage and laundering when staying at a hotel.
For corporates, Quest offers the convenience and assurance of a fixed rate option. As CEO Stephen Mansfield explains;
“For all our corporate clients and especially SMEs, the assurance of a fixed rate is one less business variable to manage, we understand the value of that, we’re business people ourselves. Some of our guests have expressed frustration with the hotel sector, where a room worth $100.00 today can be sold at $200.00 tomorrow. At Quest we focus on delivering certainty to the corporate traveller - certainty of product standard, room availability, price, service and location.”
Recently Quest joined the New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM) and the Project Managers Institute of New Zealand (PMINZ) as the exclusive accommodation provider. Fellow members who book direct will enjoy a standard rate of $115.00 plus GST, available at Quest properties throughout New Zealand and Suva. This rate represents the maximum they will pay, and if the member books direct via the Quest website they will also be able to enjoy any special rate of the day that happens to be lower.
Quest Serviced ApartmentsTel: +64 9 366 9680 . Fax: +64 9 366 9681 . Web: www.questapartments.co.nz
THE BUSINESS BEHIND CORPORATE TRAVEL
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 27
ENGAGING MANAGEMENT
28 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
NZIM
The marketplace is tight. And in tough
economic times, employee morale
and money supply take a pounding. In
times like this, something more than
fi nancial bribery is needed to keep or-
ganisations performing.
Experience and research both advo-
cate thinking outside the square. Keeping
the most talented people in an enterprise
focused and positive isn’t just about
money. “Bonuses are over-rated,” says
Robyn Walshe, an NZIM Northern board
member and principal of Davidson Kemp
Consultancy.
She concedes, however, that they have
been the “currency of ap-
preciation” for some time
and are still used as a mark
of value. “But they let us
down when funds are short
and there is less in the pool
to share around.”
Kevin Gaunt, NZIM
Northern chief executive,
believes that focusing on
money as a motivator is
“part of the old style man-
agement world”. For his
money, the key issue in today’s world is
“engaging” people. “Motivating is what
someone tries to do to someone else.
Engaging is what a person does them-
selves,” he says.
Some recent research by global man-
agement consultancy McKinsey & Com-
pany endorses the NZIM directors’
collective thinking. It suggests that the
“economic slump offers business leaders a
chance to more effectively reward talented
employees by emphasising non-fi nancial
motivators rather than bonuses”.
The survey found that world wide,
companies are cutting back their fi nan-
cial-incentive programmes but, that
few of them have used other ways of
inspiring talent. “We think they should,”
says the consultancy. “Numerous stud-
ies have concluded that for people with
satisfactory salaries, some non-fi nancial
motivators are more effective than extra
cash in building long-term employee en-
gagement in most sectors, job functions
and business contexts.”
The survey specifi cally
identifi ed three non-cash
motivators as “no less or
even more effective” than
the three highest rating
fi nancial incentives – cash
bonuses, increased base
pay, and stock or stock
options. The three non-
fi nancial motivators they
found effective were:
• Praise from immediate
managers.
• Leadership attention (such as one-on-
one conversations).
• A chance to lead projects or task
forces.
As Walshe points out, research has
“been telling us for decades” that fi nancial
rewards are limited in their value to mo-
tivate. “But,” she adds, “one of the things
we did learn over the past year or so is
that remuneration packages loaded with
bonuses encourage behaviours that may
not be good for business – or ethics.
“Customers and shareholders have
watched in horror as executives with key
roles during periods of signifi cant stuff-
ups are still paid sizeable bonuses. Conse-
quently, trust is undermined, reputation
is lost, and brand and share values fall.
“The bonus is perhaps becoming an-
other four letter word – never mind that it
contains fi ve letters – and may yet become
the currency of shame,” she offers.
Gaunt’s emphasis on engagement
rather than motivation, is also based on
research. The fi rst level of engagement
involves asking:
• Am I earning enough money to make
me turn up for work?
• Do I have the tools necessary to do
my work?
• Do I know what is expected of me?
“At this level,” says Gaunt, “the indi-
vidual is willing to engage. At the second
level a person wants to know whether
what they do is worthwhile and appreci-
ated. If they fi nd themselves thinking:
‘why on earth do I bother?’ then they are
not being recognised and their engage-
ment falls off.
“At the third level, people ask them-
selves two further questions: am I aligned
with where this organisation is going?
And: do I like working with these people?
If the answer to both questions is yes,
then the individual will commit further
and become increasingly engaged,” says
Gaunt.
“The fourth level of engagement is
Bounce the bonusRICHER REWARDS EXISTForget motivation. Focus on engagement. That’s the New Zealand Institute of Management’s advice to employers stretched to fi nd the bonuses and cash rewards conventional wisdom says keep good people on the payroll. Reg Birchfi eld reports.
Robyn Walshe.
NATIONAL BOARDPHILLIP MEYER FNZIM (CHAIRMAN) BRIAN SOUTAR AFNZIMGARY STURGESS Life FNZIM LLOYD DAVIES FNZIMJOHN SANDFORD FNZIM CHERYL DOIG FNZIMLYNDA CARROLL AFNZIM OFFICESNATIONAL OFFICEActing CEO PHILLIP MEYER FNZIMBox 67, Wellington 6140Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479Email national_offi [email protected] website http://www.nzim.co.nz
NORTHERNPresident: JOHN SANDFORD FNZIMCEO: KEVIN GAUNT FNZIM, FAIMBox 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, Fax 0-9-303 9109Email [email protected] www.nzimnorthern.co.nz
CENTRALPresident: PHILLIP MEYER FNZIMCEO: KARIN CALLAGHAN FNZIM, FIPAABox 11781, Wellington 6142Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301Email [email protected] www.nzimcentral.co.nz
SOUTHERNPresident: BRIAN SOUTAR AFNZIMActing CEO: TOM McBREARTY AFNZIMBox 13044, Christchurch 8141Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-3-366 7069Email [email protected] www.nzimsouthern.co.nz
NZIM FOUNDATIONChairperson: DAVID MOLONEY FNZIMSecretary: JIM THOMSONPO Box 67 Wellington, Ph 0-4-473 0470national_offi [email protected]
LEADERS BUILDING LEADERSOur aim is to build management capabilitythrough, Research, Learning, and Recognition
Our focus is to:• Research leading management trends and practice
and promote a constantly developing model of best management capability for New Zealand.
• Enable managers and aspiring managers to participate in learning programmes, mentoring, and events that provide the information and experience they need to develop their capability.
• To identify leading management role models and provide awards that recognise the career and educational achievements of managers.
29
about the individual looking for growth
and opportunity in the organisation. At
this stage they are highly engaged but, if
they can’t move forward, their engage-
ment will reduce.”
So why haven’t more organisations
made more use of cost-effective non-
financial motivators at a time when
cash is harder to find?
The McKinsey survey sug-
gests that many executives
hesitate to challenge the
traditional management
wisdom that money is
what really counts.
“While executives
themselves may be equal-
ly influenced by other
things, they still think in
terms of the size of the
compensation,” was one
reason provided by a respondent to the
researchers.
Another, and more probably the real
reason for sticking with bonuses, is that
non-fi nancial ways of motivating people
“require more time and commitment
from senior managers” – read leadership
laziness.
One HR director McKinsey inter-
viewed talked about senior executives’
tendency to “hide” in their offi ces – re-
fl ecting uncertainty about the current
situation and outlook. “This lack of
interaction between managers and their
people creates a highly damaging void
that saps employee engagement,” the
survey said.
Walshe also adds: “It’s interesting that
we’re still focused on bonuses when the
messages have been telling us there’s so
much more [available to keep individuals
motivated and engaged].
“We still use misleading language,” she
says. “We talk about motivating others.
Some say you can’t motivate anyone. You
can help create an environment where
it’s easier for individuals to be success-
ful or you can reward them in ways that
encourage the behaviours an organisa-
tion is after. But real motivation is always
something that an individual drives from
within.” This, effectively, is Gaunt’s point
about emphasising engagement.
Walshe does, however, think some
companies are, either voluntarily or
because economic circumstances are
encouraging them, “tuning in to the
power that comes with giving people
opportunities to grow and develop” and
not just be richer.
One of her clients
recently won a sales per-
son of the year award
which wasn’t “simply a
stack of money”. It was
training. “Once we would
have said that a top-per-
forming employee didn’t
need training and that
their performance was
evidence they had already
arrived,” says Walshe.
“But the opportunity to
grow, develop and expand their talent and
career was considered a fabulous prize.
That company has changed its currency
of appreciation.”
A key attribute identified in the
Ministry of Economic Development’s
recently released ‘Management Mat-
ters’ report is management’s role is to
build people capability. It is a point with
which Gaunt agrees. “Building capability
makes organisations more attractive to
prospective employees and helps retain
the talent already in the organisation.
But, I still think too many managers are
focused on the operational side of their
organisation and not suffi ciently on the
human resource side.”
The McKinsey study suggests that
with profi tability returning to the market-
place, there are signs of bonuses making
a comeback. “While such rewards have
an important role to play, business lead-
ers would do well to consider the lessons
of the crisis and think broadly about the
best ways to engage and inspire people,”
they suggest.
“A talent strategy that emphasises the
frequent use of the right non-fi nancial
motivators would benefi t most compa-
nies in bleak times and fair. By acting now,
they could exit the downturn stronger
than they entered it.” M
Kevin Gaunt.
WANTED:
Great NZ leaders
New Zealand is rich in potential, says Reg Birchfi eld. But it does not have the leaders required to realise that potential. He has been talking to top Kiwi leaders about where New Zealand is weak and how we need to grow.
UNDERSTANDING THE NEW WORLD
New Zealand’s leaders must
start asking the right ques-
tions and articulating a
vision of the nation’s fu-
ture, Fletcher Building’s chief executive
Jonathan Ling says.
Ling, the second Australian in succes-
sion to run the country’s second largest
enterprise, thinks our business and
political leaders should ask themselves
why Australia’s economy and standard
of living is about 30 percent ahead of
New Zealand’s.
He says, until New Zealand gets its
economy in shape “it can’t seriously con-
sider doing the things it would like to do”.
He draws parallels between the need for the
nation to think and act much as he does in
driving Fletcher Building.
“I am not a politician and I don’t
know how to run a country,” he says. “But
if I applied my business theories, I would
advocate getting the right people in place,
agreeing what to do and then creating the
culture and support mechanism to make
sure it happens. No one seems to have a go
at that sort of process.”
The differences between New Zealand
and Australia are, says Ling, partly cultural.
He found the cultural differences he faced
moving to New Zealand greater than those
he encountered when he moved from
Australia to Malaysia.
The Australian psyche is, he believes,
firmly rooted in its sports-dominated
winning culture and, consequently they
will do whatever it takes to win. “Even bowl
underarm, if necessary,” he smiles. Doing
whatever it takes to win is, says Ling, part
of their cultural DNA.
New Zealand, on the other hand, is
defi ned by its relationship culture, which
is probably in turn linked to the nation’s
smallness. Our need to get along with each
other has steered people away from “mak-
ing enemies” of those they might rub up
against in business in the future.
He thinks one of the unintended
consequences of the Kiwi relationship
culture is that emotive, rather than fac-
tual responses, govern thinking. “Facts
govern things in a winning culture,” he
says. In Ling’s experience, this difference
accounts for the struggle New Zealand
communities have with the “fact-based
conversations” the country needs to have
to get the outcomes it needs. “There is no
right or wrong about a winning versus a
relationship-based culture,” says Ling. “But
you can see why some of the behaviours in
the two countries are quite different.”
As Ling’s observations show, New
Zealand, like most of the world, faces
diffi cult and defi ning economic, social,
environmental, organisational, struc-
tural and political decisions. Having
the potential to survive and succeed
will depend on the abilities of leaders at
all levels to make complex and globally
contextual decisions.
As a Leading the Future report from
the Swiss-based IMD management school
has recently pointed out: “Leadership is
in demand. The complex challenges that
face teams, organisations and societies are
demanding new ways of thinking about
and shaping the future.”
Recent reports, some global and one
the government-funded London School
of Economics and McKinsey consultancy
study of our manufacturing industry,
Management Matters, suggest New Zea-
land has serious management and leader-
ship competency problems.
MANAGING OUR RESOURCE POTENTIAL From a resource perspective, New Zealand
is, according to most business leaders,
sitting in something of a box seat. Solid
Energy’s chief executive Don Elder, for ex-
ample, thinks that when it comes to count-
ing measurable and marketable resources,
New Zealand is the “luckiest country in the
world”. On a per capita basis, we are richer
in desirable and essential resources than
any other country, he adds.
“But here’s the barrier,” he cautions.
“We continually have the wrong discus-
sions in New Zealand on almost every
issue of major national importance. No
sooner is an idea advanced for discussion,
than one group or another hijacks the
issue and redefi nes it in a grossly, over-
simplistic way.”
In Elder’s opinion, the right question
is invariably not “should or shouldn’t we?”,
but rather “what is the objective; what
are the options; what are the criteria for
ranking options; what are the real (not
reactionary) consequences and risks? And
what conditions could make for better out-
comes against objectives and allow a better
overall result for New Zealand?”
A simplistic yes or no approach to is-
sues effectively avoids any meaningful dis-
cussion of nationally important issues and
threatens to keep New Zealand mired in a
“can’t do” rather than a “can do” mindset
he says. Implied in what he says is a belief
that New Zealand leaders, commercial
and political, seem unable or unwilling
to grapple with the resource development
opportunities available.
New Zealand can, says Elder, achieve a
huge and permanent economic change by
acting boldly on what he calls substantial
“made in New Zealand, made for New
Zealand once-only opportunities – unique
in our history. And they are simply the
result of our natural strategic strengths
and competitive advantages.”
“IF I APPLIED MY BUSINESS THEORIES, I WOULD ADVOCATE GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN PLACE.”– Jonathan Ling, Fletcher Building
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 31
COVER STORY
The initiatives won’t, however, hap-
pen on their own. The government and
private sector must, says Elder, get on and
make both the decisions and investments
needed to deliver the promise and the
future economy.
“Almost all the things the world will
need more of but will be increasingly
short of, we have in abundance,” he says.
“Good agricultural land, fresh water, a
year-round growing climate, primary
resources and energy.”
The issue for him is leadership and
management of the national discussion
that needs to take place for New Zealand
to realise its economic potential.
Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier agrees
with Elder’s assessment of New Zealand’s
abundant and strategically desirable re-
sources. But he is equally quick to identify
the missing ingredients – leadership and,
what he calls commercial acumen. When it
came to recruiting Fonterra’s senior execu-
tive ranks he was, he concedes, forced to fi ll
them with more non-New Zealanders than
he would have liked.
“Our criteria required that we employ
the best possible people we could get.” They
were not, unfortunately, home grown. “At
the top end of world-class executive talent,
we still have a way to go,” says Ferrier.
He would like to think companies like
Fonterra, with the funds and scale to spend
on executive development, can help raise
the general level of leadership competency
in New Zealand. But right now, the short-
age of globally equipped and experienced
leaders is an issue.
This reality surfaces every year in the
IMD’s International Competitiveness
Survey where New Zealand ranks among
the lowest in management competency.
The Management Matters survey confi rms
that New Zealand companies are weak on
both strategy and management.
STRONGER GOVERNANCE REQUIREDNew Zealand’s generally poor-performing
boards are legend. Directors are seriously
risk-averse, draw their numbers from a
small and much-too closely connected
governance gene pool, are disinclined to
embrace innovation and, say their critics,
focus on process and compliance rather
than strategy, global opportunities and
leadership. They are also reluctant to invite
independents onto their boards.
Poor governance delivered the global
fi nancial crisis, and more. Governance as
a leadership function desperately has to
change, not just here but globally.
Jon Mayson, former Ports of Tauranga
CEO and now chairman of New Zealand
Trade and Enterprise, would probably
agree. In an interview with me for Leader-
ship New Zealand’s Leaders magazine last
year he said that he was “not convinced
that New Zealand’s collective leadership
is suffi ciently aware of, or committed to
solving the quite serious problems facing
the country in the next 10 to 15 years”.
New Zealand leaders did not, he said,
want to take the tough decisions that
would make a “quantum” difference to the
nation’s economic performance. “We need
a paradigm shift in attitude and to embrace
a more bipartisan approach to leadership
in this country.”
Mayson believes in the need for a
serious leadership debate to make things
happen. “We do have some great leaders
who are capable of leading the discussion,”
he says. “We have incredible people, such
as those in KEA [the diaspora of successful
Kiwis operating offshore] who are willing
to give of their time and experience for the
benefi t of New Zealand.”
In his call for decisive leaders, however,
Mayson wants them to adhere to the lead-
ership values he considers important – in-
tegrity, honesty, innovation and self-belief.
He is not convinced New Zealanders are
strong on self-belief, a trait he attributes
to our national psyche. “We need to fan a
burning desire to do better.”
Helen Robinson, global managing
director of environmental markets for
Markit Group, has that burning desire
to see New Zealand become a world
leader in carbon and environmental
commodity trading.
But she is also concerned by our ten-
dency to procrastinate when it comes to
making big decisions. “We are reluctant to
commercialise our great ideas. And we are
still far too risk averse,” she says.
Helen Robinson... “We are reluctant to commercialise
our great ideas and we are
still far too risk averse.”
Sir Stephen Tindall... “We have as many good leaders as any other
country.”
Jon Mayson...“We need to fan a burning desire
to do better.”
Don Elder...“We continuallyhave the wrongdiscussions inNew Zealand.”
Sir Ron Carter... “We lack confi dence in our ability to realise just what our potential is.”
John Allen...“Our leadership style includes egalitarianism, fair play and a strong sense of humility.”
New Zealand is sitting on a green,
presumably more valuable than gold, op-
portunity to “capitalise on and leverage its
international reputation as environmen-
tally and sustainably conscious and free
from corruption. But we just navel gaze too
much,” she says with an edge of agitation
and exasperation in her voice.
In her opinion New Zealand could, if
its politicians were driven a little more by
intellect than dogma, build a vibrant and
fi nancially sustainable economy based on
clean technologies and environmental
enterprise. Robinson’s credentials for
making such a comment are impeccable.
She is, since she took the NZX established
carbon registry TZI to the world, an
acknowledged global expert on environ-
mental commodity markets.
Like Mayson, Robinson stresses the
importance of values. Leaders need to be
focused, savvy and professional but, she
says, they also have to “have heart”.
WE NEED TALL POPPIESBoth Mayson’s and Robinson’s reserva-
tions about the leadership resilience of
the Kiwi character are, to some extent,
shared by Ferrier. He thinks our leaders,
individual and organisational, are often
compromised by the Kiwi “tall poppy
syndrome” which he fi nds unattractive.
New Zealanders are, this native Canadian
thinks, inclined to “cut down large institu-
tions simply because they are large”.
“There seems to be something in the
culture which somehow equates big with
bad. Yet we need to create some large insti-
tutions to really be competitive in today’s
world,” he adds. “We should celebrate, not
castigate, our successes.”
Warehouse founder and philan-
thropist Sir Stephen Tindall is, despite a
number of well-articulated reservations,
ever the optimist about New Zealand.
He’s dedicated to searching for “better
solutions” to the nation’s economic prob-
lems. One of those solutions might be
longer terms in power for political parties.
A change from three to fi ve years for gov-
ernments would, he thinks, go a long way
to solving the country’s policy-making
and implementation dilemma.
He doesn’t, however, think we suffer
from a paucity of leaders. “We have as
many good leaders as any other coun-
try,” he says. “We could always do better
and that’s why I see developing more
leaders as important. I do what I can to
encourage young people to take up the
leadership cudgels.”
Sir Stephen ranks the parlous state
of world economies as the most critical
problem facing today’s political, com-
mercial and social leaders. A shortage of
leadership morality and fi nancial acumen
is, he concedes a global issue, but New
Zealand has to get its own house in order
to survive and prove that things can be
done differently.
New Zealand’s smallness is, he says,
also advantageous. “It does not require a
huge amount of effort to move the needle
into a more positive position. If, for ex-
ample, we could grow our exports by say
20 percent overnight, we would probably
be cash-fl ow positive. Ten Fisher & Paykel
Healthcares or the equivalent of a Nokia
in New Zealand would make an enormous
difference to our economy,” he adds.
His other cause for optimism comes
from an observation that New Zealand’s
“self-satisfi ed” commercial attitudes are
changing. “I am optimistic that we are
now in a pioneering stage when it comes
to developing new technologies,” he says.
“There is a plethora of new technology
companies coming through.”
Sir Ron Carter, the man who success-
fully led the growth of the New Zealand
arm of the global engineering consultancy
Beca, thinks that while New Zealanders of-
ten “punch above their weight”, as a nation
we do not achieve as much as we could.
“We lack confi dence in our ability to realise
just what our potential is,” he says.
Sir Ron is also committed to champi-
oning the case for better leadership. His
interest in leading was stimulated by his
involvement in a study into identifying
reasons why some scientifi c companies
successfully export their science while oth-
ers were commercially unsuccessful.
The quality of the organisation’s
leadership was the defi ning factor, he
says. “In every case, those successful
leaders were backed up by a team who
had been inspired and they accom-
plished great things.”
Former New Zealand Post CEO and
now chief executive and secretary of
Foreign Affairs and Trade John Allen
believes there are identifi able traits which
exemplify the successful New Zealand
leader which might be relevant to the new
world order.
“Our leadership style is infl uenced by
our national psyche,” he told me some
months back when I was writing a story
for the Sir Peter Blake Trust magazine.
“It includes a sense of egalitarianism, of
fair play and a strong sense of humility.
It is part of our DNA and it is refl ected
in how we lead.”
He believes our geographic smallness
and isolation, dependence on a need to
look outward and create successful part-
nerships in order to trade with the world
has helped shape who and what we are and
how we do things.
But whatever it is that defi nes a suc-
cessful New Zealand leader, Allen is in no
doubt that effective leadership is precisely
what this country needs right now. M
“AT THE TOP END OF WORLD-CLASS EXECUTIVE TALENT, WE STILL HAVE A WAY TO GO.” – Andrew Ferrier
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 33
Caring CEOs ofTHE FUTUREThe new business world
is becoming so fast and complex, the job
description of a leader has had to change. Brenda Ward asked
the experts what youneed to succeed.
Tomorrow’s leaders will schedule daily
meditation sessions, ask only ‘pow-
erful’ questions, tell lots of stories, and
make decisions in split seconds.
They won’t be rock star leaders, like
Richard Branson, because we’ve fallen
out of love with the charismatic leader.
Instead say hello to a manager who is
refl ective, ethical, transparent, authentic
and a trusted adviser to his team.
Martyn Newman, an Australian
business consultant and author of
the international bestseller, Emotional
Capitalists – The New Leaders, says two
things have precipitated the dramatic
changes we’re seeing in the skills senior
leaders need.
First, during the global financial
crisis, managers fell back into con-
servative ways of behaving and the safe
patterns that they knew, Newman says.
But that’s bad for business and bad for
teams, he says.
Secondly, a new generation with
new values is hitting the workforce,
and they don’t respect leaders who
are domineering and aren’t necessar-
ily swayed by charisma, says Newman.
“They haven’t known the hardship of
the previous generation. Rather than
saving for a rainy day, they are looking
for experiences and different levels of
satisfaction.
“They are likely to take a gap year,
whether the job remains open for them
or not. Not for them, the certainties of
nine to fi ve. With greater fl exibility and
uncertainty in the job market, people
leave a job more often than they used to Martyn Newman.
LEADERSHIP
and they want to get a set of skills that
will help them in different roles.”
They’re also looking for a new kind
of boss to role model, someone who is
ethical and transparent in all their deal-
ings. That means it’s time to rethink
leadership skills for a new world, says
Newman.
HR consultant Jane McCann, di-
rector and chair of Wellington-based
Thought Partners agrees. She shadows
many leaders in organisations around
New Zealand and has observed that the
CEOs best equipped for the new world
of business and most respected by their
teams have different qualities to the
bosses of the past.
“The qualities that people are looking
for now are authenticity and someone
they can trust. They have a great admira-
tion for leaders with these attributes.”
BEING BRAVERNewman says a focus on funding cuts
has taken leaders away from their pri-
mary role: to lead. “Developing a cartel
of high-performing leaders is the way to
create effi ciencies, rather than making
funding cuts. Effi ciencies come when
you give people the confi dence to dance
in business,” he says.
Instead of playing it safe, managers
should be braver, says Newman. “Take
risks. Do it with a fundamental confi -
dence in people, then act as a resource
for your people.” He says by its nature,
management is “about control”.
“It’s very diffi cult for managers to
give up that control. However, they have
34 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
to see their role less about control and
more about fostering people’s talent
and being a resource – saying, ‘This is
the vision, how can you contribute? You
go off and try that and I’ll be there as a
trusted adviser’.”
Great leaders inspire vision and
confidence, he says, and he suggests
that managers look back to the most
infl uential managers in their own lives
for inspiration.
“Fundamentally, leadership is
about a relationship. The people
who’ve had an effect on your life are
probably not the most intelligent or the
most gifted, but they had a relation-
ship with you; they had a set of values
that rang true and resonated. They
modelled a way to be a human being,
so you said: ‘That’s like me, and I want
to be more like you’.”
Some managers are mired in old
styles of management that do them no
good in today’s business world, says
Newman. “Everything we thought we
knew about how we motivate people
down through human history, we were
dead wrong about,” he says.
“We used to think it was about ‘sticks’
or ‘carrots’. ‘Sticks’ were holding people
up to public ridicule. The business
community looked at this model and
emulated it for a while. We were driving
performance through fear.”
Then, for a while, a business model of
‘carrots’ became popular. “Enlightened
leaders said if we pay people obscene
amounts of money, they will perform.
But then we discovered that there is a
certain threshold beyond which money
will not make a difference.”
Today business psychologists realise
that leaders who tap into people’s aspira-
tions are the most successful, says New-
man, and 40 percent of New Zealanders
identify that skill as the single most
important quality leaders can have.
Newman says there are three ap-
proaches to leading successfully. “You
need to recognise how to tap into peo-
ple’s aspirations and create compelling
visions, helping team members to realise
their dreams. You need to understand the
need to belong, and how relationships
pull teams together to create remarkable
things. Finally, you need to tap into emo-
tions and move beyond fi nancial aspects
to the emotional assets.”
STORYTELLING Storytelling is a big part of the new
leadership style, says Newman. He says
stories you have to tell your staff are:
where they’re going; where ‘we’ are go-
ing – the organisational story; and your
own personal story.
Sharing your own story is one aspect
some leaders fi nd hard to accept, because
in management theory it used to be
frowned upon to share socially with staff.
Not any more, says Newman.
“Leaders who remain remote short-
change organisations – it’s the per-
sonal story that brings to life what
the organisation is. The skill of self-
disclosure gives people access to an
aspect of your life. Leadership is about
character, competence, a track record,
then connection, an emotional con-
nection: does this person meet me as
a human being?”
McCann says one trend she is seeing
is a big increase in soul and spirituality
in business. “Many people now in our
leadership programmes would do a short
meditation course. We teach people
about stress resilience. It can be a big
issue if you come from a testy meeting
and you have to suddenly change your
state from agitated to calm.”
McCann says as a leader’s job be-
comes more complex, leaders are being
expected to get different outcomes than
in the past. “It’s not about the detail, it’s
about the outcome we are going for – a
good organisational outcome, a good
corporate outcome, an outcome that’s
good for unions, plus good societal
outcomes.”
Take Cadbury, she says, where a
brand was damaged by an ethical contro-
versy over palm oil. “It only takes one or
two examples to affect your image.”
McCann says two of the companies
she works with have trialled bringing
their team members into high-level
“MANAGERS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE NEED TO BELONG AND HOW RELATIONSHIPS PULL TEAMS TOGETHER TO CREATE REMARKABLE THINGS.”
Jane McCann.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 35
LEADERSHIP
discussions. “They sit around the table
on the understanding that they can’t
disclose what’s said around the table.”
When leaders can discuss high-level,
large-scale changes with frontline staff
there, this is building trust and transpar-
ency. “With the speed of social media
networking these little examples of trust
get magnifi ed – but so does one little
example of distrust.”
Both Newman and McCann talk
about mirror neurons in the brain
that fi re automatically when you see a
behaviour, making you want to copy it,
much as a baby will poke its tongue out
at you when it sees you do it. “Mirror
neurons are the single greatest drivers of
behaviour,” says Newman. “They refl ect
what you see.”
Says McCann: “Mirror neurons
mean that people want to role model
the leadership at the top. People don’t
want rock star leaders who won’t walk
the talk. They want ethical,
authentic, refl ective lead-
ers, a leader they can look
to as a role model.”
She says leaders need to
rethink the language they
use. When they talk to staff,
they shouldn’t say: “How
are you?” They should say
things like: “Tell me about
what’s important about your
work.” She calls these “pow-
erful questions”, which result
in better exchanges, which make
people feel comfortable talking about
their work.
IT’S ALL ABOUT PEOPLEDr Roy Stager Jacques, an American
who is currently associate professor
at Massey University’s Department of
Management, says he’s observed that
Kiwi business culture has not yet real-
ised the importance of
recognising people are
not machines.
“It is a formalised cul-
ture in which attention
is given to strategy, plans
and procedures. It is as
though managers only
need to understand what
they want to do, not the
how. While attention to
people is undervalued in
the United States, the no-
tion that management is
about infl uencing people has
been important for about 100 years.”
He says since the fi rst decades of the
20th century, and their assembly line
environments, managers have known
that employees who did their best, as op-
posed to those who did what they had to,
made a signifi cant difference to business
success and profi tability.
“Yet, every day I encounter an ex-
perience that shows a complete lack of
awareness of this fact.”
The manager of the future is going to
have to recognise that people are guided
by feelings most of the time, is going to
have to see business as a network of rela-
tionships and is going to have to manage
using a language in which words like
trust, commitment, respect and caring
are central, says Stager Jacques.
Ultimately, says Newman, you want
people who wouldn’t work anywhere
else, because they want to work for
you. “The new skills managers need in
business are to be nimble, responsive
and adaptable. Managers most likely
to succeed are those who have earned
the trust of people who work across
the business.” M
Martyn Newman’s book Emotional Capitalists – The
New Leaders is published by John Wiley. RRP: $47.99.
Jane McCann is speaking at the HRINZ conference in
Wellington on September 2.
MOST-WANTED CEOSWHAT SKILLS ARE COMPANIES ASKING RECRUITERS FOR IN TODAY’S SENIOR MANAGERS?
Primarily they are seeking leadership, says Stephen Leavy, a principal of Hobson Leavy Executive Search. “Often with New Zealand management there is a focus on thinking small; almost a fear to take bold decisions in case they do not work out.
“What we are fi nding from clients is that they are seeking executives who are not afraid to make bold decisions based on a careful calculation of risk and opportunity. They also seek leaders who can think laterally; who do not just run with the herd, but have out-of-leftfi eld ideas.”
One of the key leadership skills required is fl exibility, says Leavy. “We really do live in an ever-changing world and the pace of change is accelerating. The best CEOs anticipate every possible development and have contingency plans in place for those. They also react rapidly as events shift around them.”
Confi dence is also a required attribute for executives seeking to climb the career ladder, he says. “Our observation over the years is that candidates who cannot sell themselves well simply do not get out of the starting block.”
Leavy says one aspect that has perhaps changed over the past 10 to 20 years is that staying in a role for a long period of time is not necessarily viewed as a positive any more. “Applicants seem to be more successful if they have shown an ability to work across a variety of industries and been successful in a number of different companies.”
36 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
An army of a thousand is easy to find, but, ah, how difficult to find a general Chinese Proverb
{
Contact Carrie Hobson or Stephen LeavyAuckland OfficeT +64 (9) 379 2224 PO Box 362, Auckland 1140
Level 3, Shortland Chambers, 70 Shortland Street, Auckland 1140
Wellington OfficeT +64 (4) 460 5244
Level 16, Vodafone on the Quay, 157 Lambton Quay, Wellington www.hobsonleavy.com
LEADERSHIP
The desire to achieve is a major
source of strength in business,
both for individual managers and for
the teams they led. It generates passion
and energy, which fuel growth and help
companies sustain performance over
the long term.
And the achievement drive is on
the rise. We’ve spent 35 years assessing
executive motivation, and we’ve seen a
steady increase during the past decade
in the number of managers for whom
achievement is the primary motive.
Businesses have benefited from this
trend: Productivity has risen, and in-
novation, as measured by the number
of patents issued per year, has soared.
In the short term, through sheer
drive and determination, overachiev-
ing leaders may be very successful, but
there’s a dark side to the achievement
motive. By relentless focusing on tasks
and goals – revenues or sales targets,
say – an executive can, over time, dam-
age performance. Overachievers tend
to command and coerce, rather than
coach and collaborate, thus stifling
subordinates. They take frequent
short-cuts and forget to communicate
crucial information, and they may
be oblivious of the concerns of oth-
ers. Their teams’ performance begins
to suffer and they risk missing the
very goals that initially triggered the
achievement-oriented behaviour.
Too intense a focus on achievement
can demolish trust and undermine
morale, measurably reducing work-
place productivity and eroding confi-
dence in management, both inside and
outside the corporation. While profits
and innovation have risen during the
past decade, public trust in business
has slid. In our executive coaching
practice, we’ve seen very talented lead-
ers crash and burn as they put ever
more pressure on their employees and
themselves to produce.
The curse of the overachieverIf you believe too many executives think, “It’s all about me”, you’re right. Research shows that an ethos celebrating individual achievements has been shoving aside other motivations, including empowering people, say Hay Group Boston’s Scott W Spreier, Mary H Fontaine and Ruth L Malloy.
he desire to achiev
Scott W Spreier. Mary H Fontaine. Ruth L Malloy.
38 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
AUC KLAN D | WELLI NGTON | ABU DHABI
WHAT’S YOUR
STRATEGY FOR
GROWTH?
With offi ces in Abu Dhabi, Kensington Swan is making connections for Kiwi businesses with products or services to export.
The Middle East presents real opportunities for New Zealand business.
At the extreme are leaders like
Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling, a classic overa-
chiever by most accounts, driven by
results regardless of how they were
achieved. He pitted manager against
manager and once even praised an
executive who went behind his back to
create a service he had forbidden her
to develop. For every Skilling, there are
dozens of overachieving managers who
don’t make headlines, but do cause
significant harm.
On the surface, controlling achieve-
ment overdrive sounds like Manage-
ment 101: Be less coercive and more
collaborative. Influence rather than
direct. Focus more on people and less
on numbers and results. Easy to say,
difficult to master. Experienced, suc-
cessful executives who should know
better fall into overachievement mode
again and again.
THE DRIVE TO ACHIEVEThe drive to achieve is tough to resist.
Most people in Western cultures are
taught from early childhood to value
achievement. For some people, the
drive seems innate: They don’t just
know achievement is important, they
feel it. Accomplishment is a natural
high for them.
David McClelland, the late Harvard
psychologist, identified achievement
– meeting or exceeding a standard
of excellence or improving personal
performance – as one of three internal
drivers that explain how we behave
(‘affiliation’, or relationships, and
‘power’ are the other two). He initially
believed that of the three, achievement
was the most critical to organisational
success.
But McClelland also recognised the
downside of achievement: the tenden-
cies to cheat and cut corners and to
leave people out of the loop. Some high
achievers “are so fixated on finding a
shortcut to the goal”, he noted, “that
they may not be too particular about
the means they use to reach it”.
In later work he argued that the
most effective leaders were primarily
motivated by socialised power: they
channelled their efforts into helping
others become successful.
We continued McClelland’s work
with assessments of managers’ motives.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, achieve-
ment scores began rising dramatically,
while the power drive declined and the
affiliation stayed more or less steady.
We can’t say exactly what triggered
the increase, but we believe it was
driven by the organisational, market
and economic forces that were in play.
Recession and downsizing brought
an increased emphasis on short-term
performance and growth. Again, both
goals were a perfect fit for the high
achievers, who revel in the need for
personal heroics and the challenge of
an ever-rising performance bar.
Whatever the cause, the rise in
scores coincided with increases in sev-
eral of McClelland’s other indicators
of high achievement – in particular,
economic growth, innovation, cheat-
ing, and cutting corners. Organisa-
tional performance and innovation
improved. But there was also a lapse in
business ethics and, as a result, more
high-profile scandals and reduced
public trust in big corporations.
“SOME HIGH ACHIEVERS ‘ARE SO FIXATED ON FINDING A SHORTCUT TO THE GOAL’, HE NOTED, ‘THAT THEY MAY NOT BE TOO PARTICULAR ABOUT THE MEANS THEY USE TO REACH IT’.”
LEADERSHIP
THE SIX STYLES OF LEADERSHIPDespite the advantages of an achieve-
ment mentality, executives who are
overly motivated to achieve can weaken
a company’s or group’s working climate
and, in turn, its ability to perform well.
That’s because a leader’s motives affect
the way he or she leads. In our research
over the years we’ve identifi ed six styles
of leadership that managers and ex-
ecutives use to motivate, reward, direct
and develop others. They are directive
(strong, sometimes coercive), visionary,
affiliative, participative, pacesetting
(personal heroics) and coaching.
There is no one best style of lead-
ership. Each has its strengths and its
limits.
The most effective leaders are adept
at all six leadership styles and use each
when appropriate. Typically, however,
a manager defaults to the styles he or
she is most comfortable using, a pref-
erence that reflects the person’s domi-
nant motive combined with the level
of pressure in the workplace. People
motivated mainly by achievement tend
to favour pacesetting in low-pressure
situations but to become directive
when the pressure is on.
It’s not surprising that such pace-
setting and coercion have been shown
to suppress work-climate attributes
that contribute to high performance,
including flexibility, responsibility,
team commitment and the extent to
which feedback and reward are linked to
performance. People high in socialised
power, by contrast, naturally gravitate
to coaching in low-pressure situations
and become visionary under pressure.
RECOGNISING YOUR MOTIVESThe good news about achievers is that
when given a goal, they pull out all the
stops to reach it – even if their goal is
to manage their achievement drive. For
an overachiever seeking to broaden
his or her range, the first step is to
become aware how motives influence
leadership style. Often it takes a nudge
from someone to get the transforma-
tion moving.
“THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT ACHIEVERS IS THAT WHEN GIVEN A GOAL, THEY PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS TO REACH IT – EVEN IF THEIR GOAL IS TO MANAGE THEIR ACHIEVEMENT DRIVE.”
If you are seeking to assess yourself
as a manager, you can get a good sense
of which drive is dominant in you
simply by examining the activities you
like and why.
People with high achievement
drives tend to like challenging projects
that allow them to accomplish some-
thing new. They also like to outper-
form people who represent a high
standard of excellence. Achievers’
communications tend to be brief and
to the point.
Those high in affirmation are en-
ergised by personal relationships, are
driven by status and image.
Those driven by socialised power
enjoy making a positive impact and
get satisfaction from helping people
feel stronger and more capable.
MANAGING YOUR MOTIVESEven trickier and more important
than recognising an overactive drive to
achieve is to figure out how to channel
that drive into new behaviours and
continually practise them until they
become almost second nature.
Another trick is to look to other ar-
eas of your life to satisfy your achieve-
ment drive. One executive, recognising
that his need to succeed was getting in
the way of his effectiveness, refocused
his drive on building violins at home
on his weekends. Another turned to
restoring antique sports cars.
While behaviour is the responsibil-
ity of the individual, organisations play
a role, if sometime unintentionally, in
infl uencing executives’ actions. Some
companies unabashedly create cultures
that foster and reward the achievement-
at-all-costs mentality. Most organisa-
tions are less calculating; they simply
select and promote high achievers for
their obvious assets, let nature take its
course, and then look the other way as
long as the numbers are good.
But companies can redirect their
focus and still achieve good numbers. In
the early 1990s when CEO Lou Gerstner
set out to regain IBM’s market domi-
nance by transforming the company into
a fl atter, matrix-driven organisation, he
sought managers who would orchestrate
and enable, rather than command and
control. He knew IBM needed to move
away from its culture of personal heroics
and individual achievement and begin
valuing socialised power and managers
who pay attention to the greater needs
of the company.
We assessed the motives and leader-
ship styles of 2000 IBM managers in-
cluding the top 300 leaders. Two years
ago when we returned to assist IBM in
recalibrating the competency model,
we found a very different leadership
culture. Gone was the combative, turf-
protecting, isolationist attitude. In its
place was an emerging culture of col-
laboration and team leadership.
Of course a high achievement drive
is still a source of strength. But compa-
nies must learn when to rein it in. M
© Excerpt printed with permission
of Harvard Business Review. With
thanks to Hay Group New Zealand and
Hay Group Global, a leading global
provider of leadership development
programmes.
40 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Business is getting just too complex and
challenging: you might have thought
it but now you know you’re not alone.
Less than half of CEOs worldwide
believe their enterprises are adequately
prepared to handle a highly volatile, in-
creasingly complex business environment,
according to a major new survey.
But the fi gure is even worse among
New Zealand and Australian CEOs.
The IBM 2010 Global CEO Study
uncovers for the fi rst time starkly di-
vergent concerns and priorities among
Australia and New Zealand compared
to CEOs in Asia, Europe
or North America.
An astounding number
of Australasian CEOs told
the study they feel ill-
equipped to cope with
this drastically different
world. Eighty-four percent
of the Australian and New
Zealand CEOs interviewed
said they expect the level of
complexity to grow signifi -
cantly over the next fi ve years, but only 39
percent believe they know how to deal with
it successfully.
This is the fi rst time such clear regional
variations have appeared in this biennial
survey of private and public sector leaders,
says local leader of the study, Ross Pearce,
organisation and people practice leader of
IBM New Zealand. This year, IBM surveyed
more than 1500 CEOs from 60 countries,
including 22 from New Zealand.
The ‘complexity gap’, brought by the
explosion of data and volatility of global
economies, poses more serious challenges
than any other factor measured in the
eight years IBM has been conducting this
research, says Pearce, and is larger here than
in any other part of the world.
He believes it demonstrates how our
economy and society is becoming increas-
ingly more closely linked with developing
and global markets, as well as the impact
of regulation and technology on organisa-
tions. “This is creating a world of complex-
ity for organisations and presents both
signifi cant challenges and opportunities.”
Tony Carter, managing director of
Foodstuffs Auckland, who participated
in the study, says there is no doubt that
business has become more complex over
the past few years which has dramatically
increased the challenges that CEOs face.
Based on face-to-face interviews
conducted by IBM business consultants,
the 2010 IBM CEO Study
reveals that globally CEOs
believe that navigating an
increasing complex world
will require creativity,
which emerged as the top
leadership competency.
However New Zealand
and Australian CEOs dif-
fer and place integrity
before creativity as the key
leadership competency,
which comes as no surprise to Carter. “In
my experience values are the glue that hold
organisations together and acting with
integrity is one of the key attributes of a
good leader.”
The survey shows 53 percent of Austral-
asian CEOs use iterative strategic planning
processes as distinct from formal annual
strategy reviews, and only 25 percent favour
quick decisions – compared with a global
average of 33 percent. Australasian leaders
are also willing to embrace new manage-
ment and communication techniques.
Australasian CEOs are especially de-
termined to put customers – or citizens,
in the case of public sector leaders – front
and centre. “Getting connected” to better
understand, predict and give customers
what they really want is the top priority
for 91 percent. M
CEOs struggle to cope
Ross Pearce compiled the New Zealand CEO data.
Many CEOs feel inadequately equipped to deal with the complexities of modern business.
Connect with opportunities in the Middle East. Request your copy of ‘Doing Business in the United Arab Emirates’ atwww.kensingtonswan.com
Clayton Kimpton | Chairman
EXPORT TO THE MIDDLE EAST
AUC KLAN D | WELLI NGTON | ABU DHABI
It’s not as hard as you think—we’ve done it ourselves.
LEADERSHIP – THE FUTURE
In a world where blockbuster films
predict doom for society, one man
stands by his optimistic outlook for the
future. Graeme Dingle, founder of the
Sir Edmund Hilary Outdoor Pursuits
Centre and the Foundation for Youth
Development (FYD), says New Zealand
can be assured that the young people of
today will step up to successfully replace
our current leaders.
“I think we’ve got a lot of talented
leadership in this country, we might
even have too much talent,” he says, as
he takes a sip of coffee. Two small dogs
prance around his ankles as we sit at a
small white table in a humble room.
“I think if we can, as a country, ever
pool all the talent we’ve got together,
we’ll be a real force to be reckoned with.
But we tend to have this small island
isolation mentality. So if we can get
past that, I’m very optimistic about New
Zealand’s leadership.”
After returning from the first
traverse of the Southern Alps at the
age of 26, Dingle turned his attention
to providing New Zealand youth with
skills to achieve their aspirations. His
inspiration to set up what was essen-
tially a new industry came from his
mountaineering companion. “She said
to me: ‘Graeme, life is a cup to be fi lled,
not a measure to be drained’. I looked
at her and thought: ‘What the hell does
that mean?’,” he laughs.
Dingle soon discovered he could
fi ll his cup by helping the community
in a way no one had before, and thus
he founded what is now the Outdoor
Pursuits Centre. “That was kind of the
beginning of the leadership stuff for
me. I guess I had the beginnings of
some leadership qualities; I led people
up mountains, but in the big picture I
wasn’t much of a leader at all. But now
I was in a situation where I had to lead
properly.”
Eventually, Dingle and his wife Jo-
anne Wilkinson set up the Foundation
for Youth Development, providing con-
tinued support for aspiring young Kiwis.
They offer programmes to all school-age
New Zealand children, which help to
promote the importance of values, as-
pirations, and self-esteem.
In answer to the age-old question
about whether leaders are born or cre-
ated Dingle responds: “Leaders develop.
Clearly the big test is how much you
can inspire someone to do something
extraordinary or even just ordinary.”
Dingle fondly recalls a young female
teacher who told him he had the poten-
tial to become a great artist. He also had
a former boss who would constantly
give him physical challenges to test his
strength. “But I think the fi rst really im-
portant kind of mentor for me, though
he wouldn’t have called himself that, was
Ed Hillary.”
Dingle’s favourite quote, is: “We
need to think laterally and act in a very
focused way,” and he believes these are
critical skills everyone must learn in
order to achieve in leadership as well as
any other aspect of life.
As he heads off to pack for an expedi-
tion to Peru the next day, it’s clear that
although Dingle’s coffee has very much
been drained, his cup is still in the proc-
ess of being fi lled. M
A man ofPASSIONThe young people who will be our leaders of tomorrow give inspirational Kiwi Graeme Dingle confi dence in New Zealand’s future. Brenna Cukier, 17, interviewed him.
Graeme Dingle’s programmes develop children’s confi dence and leadership skills.
Graeme Dingle.
42 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Dame Jenny Shipley is smiling. She
has just launched something she
feels passionate about, that will help
companies, help women and help New
Zealand.
Shipley was one of the women who
helped break down the gender barriers
of politics, as New Zealand’s fi rst woman
prime minister from 1997 to 1999. But as
the surge of women leaders has slowed,
her ambitions are for the next generation
of female leaders.
As chair of its advisory committee,
she has just launched the Global Women
Breakthrough Programme, an escala-
tor course to speed up women leaders’
maturity in business. The reasons for it
were obvious, she says.
“It became very clear that there were
two groups – a group of women who
were about to break through and also
a group of companies wanting to bring
women through so their companies were
more able to deal with a diverse range of
issues in their boardrooms and senior
executive teams.”
Shipley says research around the
world shows if you have a wide range
of skills and experience in manage-
ment, a company will perform better.
Global Women determined New Zealand
did not have a highly focused leader-
ship programme for women in senior
leadership and decided to launch a 12-
month course of coaching, workshops
and intensive mentoring that would be
available at reasonable cost.
“It’s an escalator for women who are
self-identifi ed, or it may be that compa-
nies will wish to invest in their women
and put them through a learning experi-
ence for a 12-month period.”
The programme’s strength is the
willingness of high-level Kiwi women
abroad to mentor those with potential,
but little experience.
The ‘old boys’ network’ is a reality in
the senior New Zealand business envi-
ronment, says Shipley.
“Many women tend not to have
had the chance to make these connec-
tions. Accelerating the maturing of
experienced people should make these
women irresistible candidates for man-
agement; it will make them extremely
attractive contenders.”
She says among the mentors available
through the programme are women suc-
ceeding globally at the top level of their
game. “There are great role models who
will share strategies and share experience.”
The programme will be limited to just
20 graduates in any 12 months.
“We are committed to investing in a
generation of women leaders who can
help drive growth.” M
EscalatorWOMENHow can women move to the next level in management? Dame Jenny Shipley tells Brenda Ward about an exciting new initiative.
Dame Jenny Shipley says Global Women is committed to the next
generation of women leaders.
A BOLD MOVE FOR A LAW FIRM
K E N S I N G TO N S WA N . C O MA U C K L A N D Tel: +64 9 379 4196 W E L L I N GTO N Tel: +64 4 472 7877A BU D H A B I Tel: +971 2 406 9800
To succeed in tomorrow’s global market place, you need to make bold moves today.
Call Clayton Kimpton, to connect with one of our Middle East export team today.
Choose to work with a progressive fi rm with connections to help you grow your business.
LEADERSHIP
His gym career came about after being
left for dust on a mountain bike trip with
his brother and father. Christie wanted to
get fi tter – he became, in his own words,
“a fi tness freak”. He made so much noise
and had so much energy in the group
fi tness classes he attended, he was asked
to be an instructor.
Christie can talk. And talk some more.
He’s such a natural communicator, and
he is so genuine, his energy and noise are
smoothly converted into motivational and
inspirational messages.
It’s a surprise to fi nd out that his pro-
fession is structural engineering, and he’s
the fi rst to say he is not a typical engineer. It
is no shock to hear that his employer, engi-
neering consultancy Beca, utilises his com-
munications skills by having him speak
to graduates and potential employees at
University of Canterbury functions.
Christie worked as a structural
draughtsman after high school then left
Palmerston North for Christchurch to at-
tend the University of Canterbury’s School
of Engineering. Like most students, he
joined a society, Ensoc, to make friends in
a new place.
The camaraderie of those student days
left an impression.
Twenty-eight-year-old Christie is now
president of Canterbury Young Profession-
als (CYP), which for the last three years has
brought together young Christchurch peo-
ple for social and business networking.
He says there was an obvious gap in
the professional socialising market for
younger people who understood the
importance of networking, but were at a
loss as to where to start.
“I wanted to break down the silos of
Energy to burnYoung engineer Brett Christie has gathered 3000 young professionals into networking groups around the country – and this overachiever still fi nds time to be a fi tness instructor. Janine Ogier is amazed.
PHO
TO: S
IMO
N B
AK
ER
Brett Christie wanted to break the ‘What school did you go to?’ psyche of Christchurch’s business networks.
Brett Christie’s enthusiasm for life is
contagious. He’s just pushed 50 gym
members to their physical limits through
a full-on cardio workout. He’s grinning
and the participants are obviously hap-
pily exhausted.
As he winds down after the session
as a group fi tness instructor at Les Mills
Christchurch, Christie admits to having
a hectic professional and social calendar.
His life is all about meeting people and the
classes he leads are just one of his many
networking forums.
By far his most impressive feat is
launching the Young Professionals, a Can-
terbury-based concept that has now grown
to include nine groups and 3000 young
business people round the country.
He typifi es Gen-Y and his zeal is infec-
tious, if a little daunting.
44 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
industry for young professionals,” Chris-
tie says. Rather than having accountants
meeting with accountants, and lawyers
networking with other lawyers in industry
groups, the group’s founders wanted to set
up meetings for all professions.
But the reality of networking in
Christchurch is that it was all about ‘what
school did you go to’, which can isolate
newcomers and locals alike.
The group’s founders, some from out
of town like Christie and others from the
‘right’ schools in Christchurch, wanted to
eliminate this barrier and create oppor-
tunities for young professionals from all
walks of life to meet on equal terms.
It’s been a Gen-Y style revolution.
“Life is all about who you know. We
are giving people access so they can get to
know more people,” Christie says.
“You can’t attract business or get fur-
ther in your career if you don’t associate
with people who can give you business.”
The Canterbury group’s growth has
been through word of mouth, email and
social media, given the demographics of
the members.
Sponsorship means the not-for-profi t
organisation can heavily subsidise its social
occasions and provide high-calibre busi-
ness training at a low cost.
Members tend to be under 30 and in
the fi rst fi ve years of their careers and they
don’t necessarily have a tertiary qualifi ca-
tion. It is a fairly even split between men
and women, says Christie.
Christie was instrumental in the
group’s emergence in Christchurch net-
working circles and cemented the rela-
tions with sponsors and the New Zealand
Institute of Management.
In 2008, NZIM Southern approached
the group to participate in its manage-
ment training programme. NZIM South-
ern acting chief executive Tom McBrearty
says it is a win-win relationship. Young
professionals have the chance to be men-
tored by NZIM members who are in the
positions of responsibility they aspire
to, while the more experienced business
people have the chance to understand
what is driving Gen Y.
The word-of-mouth marketing for
Brett Christie is as excited about running a cardio class as he is running a group for young professionals.
PHO
TO: S
IMO
N B
AK
ER
the Canterbury group has also triggered
interest from other centres. The young
professionals society concept has now
spread to Dunedin, Wellington, Auck-
land, Nelson, Queenstown, the Bay of
Plenty, Taranaki, and Hawkes Bay. A
national umbrella organisation is planned,
the New Zealand Young Professionals.
Says Christie: “I fi nd energy from the
things in my life that make me happy.
Since becoming a fitness freak, I have
been able to achieve more because I have
more energy.
“The skills that I am attaining from
the group and Les Mills have also redi-
rected where I want to be at Beca. I have
discovered that I have a real passion
for business management, leadership,
marketing and business development,”
Christie says. M
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 45
smartcompanysmartcompany
There’s a sign on the door that says
‘Aquarium’. Behind this cryptic label
is a room where Fishpond staff can play.
There’s a pool table, casual chairs and
polaroids of team members stuck inside a
wall-sized Fishpond smiling fi sh logo.
But Daniel Robertson doesn’t need
to come here to play. Every day for him is
play, and every year he’s playing in a dif-
ferent place.“This is our fourth building in
six years,” he admits, a little shame-faced.
“The problem is, the company keeps get-
ting bigger and outgrowing its premises,
and that means another move. It’s getting
expensive.”
Surely getting bigger is not a problem.
Robertson grins, looking, at 29, more than
ever like one of the junior staff, in his ill-
fi tting Fishpond uniform shirt and pants.
“We started without stock, just ordering
from suppliers, but keeping stock of the
most popular items allows us to fulfil
orders faster.”
Speed is the name of the game, when
your major advantage over your interna-
tional competitors is next-day delivery. “At
Amazon they can’t physically get some-
thing to you next day, so that’s good for
us.” That explains the rows of bookshelves
in the company’s huge warehouse near
Auckland airport. Here are the popular
titles that can be grabbed and shipped
immediately round the country.
The number of staff has grown enor-
mously since the days when Robertson’s
fi rst staff member was a school student
who did accounts and data entry in his
living room. For a time, he also recruited
staff through WINZ subsidies for the
unemployed.
There are now 75 people working for
Fishpond, many of them remotely from
home. Some of the development team
are based offshore and IT support is on
shifts around the clock. The business
has become so big, it has to be a 24-hour
operation waiting to pounce on all the
customer mouse clicks at all hours of the
day and night.
Robertson and his team must be doing
something right. The company is doubling
in size every year. But he’s a humble kind
of chief executive, who freely admits he fell
into business with no experience. “I was at
university studying electrical engineering
and after three and a half years I decided
that it wasn’t for me. I made the decision
to start a business.
“I thought retail would be easy – just
buy something someone else has pro-
duced, add a bit of a mark-up and sell it
on again. And I decided on online retailing
because I saw that overseas customers had
a lot more choice in online stores and the
quality of those stores was a lot better than
we had in New Zealand. I saw there was a
gap in the market.”
He believes online retailing will become
an increasingly important part of the retail
landscape, with its obvious advantages.
“You’re not constrained by space and you
have an infi nite shelf that conventional
retailers would give their eye-teeth for. You
can be more effi cient because you don’t
have to fi ll shelves and you can pass those
savings on to the customer.”
Getting started was as simple as install-
ing a free open-source website package he
found on the internet. Robertson added
products to it one by one. His market-
ing tool was Google Ad Words, with ads
positioned so that customers searching
Google for keywords would fi nd them-
selves side-tracked by Fishpond ads for
books on that topic.
“When there were four of us working
out of a bedroom it got pretty squashed, so
A BIGFishPondIN THE
Daniel Robertson was a university student when he launched an online book retailing company. It’s now turning over $50 million a year, proving that a small Fishpond can swim in a big net, says Brenda WardBrenda Ward.
46 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
we moved out to Wiri. Then each day, each
week, each month, we just got a little bigger.
Each year we’ve doubled in sales so six to
seven years on, it becomes a reasonably big
number, but we’re still small compared to
most retailers.”
Small? Despite his modesty, an inven-
tory of 3.2 million titles has catapulted
Fishpond to New Zealand’s largest online
retailer, a fact that’s proudly sign-written
on the company’s warehouse.
Some of that size is due to second-hand
sales. “With our system you just search
for the title and, say, the condition of the
book and the price and you’re in,” boasts
Robertson.
But books are just the start. The plan
was always to start small and build a base to
grow from, he says. Already Robertson has
added toys and electronic goods categories.
Does that mean another move to an even
larger warehouse? Maybe, maybe not. “The
perfect base model is to source as much as
you can on demand, or just in time.”
In recent years, Robertson has em-
ployed two managers to help him in areas
where he has no formal expertise. “This is
my fi rst real job and I didn’t do any busi-
ness or management degree. It’s only been
in the last two and a half years that we’ve
been able to afford to hire managers.”
He also has some high-powered help
to grow the business. An investor came on
board last year, private equity company
Direct Capital.
Rowan Simpson, the third partner in
TradeMe with Sam and Gareth Morgan, is
on the advisory board. Early on Maurice
Brigham of PC Direct, then Exonet and
Sealegs, was involved and he’s now a di-
rector. “Being very inexperienced myself,
it’s good to surround myself with people
who’ve done it before.”
So, does he plan to retire a millionaire
at 30? He could spend more time with his
wife Yvette, who used to work for Fishpond
in the early days, and his daughters, aged
3, and 7 months. “No,” he laughs. “I have
the workaholic gene, so I’ll keep on grow-
ing, employing more people, getting more
skills. There’s quite a few years of growth in
it still. I’m having fun, so while I’m having
fun, I’ll keep going,” he quips as he heads
back to play some more. M
Izone, Canterbury’s Southern
Business Hub, can fashion
industrial land to suit your plans.
First we analyse how your current
operations measure up, then
tailor design/build solutions with
the option to lease back.
The right land, in the right place,
at the right price. Izone offers
individually crafted industrial land
packages that are made to fit.
www.izone.org.nz
SD
C20525
INDUSTRIAL
THAT’SMADETO FIT
LAND
“I THOUGHT RETAIL WOULD BE EASY – JUST BUY SOMETHING SOMEONE ELSE HAS PRODUCED, ADD A BIT OF A MARK-UP AND SELL IT ON AGAIN.”
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 47
FACE TO FACE
Jeffery Wigand looked tired. He had
just a handful of hours left before he
could sink into the seat of the aircraft that
would deliver the native-born New Yorker
home to Mt Pleasant, Michigan, where he
now lives. He had completed an exhaust-
ing week of lectures, parliamentary select
committee hearings, media interviews
and into-the-night conversations on the
evils of the global tobacco industry and
its products.
Parliament’s Maori Affairs Select
Committee inquiry into the tobacco
industry and the consequences of its use
on Maori had invited Dr Wigand as an
internationally recognised scientifi c ex-
pert on tobacco use. Anti-smoking lobby
ASH (Action on Smoking and Health)
sponsored his trip.
The softly spoken Wigand is also the
world’s loudest corporate whistle-blower,
a term he would prefer was struck from
the organisational lexicon. “I use the term
‘person of conscience’,” he says. “Whistle-
blower has pejorative connotations, such
as tattle-tale, rat or snitch. These don’t
take into consideration the hierarchy of
values when they see harm or wrong be-
ing committed.
He thinks whistle-blowing, or taking
a moral stance on immoral commercial
actions, should be encouraged rather than
ridiculed. “Persons of conscience are very
important,” he says, because they save lives
and expose corporate fraud, frequently
at their own expense and exposure to
personal harm.
Wigand was, between 1988 and
1993, vice-president for research and
development at Brown and Williamson, a
Louisville, Kentucky-based subsidiary of
the giant British and American Tobacco
company (BAT). But he turned his back
on the company and his generous salary
and instead exposed the tobacco industry’s
fraudulent health claims of safe smoking.
His whistle-blowing experiences and
sometimes life-threatening consequences
were immortalised by actor Russell Crowe
in the movie The Insider.
Wigand joined Brown and Williamson
to head what he believed was genuine
scientifi c-based research to make a safer
cigarette. It was, he says refl ectively, “the
worst career decision I ever made”. For
the world at large it was more a fortunate
blunder. He created, and continues to
work for, a greater global understanding
of what he effectively calls the tobacco
industry’s treachery.
Immoral leadership and corporate
governance is, as also witnessed now
in the investment banking and fi nance
industries, at the heart of the tobacco
industry’s deception story. What Wigand
found were tobacco industry directors and
senior executives “engaged deliberately
and consciously in deceiving, obfuscat-
ing and generating scientifi c controversy
about a product they knew, when used,
killed not only the user but also the in-
nocent bystander”.
“They did that for one reason, and
one reason only,” he adds. “For money.
For profit. Tobacco is a very profit-
able product. It has for decades, if not
Just how different is Jeffery Wigand from the character Russell Crowe played in The Insider? Reg Birchfi eld found that the man who exposed tobacco’s deadly governance practices is even more heroic in real life.
Jeffrey Wigand:‘Don’t call me a whistle-blower’
Russell Crowe (right) played Wigand in the movie The Insider.
48 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
centuries, generated enormous wealth for
[the owners of] the tobacco companies.”
“That wealth is used to hire lawyers,
public relations fi rms, ad agencies, mar-
keting companies, behavioural psycholo-
gists and people willing to take money to
do the work of the tobacco industry to
continue the deception.”
A recent United States court decision,
in a fi nding for the US Department of
Justice, called tobacco companies “rack-
eteers” for their behaviour over the past
50 years. “That’s the same moniker you
would put on a gangster of an organised
crime entity,” says Wigand.
Wigand is now, among many other
things, a lecturer on ethical governance.
And while he concedes the tobacco in-
dustry story is perhaps the world’s worst
example of “shameful” governance, there
are, he says, “many examples of the lack of
moral and ethical fi bre at the governance
and leadership level of organisations –
from the clergy to Enron”.
Corruption at the top is, he thinks, a
habit that was explained by the philoso-
pher Aristotle. “It is about getting early
rewards and learning the habits of get-
ting materialistic gains quickly by cutting
corners, rather than by doing things for
moralistic reasons.
“The tobacco companies are prob-
ably the most egregious in their be-
haviour. They have cost individuals
and governments billions of dollars.
Its death toll exceeds that of all those
killed in the combined major wars. They
[tobacco companies] are in the fore-
front when it comes to a lack of moral
leadership in their corporate structure
and governance.”
Wigand says cigarette company direc-
tors, senior managers and contractors,
such as their lawyers and marketers,
work together on a systematic conspiracy
to deceive all stakeholders other than
shareholders and themselves. “I attended
a meeting of all the heads of research of
BAT in which the minutes enunciated
clearly the understanding that nicotine
was addictive, tar was the product’s bag-
gage, and to move forward, the company
would have to change the design of the
product to get, what I thought I was hired
for, a safer product.”
That 12-and-a-half page set of min-
utes caused director and senior manage-
ment outrage and, according to Wigand,
was subsequently sanitised.
“We had created a document which
might have to be produced in any subse-
quent litigation [against the company].
It showed very clearly that BAT had two
sets of standards – one for what could be
known internally and another for material
which they were prepared to use externally
and even under oath. This was all known
at board level,” he adds.
“An attorney who was not even present
at the meeting was ordered to sanitise the
minutes so that they became vanilla and
could not be traced back to the original
document. That episode reached the high-
est levels of the board of BAT Industries,
including the UK chairman of the day, Sir
Patrick Sheehy.”
BAT’s solicitor general was subse-
quently dispatched to New York where
Brown and Williamson’s scientists and
senior management were told that any
time they had a meeting, wrote a report or
decided to do or fi le something, a lawyer
would be involved. All documents, they
were told, would be sighted by a lawyer
who would edit, vet or send them back
beyond any level where (legal) discovery
could kick in.
“This might seem extreme but it is
not unusual,” says Wigand. “The company
talked about cigarettes and marketing
strategies that would ‘hook ‘em young,
hook ‘em for life’. Their general counsel
in the 1950s and ’60s talked about the
company being in the covert pharmaceuti-
cal business.
Jeffery Wigand seems too softly spoken to be the world’s loudest whistle-blower.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 49
FACE TO FACE
“They talked about nicotine being our
product and tar our negative baggage. This
is a long history of a continued propa-
gation of misinformation, deliberately
protecting the interests of the company by
keeping the truth from the public.”
There is, according to Wigand, a slowly
gathering international acceptance that
incompetent commercial governance is
at the heart of many of the world’s envi-
ronmental, social and political problems
and that action must be taken to shake
up the governance model. The problem
the world has with the tobacco industry,
where it is obvious there is no reason other
than money to be associated with such a
harmful enterprise, is that it has been legal
to manufacture and sell for a long time.
Graeme Amey, general manager for
BAT New Zealand, told the Maori Affairs
Select Committee that: “Tobacco is a legal
product for adults over 18 years,” and that
his company “operates within the legal
framework as set by the New Zealand
government.” In other words, if it’s legal to
sell tobacco and make money from doing
so, why worry about the science, or even
the company’s now available internal fi nd-
ings that confi rm nicotine is an addictive
substance and smoking kills – about 5000
New Zealanders every year.
The Select Committee is looking for
evidence to support its case for a smoke-
free New Zealand by 2020. According
to Wigand, most governments feel that
overnight prohibition is impractical. “The
practical approach, therefore, is to de-nor-
malise and de-socialise smoking, because
the industry’s leaders and their boards of
directors in particular, show no interest in
putting any moral consideration ahead of
personal monetary ones.
“The industry has absolutely no
capacity for self-governance and self-
regulation,” says Wigand. “If you don’t
believe me, take the story of the fi re-safe
cigarette which tobacco company Philip
Morris developed in 1986.”
The fi re-safe cigarette, according to
Wigand, who read the company’s own
scientifi c report, “was no more toxico-
logically burdensome, it looked and tasted
just like their regular Marlboro brand
cigarette and it was no more expensive to
produce. The only difference was, if you
did not puff on it, it self-extinguished and
therefore was not an ignition source for
starting a fi re.
“What did they do with it? They im-
mediately rushed it out and offered it
to the market because they knew it was
morally the right thing to do,” he offers.
Yeah right. “They put it on the shelf and
waited for someone to legislate it. Mean-
time they nicknamed it Hamlet – to burn
or not to burn.”
Wigand’s point is that corporate mo-
rality is too often directly and exclusively
linked to organisational profi tability and
personal fi nancial gain. The tobacco in-
dustry is simply an extreme example of
that relationship.
So are most boards of directors, par-
ticularly of large enterprises, tarred with a
similar brush? “I never saw it at [consumer
products company] Johnson & Johnson or
at [pharmaceutical company] Pfi zer where
I was a corporate offi cer,” says Wigand. “In
my experience, the people around those
board tables had the interests and credo
of their companies at heart.”
The problem, he thinks, lies less with
the governance model and more with
what he calls the “culture of the new
generation” of corporate leaders, both
directors and senior management. “They
look for immediate and excessive rewards,”
he says pointing to Wall Street’s egregious
and unethical practices. “Their activities
are in large measure responsible for the
world’s current economic problems.
“We have seen so many examples of
poor corporate governance over the past
two or so decades. It is a leadership issue.
The tone and culture of an organisation
comes from the top. If the leaders of an
organisation do not have good moral
fi bre and don’t believe in the ‘categorical
imperative’ of an obligation to behave
morally in enterprise, rather than simply
maximise profi t, we will get more corrupt
enterprises.”
Are boards populated by people with
the skills to deliver both effective and
responsible governance?
In the tobacco industry, Wigand
thinks not. “Directors should be inde-
pendent, not collective, thinkers who
are less infl uenced by money, and more
concerned with having a stake in the real
interests of the enterprise.
“Johnson & Johnson live and work
their corporate credo. Customers fi rst,
product quality next. I worked for them
through the Tylenol issue [see panel].
Their chief executive immediately pulled
every bottle of Tylenol off the market
when the poisoning scandal broke. It cost
the company billions of dollars.”
Wigand believes that organisations
must learn to accommodate whistle-blow-
ers – persons of conscience. “Responsible
governance encourages openness,” he says.
“Corporate leadership should encourage
employees to come forward with issues so
that they can be resolved internally rather
than by going external.
“Unfortunately, the corporate world has
yet to accept or embrace this act,” he says. “It
is, however, slowly addressing [the need for]
more ethical and moral conduct.” M
THE TYLENOL CRISIS In October 1982, some capsules of Tylenol, a leading US painkiller, were injected with cyanide and replaced on outlet shelves for sale. Seven people in Chicago died after taking extra-strength Tylenol capsules.
The tampering occurred once the product reached the shelves. They were removed from the shelves, infected with cyanide and returned to the shelves.
The company immediately recalled the product America-wide – all 31 million bottles. It cost Johnson & Johnson around US$100 million. Although the company knew it was not responsible for the product-tampering, its board immediately assumed responsibility.
In February 1986, when a woman was reported dead from cyanide poisoning in Tylenol capsules, the company permanently removed all Tylenol capsules from the market.
50 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Call 0800 627 744 or email [email protected] Or visit www.marsh.co.nz for a comprehensive overview of our credentials.
You don’t get to be the leading educational insurance broker without examining all the risks.Dealing with the ever-present, ever-evolving risks facing today’s
independent schools, takes extraordinary commitment and an
intimate knowledge of their unique needs.
As preferred partner to a signifi cant number of New Zealand’s
independent schools, Marsh offers a level of risk analysis and
protection simply unmatched in the industry.
We’re immensely proud of the strength of the relationships
we have built with our education sector clients, most
notably the ISNZ members, as well as numerous state
and tertiary educational organisations.
If you’d like to learn what we can offer your school,
call Kerry Gosper or Graeme Dando on
0800 627 744 for a no obligation risk analysis.
And discover for yourself why Marsh is
New Zealand’s leading
education insurance
specialist.
And the world’s leading
insurance broker and risk advisor.
EDUCATION
5,000 students. 10 schools. 3 countries. One Goal.The ACG Group is proud to be entrusted with the education of 5,000 students, helping them become the best they can be. Many of today’s students will join the international leaders in fields as diverse as they are.
Engineers and environmentalists; politicians and playwrights; artists and architects. There are no limits to young people with the right preparation for lifelong success.
By bringing out the best of our students today, we help build a better world for tomorrow.
ACG Parnell College | ACG Senior College | ACG Strathallan | ACG Sunderland | ACG New Zealand International College | ACG Norton College
ACG English School | ACG International School Vietnam | The Australian International School Saigon | ACG International School Jakarta
To identify, understand and promote each individual student’s abilities.
Private schools are no longer the
sole domain of the wealthy and
privileged.
“Most people who choose to send
their children to independent schools are
ordinary people who have a huge desire
to give their children a good start in life,”
says Deborah James, executive director
of Independent Schools of New Zealand.
“The one commonality of private school
parents is their commitment to the edu-
cation of their children at the school of
their choice.”
She says many parents make huge
sacrifi ces to exercise that choice and,
increasingly, grandparents and extended
family are contributing to the costs.
Some choose a school for religious
affiliation, others for the academic
standing, the curriculum choices or
extra-curricular options. Increasingly
the qualifi cations framework offered by
the school is a factor.
All parents want to see their chil-
dren in a school that best meets their
individual learning needs, James says.
“Choosing the right school for your
child is one of the most important de-
cisions you will make on their behalf.
New Zealand boasts a strong and robust
education system, but in reality not every
school suits every child and not every
child suits every school.”
Independent Schools of New Zea-
land represents 43 independent or pri-
vate schools in New Zealand. Member
schools educate 80 percent of the stu-
dents in the private schools sector.
Choice in education is imperative if
we are to maximise the learning poten-
tial of every child, James believes. “The
private schools sector best suits children
who do not fi t the one-size-fi ts-all state
system. Take away the private schools
sector and you strip parents of their right
to choose the school that best meets the
needs of their children.”
Peter Crompton, principal of Fi-
cino School, says when choosing a pri-
vate school, parents are often wanting
smaller class sizes where the teacher has
a more detailed understanding of each
student’s needs.
“They are also often looking for more
breadth in the curriculum, where the
whole child is being educated not only
their academic needs, but also in musical,
dramatic and sporting prowess, which are
key areas of a child’s development.”
James says independent schools have
more ability to innovate and cater for
diversity than those limited by the state’s
guidelines. “Examples include the use of
THE right SCHOOLThose involved in the private school sector say they are an important way to exercise choice in education.
✓Deborah James.
52 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
Fundamental to the Ficino education is the commitment to exploring and revealing the storehouse of unique possibilities, the gifts for life already present within every child. The foundation for learning is a comprehensive academic, cultural and spiritual education. Core subjects like Mathematics, English and Science complemented by the likes of Drama, Art, Literature and Philosophy ensure that the children receive a variety from the very best that is available. For the comprehensive, formative education of the young mind, body and spirit, contact Ficino Primary and Intermediate School School today.
Phone (09) 623 338527 Esplanade Rd, Mt Eden, Aucklandwww.ficino.school.nz
Up to four scholarships covering 50% of tuition fees and full uniform costs will be offered to students currently in year 6, to attend Ficino School for years 7 and 8, in 2011 and 2012. Principal Peter Crompton is looking for children who can demonstrate strong academic performance and talent in a sporting or cultural area.
“We’re keen to talk to students who can show citizenship, community spirit and leadership ability, qualities that are highly valued at Ficino School. It is also important that the student and their family have an empathy with the school’s special character,” says Mr Crompton.
Located in Mt Eden, Ficino School offers a supportive and loving family environment. The school has a roll of 122 pupils from new entrants to year 8. The scholarship is a unique opportunity for children who demonstrate an enthusiasm for learning and self-development.
“With our small class sizes, around 15 students in years 7 and 8, Ficino provides a unique values-centered, academically oriented education. Our senior students are given numerous leadership opportunities across a broad curriculum. They receive specialist subject teaching in both maths and science, giving them a head start for their secondary school education,” says Mr Crompton.
Ficino School welcomes enquiries and would be happy to arrange a personal tour of their facilities. Please phone 09 623 3385 or visit our website www.ficino.school.nz for more information or to request a scholarship information pack. Applications for a 2011 scholarship to Ficino School close on 15 September, 2010.
Scholarship That Unlocks Your Child’s Leadership PotentialFicino Primary and Intermediate School is offering four students the opportunity to unlock their true leadership potential, in a positive and aspirational environment.
Education that nurtures your child’s unique potential.
SCHOOL TOURS
Friday 6 AugustFriday 10 September
EDUCATION
Representing the nation’s leading private schools
digital technologies in teaching and learning, richer and more
extensive co-curricular offerings and increased options for
senior school qualifi cations.”
Crompton says in another example, Ficino School teaches
Sanskrit, which gives the children an excellent foundation for
clear enunciation and grammar.
James argues that the Government has an opportunity
to improve the overall performance of school education and
reduce its own expenditure on school education by raising the
subsidy rate to private schools above its present level.
“An increased subsidy rate would make independent
schools more affordable for more parents and the subsequent
growth of the private schools sector would free up valuable
resources for the state schools sector. The presence of a private
schools sector in this country already provides a net fi scal
benefi t to the state of well over $150 million per annum.”
James believes New Zealand should aspire to a system
of education that is open to all. “All parents – regardless of
financial means – should have the ability to choose where
to send their children to school. That is social justice at its
simplest.” M
Clarence van der Wel, deputy chief executive of Academic Colleges Group. suggests parents should consider the following factors when looking for a private school:1. Does it have high academic standards? Parents should check out the school’s academic record and make sure it delivers on what it promises. 2. Is it the right fi t for the child? Look closely at the school’s ethos and overall educational philosophy. 3. Will students have extra tutoring support? The ACG schools provide each student with a personal tutor who is a member of the teaching staff and is in regular communication with the home.4. Is there a range of sporting and cultural activities outside the classroom? Extra-curricular activities develop the interests and skills of students and broaden their range of experiences. 5. What is the school’s position on standards of behaviour? Each school should have a code of conduct under which it operates with clear expectations for students aimed at ensuring that all students are able to learn without hindrance or distraction.6. Which qualifi cations? The University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) are offered by a number of private schools either as the only qualifi cation or in tandem with NCEA. Other private schools offer NCEA alone or in combination with the International Baccalaureate (IB). Both IB and CIE are considered international qualifi cations.
Clarence van der Wel, deputy chief executive of Academic f
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
54 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
YOUNG EXECUTIVEOF THE YEAR
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT IN ACTION
It’s that time of year again, when the country’s best young executives
have stepped up to be measured against their peers, and the regional judges have announced who will go on to contest the national NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award fi nal in December. Picking a single winner from each regional shortlist of high calibre entrants is challenge enough for judges, but the diversity of roles and organisations, backgrounds and levels of experience the entrants bring to the competition always adds to the complexity of the task.
However, all three judging panels agree that this year’s regional winners were stand out choices, compared to past years where very little separated winners and runners up.
“It’s a very fi ne line because they are all on the short list for a very good reason,” says Northern head judge Kevin Gaunt. “What counts is whether the person is managing, not whether they can run a specifi c type of organisation. As judges we really enjoy it and get a lot out of it – it reinvigorates us and we get a huge insight into what makes somebody successful as a current modern manager... In fact it changes us too, simply by going through the interviews!”
Kevin says Northern candidates made the shortlist because they demonstrated the classic qualities that modern managers need.
“They had very good knowledge of their companies or organisations. All of them had a good understanding of management practice and leadership, either through experience or qualifi cations, or both. They all had a good understanding of people
management and the issues around being able to communicate a vision and get people engaged. They were all strategic in their thinking and able to bring their strategies to a practical level, and they were all self-aware, which is a key management or leadership attribute.”
“And it’s not only about the technical skill set, the formal education in management or their experience,” says Central head judge Kate Calvert. “It’s also about who they are as a person and what they’ve learned along the way. It’s good to hear someone admit they’ve messed up somewhere, because failures you can learn from. That’s what management is all about – you’re not always successful, you don’t always make the right decisions. So we don’t look for a text book answer, we really want to know what they think and who that person is that we’re talking to, and we don’t have an expectation that they’ve done everything perfectly.”
What comes through clearly is the value all the candidates get out of the entry process, with signs many organisations are using the Award as an opportunity to acknowledge potential and develop their staff.
“It’s a hugely positive exercise,” says Southern head judge Gordon Richards. “It provides a chance for the candidate to do a stock take of their own aspirations, their goals and their careers, and we regularly get feedback saying how interesting the exercise has been, how they had to stop and think about what they’re doing. Often you only do that if you’re between jobs. Generally there’s a fair amount of dialogue with the person that nominated them, about what they’ve
achieved and where they’re going and I think that’s quite an important point in this exercise. The candidates have had a few years in the real world and they’re deciding where they want to head next. The fact that someone has gone to the trouble to nominate them is really positive and certainly helps them cement ties within their organisation.
“They can’t all be winners and some just need another year or so to fl esh out their experience. Over the years we have tended to suggest to people who we see have immense potential that they re-apply in one or two years. Dan Coward was one of those and our winner this year was another. You can’t make promises but sometimes you see people who are heading up the path but they’re just not quite there. I would love to see a few more young folk apply for this... it’s a very good career move in terms of taking stock at a critical time in your career.”
“I like to think that they’re all winners at some level,” says Eagle Technology marketing communications manager Sarah
MacDonald. “Although there can only be one overall winner, we see the regional awards as every bit as important and the candidates are always outstanding. It’s wonderful to see them so enthusiastic and loving what they do, but it stands out too that the winners of these awards are always so well supported by their organisations... that always comes across.”
Eagle Technology is now in its sixth year of sponsoring the Young Executive of the Year Awards and has committed to next year’s event as well.
“We don’t take our sponsorships lightly. NZIM has really taken us on board as partners, they’re fantastic... I work closely with the regional people and they’re always so welcoming. We’re also delighted with the way Mediaweb has approached the awards.”
CONGRATULATIONS!The three regional winners of the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award are:NORTHERN: Sharon McCook, Health Research CouncilCENTRAL: Claire Szabo, English Language Partners NZSOUTHERN: Brendon McWilliam, Christchurch Engine Centre
From left to right: John Chang (NZIM Southern Board member), Southern Young Executive of the Year Brendon McWilliam, and Gary Langford (CEO, Eagle Technology).
Central Young Executive of the Year Clair Szabo (3rd from right), with Karin Callaghan, CEO NZIM Central, Central fi nalists Katrina Leather, Phil Jones and Stephen Porteners, and Phillip Meyer, chair of NZIM Central.
Sharon McCook.
NIMI
ON MANAGEMENT
AUGUST 2010 VOL 05 NUMBER 04 ISSN 1177-5815
The New Generation
OF MEETINGSCorporate Storytelling with Wade Jackson
Those in a leadership role
walk a tightrope, balancing their time between inspiring their team, getting buy-in for ideas, implementing strategy, managing tasks, building relationships, coaching others and a whole myriad of other demands. If you focus your attention solely on one area for too long, you’ll soon fi nd yourself falling off the wire.
The one element that all these demands have in common is communication. In business, being an effective communicator isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ – it’s a ‘must-have’! Master the art of storytelling and you will become a more effective communicator and enjoy success in meeting these work demands. Being a more effective communicator means you and those around you will become more productive and achieve results. People who achieve results never want. You will have more control of your destiny and in a time where rapid, constant change is the norm, that control equals a beautiful peace of mind.
Stories are like oxygen – they are all around us and provide us with a life-force every moment of our lives, yet we rarely notice them or pay them much attention. Take them away and we die. We need stories, not just our own but others too. It is through the telling and sharing of stories that we make connections, which helps us to understand who we are and to make sense of the world around us.
“‘Thou shalt not’ might reach the head, but it takes ‘Once upon a time’ to reach the heart,” says Philip Pullman.
There are many benefi ts and applications of using ‘storytelling’ as a tool, but the underpinning idea is that stories connect. They connect people to people, and people to ideas. There are many different types of people and types of relationships, just as there are many different types of ideas. Storytelling connects us all. Here are eight key areas where storytelling can greatly benefi t leaders.• Aligning purpose. • Setting a vision. • Building a culture.• Implementing strategy.• Inspiring and infl uencing. • Creating and maintaining relationships.• Sharing knowledge to coach and upskill.• Simplifying communication.
If you would like to learn more about this programme and how to become a Master Storyteller, NZIM Northern has an intake scheduled for October 4-5. Contact NZIM Northern today to secure your booking on 0800 800 694, or visit www.nzimnorthern.co.nz.
In today’s fast-paced business world, you will fi nd many people who have worked their way
up from the frontlines of business, and have found themselves in a management role. While many no doubt have a wealth of experience and knowledge, many are still lacking any formal recognition or qualifi cations. With the ever increasing level of leadership and technical expertise needed to successfully manage business units or organisations, leaders and managers need to be adept at fi nding business solutions. Not only that, they need to be creative and innovative in their approach, as well as meeting time and budget constraints, all while infl uencing others within and outside their organisation.
More often than not, there are gaps that need to be fi lled on an operational and strategic level. While experience may help somewhat, many aren’t properly prepared to take on these responsibilities. This is where NZIM Northern can help.
The NZIM Diploma in Management (Advanced) – Level 6, an NZQA-approved qualifi cation, is for managers who have been in their role
for more than fi ve years and are looking for a formal management qualifi cation. They could be managers who are looking to prepare themselves better for senior positions, or middle managers who need to fi ll gaps in their knowledge that their experience can’t bridge. This programme provides an entry point into advanced qualifi cations for middle or senior managers wishing to provide conceptual rigour for their experiences, without the commitment of full-time study or night and weekend classes. To optimise the learning experience, the Diploma is spread over nine months, with face-to-face modules approximately every four to six weeks. Participants are required to complete assessments for each module, a major project and fi nal project report, along with a learning journal and formal presentation at the end.
The next intake for the NZIM Diploma in Management (Advanced) is scheduled to start on August 10. To secure your booking or talk to a consultant, call the NZIM Northern Learning & Development team today on 0800 800 694, or visit www.nzimnorthern.co.nz.
NZIM Diploma in Management (Advanced) – Level 6
“Meetings, bloody meetings.” It’s a sentiment shared by many in today’s
business world, when fi nding enough time in the day for meetings sandwiched in between increasing workloads and demanding schedules is a challenge in itself. Yet sometimes it hardly feels worth the effort, when members of the meeting are otherwise occupied, thinking of other matters, or plain not interested. While an agenda helps order the meeting somewhat, there’s still the chance that the main objectives won’t be covered.
It was with these issues in mind that NZIM Northern Learning and Development manager Suzanna Rangi-Hohepa put together “The New Generation of Meetings”. Inspired by the four buttons making up the gaming keypad on a Playstation controller, meetings are scheduled under four headings: Square Meetings, Roundtable Meetings, Triangle Meetings, and Four Corners Meetings. Under these headings specifi c topics and objectives are discussed, ensuring that time is well spent with desired outcomes reached.
SQUARE meetings are ’results and process’ oriented and are scheduled weekly. Therefore, these meetings are strictly for reviewing sales fi gures, results (both past and present), and processes. Other topics may come up and are noted to be discussed during the appropriate meeting. Key elements for square meetings are that they are always structured and outcome based, and should be set at the same time on a weekly basis.
ROUNDTABLE meetings are around being creative, innovative, having new ideas, and anything within the business based on the future. As a result, new marketing or promotion ideas are usually discussed, as well as ways to increase business and help your organisation stand out from the rest. These meetings are scheduled fortnightly with key elements being: it has to
be fun, not all ideas are discussed, follow-up on implementation is critical and is based on outcomes.
TRIANGLE meetings are more around product training, coaching and sharing – more or less learning sessions. These are scheduled as and when needed, however, it is good practice to hold one, once or twice a month, to be certain your team is up to date with best practices.
FOUR CORNERS meetings are planned monthly and are themed for each quarter. Based on the four points of a compass, outcomes are based on: • N Now: what can we implement straight after this meeting? • E Ensure: what will we ensure we will do? • S Sales Focus: how will we increase sales? • W What, Who, When: action plan moving forward.
Ideally a different chairperson should head each meeting and be changed quarterly. The chairperson has full responsibility for each meeting – and creative licence.
The NZIM Northern team implemented this meeting structure in March and since then has experienced an increase in outcomes achieved, ideas generated and discussed, and seen a more effective meeting structure overall. To hear just how much this has had an impact, contact the Learning and Development Team today on 0800 800 694.
Wade Jackson
Central Courses CHANGE MANAGEMENTHow do you know what is best practice? Do you know what type of change will be required in your organisation and how you need to manage it?
These are the key questions you need to ask before the process begins. The challenge today when contemplating change is to minimise the risks when you start the planning and implementation of change.
Understanding Change Management requires many disciplines – good communication strategies, negotiation, consultation to name a few.
The ability to diagnose and examine the need for strategic change and then manage the process in the interests of all the stakeholders is crucial. How to identify the best processes that will bring your people with you on the journey through a successful change process and understand the natural resistance of some staff can be effectively handled with the right tools.
Completing this programme with NZIM will give you the tools to understand the process of change and how to manage your journey.Date: October 26-27Cost – Members: $1400
Non-members: $1600
PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENTEffective management of contractors and consultants is a practical reality for managers. Understanding how to assess, select, manage and monitor outside knowledge and skills is fundamental.
The aim of this programme is to provide you with the skills and techniques to effectively manage contractors and consultants in the public and/or private sector.
This programme is specifi cally designed for managers of contractors and/or consultants. It is also designed for people involved in the management of contract milestones.
This two-day programme offers a highly stimulating learning experience based on small group exercises to emphasise the skills required at each stage of the contract management process.Date: November 17-18Cost – Members: $1100
Non-members: $1450
INTRODUCING RICHARD MILLARRichard Millar facilitates both the Change Management and the Procurement Management programmes. An experienced trainer and consultant whose areas of expertise include leadership development, frontline management development, team development, executive and personal development coaching, strategic/business planning and accounting for non-accountants, Richard has worked in a wide variety of organisations, small and large, in New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea. His depth of business knowledge and skills in sales, marketing, fi nance and general management, coupled with a very practical approach to training and facilitation has provided excellent value to a large number of organisations.
Richard’s background includes chief executive offi cer of Cogent Communications in New Zealand where he was responsible for restructuring the company, transforming it into a profi table high growth telecommunications business. He was previously vice president, Asia Pacifi c, for Motorola Cellular, based in Singapore in 1995-97, after having been managing director of Motorola New Zealand. He has also held a number of other senior management positions including general manager of Epson New Zealand and area fi nancial offi cer, South Pacifi c, for Wang Labs Inc, based in Australia.
NZIM/WRCC Women’s Breakfast Series
The third in the women’s breakfast series was hosted by NZIM with guest speaker
Hilary Beaton, CEO of Downstage Theatre. NZIM also took the opportunity to present Claire Szabo, CEO of English Language Partners New Zealand with her new AFNZIM certifi cate.
Claire says her decision to apply for professional advancement with NZIM was a great opportunity to refl ect back over her past decade of work and test her management skills on a broader stage.
“Having my portfolio blind reviewed by a panel sharpened my focus to the task! The successful result – Associate Fellow status – was most encouraging. Being a frequenter of the breakfast series meetings, a real bonus was having the framed certifi cate presented there and receiving the support of colleagues and friends. I would recommend both professional advancement and the breakfast series events to any manager looking for collegial support and inspiration.”
For more information on professional advancement with NZIM please contact Susan Mckibbin [email protected], or phone 04 495 8296.
COMING UP:DATES FOR YOUR DIARYWednesday 25Cullen Law Series - lunchtime seminar. Presented by Charles McGuiness, senior solicitor with Cullen. Topic is Confi dential Information, Restraints of Trade and Employee Obligations.
Tuesday 7 SeptemberNZIM/WRCC Women’s Breakfast Series.
Wednesday 6 OctoberCullen Law Series – lunchtime seminars. Presented by Charles McGuiness, senior solicitor with Cullen.
For more information or to register for any of these events please visit www.nzimcentral.co.nz or contact Susan Mckibbin [email protected], or phone 04 495 8296
NZIM Central CEO Karin Callaghan and Claire Szabo.
[l to r]: Hilary Beaton, CEO of Downstage Theatre, Karin Callaghan, CEO NZIM Central and Helen Moody chair of Downstage Theatre.
Richard Millar.
YOUNG EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR – Southern Final
The NZIM Southern fi nal for the 2010 Young Executive of the Year Award was
held at the Russley Golf Club in Christchurch on Wednesday 30 June.
Although there were only three fi nalists this year, the standard was as high as ever providing the judges a very diffi cult task to fi nd just one winner.
Last year’s winner Dan Coward, who was present at the function to hand over his title, won the award on his second attempt and that scenario repeated itself this year when Brendon McWilliam from the Christchurch Engine Centre became the worthy winner after fi rst entering the competition in 2009. This certainly proves the old adage “if at fi rst you don’t succeed, try, try again”.
The NZIM Southern team congratulates Brendon and wishes him every success in taking out the national title at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards in Auckland in December.
Erica Crawford.
L TO R: Brendon McWilliam (Christchurch Engine Centre), Nalini Meyer (Harmans Lawyers) and Brett Christie (Beca Ltd).
COMING EVENTSTuesday 17 August 5.15pm to 7.00pmWomen in Leadership Knowledge Café function at The George Hotel. Members $30 incl GST; non-Members and e-Members $35 incl GST.Thursday 16 September 7.30am to 10.00amNZIM EIANZ Breakfast Forum at The Canterbury Club. Guest speakers are Kerry Griffi ths from URS Corp and Roger Sutton from Orion Networks.Tuesday 21 September 5.15pm to 7.00pmWomen in Leadership Knowledge Café function at The George Hotel. Members $30 incl GST; non-Members and e-Members $35 incl GST.Friday 5 NovemberNZIM 25th Annual Charity Golf Tournament at the Russley Golf Club
To book for any of these events or fi nd out more phone 03 379 2302, visit www.nzimsouthern.co.nz or email: [email protected].
Strategic Development programme
The fi ve-day residential Strategic Development Programme helps
organisations develop future senior managers by placing them in a practical learning situation that builds the skills and techniques needed for effective performance at the highest levels of strategic management.
Programme content and style is designed for senior managers responsible for the strategic leadership of the company, for managers who contribute to the strategic planning and development process and managers who want to compare their position and thinking with others in similar positions.
The course is made up of four programmes covering strategic, marketing and fi nancial management, and strategic leadership.
The programme is integrated with a Strategic Planning case study that requires syndicates to develop a series of long-range plans. Daily tactical decisions are made and these plans and decisions will be analysed to produce operating results taking account of suppliers, competitors and market forces.
The next course starts 6 September – for more information phone 03 379 2302, visit www.nzimsouthern.co.nz or email [email protected].
Feature speaker at last month’s Women in Leadership Knowledge Café function was
Erica Crawford, managing principal at Tentpole Holdings. She started her career as a young scientist in cardiac medicine in her native South Africa, but it was her self-taught skills as an exporter and marketer that saw her rise to business prominence in New Zealand. Erica co-founded Kim Crawford Wines in 1996. In a unique deal, the brand and IP was sold after some seven years.
Erica remained in the business until April 2009, when she retired from Constellation Wines as vice president, global sales and marketing. She is a member of the NZTE Beachheads Advisory Board and an advisor to the ASA Liquor Promotions Control Board. She is on the judging panel of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and a member of the Investment Committee of the University of Auckland Business School Entrepreneurs Challenge. Erica is President of the Canada NZ Business Association
and a founding member of Global Women.The next Women in Leadership Knowledge
Café will be held on 17 August from 5.15pm to 7.00pm. For more information or to book phone 03 379 2302, visit www.nzimsouthern.co.nz or email: [email protected].
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP KNOWLEDGE CAFE
JOINT SUSTAINABILITY BREAKFAST FORUM 16 September
NZIM Southern and the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand are teaming
up to present a Breakfast Forum on 16 September at the Canterbury Club in Christchurch.
The key speakers will be Kerry Griffi ths and Roger Sutton. Chairman of the function is Tom Burkitt, the New Zealand chapter president and VP EIANZ.
Kerry Griffi ths is a principal sustainability consultant at URS New Zealand. She has 14 years’ practical experience in the fi eld of sustainability integration, more recently with a focus on state highway and infrastructure projects. She has also led several sustainability and greenhouse gas inventory projects with NZTA from a strategic/policy perspective. Kerry has been involved with NGTR, NGA Newmarket, the
Waterview Connection and Transmission Gully projects, with a particular focus on the implementation of sustainability concepts within state highway project design and construction.
Roger Sutton has been chief executive offi cer of Orion New Zealand Limited
for six years, and is chairman of EECA (the Energy Effi ciency & Conservation Authority). Through his role with EECA he aims to help bring energy effi ciency to every New Zealander. He has previously been a director of Energy Developments Limited, an ASX-listed renewable energy developer; a director of Energetics, Australia’s largest specialist energy effi ciency consultancy; and a trustee of Community Energy Action, a Christchurch-based trust that supports energy-effi ciency initiatives for low income households.Kerry Griffi ths.
Roger Sutton.
AUG 4-6 Team Leader – Essential Skills 5 Effective Business Writing 5-6 Developing Infl uencing & Motivation
Skills 10 Managerial Excellence 11 MEX Communications 12-13 Project Risk Management 16-18 Introduction to Management 17-18 Operational Management 19-20 Leading Your Organisational Culture 19-20 Key Account Management 19-20 Facilitation Skills 24-25 Interpersonal Communication Skills 30-31 Building a Business Case
SEPT 1-3 Team Leader – Building Effective
Teams 2 Emotional Intelligence 6-8 CEO Development Programme 7-8 MEX Applied & Project Management 9 Writing an Effective Business Plan 9-10 Leadership 10 Basic Budgeting 14-15 Business Process Management 14-15 Human Resource Management 15-17 PMP Preparation 16 Implementing Effective Performance
Reviews 16-17 Effective Recruitment 16-17 Needs Analysis & Programme Design 20 Effective Use of Time 22 Diploma in Project Management
(starts) 22-23 Performance Management 23-24 Interpersonal Communication Skills 24 Microsoft Projects 27-29 Project Management 28-29 Confl ict Management 30-1 Developing a High Performance
Team
OCT 2-9 Management Development
Programme 4-5 Corporate Story Telling 5-6 Strategic Management 5-7 Team Leader – Essential Skills 7-8 Assertiveness Skills 7-8 Women in Management 8 Lean 6 Sigma – Yellow Belt 11 Speed & Power Reading 11-13 Professional Administrator Skills 11-13 Accounting for Non-Accountants 12 MEX Communications 12-13 Coaching and Mentoring 13 Stress Management Strategies 13-15 Four Quadrant Leadership 14-15 Report Writing 14-15 Workplace Assessment 18 Effective Use of Time 18 Diploma in Frontline Management
(starts)
NORTHERN All courses shown are in Auckland. For more information phone 0800 800 694 or visit www.nzimnorthern.co.nz
CENTRAL All courses shown are in Wellington unless otherwise indicated. For more information phone 0800 373 700 or visit www.nzimcentral.co.nz
AUG
3-6 Train the Trainer
9 Effective Business Writing
17-18 Developing, Infl uencing & Motivational Skills
17-18 Developing Flexible Leadership inc DiSc
18 Emotional Intelligence
19-20 Confl ict Management
23-24 Strategic Thinking Tools
SEPT 1 Process Mapping & Continuous
Improvement
1-2 Dealing with Diffi cult Behaviours
6-8 Accounting for Non-Accountants
8-9 Think On Your Feet
8-9 Managing Your Time
13 Effective Recruitment & Selection
13-14 Dip Mgt Advanced – Human Resource Management
15-16 Confi dent Communicator
15-17 Professional Administrator Skills
22-24 Project Management
27-28 Introduction to Management
27-29 Team Leader Skills/Operational Leadership (National Certifi cate in Business)
OCT 1 Implementing Effective Performance
Reviews
1 Neurolinguistic Programming
4-5 Building a Business Case
6-7 Negotiation Skills
7-8 Coaching & Mentoring Skills
7-8 Diploma in Frontline Management
11 Introduction to Management
11-12 Leading Your Organisational Culture
11-13 Diploma in Project Management
13-15 Leadership, Motivation & Team Building
18 Memory & Mind Mapping
19-20 Diploma in Frontline Management
26-27 Change Management
28-29 Diploma in Management Advanced
SOUTHERNFor more information phone 03 379 2302 (Christchurch & Queenstown), 03 477 9277 (Dunedin) or 03 218 7451 (Invercargill) or visit www.managementsouth.co.nz.
CHRISTCHURCH
AUG 2-3 Coaching for Performance Excellence 4-5 Practical People Skills 4-6 Four Quadrant Leadership Stage 2 6-9 Developing Effective Teams 9-11 Four Quadrant Leadership 11-13 Team Leader – The Essential Skills 12 Introduction to Leadership – NEW 16-17 Negotiation Skills 17-19 Team Leader – Leading the Work
Group
SEPT 3 Effective Business Writing 6-8 ABCs of Win-Win Relationships 6-10 Strategic Development Programme 10 Effective Use of Time 14-15 Accounting for Non Accountants –
Stage 1 15-17 Introduction to Management 20-22 Team Leader – Building Effective
Teams 27-29 Team Leader – The Essential Skills
OCT 9-16 ESCO – The Discovery
OTAGO/SOUTHLANDAUG 4-6 Four Quadrant Leadership,
Invercargill 9-10 Presentation Skills, Invercargill 11 Effective Business Writing,
Queenstown 16-17 Practical Project Management,
Dunedin 19-20 Practical Project Management,
Invercargill 23 Speed Reading, Invercargill 24-26 Team Leader – Leading the Work
Group, Invercargill 25 Effective Use of Time, Dunedin 26-27 Coaching for Performance
Excellence, Dunedin
SEPT 6 People & Communication Skills,
Invercargill 7 Dealing with Different People &
Handling Confl ict, Invercargill 8 Managing the Performance of your
Staff, Invercargill – NEW 14 The Art of Minute Taking, Invercargill 15 Essential Skills for the Administrator,
Invercargill – NEW 16 Conducting Effective Meetings,
Invercargill – NEW 20 Effective Business Writing, Dunedin 20-21 Think on Your Feet, Invercargill
OCT 6 Governance in Practice, Invercargill 7-8 Negotiation Skills, Dunedin 11 Governance in Practice, Dunedin
LEADERS BUILDING LEADERSOur aim is to build management capabilitythrough, Research, Learning, and Recognition.
OUR FOCUS IS TO:• Research leading management trends
and practice and promote a constantly developing model of best management capability for New Zealand.
• Enable managers and aspiring managers to participate in learning programmes, mentoring, and events that provide the information and experience they need to develop their capability.
• Identify leading management role models and provide awards that recognise the career and educational achievements of managers.
NATIONAL BOARDPhillip Meyer FNZIM (Chairman)Brian Soutar AFNZIM Lloyd Davies FNZIMCheryl Doig FNZIMJohn Sandford FNZIMGary Sturgess Life FNZIMLynda Carroll AFNZIM
OFFICESNational Offi ceActing CEO Phillip MeyerPO Box 67, Wellington 6140Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479Email national_offi [email protected] website www.nzim.co.nz
NorthernPresident John Sandford FNZIM CEO Kevin Gaunt FNZIM, FAIMPO Box 6600, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 Ph 0-9-303 9100, Fax 0-9-303 9109Email [email protected] www.nzimnorthern.co.nz
CentralPresident Phillip Meyer FNZIMCEO Karin Callaghan FNZIM FIPAAPO Box 11781, Wellington 6142Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301Email [email protected] www.nzimcentral.co.nz
SouthernPresident Brian Soutar AFNZIMActing CEO Tom McBrearty AFNZIMPO Box 13044, Christchurch 8141Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-3-366 7069Email [email protected] www.nzimsouthern.co.nz
MEMBER COMMENT:
If you can measure it YOU CAN MEND IT
Six years ago, when Phil Ker became the chief executive
of Otago Polytechnic, he set in place an annual work environment survey. Five surveys later, he modestly acknowledges that the results are nothing short of amazing.
“We have focused our energy on improvement in the areas that showed up as needing attention. Everything has been tracking upward each year, so now we have only a couple of areas that are rated below our target.”
With a career spanning roles as teacher of accounting and economics, union leader, and as corporate services director of Auckland University of Technology, Phil knew that ‘management metrics’ would help the management team and staff to focus on the areas that needed improvement.
The survey is designed to align with John Robertson’s ‘Best places to work’ awards. It uses the Likert Scale – a series of statements about which the respondent rates their level of agreement. Everyone in the organisation answers 80 questions around all dimensions of work life.
Topics include personal wellbeing; issues around the values, skills, resources and expectations of each person’s job; workloads; culture; decision-making processes and confi dence in leadership.
Each year, managers and staff have worked in a disciplined way to deal with the issues that rated lower than desirable. For example, the organisation’s decision-making processes gained
only a 57% rating fi ve years ago. The ratings for this item are now tracking at 80%. This is due to a focus on building management and leadership capability and through a disciplined approach to communication and relationship development.
Phil says he has long held the view that not anyone can manage, but that management is a profession that entails a set of attributes that can be learned and should be mastered. “Our whole Otago Polytechnic culture is built around capability,” he says.
“Success is not about knowing ‘stuff’, but about being able to perform. You have to know ‘stuff’, but you have to have the right attitudes and the soft skills like relationship building, teamwork, ability to work with
diversity, and communication. Our robust self-review process is building a culture where we each take responsibility for knowing if we are doing a good job, and understanding what we are doing well and not well. When we know how we measure up, we can mend and develop our behaviours and processes.”
PHIL KER, FNZIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE, OTAGO POLYTECHNIC
Phil Ker.
DIRECT MARKETING
There are many aspects that make up
a good direct marketing campaign,
starting with great planning, and us-
ing data and analytics to ensure you’re
reaching the right people with the right
message. You need attention-grabbing
creative, because direct marketing is
the only medium that lets you get to all
senses and fully interact with your audi-
ence. And, more than ever, you have to
consider a multi-channel environment –
addressed mail, email, mobile, web, and
the potential of digital technologies such
as quick response (QR) and augmented
reality (AR).
CREATIVE TRENDSThere are some great things happening
in both the online and offl ine worlds of
direct marketing.
Today’s print production capabilities
are pretty spectacular and free the way
for imaginations to run wild. Add a lit-
tle fun to things with interactivity in the
form of specially coated messages that
require body heat or the application of
liquid to reveal messages. Quick response
and augmented reality technologies also
open up a world of possibility and I think
we’ll see more of these
capabilities incorporated
into direct marketing in the
near future. For example,
the US Postal Service uses
augmented reality to help
customers fi nd the right-
sized packaging for the
items they want to send by
inviting them to use a web-
cam to experience a virtual
box simulator.
DATA AND INSIGHTSData and insights are less sexy but it’s
one of the big trends we’ve been notic-
ing – the care, attention and amount
of effort that organisations are putting
into their data and analytics. It’s fabu-
lous to see this positioned high on
direct marketers’ agendas because it’s
extremely customer-focused, ensuring
you’re communicating with the right
customers via the right channels with
the right messages, and it’s also an ef-
fi cient use of marketing budget.
New Zealand Post has been getting
so many inquiries for in-depth analytics
to provide what the industry calls “rich
customer insights”, that it’s developed
an entire new data segmentation model,
Genius™, to meet demand.
MEASURINGMeasuring has always been an impor-
tant part of DM and we’re noticing a
trend here to more robust monitor-
ing, measurement and analysis of
results often being incorporated into
planning for additional DM. It’s now
being treated more as a long-term
communication plan rather than a se-
ries of one-off, unrelated
campaigns.
MULTI-CHANNELAddressed direct mail is
a traditional and still ex-
tremely effective way to
reach customers, however
DM specialists are find-
ing innovative ways to
take direct mail in new
directions, particularly
integrating with the digital world.
In New Zealand, we’re seeing the
direct and digital environments coming
together in various ways. We’ll be see-
ing more direct marketing campaigns
including print integrated with other
mediums such as outdoor advertis-
ing, that will direct customers to visit
personalised URLs to receive targeted
information, meant specifically for
them. Yes, it’s an overused word but it
really is about ‘integration’.
SUSTAINABILITYWith environmental friendliness high on
many of our personal and work agendas,
DM-ers are defi nitely thinking about
their responsibilities in sustainability.
For direct mail in particular, there has
been an increase in the use of sustainable
materials (paper and inks) and biode-
gradable material. A great example was
a biodegradable pen which the customer
used to sign a form and could then plant
in soil and watch it grow into a plant. M
Fiona Woolley is manager – market engagement for
New Zealand Post Targeted Communications.
Those who love direct marketing do so because it’s targeted, measurable and personal. As technology advances, there are more opportunities than ever before for Kiwi businesses to indulge in their love of DM, says Fiona Woolley of NZ Post.
New ways to engage
Fiona Woolley.
A quick response mail campaign.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 61
HEALTHY LIFESTYLES
Last year, hundreds of thousands of
New Zealanders underwent surgery.
Was one of your employees or colleagues
among them?
If not, then statistically there’s every
possibility that this year may be the one.
Increasingly, surgery is becoming a fact
of life in New Zealand.
Elective, or non-urgent surgery in par-
ticular, has seen a signifi cant rise over the
past two years. Last year, 134,763 patients
received elective surgery in the public sys-
tem – up 12,000 on the previous year.
New Zealanders’ use of the private
health sector for their surgical needs is
also on the up. The New Zealand Private
Surgical Hospitals Association reports
that its members provided procedures
for approximately 164,000 patients last
year. And the country’s largest insurer
Southern Cross has seen signifi cant in-
creases in demand for some of the most
common surgical procedures.
For example, in the period to Decem-
ber 2009 there was an incredible 78 per-
cent increase in the number of members
claiming for shoulder surgery and a 19
percent increase for knee surgery.
A contributing factor to the increase
in elective surgery is our ageing popula-
tion, a factor which is also having a major
impact on the make-up of New Zealand’s
workforce. Latest fi gures from Statistics
New Zealand show that half the labour
force will be older than 42 years in 2011
– up from 36 years in 1991. The propor-
tion of the workforce aged 65 and over is
expected to peak at 23 percent in 2028,
up from 12 percent in 2006.
Inevitably as the workforce ages,
attitudes are changing. People want to
keep healthy, active and productive well
beyond the traditional retirement age –
and so they should.
Advances in medical procedures are
also increasing surgical interventions.
Procedures such as keyhole and laser
surgery are less invasive, enabling shorter
hospital stays and faster recovery times.
So what does this all add up to for
the workplace?
Quite simply, surgery is a topic likely to
become a “when” rather than a “what if” in
your offi ce. Depending on the seriousness
of the procedure, this means employers
and managers will need to think about
planning for an employee’s absence and
how to manage their return to work. Elec-
tive surgery is now a misnomer – many of
these surgeries are vital to the long-term
health or quality of life of the patient.
This is where private health insur-
ance can be a major benefi t to employees.
Many employers already recognise this
and subsidise health insurance for their
employees – this is the case with several
hundred thousand policy holders in New
Zealand. Lengthy and uncertain waits
for surgery can impact on an employee’s
health, well-being and productivity in
the workplace. Often it is not even the
employee that is going under the knife
– there is likely to be a detrimental effect
on an employee if their partner or child
is awaiting surgery too.
Private health insurance allows a pa-
tient to gain rapid access to the services
they need. Specialist visits, the actual
surgery itself and follow-up appoint-
ments can all be scheduled to minimise
disruption and downtime at work and
in life.
So what can you as a manager do
to limit the impact of surgery on the
workplace?
As with every aspect of good busi-
ness practice, clear communication and
planning is key.
BEFORE THE SURGERYBefore the staff member goes in for
surgery, fi nd out:
• The employee’s expected absence
from work.
• What their expected recovery time is
and whether they will be limited in any
respect upon their return. Be aware there is
no set standard – recovery times for more
complex surgery especially can vary widely
according to the procedure, severity of the
condition, health/age of the patient and
whether any complications arise.
• Be mindful of privacy – The employee
has a right to privacy around their health
issues and may not wish to share certain
information. Your questions should be
related to the employee’s duties and leave
requirements.
AFTER THE SURGERY• When the operation is over, keep
informed on how the employee is pro-
gressing.
• Part-time work, flexible hours or
Under the knifeA stitch in time saves lives. It’s a fact of business that staff are going to have to undergo surgery. What does that mean for your workplace?
“EMPLOYERS AND MANAGERS WILL NEED TO THINK ABOUT PLANNING FOR AN EMPLOYEE’S ABSENCE AND HOW TO MANAGE THEIR RETURN TO WORK.
62 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
changes in duties may be required during
the employee’s recovery.
• Some surgeons may supply a letter to
the employer outlining expected recov-
ery and duties the employee can do.
KEEPING PRODUCTIVITY HIGHAn area that many in the health industry
have been focused on for some time
now is trying to get an exemption from
Fringe Benefi t Tax for employers who
subsidise their employees’ health insur-
ance premiums.
There is currently an anomaly in
that there is no FBT on accident insur-
ance (ACC) but it is applied to health
insurance. Providing an exemption
from FBT to health insurance premi-
ums would deliver some welcome relief
for those employers who invest in health
insurance subsidies for their staff.
It is believed the Government would
also see strong payback through increased
uptake in the private sector freeing up
space in the public system. Some low-
cost health and wellness programmes are
already exempt from FBT. M
Peter Tynan is chief executive Health Insurance,
Southern Cross Medical Care Society.
A factor in the increase in elective surgery is the ageing working population.
activa is brought to you by Activa Health Limited. The activa Account and related banking services are provided by ASB Bank Limited. Activa Health Limited receives services fees from ASB Bank Limited and Southern Cross Medical Care Society. Neither Activa Health Limited nor the Southern Cross Medical Care Society is a registered bank. A copy of ASB’s disclosure statement is available free of charge at www.asb.co.nz.
The best way to keep staff happy since wages.The activa card is a simple, fun way to attract, retain, and inspire your staff. You set the annual amount, then your staff use their activa card to enhance their health and wellbeing. It’s what you’d call a healthy incentive. To find out more about the benefits of activa for your staff talk to Southern Cross on 0800 323 555 now or visit www.healthybusiness.co.nz.
AUGUST 2010 Management www.management.co.nz 63
TEN TOP TIPS
Face it, Facebook is a strategy you shouldn’t ignore.
Facebook is now the number-one website in the US, even
ranking above Google, with around 500 million active us-
ers using the site each month, and around half those users
visiting daily. The average user has around 130 friends, and
spends around 40 minutes on the site when they visit, which
not only is a huge amount of time, but other websites don’t
come close to that.
That means that Facebook is fast becoming the number-
one choice for a lot of people to stay in touch with friends, and
also to surf for information within their community. You can’t
afford not to be using it.
1 THE NUMBERS In New Zealand there are about 1.7 million active users around the country, which given the size of the
country, is almost half of the nation, and even when you take the younger generation out (13 to 17 years age group) that still leaves around 1.5 million active users.
2 KEEP YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS OPEN Facebook works by you simply sharing information with your friends, and
depending on how you have set your privacy settings up, your friends’ friends can also see certain information. For instance, if I click the “Like” button on a particular business page, say Urban Gourmet, a note will be posted on my personal profi le wall that I “like” that page. That is visible to all my friends who visit my personal profi le and they too can click through to that business page and “Like” it. This is one of the reasons why Facebook likes you to keep your privacy settings open, to keep things as easy as possible to fi lter through to others and really take advantage of the viral nature of the site.
3 IT IS VITAL TO HAVE A BUSINESS PAGE Here are three good reasons why you should consider a business Facebook page:
It’s free. It’s interactive. It’s a growing community.
4 DECIDE YOUR APPROACH There won’t be many industries that wouldn’t be able to make use of a Facebook page, and so
for most businesses, it is a case of deciding on the reason to do it, and supplying information to satisfy that need. If you are a corporate catering and event planning company, the reason to do it is brand exposure, to gain customer feedback and engagement, and to share culinary information. More “Likes” equals more exposure.
5 BEWARE OF NOT UPDATING Beware of simply starting a business page and leaving it without regular, informative and
relevant content, because that simply screams of sloppiness and could be damaging to your brand, a bit like dirty windows and litter around your front entrance.
6 USE IMAGES To get your page looking good in the early days create an image for your wall page rather than just adding your
logo. It is a good idea to include in that image a picture of the person who will be administering the page – as this gives the visitor an idea of who it is they are talking to, your logo, and how the visitor can contact you easily.
7 USE THE NOTES TAB Copy some relevant information from your website into the Notes tab. This acts almost as a blog
post and will fi lter through to your main wall page whenever you add something in. There is plenty of space for larger articles, but you will need to double-check the formatting to make sure it looks nice. You can even add photos to the page.
8 VIDEO BRINGS IT TO LIFE Add any good video clips you may have of your company’s products or service as these are
easily uploaded and stay on your video page. Alternatively, you can link directly to the video on YouTube if it is a long one.
9 THE ‘LIKE’ FACTOR Get the offi ce team and close friends to “Like” your page quickly, as you want to get to 25 fans as soon
as possible. When you hit 25, go to www.facebook.com/username and claim your unique page name or URL. Choose wisely, as this can’t be changed, so watch out for spelling mistakes. This unique page name or URL allows you to have an easy-to-remember and shorter page URL than before so the format will be www.facebook.com/yourcompany.
USE THE LINKS Link your page to Twitter if you have a Twitter account, so that whenever you post something on Facebook, it
updates your Twitter account, simultaneously eliminating one job and spreading a consistent message. M
Linda Coles of Blue Banana is a speaker and trainer on building and
maintaining relationships online.
by Linda Coles
Ten things to learn about Facebook
ADVICE
64 www.management.co.nz Management AUGUST 2010
NZ Management magazine’s September issue will reveal some surprising answers.
This groundbreaking research has been conducted by NZ Management in conjunction with leading global management consultancy Hay Group – which helps Fortune magazine compile the iconic Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list.
The New Zealand findings reveal the name of our single most reputable organisation and the identities of our Most Reputable Companies, State Owned Enterprises, Government Departments and Not For Profit organisations – as judged by the leaders of other organisations.
Subscribe to NZ Management magazine before 31 August and you will get the September issue as a bonus, along with a year’s subscription to NZ Management starting in October at the special price of $57.34. This is a total saving of over $26 or 30% – and it also beats the GST price rise!
To take advantage of this offer and other magazines, books and directories available to NZ Management subscribers, visit www.management.co.nz/subscribe and enter the special promotion code DF65709B, complete the coupon below, or phone Mediaweb subscriptions on 0-9-845 5114. We’ll take care of the rest.
WHICH ARE NEW ZEALAND’S MOST REPUTABLE ORGANISATIONS?
Title: Mrs, Ms, Mr Name:
Company (if applicable):
Postal address: Postcode:
Title/Position: Type of business:
Phone: Fax: Email:
IMPORTANT: This offer expires 31 August 2010. Subscriptions will start with the next available issue of NZ Management.
Payment method: Cheque (enclosed). Please make cheque payable to Mediaweb Ltd. Visa Mastercard Direct Debit
NOTE: Mediaweb’s bank account details – BNZ 02-0240-0059511-00
Card No Expiry Date:
Name as it appears on the card: Payment amount:
YES! I’d like to order an annual subscription to
NZ MANAGEMENT at $57.34 for 11 issues.
New subscriber
Renewal
SPEC
IAL
OFF
ER
Email: [email protected]
Mediaweb wishes to keep you informed about general business matters including relevant news and special offers. Your details are stored securely and not passed on to any third party. You may view and amend your details at any time by contacting [email protected]. Please tick the box if you do not wish to receive correspondence from us in future.
