Management August 2011

7

Pick

& m

ix Po

litics

A

UG

UST2011

9 421902 251030

AUGUST 2011 $7.10INCL GST

NZIM’s Focus on Management p51

management.co.nz

Sean Fitzpatrick No need to be liked p30

The rise & fall of our top women p33

KiwiSaver The trigger figure p44

PAGE 18

Call 0800 627 744 or email [email protected] Or visit www.marsh.co.nz for a comprehensive overview of our credentials.

Sometimes identifying risk isn’t quite this obvious.

Worldwide, Marsh enjoys a reputation for

providing risk analysis that meets the exact needs

of each of our diverse group of clients.

It’s only after becoming thoroughly familiar with

the unique needs of each client that we have

become their risk advisor and insurance broker

of choice.

Because, simply put, risk is rarely immediately evident.

Risk analysis is something we take very seriously

and it’s the advantage that we believe sets us apart

from our competitors. And more importantly,

delivers a real world benefi t to our clients.

So talk to us about why Marsh is recognised as the

world’s leading insurance broker, and to discuss

an in-depth analysis of your business. At no risk,

naturally.

M A R 0 1 4 0 N Z _ M a n a g e me n . p d f P a g e 1 3 1 / 0 3 / 1 1 , 1 : 3 2 P M

W riting this in the UK in the week that Rupert Murdoch and his son James testified before the select committee

investigating management complicity in phone hacking at News of the World, I am conscious that this unfolding saga is yet another example of a failure of leadership. And it illustrates dramatically the critical role of leadership in sustaining organisations, as distinct from the role of management skills and processes.

Now that this issue is calling David Cameron’s leadership into question it is a reminder that individuals in positions of power and influence don’t need to actively participate in wrongdoing to be tainted by it. It is enough to simply set a tone, an expectation – an environment in which generally unacceptable and/or illegal practices become the standard.

Asking whether or not the Murdochs and any of their News International senior management knew of or precipitated any of the alleged activities is not the point. The significant fact is that it appears Murdoch and his senior executive team created an environment in which it was expected that employees would routinely break laws, breach human rights and ride roughshod over the feelings and privacy of citizens in their most vulnerable and distressed states. All for the sake of the next sensationalised front page scoop.

Murdoch and his lot would argue that they are simply feeding a public appetite for this stuff. History shows that this kind of material both creates and then feeds the demand. The pressure for more and juicier revelations escalates as rival media vehicles join the fray to try to grab some of the market share that the most salacious headlines deliver.

A free press has an important role in a democracy; to keep those who would rule

us honest and to widely disseminate information so that the populace can make informed decisions about the important issues of the day; about who they want in power and how they want to be ruled. This opportunity to influence opinion brings with it a huge responsibility – to publish the truth and present facts in a balanced way.

Nowhere in the media’s mandate is there anything about creating the news or prying (apparently illegally) into the most personal details of private individuals who have not courted fame but find themselves thrust into the limelight because tragedy has befallen them or their loved ones.

Holding public figures to account is a significant part of the media’s role; but it is hard to see how this other gratuitous scandal-mongering delivers a benefit to society in any way. The media can make and break careers, deliver fame and fortune and destroy lives. With those who set the culture and expectations in the Murdoch media empire now being called to account perhaps we may see some tempering in the tabloid press in particular of the very worst excesses of a ‘free’ media.

And perhaps other institution leaders who actively or passively promote questionable practices in their own organisations might start to question their personal culpability as the creators of the culture of their business. Leadership is about values and principles. Returns to shareholders come as a consequence of that leadership; they should not be what drives it.

AUGUST2011 | management.co.nz| 1

ToniMyers,Publisher

A failure of leadership

www.management.co.nz

a mediaweb magazine

Publisher Toni Myers

consulting editor & writer-at-large

Reg Birchfield

contributors

Bob Edlin, Anne Fitzpatrick, Kevin Gaunt, Colin

James, Ruth Le Pla, Jamie Sinclair, Duncan Stewart,

Peter Tynan, Mark Wager

advertising manager Rod Myers

09-372 6444, 027-484 8046

[email protected]

designer Jan-Michael David

coPY & web editor Gill Prentice

[email protected]

Production manager Fran Marshall

[email protected]

new subscriPtions

www.management.co.nz/subscribe

subscriPtion enquiries [email protected]

Phone 09-529 3000, Fax 09-529 3001 [email protected] www.mediaweb.co.nz PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141

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 © 2011: 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 PMP.Subscriptions: One-year NZ subscription (11 issues) $78.15

(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 09-529 3000, Fax 09-529 3001, [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 58 No 7 • ISSN 1174-5339 (Print), 1179-3910 (Online)

The pick and mix of politicians, parties and policies served up by our electoral

system (MMP) looks bad for New Zealand’s state of health. Too much choice makes selection difficult and too many sweets erode teeth that should be chewing on

crunchier, hard-to-swallow issues. By NZ Management’s political writer Colin James,

economics commentator Bob Edlin and writer-at-large Reg Birchfield.

contents18 Cover Story

Pick & mix politicsAre they bad for us?

1 eDItor’S Letter

4 INBoX: News and views

9 FoCUS: New Zealand Global Women’s annual forum: Leadership New Zealand’s Leadership Week dinner

10 NZIM: Stepping up! Game goes global Kevin Gaunt

12 MANAGING SUStAINABLy: the pathway to 2050 Jamie Sinclair

48 eXeCS oN the Move

49 eXeCUtIve DeveLopMeNt

OPINION

13 poLItICS: Bold or timid: how will National campaign? Colin James

14 eCoNoMICS: Better times ahead? Bob edlin

15 LeADerShIp: I’m not responsible reg Birchfield

16 thoUGht LeADer: What has NZ got to tell the world? Duncan Stewart

17 BooKCASe: Leadership beyond good intentions; the little black book of management reg Birchfield

ADVICE

47 eXeC heALth: Beating the blues peter tynan

50 top tIpS: First time managers Mark Wager

16

AUGUST 2011 • Vol 58 No 7

33

30

36

28

features28 top 200 thinking 2011

harnessing the brainpower of our leaders to activate

transformation.

RegBirchfield,founderoftheDeloitte/Management

magazineTop200Awards,onDifferencemakesallthe

difference…

30 Face to Face: Sean Fitzpatrick – no need to be liked

Former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick talks to reg Birchfield about

the business lessons he learned on the rugby field.

33 Leadership: the rise & fall of our top women

Internationally, New Zealand is seen as a country at the forefront

of women taking on top leadership roles. Women filled the posts

of prime Minister, Governor General, Chief Justice and Chief

executive of telecom in 2005. Not now. So why has New Zealand’s

performance in this leadership area slipped so far behind compared

with our oeCD counterparts. Anne Fitzpatrick asks why, and what

can be done about it.

36 responsible Governance Series: Fonterra’s hard muster

responsible governance at New Zealand’s giant dairy industry

cooperative Fonterra is delivered through effective and constant

communication. It’s all about 17,000 employees and 10,000 plus

farmer shareholders being sufficiently informed to keep them moving

in the same successful direction, chief executive Andrew Ferrier told

reg Birchfield.

40 Conferences & events: Conference market benefits from climbing corporate confidence

how has the conferences and conventions industry weathered the

recession? NZ Management spoke to a number of the larger players

to find out what lies ahead.

44 Finance and the economy Series: KiwiSaver – the trigger figure

What to do when your employees come seeking advice on Kiwisaver?

ruth Le pla investigates.

51 NZIM’s Focus on Management

Life changing experience for scholarship winners; Member

comment from robert ockwell; regional news; Upcoming

management courses.

4 | management.co.nz | AUGUST2011

M INBoX

While confidence is returning to the New Zealand business

market, hiring predictions for the second half of 2011 for the financial and accounting sectors remain modest despite two thirds of businesses reporting increased workloads.

Nine out of 10 hiring managers surveyed by financial services recruitment company Robert Half, which specialises in this sector of the market, were confident in their company’s growth prospects over the next 12 months, but this is not mirrored by hiring intentions. There was only a net four percent rise in plans to increase the number of full time, permanent staff in finance, accounting and banking roles in the latter half of this year.

Those who are intending to hire are doing so to help ease the workload of existing staff members (51 percent), while 41 percent of new hires will involve tackling a

N Z Management’s Most Reputable Organisations will

be revealed next month. The survey to find the

organisations that directors, CEOs and other top level leaders think are New Zealand’s most reputable, is conducted for NZ Management by global management consultancy Hay Group, which has for years helped America’s Fortune magazine find the World’s Most Admired Companies.

New Zealand’s annual survey was launched last year. It identifies the country’s most reputable companies, state-owned enterprises, government departments and not-for-profit organisations. One winner is named in each category and the

overall winner is chosen from the winners of the four categories.

“We have had an excellent response to the survey again this year,” says Ian MacRae, managing director of Hay Group New Zealand. “And once again, the respondents are either directors or from the top level of the organisational hierarchy. What we try to measure is how leaders throughout the New Zealand economy rank their peers’ performance in a reputational sense.”

Some of the findings and changes in ranking are surprising and, MacRae thinks, are in part a reflection of marketplace performance or differences in perception and, to a lesser degree,

Most reputable of all

Financial businesses reluctant to hire

a minor change in two of the criteria used to rate performance. “Whatever caused the changes, it is a very robust piece of research again this year and very interesting in what it tells us about our most respected.”

The survey this year asked respondents to rank their nominated organisations on 13 criteria. Two criteria added this year related to perceptions of “transparent and effective corporate social responsibility policies and programmes” and evidence of “robust and appropriate risk management policies and practices”.

“As the marketplace becomes increasingly competitive it is obvious

that organisations of every kind are putting more store by perceptions of their reputation,” says MacRae. “We are finding more organisations asking us what strategies contribute most to their performance and ultimately their reputation as top performing organisations.”

Once again, “strong and effective leadership” shows up as the principal reputational factor on which companies and organisations must perform well if they want to attract the notice and admiration of their peers. M

Next month’s NZ Management will detail the survey findings and interview category finalists and winners.

new project or initiative and 32 percent will help grow the business.

Sixty six percent of employees reported their workload had increased in the past 12 months, with 27 percent of those saying their workload had increased ‘significantly’. This suggests that people are already overstretched and may not be able to cope with increasing workloads that will eventuate if companies do not grow staff, says Robert Half New Zealand general manager Megan Alexander.

She has noticed a real turnaround in the past six months in junior to middle management levels, to a market that gives employees more power and opportunity as the recession has eased and the job market has become more fluid. However, the very small increase in plans to hire staff over the coming six months is concerning.

“Confidence is up and businesses now need to think about how they are going to provide the necessary manpower to manage and sustain future growth,” says Alexander. “This comes on top of the need to ease pressure on existing workloads.

“Over-stretching staff threatens retention as people start feeling undervalued and look to opportunities that provide better work/life balance, further impacting the potential growth of an organisation. Businesses could

miss out on crucial opportunities for growth if they do not have the right resources in place. The current modest intent to hire will not sustain growth expectations.”

In a candidate short market, it can take up to three months to find the right person for a role, adds Alexander. “As employee optimism grows, so does the choosiness and expectation of employees when considering a new role.

“We are already experiencing a lack of skilled business and accounting professionals in the market at certain levels and the reality is employers could face a difficult and lengthy process to find the right people to support their business expansion, whether that’s a temporary or permanent position. Hiring managers should factor this into their recruitment plans.” M

RobertHalfNewZealand’sgeneralmanagerMeganAlexander.


representation of Kiwis within the global organisation. “Not only have we had three board members from New Zealand but one of those people, Iain Fraser, was also chairman of our board. And New Zealanders have been actively engaged on a volunteer basis.”

Langley sees this level of involvement as an illustration of New Zealanders’ passion for quality project management. “Whether this is due to the country being so far from most major markets, which encourages more self-sufficiency and a desire to get things right the first time, I don’t know,” he says. “But the level of professionalism, particularly in the project management sector, is to be admired.” M

Manage your TaxiSpend with Innovation

and Technology tel: 09 306 1790email: [email protected]

To Mark Langley’s mind, there’s still considerable

upside for organisations to tap into the latent, under developed potential of professional project management.

Langley is the global CEO and president of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and was in Auckland recently for the Project Management Institute of New Zealand (PMINZ) annual national conference. He argues that a project management office (PMO) can serve as a powerful bridge in creating and managing the link between an organisation’s strategy and results.

That, it seems, is top of mind for most executives. Langley told conference delegates that a September 2008 Gartner survey ranked alignment with company strategy as the single most important signifier of project success. That topped a project’s ability to support revenue and completion on budget: both of which ranked next equal next. Interestingly, the fact that a project is completed on time lags behind such criteria with a score of just 12 percent.

Langley says businesses waste an average of around US$350,000 of every US$1 million spent on each project. The PMI’s own research shows that a professional project

management approach makes an appreciable difference. Its 2010 Pulse of the Profession research shows that 41 percent of those organisations with a dedicated PMO will bring a project in on time and on budget compared to 34 percent without such an office.

Similarly, 67 percent of organisations with a PMO will meet project goals or intent (compared to 62 percent without). And 67 percent of those organisations with PMOs saw an increase in projects meeting goals (compared to 44 percent without).

As senior executives click on to the benefits of professional project management, it seems there’s plenty of room for upside. To Langley’s mind, the profession is still very new.

“Most modern organisations were built under a dominant organising principle that was organised along functional lines [such as marketing, IT or production],” he says. “Project management is the antithesis of that. It pulls resources from across the organisation to deliver a unique product or service.

“The challenge is that most executives are responsible and accountable for leading functional organisations. It’s not that they choose not to

Projecting professionalism

support a project management approach or projects. It’s more about increasing awareness of the value of engaging with, and being actively supportive of, the projects which they have in their portfolio.”

Langley points out that when standalone projects can be as large as business units, it’s time for senior executives to sit up and take notice.

The global PMI was established in 1969. Since then, it has grown to be the world’s largest association for project managers, with over 500,000 members globally. Set up in 1994, the local New Zealand chapter now has around 2000 members.

Langley notes a disproportionately large

PMI'sglobalCEOandpresidentMarkLangley.


M INBoX

Leaders need to dreamLeadership is not a process. Outstanding leaders make time to dream.”

This was one of several key messages Global Women’s chair-designate Dame Jenny Shipley gave delegates in her closing address to the Global Women’s third annual forum held in Auckland recently.

She elaborated: “Compliance and rules-based structures will not create wealth and new opportunities for our nation.”The importance of “dreaming” and creativity and not getting bogged down with compliance were recurring messages from speakers at the event which had ‘New Thinking and the Levers of Change’ as its theme.

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand CEO Nicola Bell cited creativity as the ultimate lever of change, to “re-imagine different futures for businesses”. She also identified “creative leadership” as the key driver of successful businesses today, referencing an IBM study confirming creativity as the single most important leadership quality.

Bell said her company has a dream – “not a mission statement” – to be “revered as the hothouse for world-changing ideas”. Bell gave examples of companies and campaigns that tapped into emotional connections she described as being “at the heart of everything”. A former client’s campaign for Dove soap eight years ago challenged contemporary concepts of beauty. Other beauty advertisers said it wouldn’t work because you had to sell ‘hope in a jar’, but the ad became a viral hit and sales shot up 700 percent across two continents.

However, she said that nothing prepared her for her Virgin Atlantic flying experience. Virgin founder Richard Branson’s premise was that flying is

an amazing thing and it shouldn’t be boring. He introduced the Virgin Clubhouse, flatbeds and duvets and a safety video that was a cartoon. The insight was that flying should be fun. “Reason leads to conclusion; emotion leads to action,” explained Bell.

Toyota’s challenge in 2010 when millions of cars were recalled was another example of an emotional bond that in this example resulted in “loyalty beyond reason”. Toyota dealt with the issue with complete transparency, the CEO fronting the media immediately and consequently Toyota remained the top-selling car brand.

Other consistent themes of the forum were the need to remove barriers to innovation; embrace diversity and new business models in the workplace and seek ideas from anywhere and everywhere within the business as they won’t necessarily come from expected sources.

There was also much emphasis on the need for speed in today’s marketplace. Google Australia’s Melanie Silva cited “continual innovation, not instant perfection” as the objective, reflecting the transitory nature of much we experience in the online world. It is important to get information and functionality up there fast and remedy problems in real time as we go.

Helen Robinson, London-based global financial information services company Markit Group’s global managing director, environmental markets, went further. She announced that in today’s business environment “perfection is your enemy.” M

• See photos from the Global Women forum on page 9

“

“We considered ourselves to be a systems driven business, but until we

learnt about the Vanguard Method we were often fixing the symptom, not the

cause. We now have the framework to make changes that are significantly

improving our internal systems, customer service and bottom line.” – Nicola

Smith, Managing Director, Essential Resources + Finalist 2010 New Zealand

International Business Awards.

“Council found the biggest shift was in how the Vanguard Method changed

staff’s attention from follow the process to understand the customer need. It

provided clarity about what mattered to customers and a method to be both

more flexible in approach and more secure at the same time.” – Louise Van der

Voort, Planning & Environment Manager, Central Otago District

John Seddon will be at Te Papa on Monday 5 September 2011.

For more information, visit www.systemsthinking.co.nz, email

[email protected], or phone 021 0228 7409.

Professor John Seddon, leader of

Vanguard Consulting UK, will be at

Te Papa in Wellington in September

to address these issues, and

introduce you to a better method of

business improvement.

Seddon has received

numerous academic awards for

his contribution to management

thinking. Influenced by Deming’s

obvious truth – that we, mankind,

invented management and can thus change it – and his assertion that

we should manage our organisations as systems, he pioneered the

systems approach for service organisations. Those who apply his ideas

achieve outstanding performance improvement, but the major challenge

is changing management thinking.

Systems thinking for service organisationsADvERTORIAL

• Why is “lean” failing to deliver?• Why have shared services and economies of scale failed so dramatically?• How can you be confident your organisation is really delivering value for money?


Executives: state asset shares should stay local

If state asset sales go ahead, more than half of business decision makers think the shares should remain in New Zealand ownership.However, only 15.3% expect they will stay in local hands, if the Government goes ahead with plans to sell

up to 49% of its shares in four energy companies and reduce its stake in Air New Zealand.Some 38.3% of business decision makers expect ownership of the shares sold will largely go overseas.

51.3% think the shares should stay in New Zealand hands (compared with 60.2% of the population as a whole); 13.6% think it really doesn’t matter who owns the shares, compared with 7.6% of the adult population who think this. M

If the Government sells up to 49% of its shares in some state assets, what do you think will and should happen to the ownership of the shares over the medium to long term? (Tick all that apply)

Source: Horizon Research, May 20- June 10, 2011. 2314 respondents including 504 business decision makers. Weighted. Margins of error +/- 2% on the national sample, +/-4.4% on the decision maker sub sample. On the web: www.horizonpoll.co.nz

A. They will largely stay in New Zealand 13.0% 15.3%

B. They will largely go overseas 37.2% 38.3%

C. They should stay in New Zealand hands 60.2% 51.3%

D. It really doesn’t matter whether they stay in New Zealand hands or not 7.6% 13.1%

E. I really don’t know 7.1% 5.9%

ReSULTS fOR 504 bUSINeSS

deCISION mAkeRS

ReSULTS fOR 2314 TOTAL ReSPONSeS

Our successful structure of small dedicated client

teams has enabled us to become a trusted adviser

to a wide range of organisations – including some

of the country’s largest corporates, successful not-

for-profits, and innovative SMEs.

dancers in wheelchairs, a former Governor General, a student

whose leadership opportunity arose from the Christchurch earthquakes, a Pacifica cultural group, a young partially sighted social entrepreneur and a scientist and former New Zealand of the year – are, on the face of it, unlikely collaborators for an evening’s entertainment. But this group, illustrating leadership in many guises, entertained and informed the 200-plus guests assembled at the Auckland Town Hall for Leadership New Zealand’s annual dinner as part of Leadership Week celebrations.

Although it may be hard to draw superficial comparisons between the individuals who took the stage, each one demonstrated courage, compassion and commitment – the three elements of not-for-profit Leadership NZ’s current leadership for our times catch-cry.

The disabled Touch Dance Company performers demonstrated a triumph of the spirit over the body. The Dilworth Cultural Group represented their school with pride and Sir Ray Avery and Sir Paul Reeves spoke with the mana their achievements and positions afford. But the night belonged to Christchurch university student Sam Johnson, instigator of the ‘student army’ enlisted to help Christchurch residents deal with some of the

aftermath of the earthquakes and Minnie Baragwanath founder of Be. Accessible, a social change campaign.

Johnson’s achievements, stemming from nothing more than a desire to help, are remarkable given the confusion and lack of resources that surrounded the earthquake. The speed with which the ‘army’ formed

Leadership for our timesand mobilised shows the power of social networking and online communication tools can be a force for good in crisis situations.

Be. Accessible is both a brand and an accreditation framework for accessibility; and has a vision for a 100% accessible country for all New Zealanders.

The speakers and performers

were hugely diverse but all demonstrated the leadership qualities of courage, compassion and commitment, identified in Leadership New Zealand’s annual programme. M

• See photos from Leadership New Zealand’s Leadership Week dinner on page 9.

Wright CommunicationsA trusted provider of full-service, results-driven public relations.

We secure our clients outstanding coverage

through trusted media contacts.

See our website for client case studies and

testimonials. www.wrightcommunications.co.nz


M INBoX

Who are our outstanding global business leaders?

business leaders helping to transform New Zealand’s

economy by growing globally successful companies will be acknowledged in the 2012 New Zealand International Business Awards being coordinated by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE).

The Emerging International Business Leader and Outstanding International Business Leader awards, sponsored by KPMG, provide an opportunity to recognise the people who are leading the businesses on which New Zealand’s future economic success depends, says NZTE chief executive Peter Chrisp.

“New Zealand is not short of amazing people who share an ambition for a thriving economy

but when it comes down to it, it’s the leaders of our successfully internationalising businesses who are spearheading this charge. It’s great to be able to provide an opportunity to recognise and share their efforts with the rest of New Zealand.”

KPMG executive chairman Ross

Buckley says the two leadership awards reinforce the difference visionary business people are making to New Zealand. “Today’s global business environment is fast-paced and challenging. We’re looking for nominations of outstanding leaders who cut through the complexity of this

environment and, in doing so, achieve outstanding results in the world of international business. It is important that they are also willing to share the lessons they’ve learned along the way.”

Nominations for the two leadership categories close on Friday, August 19. Nomination forms are available on the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) website: www.nzte.govt.nz/awards.

The leadership awards are part of the New Zealand International Business Awards programme run by NZTE. Awards’ activity will culminate in a gala ceremony in March 2012 where finalists and winners get to take their place alongside other New Zealand business success stories. M

Phot

o: Ja

n-M

icha

el D

avid

NZTEchiefexecutivePeterChrisp.

Keep ahead of the times… NZ Management readers can now also receive updates on the latest in

management thinking, trends and practices within New Zealand and

globally through Executive Update, an e-newsletter sent

to your In Box every second Friday.

If you’re serious about improving your management knowledge

and capability as well as your understanding of the new business

world that we operate in, then Executive Update is essential

reading.

If you’re not receiving Executive Update and would like to

join its growing database of thought leaders contact

subscribe@executiveupdate.

For advertising enquiries or more information contact

Rod Myers at [email protected] phone 0-9-372 6444 or 027-484 8046.

atest in

d and

lik

t

ct

ent

knowledge

new busine

ssential

ss

ke to

t


M FoCUS

1 2

5

1

3

5 6 7

4

New Zealand Global Women's annual forum, June 28.1 Saatchi & Saatchi NZ CEO Nicola Bell. 2 UK-based New Zealander Katherine Corich,

founder and CEO of global consulting firm Sysdoc.

3 Helen Robinson, global managing director for environmental markets for London-based global financial information services company Markit.

4 Melanie Silva, industry leader at Google Australia.

5 Global Women’s chair-designate Dame Jenny Shipley.

Leadership New Zealand Dinner, July 2.1 Master of Ceremonies Julian Wilcox (Maori

Television) with Sapna Samant (Holy Cow Media).

2 Guest speaker Sir Ray Avery (Medicine Mondiale).

3 Touch Dance Company performers.4 Dilworth Cultural Group performers.5 Sir Paul Reeves (Leadership New Zealand

Advisory Trustee) and guest speaker Sam Johnson (Student Volunteer Army, Christchurch).

6 Leadership New Zealand’s Vijaya Nory, Manu Keung, and Megan Barclay.

7 Guest speaker Minnie Baragwanath (Be Institute.)

3

2

4

NZIM


NZIM believes in the effec-tiveness of tried and tested management games. It has promoted the NZIM Lead-

ership Challenge for the past five years. But it is time to step up a notch. Our best managers need to compete globally.

This year we are looking for two New Zealand teams to compete in the Asian Management Game (AMG) which is promoted every year by the Asian As-sociation of Management Organisations (AAMO). The game has been running for almost 20 years.

The AMG provides a platform for young executives to learn and exchange management experiences. But it also serves to connect different management organisations in the Asia Pacific region.

The software underpinning the game was designed and developed by profes-sors of the Operational Research Depart-ment of the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. It is constantly enhanced to make the game relevant and challenging and to meet participating companies’ current needs and keep up with leading-

Stepping up!Game goes global

The New Zealand Institute of Management wants New Zealand managers to compete in a pan-Asian Management

game. The move is a step in NZIM’s strategy to build stronger relationships with Asian managers. NZIM Northern chief

executive Kevin Gaunt explains.

edge management technology. The simulator creates a close-to-reality busi-ness environment for AMG participants to test their management knowledge and team strength.

We think it is increasingly important that New Zealand managers under-stand more than just local business and management practice. As I said in this column in June, our managers need to have more and deeper conversations with their Asian counterparts. NZIM sees participation in this game as one, al-beit small, step in the right direction. We must help build relationships through AAMO that will encourage more ef-fective management conversations and learning experiences.

TwOKIwITEAMSNew Zealand has been invited to enter two teams in the game. The winning team will be sponsored a free trip to Macau and join with young managers from other AAMO countries for a study visit in China’s Pearl River Delta. The final round will be at the end of October.

Each team consists of three to five members. Groups of seven or eight teams are determined by draw. Each round requires five financial quarters of decisions. The team that achieves the highest share price wins. Only eight teams qualify for the final competition.

The game is played on the inter-net. Decisions on marketing, finance, production and human resources are entered online according to the game calendar schedule. Teams receive a management report at the end of each financial quarter detailing the latest economic consequences and company’s performance after their decisions.

The process involves analysing a company history, strategic planning, making decisions in a competitive and constantly changing environment and analysing results and change manage-ment strategies. A team’s strategy is im-plemented through 66 decisions, ranging from product delivery to competitor and market intelligence.

The deadline for registration this year is August 31. Companies wanting


to enter teams should contact their local NZIM office. Contact details are on the NZIM panel on this page.

Games like this help develop man-agement capability. Young and aspiring managers particularly, benefit from be-ing placed in situations that are outside the boundaries of their normal job activ-ity. As Confucius reportedly said: “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.”

REALLIfEMANAGEMENTGame participants are placed in environ-ments that reflect real life management, leadership and decision-making. They must resolve complex and hard-to-categorise situations under competitive pressure. The process provides learning opportunities that remain with the participant long after the event because, more than anything, it is also fun to do.

I have no doubt New Zealand teams will foot it with those from other coun-tries. There are undoubtedly significant cultural differences between the compet-ing countries, but that will add to the richness of the experience.

Some teams, I suspect, will approach the game like an armed assault. New Zealand and Australian teams are likely to take a more relaxed approach. But no matter what the style or strategy, the game is about people trying to get their heads around often ambiguous problems and making decisions that add value to the organisation. That, after all, is what management is about, irrespective of the country in which it is practised.

NZIM’s primary role is to “build New Zealand’s management capability”. That is uppermost and aligns with our decision to support and become involved with the AMG. We conduct regular research to bet-ter understand trends and best practice in management and leadership. We deliver management training programmes, men-toring, and networking events that enable managers to learn.

NZIM also identifies role model managers through the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Awards. And we add value to a manager’s

CV through our professional member-ship grading framework. Being involved in a prestigious management game that involves an “out there” learning op-portunity fits neatly with what NZIM is about and has been committed to for 60 something years.

EvOLUTIONI believe there is potential for other things to evolve from NZIM’s participa-tion in this AAMO-led programme. It is too early to say what exactly those things will be, but they will be exciting for Kiwi managers.

New Zealand and Australia are feel-ing the positive impacts of being slap in the middle of a fast developing and Asian corner of the world. Technology is ena-bling people and countries to commu-nicate seamlessly and instantaneously. Generation X and Y leaders are taking up the reins handed over by baby boomers.

All this, I believe, boils down to a melting pot of change events, new trends and management practices. NZIM in-volvement with AAMO puts us in the right space for delivering greater value to our members in this fast-changing world. And regionally, it creates an op-portunity for NZIM and the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) to build practical relationships and leverage off each other more effectively than we have in the past.

The internet has made this and many other communication and learning op-portunities more accessible. NZIM is building its services to member manag-ers through more frequent and diverse dialogue about their needs and how we can both meet and exceed them. NZIM now has an active social network strategy through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twit-ter. This is evolving quickly. We expect, in the near future, to be providing real-time, ongoing dialogue with members to provide them with additional value and services.

These are important and exciting times for NZIM. Our participation in the Asian Management Game is just one example of things to come. M

national boardGARy STURGESS LIFE FNZIM (CHAIRMAN) LyNDA CARROLL AFNZIM DAN COWARD AFNZIM MOHS BRIAN SOUTAR AFNZIM JOHN SANDFORD FNZIM ASH DIxON MNZIM JOANNE O’CONNOR MNZIMMARK WOODARD AFNZIM

oFFicesnational oFFice Chairman: GARy STURGESS Life FNZIMBOx 67, WELLINGTON 6140 Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479Email [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] Website www.nzimnorthern.co.nz

centralPresident: LyNDA CARROLL AFNZIMCEO: KARIN CALL AGH AN FNZIM, FIPAA Box 11781, Wellington 6142Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301Email [email protected] Website www.nzimcentral.co.nz

southernPresident: BRIAN SOUTAR AFNZIMCEO: JOSEPH THOMAS AFNZIMBox 13044, Christchurch 8141Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-03-357 8003Email [email protected] Website www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

NZIM FOUNDATIONCHAIRPERSON: DAVID MOLONEy FNZIMSECRETARy: JIM THOMSONPO BOx 67 WELLINGTON, PH 0-4-473 [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.

M MANAGING SUStAINABLy JAMIe SINCLAIr


Our world is changing at a relentless pace. It is difficult to comprehend the changes that have taken place

over the past 20 years, but it is even more of a challenge to project ourselves into the future.

We know (roughly) what the global population will be. We know there are significant energy constraints compared to projected demand. We know our environment cannot sustain a future based on our existing economic measures of success. For New Zealand and New Zealand business, the future we all want is very attractive, but won’t happen without a plan.

Vision 2050 – the key project for the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development (NZBCSD) in 2011 – will put New Zealand business in this space and identify the opportunities that the transition from now to 2050 will present.

This is no easy task. We have engaged 30 of New Zealand’s ‘future leaders’ to help articulate the vision and the pathway. This group crosses the spectrum of New Zealand industries and comprises future leaders of their organisations.

Our first workshop with this group was held in July and created huge excitement about the opportunities, but also a stark awareness of the challenges we are facing.

How do we fund our retirement when the ratio of working age population to retirees more than halves by 2050? How do we ensure our agricultural sector finds its place in a world which will be demanding more food, and where environmental sustainability and transport modality issues are paramount? What does tourism look like when it can deliver higher incomes for New Zealanders?

These and many other challenges were touched on during the course of the day. An aspirational vision for New Zealand was agreed: “Eight million people, living

The pathway to 2050

well, and within the limits of the planet.”Whether the New Zealand population

is six or 10 million by 2050, we will be living in a more populated country with a significantly different social and demographic make-up than we have today. This vision is also couched in the context of a global population of nine billion and all that means for resource use and availability.

The group was split and charged with exploring the challenges of the following pathways:• People’s Values • Agriculture• Marine • Cultural Diversity• Human Development • Mobility• Economy • Forests• Buildings • Energy & Power• Materials & Waste • Tourism

The first stage in this process involves understanding the current state of each pathway element and the associated trends and projections. This can be mind-blowing. There is so much information out there it is hard to digest. Our future leaders found it a challenge to pick out the key elements relevant to understanding the here and now and to contextualise the future.

From these discussions, the interactions between each pathway quickly became apparent. For example, if we want our forests to supply a significant proportion of our energy needs this has implications for people’s

values, the structure of our economy, our agricultural profile and our energy mix.

Imagining each pathway in 2050 was a key part of the workshop process. The team quickly realised the mental stretch required to “put yourself in the future” was significant. We naturally extrapolate

from what we know and it is difficult to articulate a future when the pace of change is exponential. As Einstein is often quoted:

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

Our teams will reconvene in early August to flesh out the pathway design and key milestones. These will be presented at a Chief Executive forum on 30 August.

There is much work needed to help clarify the vision and milestones and we need your help. We are encouraged by recent initiatives such as Pure Advantage which is pushing for New Zealand to realise the opportunities of Green Growth – a key element of our positive vision for New Zealand. There are a number of ways you can get involved with the project:• Visit us on the web – www.nzbcsd.org.nz/• Come along to one of our breakfast Visioning sessions (see web for details)• Attend the Chief Executive summit on 30 August• Conduct your own “Vision 2050” exercise and feedback your key findings. M

Contact Vision 2050 project manager Jamie Sinclair

on 09 363 3460 or [email protected] to discuss

Vision 2050, our progress and how you and your

organisation can get involved.

Phot

o: th

inks

tock

phot

os.c

om

M poLItICS CoLIN JAMeS


When National party delegates gather mid-month in their pre-election conference few

will doubt that John Key will be Prime Minister after November 26. Many will strain not to consign Labour to a 20-something vote and dream out loud of one-party government.

There will be ritual admonitions from president Peter Goodfellow and Key not to take victory for granted and ritual rank-and-file promises not to. But highly positive polls, focus groups and buzz on the ground will have set a buoyant tone.

That was Labour’s mood in 2002 heading towards an election in which National was to get 21 percent of the party vote, arousing Labour fantasies of Swedish-type long-term centre-left dominance.

But what happened between the conference and the election? From mid-May to early July Labour polled an average of 52 percent, 23 percent ahead of National’s 29 percent. Helen Clark’s ratings were stratospheric. In the election on 27 July Labour got 42 percent.

Labour’s plunge came after the Greens joined conspiracy theorist Nicky Hager to throw rocks at Labour over genetic modification, thus compounding impressions of left-of-centre disunity, the Alliance having split earlier. And large numbers of National-leaning voters concluded Labour was set to be in power and to constrain Clark piled into New Zealand First, which went from five to 13 seats, and United Future, which went from one to eight seats.

Through the first half of this year National’s lead over Labour averaged 21 percent (53 percent to 32 percent). Key’s ratings were stratospheric.

New Zealand First and United Future are now shells, so Labour-leaners have no centre to escape to. ACT on National’s right is throwing rocks – on Key’s economic management, which many in

Bold or timid: how will National campaign?

business think lacks vision, and on the foreshore and seabed, which many in the provinces think is a sellout to Maori.

So National could easily drop to its 2008 45 percent vote share or lower. Even at 47 or 48 percent it would then need at least one partner to govern. But ACT under Don Brash is talking tough, much less ready to compromise than Rodney Hide, and the Maori party has split and needs distance from National to fight off Hone Harawira and Labour.

That poses management challenges post-election, examined elsewhere in this issue (see cover story). But first National has to manage its pre-election pitch.

So far four main pitches have been on show: belittle Labour as out-of-date, disunited and with an impactless leader; lay out a range of intended policies, some legislated for and some for after the election, which will proceed only if National is re-elected, thus appearing reassuringly democratic; kick contentious issues such as the constitutional review and more competition for ACC past the election; and accentuate the positive and avoid the negative.

The positive is Key, hugely likeable and liked. His ratings are at a higher altitude

of stratosphere than Clark’s. So far he has made enemies only of unionists and teachers.

Avoiding the negative has become a feature of Key’s cabinet: ministers don’t go on radio and television programmes where they might be forced on to the back foot. That way they are seen only on the front foot.

Key mistakenly went on BBC’s Hard Talk in May, where he was wrong-footed on waterway pollution and questioned on his lack of experience. He is much better on soft talkshows talking up his cycleway and folksy photo-shoots at Bollywood, car races and the like.

It’s safety first. In 2008 Key erased Brash’s jarring 2005 notes and insulated National from “third rail” issues (hence no change in the pension qualifying age, despite serious fiscal implications). But with both ACT and the Maori party wanting or needing much more than they got in the 2008 deals, there is no assurance timidity will work as well in 2011. M• Last month I spelt Treasury Secretary Gabriel

Makhlouf’s name wrong.

Colin James is New Zealand’s leading political

commentator and NZ Management’s regular

political columnist. [email protected]


M eCoNoMICS BoB eDLIN

Better times ahead?

H ints of an economic recovery early in the new year, albeit tentative, were dissipated when the second

devastating earthquake rocked Canterbury in February.

Some sectors did expand in the March quarter – retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and primary industries, for example – but nationwide business and consumer confidence slumped, business activity in Christchurch was severely disrupted, and tourism flows through Christchurch and the South Island evaporated.

Two surveys in mid-year brought better news: business confidence was improving and modest growth was portended. The NZIER’s Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion showed steady economic activity in the June quarter after the significant disruption following the Canterbury earthquakes last September and – more severely – in February.

Business expectations and intentions for September improved, “but we are yet to see the catalyst that transforms this confidence into hiring and investment”, said Jean-Pierre de Raad, the NZIER’s chief executive. Local demand had strengthened while exports had stabilised, but demand was still the biggest constraint on businesses and margins were tight. Continued deleveraging, slowing activity in Australia and a high exchange rate were obstacles to economic growth.

The National Bank’s June survey found business confidence lifted another notch, but other indicators from the survey generally stabilised around May’s readings, such as expectations of better times for respondents’ own business over the year ahead and investment intentions, although employment intentions slipped slightly. Rural regions were doing nicely, thank you, reflecting the massive terms of trade boost that has been benefiting the economy.

But the National Bank economists were not ready to say their cheering

business confidence readings would translate into reality. Time will tell, they said, although they noted the general tenor of New Zealand’s leading gauges were at odds with the global scene. Various business confidence measures in the US had been slipping sharply and the momentum was softening in Australia, our largest trading partner.

The lift in sentiment was reinforced by an upwards revision of economists’ forecasts. The NZIER’s June Consensus Forecasts said forecasters were slightly more optimistic than they had been in March. They expected 2.1 percent GDP growth (up from two percent) in 2011/12 March year and four percent (up from 3.9 percent) in 2012/13. They were more optimistic of the investment outlook, particularly the Canterbury rebuild. Residential construction is expected to surge, eventually.

As the growth picks up, the Government can (and probably will) say everything is going to plan. But what is the plan?

Questioned in Parliament about youth employment levels, minimum wage rates, and job creation, Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson said the Government had “a cogent plan” to increase and improve the economy, which included growing the number of jobs. Could she explain

the Government’s “cogent plan” on job creation? She could. “Our plan is basically around building a stronger economy.”

More detail, of course, can be found in the 2011 Budget. Finance Minister Bill English promoted it as “a balanced and responsible Budget that is setting New Zealand on the road to recovery by

keeping our credit rating up, which helps to keep interest rates down; maintaining welfare entitlements; investing $7.5 billion in productive infrastructure in the next four years; investing $323 million in a very successful insulation and heating programme for 180,000 Kiwi homes; and providing record spending on front-line services in health, education, and law and order”.

But economic writer Rod Oram is among critics who lament the Budget’s lack of an investment strategy or convincing growth plan. The strong outflow of skills to Australia is an expression of despair at the Key Government’s lack of a vision or plan – Australia offers a better life with higher wages and more opportunities.

A survey of business leaders by Jenni McManus for Fairfax’s Business Day gives strength to this. Top of the list of the six biggest issues for business is that there is no overarching economic strategy or vision – “or even an economic road map”. These leaders were giving the National Government only five out of 10 for its performance in the past three years. But Labour at that time had yet to produce its plan. M

Bob Edlin is a leading economic commentator and

NZ Management’s regular economics columnist.

Phot

o: th

inks

tock

phot

os.c

om

M LeADerShIp reG BIrChFIeLD


One after the other, Rupert Murdoch, his kids, executives and collaborators – including top cops

– uttered the words, or slight variations on them. “I’m not responsible!”

They were, however, all leaders of large media enterprises, policing establishments and in politics. “People let us down,” they said as they drove “responsibility” ever down the hierarchy of their respective organisations. They were, to a man and a woman, personally “shocked, ashamed, appalled even humiliated” but they were definitely not “responsible”.

It was like that line from Michael Corleone in The Godfather when he asked: “Who gave the order?” What he wanted to know of course was, who to hold responsible for an act of betrayal. He needed to justify, to himself at least, a decision he had already made to blow someone away. Redundant employees at Murdoch’s now stilled News of the World could, perhaps, be excused for making Godfather figure comparisons.

Leadership is about taking responsibility – particularly when things go awry. Given the kinds of leaders they are, the Murdochs et al, will now follow standard procedure and rely on the best paid lawyers to “prove” the legal limitations of their responsibility. Oh dear, remember Feltex anyone?

Leadership responsibility is, it seems, creeping ever sideways. With legal aid, leadership is becoming an equivocation. Former US president Harry Truman’s sign “The Buck Stops Here” could, the way things are going, carry on to say “… if I asked you to do it, knew you were doing it, or should have figured it out”.

But the legalities of leadership responsibility are not what this month’s column is about. It’s about something more basic. Murdoch, the board of News Corporation and the company’s most senior executives are responsible because they set the behaviour standards and germinated the culture that delivered the

I’m not responsiblehacking practices at the heart of this sorry episode.

The Murdochs’ no-doubt scornful attitude toward tosser twaddle like this is best, if unwittingly, summed up in son James’ comment that he didn’t know what was going on because, “after all the NoW only accounted for one percent of the Group’s income”. Let’s get our bloody priorities right here mate.

The complicit silence of the independent directors of the News Corp board is also

deafening. Murdoch, as the leader of this pack, prefers to lead by deploying a rather more primitive but highly effective leadership approach – fear. It has served him well. Only at age 80 is he staring down a major defeat. And he’s not dead yet.

Rupert Murdoch’s approach to leadership defined both him and his enterprise. It also defines those who kow tow to him and to leaders who emulate him. And don’t think he is an exception – he just happens to have a higher profile than most. New Zealand has its share of similar style leaders.

Those in his organisation that he now accuses of letting him down had little choice. They did what he and his executives demanded, implicitly if not explicitly. The company had to sell papers to make the money the family and shareholders needed to perpetuate the enterprise. The fact that it sucked in Britain’s top police, senior ranking politicians including the Prime Minister, and others is simply collateral damage.

No question, good leaders delegate responsibility. But not without stipulating and living the standards and values he or she wants followed. That, of course, is what

Murdoch did – just happens that his values aren’t that sweetly crafted.

Of all the Murdoch spectacles the world has been forced to witness over the years, the procession of leaders who felt compelled to blame others was the most saddening – from Britain’s Police Commissioner down. Rupert and his son illustrated the ultimate weakness of threatening leadership. They also showed their personal misconceptions of the nature of power.

Authority and responsibility travel together. To blame subordinates is just another way of saying, “I am not a leader.” The split between authority and responsibility is widespread and increasingly common in organisations today. I hate to harp, but please remember Feltex.

A leader, according to Jonathan Wallace, a writer on the subject, is “simultaneously a relay, communicating the values of a group, an amplifier, intensifying them, and a transmitter broadcasting values when they are needed”. What News Corporation’s leaders do, however, is relay, amplify and transmit a portfolio of values that the world’s media can do without.

Unfortunately, because they have been financially successful, another message spreads. That message says organisational leadership sans values, based on fear and without acceptance of responsibility, works.

Hopefully the outcome of this will be something which demonstrably proves that organisations without proper leadership, don’t last. M

Reg Birchfield is NZ Management’s consulting editor

and writer-at large. [email protected]

Authority and responsibility travel together.

M thoUGht LeADer

16 | management.co.nz |AUGUST2011

So, the cat is out finally of the bag, eh? New Zealand is not-so-clean-and-green. Almost feel a bit

relieved… so what’s the big deal? The big deal is this: New Zealand

explicitly and implicitly leverages its unique clean/green brand to peddle its goods and services to offshore markets and tourists. The value of that brand is estimated to be around $18 billion per annum. But in order to demand a premium for our exports, we must ensure that our brand promise meets the scrutiny of a world increasingly focused on ‘pure’ credentials. Market access restrictions, negative brand sentiment and generally being outperformed by other nations would lead to an erosion of our unique position, and the revenue that goes along with it. This is the ‘stick’.

The ‘carrot’ is this: There is no better brand in the world from which to claim a chunk of the global $6.8 trillion green industry. New Zealand has all of the major pieces of the green growth puzzle already. Our government agencies like MSI, Scion and CarboNZero are teeming with capability in sustainable agriculture, low-carbon engineering, biomaterials, carbon accounting and much more. But what we need is the political and commercial willingness to build and deliver a coherent Green Growth strategy.

Government should be congratulated over its green growth taskforce. It’s a good step, albeit a small one given the focus on SMEs, which are typically high on enthusiasm but low on cash and expertise. However, whilst we play in the margins, other countries are committing, literally, hundreds of billions to scaling green growth initiatives.

That’s not to say it’s all government’s responsibility. If the COP Process (Conference of the Parties) has taught us anything, it’s that industry needs to take the first step. Enter, Pure Advantage

What has NZ got to tell the world?

– a group of businesspeople focused on delivering a green growth paradigm shift in New Zealand.

Behind the corporate branding is an aggressive strategy to get the public of New Zealand on board, prove the green growth business case through world-leading economic research, and deliver a roadmap for activating government and corporate momentum.

The aim is wealth creation for New Zealanders, or as chairman Rob Morrison puts it: “You can’t distribute wealth if you don’t create it in the first place.” The tone of the campaign may be too money-focused for some, but in this instance it will unquestionably be the root-of-all-evil that delivers us to a healthier, wealthier green salvation.

Cleantech has been touted as a possible golden goose, and it is to a certain extent, but only where it makes sense to compete with other nations – a lot of the premium seats have already been taken.

It’s also important to recognise that a profitable cleantech industry is an outcome of the green growth process, not a means to an end.

Before indulging in cleantech dessert, New Zealand needs to first eat its greens. Which means investing in energy-efficient buildings, reducing agricultural emissions, substituting imported liquid fuels, and improving water quality and ecosystem performance. Fortunately these activities will also help to build our domestic capabilities, which in turn will correspond to rapidly growing areas of niche international demand. Exporting

our low-carbon and sustainability technical know-how to our neighbours will be most valuable only once we have cleaned up our own back yard.

Anyone who thinks that the market demand for sustainably produced low carbon goods and services will fade, is seriously out of touch. Within the next 10 years, sustainability will be as entrenched in day-to-day business as computing is now.

So, if New Zealand has something to tell the world, is it a progressive wealth-creating green growth strategy that is in step with a global shift? Or is it continued foot shuffling and mumbled excuses for our declining economic and environmental performance? M

Duncan Stewart is a director of The Greenhouse

and campaign manager of Pure Advantage.

www.pureadvantage.org

Duncan Stewart... “Within the next 10 years, sustainability will be as entrenched in day-to-day

business as computing is now.”

M BooKCASe


LEADERSHIPBEyONDGOODINTENTIONSBy Geoff Aigner • RRP$36.99

Leaders rarely deliver our expectations. The reason is simple. Our expectations are based on a leadership fantasy. More often than not, the expectations we have of ourselves are equally disappointing, no matter how much we wish it were otherwise.

Leadership Beyond Good Intentions makes an intelligent and overdue fist of explaining why good intentions are simply never enough to change things – either to an organisation or the world in which we live. Change efforts invariably run into “obstacles and resistance”. This book explains why and offers some thoughts on how to tackle the problem.

The world undoubtedly needs to change. Individually, however, we are both the problem and the solution. We generally see the challenges of change as “lying outside ourselves”. We blame others

THELITTLEBLACKBOOKOfMANAGEMENTBy Suzanne Turner • McGraw-Hill • RRP$37.00

As the author says in her introduction: “no one should read this book”. That was one of the fundamental reasons she wrote it – managers are just too busy to read books.

We wouldn’t normally review what is essentially a simple compilation of management practices, catalogued in an easy-to-access guide. It may not be designed to read, but it can certainly be constantly referred to.

The Little Black Book of Management is an executive summary of 94 tried, tested and proven management concepts – everything from time management through to six sigma, waste minimisation and beyond.

It is a conveniently packaged

for being obstructive when, in fact, the real challenges lie within us.

Geoff Aigner, among other things, teaches change and leadership in the MBA programme at the Australian Graduate School of Management. He describes what he calls the “fantasy” of leadership. We constantly fantasise that problems can be solved by others. We indulge the fantasy by looking to “leaders” to put things right. Politicians, of course, are the least likely problem solvers on earth.

The book is in three sections. In the first, Aigner identifies the elements he thinks are essential to the process of exercising leadership. There has, he says, “been surprisingly little written on how we are part of what’s going on (part of the mess) rather than being wholly objective, neutral and independent of things”.

Understanding self is next. His analysis goes beyond the usual offerings of self-awareness and personal inventory tools.

compendium of thoughtful yet concise explanations of management tools designed to meet three primary objectives: to find the most useful tool for the job; to provide a balance of tool options to cover most business issues; and, to present the explanations in a format that makes them quick and easy to find.

Each tool is presented in a standard format. It describes when a tool, the balanced scorecard for example, should be used; what you get from using it; the time it takes to set it up; the number of people for an effective trial; the equipment required to explain it; the methodology of the process; an example; an exercise; key points and other information including hints on how to use the tool – all explained in just two pages.

The personal questions he identifies as a consequence of making change throw up some unexpected observations. The questions could trip up even experienced change leaders.

Finally, he considers what it means to work with others, particularly those who don’t share our views.

Leadership is not what it seems to be. If it is ever going to deliver anything worthwhile, it will need some serious redefinition and re-thinking. “Leadership,” writes Aigner, “is a flawed and limited word to describe what the world really needs. In the way leadership is talked about in daily life, it clearly has little real power, compassion or wisdom. At any rate, there is rarely enough of these things to facilitate useful change.”

Of all the many books on leadership I have read, this is one of the most honest and disarmingly insightful. This brief review does it little justice. I am about to read it again for the nuggets I missed but know are there. – Reg Birchfield

The author, Suzanne Turner, is a management development consultant with her own business, Potenza. She wrote the book, she says, in response to persistent demands from managers she works with. She spent several years perfecting the presentation and refining the project matrix that recommends the tools

managers should use to help accomplish particular projects.

Her aim, she also says, was to create “a concise and practical overview of useful business tools aimed at improving team and corporate performance”. Her goal may be a tad ambitious and unquestionably difficult to measure, but every little helps in today’s time-starved management world.

A cleverly crafted guide that won’t take up much space on the desk. – Reg Birchfield

COvERSTORy


COvERSTORy



A t this point in New Zealand’s race to the polls on November 26, Prime Minister and Na-tional Party Leader John Key

will cruise to a second term at the helm. But his second term looks set to cut up choppy.

To the public at large and political watchers in particular, Key’s captaincy skills are still in question. At 50, does he have the nerve he had as a 25-year-old currency dealer? Will his decentralised management style keep working, or will he need to exercise stronger and more defini-tive leadership? And, can he keep dishing out life savers to the groups on board with him, or will he need to take bigger punts?

This could prove a distinctly defin-ing election for New Zealand. A perfect storm of economic, social, cultural, and environmental issues fuelled by divisive

Pick & mix politics

Are they bad for us?The pick and mix of politicians, parties and policies served

up by our electoral system (MMP) looks bad for New Zealand’s state of health. Too much choice makes selection

difficult and too many sweets erode teeth that should be chewing on crunchier, hard-to-swallow issues. By NZ Management’s political writer Colin James, economics

commentator Bob Edlin and writer-at-large Reg Birchfield.

politics is brewing – as it is in many parts of the world.

If Key survives the November run he will surely need finely honed navigation skills to negotiate the rocks ahead. It might mark a turning point from his first-term global financial crisis (GFC) clean-up, moving him towards a strategic rebuild of the economy and reshaping of social services?

On the other hand, it may well herald a turn towards Labour’s generation of younger MPs who represent, in age at least, the rising majority of the electorate. The party’s adoption of a capital gains tax policy has already tossed additional interest into the race.

There is a set of numbers that put Labour leader Phil Goff and his team in power. They will, however, need the

Greens, Winston Peters – a falling rather than rising star – and a Maori party still smarting from earlier Labour insults to make these numbers.

Business leaders keep calling for a vi-sion for New Zealand. But our pick and mix electoral process makes it difficult for parties determined to keep power to declare intent and then hold the hands of cobbled together coalitions to the flame when things get hot. Key has done well to keep the lid on his collection of misan-thropes for his first term.

But given the trend and latest opinion poll results, only a dramatic turnaround in preferences, fired perhaps by a headline event for which National gets blamed and the public outraged, will unseat Key and his team, even if their future perch on the Treasury benches is more precarious.

COvERSTORy

COvERSTORy


Some think Key’s determination to sell up to 49 percent of the nation’s state-owned enterprises comes close to threatening his tenure. But the strategy is more likely to shore up Labour’s core vote than drive voters out of National. Besides, Labour is not yet run by its X and Y gen-eration MPs and its policy rebuild is still a work in progress. That said, its capital gains tax policy is a surprisingly smart start.

PLAyINGSAfEKey and his ministers are playing safe. As in 2008, they prefer to neutralise rather than take risks. They believe household-ers now have a better understanding of, and tolerance for, government budget stringency – because they have had to rebuild their personal and family balance sheets. In any case, the pre-election impact of government stringency will be limited.If National holds power, that will change after the election. While Key and company make much of the impact of the GFC, the work gets harder on Sunday, November 27. How Key responds will define his prime ministership and, even more important, New Zealand’s future direction.

Key faces big policy choices. It is a fast-changing world and nation and his support matrix will not be so cosy. Man-aging the matrix will require more obvi-ous and inspirational leadership. Is Key a motivational leader? Is he transactional or transformational? Evidence so far suggests the former. Leaders can, of course, grow in to the role.

National’s incremental or deregulation by stealth strategy – asset sales programme, Accident Compensation Commission conversion to insurance company status, Resource Management Act teeth trimming and labour law tinkering have been flagged to voters for decision at the election – sig-nals an increasingly clear direction. But these moves will at some point need more than ad-hoc reasoning to be convincing.

Superannuation and health service affordability will increasingly rankle with under-45s. And unless China falters, the Australasian wage gap will widen. Maori matters, always good for volatile debate, are on the table with the Wai262 indigenous

flora and fauna claim and the constitu-tional review uppermost.

The Government’s “more with less” mantra will become “less with less” as our dire economic realities bite deeper over the next three years. There are limits to agency chief executives’ innovative ca-pacities and back-office efficiencies. More voters will get less from less, a trend that will drive government change constituen-cies for 2014.

And next year, Labour might anoint a new leader who can distance the party from the Clark era, build a forward-look-ing policy platform and solidify its vote.

CHANGINGNUMBERSWill the makeup of the post-election ma-jority change?

Key and National might, though it seems unlikely, win an outright majority in November. Even so, Key would need at least one support party sweet for a third-term deal unless New Zealand throws out MMP for a system favouring single-party government.

A repeat of his super-majority, as now when he can call on either ACT or the Maori party – often at loggerheads – is also unlikely. And even if he had one, could he do the cosy deals he did in 2008? Both have caught the support-party virus. ACT sacked its deputy leader, then its leader in a hostile takeover. The Maori party expelled an MP.

Former National Party leader and now ACT leader Don Brash is not back in politics for the perks. He wants real concessions, otherwise he’ll keep ACT on the cross benches. Maori Party co-leaders Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia – and whoever lines up to succeed them if next term is their last – can’t leave room for the newly formed Mana Party to accuse them of selling out tino rangatiratanga, or for Mana and Labour to link them with National policies painted as against the interests of their largely lower socio-economic constituents.

Key’s selling point is his likeability. His ability to soothe and placate works a treat with lobby groups and ruffled sup-port parties. He learns fast and (mostly)

applies what he learns. He can be decisive and, knows when and how to pull rank. He binds his ministers with his decentralised management style.

In NZ Management in February last year, Key drew a parallel between his management of cabinet and managing a currency trading floor. A collective (trad-ing) house view is formed of the short and medium term. It must be supported by prevailing economic fundamentals and take into account what clients are think-ing, but also give clients the “right” advice. Individual traders are expected to take a view, but they are held more accountable for whether they are making money than whether they are holding to the house line.

So with Key’s ministers. Justice Min-ister Simon Power, for example, respects his leader’s capacity to trust ministers but also keep a bead on them. Deputy PM and Minister of Finance Bill English described the 2009 cabinet as a “loose coalition of the self-employed” with, he added this year, “a healthy balance between decisive discipline and allowing individual ministers to pur-sue issues they think are important”.

Key’s first-term “house view” has been incremental pragmatism – what works. It has edged toward business-friendly. It shunned big-picture goals that might make voters nervous. As one senior minister describes it: a proposal is put up for debate. If it gets a tick it gets done. The minister then moves on to the next proposal. Steven Joyce has proved particu-larly adept at this management approach.Tick-and-move-on has three drawbacks.

SqUANDEREDCAPITALSome ministers, like traders, squander their (political) capital. Minister for Economic Development Gerry Brownlee lost the eminently winnable debate on mining. Education Minister Anne Tolley crudely imposed what should have been a sale-able version of learning “standards” and annoyed the very people (teachers) she needed for its successful adoption.

Second, if the government fails to paint a big picture, opponents will. This hasn’t mattered in the first term but, for example, as SOE sell-downs wind up, winning voter


acceptance might take a better argument than holding down government borrow-ing or finding funds to pay down debt.

Finally, the approach does not help Key look like a leader. English has looked more in charge and in command of the money across many portfolio areas. That, too, could prove problematic in a second term when voters take another look at some policies.

Two other clouds darken the Key sky. He seems too willing to do deals: the bespoke labour law change for American movie maker Warner Brothers exchanged for bankrolling filming of The Hobbit didn’t look good. And while it may make financial sense, granting extra licences for SkyCity’s gambling casino in return for a convention centre looked tacky and mor-ally opportunistic. His dealer approach has some business leaders worried that politics is now reverting back to a special pleading and favour-seeking game.

There is also a dark side to this sun-niest of Prime Ministers. Unionists and teachers have glimpsed flashes of it. If the list of victims lengthens, Key’s high rat-ings, National’s most powerful campaign weapon, might wilt.

Collectively, these realities suggest Key’s political leadership, should he remain in charge, will be tested more than it has been. He will need all his quick uptake, capacity to placate and ability to get the best out of high-performing ministers.

Clearer-sighted, longer-range, goal-oriented leadership could help. Whether he can deliver that in a second term is the key question underlying this election. He has surprised before.

The day-to-day realities of managing the New Zealand economy over the next three years will test whichever party or combination of parties makes it to power in November. Local and global economies have been through three tough years. How they might emerge is only now being glimpsed.

THELEfT&RIGHTOfITProductivity improvement, compared with other countries, was poor when New Zealand went to the polls in 2008. John

Key subsequently described productivity as the fundamental problem facing the economy he and his party had inherited. He identified six policy drivers for his Government to tackle – regulatory reform, infrastructure investment, better public services, education and skills, innovation and a world-class tax system.

A year later he focused on foreign debt: ours was one of the worst in the world and people had to save more, he said. At around 90 percent of GDP, “that puts us up there with countries like Greece, Ireland and Iceland”. The only difference was that their debt was dominated by government borrowing; ours was dominated by the private sector.

New Zealand’s economic policies are still pretty much influenced by the tug and thrust of traditional left and right theory and dogma. There is scant evidence of new thinking coming from our political parties, Treasury or any other influencers of fiscal or economic thinking.

The following interviews with Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr and Council of Trade Unions economist Bill Rosenberg testify to the continuity of the opposing pressures the next govern-ment will face.

Productivity and debt are still criti-cal issues and New Zealand faces greater economic risks than at any time since the 1984 election, says Kerr.

The country’s external vulnerability is worsened by the fact that “there can be an (economic and financial) meltdown any moment in Europe or the US. And if we don’t pick up the pace with the longer-term issue of productivity improvement, the at-tractions of Australia and other countries will be overwhelming for businesses and many talented people,” he adds.

Rosenberg agrees that overseas debt is the source of many of the imbalances hampering economic growth, but first – he insists – there are recessionary economic conditions that have not been properly treated. We must deal with them.

Productivity is important too, says Rosenberg. “The way we come out of the recession and the way we address the debt problem is all about whether we grasp

the issue of productivity, or whether we just rely on more commodity exports and leave the market to do its own thing. That will lead to another form of speculation, whether it’s property speculation or what-ever, and won’t necessarily lead to higher productivity and higher wages.”

JUSTTINKERINGNext on their list of concerns is the bur-geoning costs of welfare and the public service, regulatory costs and constraints, and tinkering rather than making funda-mental changes to big-ticket issues such as tax and superannuation, though obviously their respective approach to these issues is, in most cases, diametric.

Kerr doesn’t think the government’s agenda is sturdy enough to deal with the debt and productivity risks confronting New Zealand. His view is, he believes, shared by most business leaders. And while he bemoans National’s lack of an overarching vision or articulated

Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr… “New Zealand faces greater economic risks than at any time since the 1984 election.”

COvERSTORy


Council of Trade Unions economist Bill Rosenberg… “The way we come out of the recession and the way we address the debt problem is all about whether we grasp the issue of productivity…”

strategy for addressing the issues he identifies, he thinks Labour’s plans are even more vexing.

Business, he says, is concerned by Labour’s proposals to raise some taxes and impose new ones. Labour is anti-privatisation and wants to make big changes to monetary policy to stabilise the exchange rate. These “would result in a devastating blow to confidence in the country and seriously set back our prospects”, he says, although, the Manu-facturers and Exporters Association sees merit in some reforms.

National has so far identified energy companies Mighty River Power, Meridian, Genesis and Solid Energy, plus Air New Zealand as SOEs it will partially privatise if returned to office. Kerr would take privatisation wider and deeper to reduce the country’s external vulnerabilities. “Eve-rything you can do to increase domestic efficiency and improve our international competitiveness is valuable, and privatisa-tion is part of that process,” he says.

MAORIECONOMyThe Maori economy could benefit if iwi bid for assets, and if the process is openly competitive “that’s just fine”, he adds.

The outlook on taxation and gov-ernment spending is “quite disturbing”, according to Kerr. National is not, he says, reducing the ratio of government spending to GDP and therefore not easing the overall tax burden. On the other hand, it has listened to advice and endorsed the concept of a broad-based low-rate tax system on the income tax side offset by higher GST.

Labour promises a $5000 tax-free threshold, the removal of GST from some fruit and vegetables, a capital gains tax and lifting the top tax rate again.

Rosenberg sees tax policy as a means for tackling what he calls the low-wage problem and the widening income gap between rich and poor and between New Zealand and Australia. A capital gains tax would help redirect investment to more productive purposes as well as addressing equity issues.

Conversely, he doesn’t agree with National’s cut backs in government spending to deal with a public debt. The debt is not, he says, as problematic as the Government contends – because most of it is private debt.

Rosenberg concedes that the threat of investor flight as our debt mounts is real but thinks the bigger problem is continued unemployment and recession. “Investors are still falling over themselves to lend to our government, and that means we look like a good risk, compared to Greece and Portugal. So there is room to move fis-cally,” he says.

Whether the investment we are attract-ing is helping to rebalance the economy towards the tradeable sector – a National objective – is open to challenge. Priorities were, in part, changed by the need to re-build Christchurch after the earthquakes and to borrow heavily for infrastructural development.

But the non-tradeables sector covers chunks of the economy, such as utilities and business services, in which Australia has opened a widening gap in productiv-

ity performance. Much of this has to do with monopolies or near-monopolies that are not being effectively regulated, says Rosenberg. They are grabbing too large a slice of the economy by hiking prices.

Mineral exploitation looms large in National’s plans. Rosenberg recognises the jobs in this and – for export growth – the “raw earning potential”. But he’s concerned about the environmental im-pacts and says it’s not a sustainable way to increase the wellbeing of New Zealanders. “It can be just a recipe for more commod-ity exports.”

Kerr, on the other hand, believes New Zealand must take advantage of all the resources it has, subject to environmental considerations. “Natural resources and things like geography and size don’t deter-mine where a country goes,” he says. “The institutions and policies do.” Policies, for example, like National’s promised more flexible labour laws.

Rosenberg includes this policy plank among wage and productivity considera-tions. The danger, he says, lies in making it easy for employers to forget about raising productivity before they cut wages. But “you can’t win on low wages competing against India and China and so on”.

Above all, as the recent Fairfax media survey of business leaders found, New Zea-land needs an overall coherent framework for the economy to perform well.

Kerr detects a framework in the Gov-ernment’s commitments to partial priva-tisation, regulatory and welfare reform. He expects the next parliamentary term to give an even clearer fix on where New Zealand will be headed under a second National term.

Left and right agree, there is no likeli-hood New Zealand will start closing the income gap with Australia in the cur-rent parliamentary term. Australia came through the global financial crisis in much better shape than us.

“But,” says Kerr, “within the next six years, that test is a totally valid one. If it is not clear by then that progress is being made, the Key government will have failed.” M

An impressive résumé.

The new Audi A6. A merger of business and pleasure.

With a substantially lighter body frame, the new Audi A6 delivers class-leading agility for an exhilarating driving experience. It means increased effi ciency too, because the lighter body also lowers fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Couple this with the stunning standards of luxury you’ve come to expect from Audi and you have a vehicle that takes care of business while still keeping driving pleasure fi rmly in mind. To discover for yourself why the Audi A6 off ers you the best of both worlds simply text AudiA6, your name and location to 381 to book a test drive. Alternatively, visit www.audi.co.nz to locate your nearest dealership or for more information about this vehicle’s excellent credentials.

BCG2G22B AUDAUDAUD1561151561

AUD1561 A6 Management.indd 1 15/07/11 3:11 PM

ADvERTORIAL


Audi A6 – hard to resist

ADvERTORIAL

P sychologists have often speculated on

people’s choice of a car in terms of self-

expression.

Trends have moved constantly over the

decades from flashy to conservative and the

current crop of Audi cars offers an intriguing

insight into the public profile that modern

business executives demonstrate in their

choice of a motor vehicle.

Internationally, tough economic

conditions have virtually ruled out

demonstrative motor vehicles for top

executives. It’s a trend that has likely

underscored the styling of the current Audi

range. To take on board the phrase “invest in

your own success” these days needs some

fine judgement. Open displays of wealth

aren’t seen as ‘cool’ in the current business

and economic climate, and Audi designers

have opted for a sporty elegance linked to

high-performance engines and drive-trains

and with luxury and technology in the cabin.

Audi’s redesign of the A6 includes a

lighter body, which benefits from the use

of aluminium and high-tech steels. But with

the lighter weight comes the standards of

strength and safety that buyers of executive

class cars demand. “Exceedingly light,

strong and safe” are Audi’s own words,

and they are also adding “quiet”. Luxury car

owners like to be cocooned in a cabin and

the A6’s designers have used their skills

along with special materials to provide very

low interior noise levels. Fine-tuning of

components and hydraulic damping in the

axle and drive-train bearings are aimed to

take out vibration from the road surface —

as you would expect from a car appearing in

New Zealand showrooms from an entry-level

price of $127,900.

New Zealand buyers are being offered

the A6 with a choice of three engines — one

being a supercharged petrol unit and the

other two being turbo-diesel units. These

power-plants develop between 150 kW

(204hp) and 220 kW (300hp). The higher of

those two power outputs comes from the

TFSI petrol engine, which also punches out

440Nm of torque at 2900-4500 rpm and

can carry the top-line A6 to an electronically

governed top speed of 250km/h. Audi says

the engine drinks fuel at an average 8.2

litres per 100km and emits 190g CO2 per

kilometre — an advance of 13 per cent over

the previous model.

The new 3.0 TDI engine has been

designed and built with weight-saving in

mind and the two variants predictably have

impressive torque outputs. In one, the

V6 diesel generates 150 kW (204 hp) and

delivers 450Nm of torque in a low range

of 1250-3000rpm. Through the tiptronic

transmission standard on all three cars,


or sports specification can be added to any

of the cars, including a sporty body kit and

suspension package, larger wheels and other

goodies for an additional cost of $10,000 for

the 150kW diesel and $7000 for the other

two models.

Buyers don’t just decide on price and

technical specifications, and Audi have

worked hard to make the new car look

particularly sharp. Designers have kept

the height of the new A6 body to just 1.46

metres. With an overall length of 4.92

metres, the height and length ratio gives the

new Audi an athletic look.

Inside the new A6 cabin is what the

designers are calling the “wrap-around”

— an inlay that encircles the driver and the

front-seat passenger. There is layered-wood

veneer, and an ambient lighting system

as standard, providing small points of light

throughout the interior.

For those who like to think they are

sitting in a ‘cockpit’ Audi offers an optional

head-up display, which projects important

information onto the windshield, and

another option delivers ventilated front

seats with a massage function. Automatic

air-conditioning is standard, along with

the latest-generation MMI entertainment

operating system. The truly helpful

A6 also has a touchpad-operated MMI

navigation system that works closely

with various, optional, assistance and

safety systems. In many situations,

the Audi safety system can reduce the

risk of accidents or even prevent them

altogether. The optional Audi active lane-

assist helps the driver keep the A6 on

course, and the park-assist system means

an Audi owner never need worry about

parallel parking again. That feature alone

makes these cars very hard to resist.

it pulls the A6 to 100 km/h in 7.2 seconds

and achieves a top speed of 240 km/h. Its

average consumption is just 5.7 litres per

100 km, and its CO2 emissions level is 19 per

cent more efficient than its predecessor. The

180kW or 245hp version of the 3-litre diesel

offers 500Nm of torque between 1400-

3350rpm. The standard sprint takes just 6.1

seconds, and this engine is also regulated

to a 250km/h top speed. On average, this

top-performing diesel power plant uses

just 6 litres of fuel per 100km. Audi says

throughout the entire A6 model line, fuel

consumption has decreased by up to 19 per

cent compared with the previous model.

The famous quattro permanent all-wheel-

drive system is standard on all three models

and buyers wanting to opt for the higher-

performance diesel or the petrol version will

be asked to pay the same price of $143,900

for either of them. A comprehensive S-line

TOP 200 THINKINGEDITORIAL

NEW ZEALAND’S GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES are still undiscovered. We’ll find them when we think for ourselves; when we stop worrying about what other countries are, or are not, doing. When we stop making irrelevant comparisons with others and focus instead on what we have to offer and how we can turn our unique assets to account.

BY THINKING DIFFERENTLY we’ll discover the untapped riches that exist in our people, industries, environment, universities, social diversity and innovative and creative abilities. These individual, institutional and cultural differences are our unique resources.

DIFFERENCE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE in today’s world. New Zealand can be different and successful. But we must think differently about what we do, how we do it and what is important. New Zealand could, by thinking differently, become its own entirely more relevant yardstick in a confused and highly competitive world. We could set the measure for what it means to be economically, sustainably and socially successful.

THE UNDERPINNINGS OF OUR ECONOMY are different. Different attitudes, practices, products and strategies have already turned segments of our agriculture-based industries into highly productive, premium priced exports. We can take that deeper and wider.

By thinking differently, New Zealand’s primary sector can feed more of the world’s population than it does now – and at the same time protect the environment that delivers this industry’s outstanding products.

THE DIFFERENCE OF THE EXPERIENCE is what draws tourists from around to the world to New Zealand. By thinking differently and innovatively about how we manage our natural resources we can go on sharing that experience with others. In 20 years more people than ever will want to visit this country. We will need to think differently to cope with the numbers and simultaneously preserve our most precious asset.

OUR UNIVERSITIES turn out some of the world’s most outstanding achievers in an ever-expanding portfolio of disciplines. These individuals have already thought differently about turning their capabilities to account. Unless we think differently about the opportunities we create to attract and retain our best

brains, more will move offshore than is good for us. Positive partnerships between our academic and corporate worlds can build the different kinds of businesses and career opportunities New Zealand needs to secure its intellectual assets – its people.

ON THE OTHER HAND, exporting some of our brightest and best can work to New Zealand’s advantage. Some enterprising business leaders have realised that already. Kea, our fast-growing network of expats, is an outstanding example of “thinking differently” and of turning what seemed like a problem, into an opportunity. New Zealand needs more of that kind of thinking.

OUR UNIQUE CULTURAL HISTORY and rapidly evolving social diversity demand that we think differently about what it means to be a Kiwi. A blend of the best of old and new characteristics will evolve only if we get the social and political settings right. And that means thinking very differently from how we have thought, and too often acted, in the past.

INSTEAD OF HOLDING OTHERS UP as examples to follow, New Zealand must seek out its own successes and hold them up as individual and organisational leaders to follow. By thinking differently, we could set our own performance standards with every chance they will be more relevant to tomorrow’s world than others on offer. It is hard to look without jaundiced eyes at the past and present performances of most of the world’s so-called leader nations.

NEW ZEALAND COULD and should learn from the best examples of its own commercial endeavours and outstanding individuals. We can learn from the mistakes – they litter even the most recent pages of our political and commercial history.

NEW ZEALAND HAS, more through good luck than good management, much going for it. Relying on good luck to lead and manage us successfully through the next 20 years won’t, however, be quite enough. There isn’t any reason why, with some thoughtfully honest rather than politically-charged leadership, we shouldn’t come through with a higher standard of living, a preserved environment, an innovation-driven economy and a creative and caring society.

NEW ZEALAND’S APPROACH toward difference will define it.

FOUNDER, DELOITTE/MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE TOP 200 AWARDS.PHOTOGRAPHED BY JAN-MICHAEL DAVID, JULY 18, 2011.

REG BIRCHFIELD

fACETOfACE


fACETOfACE


Thanks,” says Sean Fitzpatrick turning to the waitress. His trim flat white delivered, he turns his attention to our

conversation. “I never intended to write another book. But I am really pleased with this one. It’s a work tool.”

The former All Black, captain of front row niggle, and author of two other books, was in Auckland promot-ing his new title, Winning Matters: being the best you can be. He was also agreeing to help Kiwi businesses lev-erage opportunities from the Rugby World Cup.

Fitzpatrick, with his wife and busi-ness partner Bronwyn and their two daughters, is now based in England. He’s making a “pretty good” living from speaking, motivating, commen-tating, running a specialist hospitality business and developing the odd piece of property. Winning Matters is part biography but, more business how-to. Its genesis lies in the leadership lessons he learned on the rugby field and his post-sport business life. “It is an hon-est, chronological look at my life and how things have shaped it,” he says. “I draw on analogies between business

and sport. There are so many of them.”The first and most obvious analogy

is his explanation of the benefits that come from being “a little bit nasty”. How does that work in business and leadership?

“You have to know what you want and how you are going to get there. That might, sometimes, involve being a bit of a nasty bugger,” he offers. “The All Blacks sometimes need to be a bit arrogant or nasty to be successful on the field. But, that’s where you leave it. You don’t take it off the paddock. The analogy with business is, I sup-pose, that if you deploy a degree of arrogance to succeed, do so but leave it in the office.”

People can, says Fitzpatrick, be too nice to get to where they need to be. “One of the key messages of the book is that to be successful, you must sometimes be ruthless,” he says without hesitation.

DON’TCHEATBut where, in business, does nasty end and unethical begin? “Simple. You do everything you can to win, but you don’t cheat. Honesty, integrity and

respect are equally important in sport and business. You don’t need to write it down to know that’s what life is about. The way you are at work is the way you are at home, and vice versa.”

Fitzpatrick thinks the sense of fra-ternity that goes with donning an All Black jersey can be created in business. “The ‘once an All Black, always an All Black’ phrase struck me as a particu-larly useful way to think. It has stayed with me ever since I heard it. It’s about the culture of the organisation.”

He’s always proud to say he played for the All Blacks. If companies can get employees to feel similarly posi-tive and committed “it is enormously powerful”, he adds. Companies need to engender “passion” in their people in the same way coaches and the Rugby Union engender passion into the All Blacks. “We have the legacy of the jersey and that is what makes the best players stay in New Zealand. The first 15 players don’t leave New Zealand, because they want to be All Blacks.

“It might be a bit of a generalisa-tion, but those that go overseas do so because they can’t get into the first team. They leave for more money,

Former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick talks to Reg Birchfield about the business

lessons he learned on the rugby field.

Sean Fitzpatrick

“

No need to be liked

fACETOfACE


didn’t particularly want to be a leader – the team’s captain in other words. “I got the job by default,” he says. “It took me two or three years to feel comfort-able about it.”

He saw leadership as a burden. The 1992 team he inherited was not one he felt particularly enthusiastic about. It had, unceremoniously and publicly, been stripped down and culled of some of his “mates”. And he did not, he says, feel comfortable in the role.

He doubted his ability to lead but decided, soon enough, to give it his best shot. If he was going to be the All Blacks’ captain, then he wanted to be the best captain he could be. “Fact is, if you’re made captain, you are captain. No sense debating endlessly about whether you’re ready for it, or what skills you possess or lack; you have to knuckle down and be the captain. Be the leader,” he says in his book.

It is, of course, easier to lead an organisation with a strong and posi-tive culture. That applies in business too, says Fitzpatrick. And even though rugby is now professional and vastly different from what it was when he played, it has retained its culture and its focus on winning. “The culture needs to be deeply embedded in the organisation.”

The All Blacks are, of course, the “ultimate brand” and therein lies a lesson for every business enterprise. Managing a brand properly is, he says, a critical success component. Fitz-patrick has, it seems, learned impor-tant lessons by watching and involving himself in the process of promoting the All Black brand. He would, he says, like to see the Rugby Union set up an of-fice in Europe but, there’s a hint of self interest in the smile that floats the idea.

AMBITIOUSKIwISLeaving New Zealand to set up shop in the United Kingdom after his playing days ended helped Fitzpatrick focus on the global opportunities that exist

for ambitious Kiwis. “I realised there’s a big wide world out there. And in my experience, New Zealanders do very well on the world stage. They like the challenge and they like fighting for acceptance. They like to show people what they can do.

“I love working in that global envi-ronment and coming across Kiwis eve-rywhere that are doing amazing things and running extraordinary businesses. There are a thousand people out there doing what I do, so you have to be good and committed to compete success-fully,” he adds.

His life’s work now revolves in large measure around rugby-related activities. He has, for instance, a box at Twickenham and uses it in the hos-pitality business run by him and his wife Bronnie. “We put people together to facilitate and develop business op-portunities.” But even more, he likes developing houses and “does a bit of that” around the UK. It is an activity rooted in his first career as a builder in Auckland. “I don’t get my hands dirty but, I love working with people in the trade. I love the idea of it and being involved. I get very excited being on a building site.”

But Sean Fitzpatrick’s key business message is that “you don’t need to be liked” to be successful. “You need to be respected,” he adds. “Most successful business people are not liked. That’s because they have to make the big calls, take the big decisions and make change happen. What’s important, is that the decisions taken make the company or the organisation better.”

That aside, what New Zealand managers need to do more than any-thing else, is practise their trade. “The best sports people practise more than they play,” he says. “Business people should practise too. They should go home at night and analyse their day’s performance. They don’t and they need to. To be good at something takes practice, and lots of it.” M

which is understandable. We [New Zealand] can’t compete on the money but the pride that goes with wearing the jersey is phenomenal,” he says, leaving the parallel with business and remuneration hanging.

Being an All Black does, of course, mean that rugby is “your number one job and family is number two”, he says. And that, to his mind, is true in business. “To be really successful, the job comes first. Many people say fam-ily comes first, but if they’re honest, there’s no doubt the job must come first,” he adds.

“But you do need to talk the reali-ties of the commitment through with your partner and both understand what being committed to success means. You have to sit down and say exactly what is involved. Like, how many days you will be away this year. Then you ask each other, ‘Do we want to be part of this?’ If the answer is yes, then you go forward together as a family unit. World-class organisations need committed people.”

fEAROffAILUREThe fear of failure, according to Fit-zpatrick, is a powerful motivator for any sports person, particularly an All Black. Great All Blacks, to a man, talk “intensely and movingly” about fear playing a large part in their success. “They use it as a motivator,” he says.

He draws the parallel between fear or failure and feedback in organisa-tional life. “The key,” he says “is to understand that there is a world of difference between fear of feedback or failure and harnessing that fear to posi-tive effect.” In other words, don’t be afraid of feedback. Turn it to account.

Fitzpatrick refuses to settle for any-thing less than being the best he can be. “The idea of just turning up is a load of rubbish,” he says. “I can’t believe anyone would seriously advocate that philosophy.”

But while he desperately wanted to be the best All Black he could be, he


Internationally, New Zealand is seen as a country at the forefront of women taking on top leadership roles. Women filled the

posts of Prime Minister, Governor General, Chief Justice and Chief Executive of Telecom in 2005. Not now. So why has New Zealand’s performance in this leadership area slipped so far

behind compared with our OECD counterparts. Anne Fitzpatrick asks why, and what can be done about it.

The rise & fallof our top women

New Zealand has an enviable international reputation as a country where it is rela-tively common for women

to hold top leadership roles in govern-ment and in organisations. The 2003 Grant Thornton International Busi-ness Report showed that, of 36 OECD countries, New Zealand had the fourth highest representation of women in senior management, with them hold-ing 31 percent of these leadership positions. By 2009 New Zealand had slipped to 17th place with a 27 percent representation. The Philippines, Russia and Thailand now head this particular OECD table. New Zealand still ranks ahead of all the European countries, the United States and Australia.

Recent research I conducted in 2010 on women appointed to chief ex-ecutive roles in the New Zealand Public Service illustrates this significant re-

verse trend. The State Services Com-missioner manages the appointment of all core public service departmental chief executives (about 35 of them). Of the last 22 chief executive positions filled, only one woman was appointed and that was as chief executive to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

Other than Women’s Affairs, the last female appointed to a public serv-ice chief executive role was in 2006 to the Ministry of Education. By 2010 the number of female chief executives in the 35 core departments of the New Zealand Public Service had dropped to four, compared with nine in 2005, a new low this century.

There has been a slight drop in the proportion of women applying for chief executive positions – 28 percent in 2000 to 2004, compared with 26 percent in 2005-2010. But, when the Ministry of Women’s Affairs appoint-

ments in 2003 and 2009 are excluded, the proportion of female applicants dropped from 25 percent between 2000 and 2004 to 20 percent between 2005 and 2010. There was also a larger drop in the proportion of women being shortlisted for interviews – 36 percent between 2000 and 2004, com-pared with 26 percent between 2005 and 2010.

Interviews were also conducted with people either directly involved in the chief executive appointment process, or key influencers within the Public Service. They included recruit-ment consultants and assessors who assisted the Commissioner and the Deputy State Services Commissioner. Participants were questioned as to why they believed the numbers of women applying for, and being considered as credible candidates for chief executive roles was declining and what could be

LEADERSHIP


done to improve the situation.The interviews suggested that

public service chief executive roles have become increasingly complex and difficult, making them potentially less attractive. Appetite and/or tolerance for risk and rejection also emerged as a factor impacting potential candidates’ decisions about whether to apply for chief executive positions. Lack of female role models was advanced by several interviewees as another barrier to women aspiring to and applying for chief executive roles.

There was also a perception that senior women managers were less likely to advocate for opportunities to ad-vance their careers and were less visible to decision influencers than their male counterparts. This was seen as a barrier to women being considered for such opportunities, or being approached by recruiters.

Some of those interviewed for the study thought women are more likely to stay in roles, organisations or job types too long. A lack of large scale operational experience was seen as a barrier that affected women particu-larly. One interviewee said that women find it “more difficult to get the neces-sary track record, particularly gaining relevant experience at tier two level”.

While several interviewees noted that the job performance of females is just as strong (if not stronger, said one) as their male counterparts, some considered that in general, women are inclined to display less confidence during an interview than their abilities warrant.

There was a consensus on the strat-egies needed to improve the number

of women applying for and being ap-pointed to chief executive roles. In ad-dition to the need for role models and the modelling of desired behaviour and practices by decision makers, personal action by women is also needed, sup-ported by public service system-wide messages and initiatives to assist women in developing their readiness for chief executive roles. These strategies included:• gaining a broad range of diverse experiences, including large scale op-erational roles • ensuring role models are in place, and modelling of the desired behaviours and practices by decision makers• active career management and seeking the opportunities to gain the experiences• increasing personal visibility through networking and high profile roles and assignments • active engagement with coaches and

mentors including working with, ob-serving and emulating successful chief executives• improved candidate care at all stages during and following the appointment process.An analysis of State Services Com-mission media releases shows that successful chief executives chosen be-tween 2000 and 2010 had the following characteristics:• 45 percent of them had previously been chief executives or the equivalent • 90 percent came to the role from New Zealand organisations• 88 percent came from within the New Zealand state sector• 15 percent came from the organisa-tions to which they were being ap-pointed chief executive.

Given that increasingly, people with relevant chief executive experience are being appointed, the declining numbers of female public service chief executives means this will further com-pound the reducing levels of female chief executives.

It is also important to understand what is happening with the proportion of women in senior management roles in the Public Service. The New Zealand Public Service has traditionally led the private sector in appointing women to leadership positions. The State Services Commission’s 2010 Human Resources Capability Survey showed that the proportion of senior managers in the Public Service who are women had risen to 40 percent, from around 34 percent in 2001. The ‘pipeline’ of potential female Public Service chief executives has grown over the decade, which does not help explain the reduction in the numbers of women applying for and being appointed to chief executive roles.

There should be a corresponding increase in the proportion of women at chief executive level as a flow-on effect of the increase in representation of women in senior management. If 40 percent of these senior employees are female, in a well-performing system it would be reasonable to see similar numbers at application, short listing, and appointment stages of the chief executive selection process.

Research for the State Services Com-mission in 2009 examined demand and supply side issues impacting on women’s aspirations and choices with regard to chief executive positions. They found that “women in New Zealand are less interested than their Australian counterparts in applying for a chief ex-ecutive position and are more inclined to view the role negatively”. It must be of some concern to the State Services Commissioner that there appears to be such negative perceptions of the chief executive positions and that an increasing percentage of the talent pool, ie women, does not choose to apply for the positions.

The business case for having womenwell represented in senior management

ranks is increasingly compelling.


The business case for having women well represented in senior manage-ment ranks is increasingly compelling. International research commissioned by global management consultancy McKinsey in 2008 found that companies with several senior level women tend to perform better overall than those with-out. Organisations with three or more women on their senior management teams scored higher on all nine dimen-sions of organisational performance than companies with no senior women. The internationally recognised critical mass of women at the top decision-mak-ing levels that has a significant positive impact on organisational performance is at least 30 percent women.

The research also indicates there are strong macroeconomic reasons for women to be well represented at all levels of organisations. In her 2009 book Women Mean Business, director of The Conference Board’s European Council for Diversity in Business, Alison Mait-land, wrote that “international bodies, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to the World Bank to the European Commis-sion, now recognise the importance of women as engines of economic growth. In fact, Goldman Sachs has calculated that gender equality in the workforce could boost GDP by nine percent in the United States, 13 percent in Europe, and 16 percent in Japan.”

Despite the evidence to support the value to business performance in having women well represented in leadership roles appointments are lagging. The au-thors of US-based recruitment company DDI’s 2008/2009 Global Leadership Forecast, voiced concern at the slow rate at which women are moving ahead. The Forecast noted that (globally) women continue to be significantly under rep-resented at senior management levels in organisations relative to their participa-tion in the workforce.

International corporates found that women were less likely than men to apply for promotion even though their overall performance exceeded that of their male

The data on Public Service Chief Executive appointments between 2000 and 2010 was provided by the State Services Commission. The author takes full responsibility for the data analysis and any inaccuracies arising from the analysis.

At the time of writing, two other female chief executives are departing their Public Service chief executive roles, leaving two remaining – the chief executives of Building and Housing and Women’s Affairs.

Anne Fitzpatrick (BA Hons, MBA, FNZIM), an independent Wellington based executive coach/consultant, carried out research in 2010 on ‘The Representation and Development of Women for Top Leadership Roles in the New Zealand Public Service’ as part of her Graduate Diploma in Psychology through Massey Uni-versity. She wishes to acknowledge the input and guidance of her research supervisor Dr

Sarah Leberman of Massey University.

counterparts (Lloyds TSB). Women only applied for promotions when they met 100 percent of the criteria, whereas men applied when they met 60 percent (Hewlett Packard). Such findings are of increasing concern to organisations internationally as they grapple with how to optimise their organisational performance by utilising their talent to maximum advantage.

A number of writers distinguish the different career paths of men and women and make the case for targeted develop-ment programmes to meet women’s specific needs.

McKinsey’s study concluded that the personal support and action of the CEO is an important contributor to the success that some organisations have achieved in lifting the percentage of women in their management ranks. Progress is assisted when this support is translated into specific initiatives such as diversity indicators which are regularly monitored and reviewed by senior executives who are held to account for achieving progress,

and developmental initiatives such as coaching, mentoring and networking programmes.

So what can be done to realise the business advantages of having a greater number of women in chief executive and senior management positions in New Zealand?

Internationally, organisations which take deliberate targeted steps to develop women managers for more senior leader-ship roles are making positive progress. It is not about discriminating in favour of females and against male managers when promotions are made. Rather, it is about understanding the factors that particu-larly impact on the career paths of women and tailoring career development pro-grammes to meet their particular drivers and needs. It is simply an application of that well known business principle called ‘market segmentation’ in order to achieve desired organisational outcomes. M

Anne Fitzpatrick is an independent Wellington based

executive coach/consultant. [email protected]

RESPONSIBLEGOvERNANCE


Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier meets groups of about 40 information-hungry supplier farmers half a dozen times a

year. He uses these “understanding the cooperative” sessions to explain the company’s strategy, provide global market insights and “engage” these shareholders in discussions about where the company is headed.

“We are really training future gov-ernors of the business,” he says. “A continuum like ours starts by getting shareholders to understand the busi-ness better. We also have governance development programmes for those interested in moving on to the Share-holders’ Council and perhaps the board.

“As a cooperative we must over-communicate so that somewhere in excess of 30,000 very interested people know where we are going and why. We have to keep everyone on the team,” he adds. “You can never make every

individual happy but you must take the stakeholders with you. That always comes down to communication. It’s not rocket science. A good strategy well executed and properly communi-cated keeps everyone focused.”

Andrew Ferrier’s eight years at the helm of New Zealand’s largest single enterprise have, by most perform-ance measures, been very successful. Farmers are notoriously hard cattle to muster. But the work Ferrier and his board have put into governing Fonterra responsibly has, he believes, delivered a broad spectrum of posi-tive results.

Responsible governance at Fonter-ra is about “sustainability of the cooperative for generations to come”. Everything done in the oversight and management of the business is designed to ensure the cooperative thrives into the future for its dairy farmer suppliers.

Fonterra’s hard muster

Responsible governance at New Zealand’s giant dairy industry cooperative Fonterra is delivered through

effective and constant communication. It’s all about 17,000 employees and 10,000 plus farmer shareholders being sufficiently informed to keep them moving in the

same successful direction, chief executive Andrew Ferrier tells Reg Birchfield.

Nominations are now open for the Kensington Swan Responsible Governance Award, a major award at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards. See: www.management.co.nz/top200/responsiblegovernance.html


CULTURALALIGNMENT“To achieve that we must align our policies, practices, procedures and culture,” says Ferrier. “And as a co-op, it grounds first and foremost in culture. We have cooperative principles which dictate the key things about what the cooperative is – things like farmers must be suppliers and investors and must control the cooperative. It sets the basic ownership and governance guidelines.

“At the top end, at board level, we are governed no differently from any other major, global listed enterprise. We follow the same governance proce-dures and policies with the exception that we can never have a fully inde-pendent board. We have nine farmer directors and four appointed [inde-pendent] directors.”

The board doesn’t fit the classic definition of “independent”, but it is totally relevant to the cooperative,

says Ferrier. “In some ways we have stronger governance because of the hands-on approach to electing our farmer directors.”

Ferrier accepts that being a coop-erative has its pros and cons. “But on balance, it is enormously beneficial for Fonterra. I wouldn’t want to see New Zealand’s largest company being any-thing but a cooperative. The model fits the industry and the nation very well. The only real negative is that we don’t have unlimited access to capital. On the other hand, we are becoming more creative about how we run the business and tweak our capital structure – so even that is less of a negative.

“We are fundamentally better at what we do because the business is linked right back to the farmer. We focus therefore on being around for future generations. We are not a busi-ness that constantly looks to meet the next quarter’s target.

“Having the link back to the farmer we have our brand and our credibility lined up, not just to ensure that we run the business through appropriate governance but that our farmers do too. We have a say in environmental compliance, animal welfare and all aspects of the organisation. This ensures Fonterra is seen in the best possible light by customers and consum-ers around the world. A co-op can do that because it manages the entire supply chain and not just part of it.”

vALUESSETAccording to Ferrier, the company’s culture is defined by it being a coop-erative. Its cultivation of a cooperative spirit sits atop the four value pillars upon which the company’s sustainable strategy rests: • Cooperative spirit• Do what’s right• Challenge boundaries• Make it happen.

Andrew Ferrier... “In some ways we have stronger governance because of the hands-on approach to electing our farmer directors.”

Phot

o: Ja

n-M

icha

el D

avid

RESPONSIBLEGOvERNANCE


“These values are designed to help us create the right kind of culture to deliver our strategic plan for the fu-ture,” he says. “The first two are about how people in the organisation should work. They should be team players and they should be honest, forthright and ethical. The next two are about how we want to perform. Always look for new ways of doing things and then make sure things are done. Our governance framework is designed to ensure these things happen.”

Fonterra has a written code of ethics. It spells out the performance standards expected of every employee. It also points out ways in which em-ployees can seek assistance or report misdemeanours. The senior executive team, including the CEO, act as the ethics committee. “We don’t delegate that to anyone else,” Ferrier says. “We take ethics and integrity very seriously.

“A values set is important to help everyone understand who they are and what they stand for. Then it is critical to be quite ruthless about ensuring that everyone knows that is how they must act. If all the company’s policies and procedures drive toward that, then you’ll pursue the business in the shareholders’ interests and govern the business in the same way. That may be a very high level approach, but it underpins everything we do,” he adds.

Ferrier concedes that deliver-

ing Fonterra from its rivalry-wracked founding years to its present-day iteration of a more united and consistently high-performing enter-prise has been “chal-lenging”. He did not, he says, realise how much of a challenge it would be until he arrived in the job.

T h e c o m p a n y had to break down the rampant distrust that existed between

the two competing dairy coopera-tives – Kiwi and NZ Dairy – and the New Zealand Dairy Board, which the cooperatives disliked even more than they disliked each other.

“One of the smart things they did was to bring in an independent CEO who had no allegiances to anybody other than the board. Whether it was me or anyone else, the fact that it was an outsider was a fundamentally im-portant step in the process of turning things around. Even so, it has only been in about the last three years that things have really come together.”

Building a new cooperative, rather than competitive, culture in the or-ganisation was, Ferrier believes, fun-damental to fixing Fonterra. “We had to find and agree on the values that would underpin the enterprise and everyone had to buy in to, and live by them. The process has been enor-mously unifying.”

The first four of Ferrier’s eight years at the helm were, he says, domi-nated by the need to lift and secure the company’s trading performance. “We had to get our performance up to a certain level before we could increase our attention on building culture. By investing more time and resources in our culture now we are securing the business for the long term.”

Of all the responsible governance initiatives Fonterra has embraced and

implemented over the past eight years, Ferrier is particularly proud of what its health and safety initiatives have delivered.

Fonterra’s “safety for life” pro-gramme was kick-started around 2005 after the company invited DuPont’s safety consulting business to audit its health and safety record and proce-dures. “It wasn’t a pretty sight,” says Ferrier.

One of the easiest accident num-bers to track is the total recordable incidence frequency rate (TRIFR) which records every workplace inci-dent from a finger scratch to a broken leg and rates the number of incidents per million man hours. “When DuPont came in our rating was 60,” says Fer-rier. “World-class TRIFR according to DuPont was below five. We were shocked. How can you have a higher value than your employees going home safely every day?”

DuPont provided action recom-mendations and Fonterra hired a senior level executive to oversee the implementation of a “massively pro-gressive” health and safety culture in Fonterra. The company went through another audit with a different group a year ago. “We had got ourselves from 60 to below 20 and have further im-proved our performance by 82 percent now,” says Ferrier. “Now we are getting into the harder stuff.”

The second audit provided another way of looking at the issues. The level now is 13 and falling and the latest audit has changed the emphasis to de-liver the hard to change practices and identify risks that could cause serious harm or fatality. The company is now measuring more than the TRIFR rating by conducting ongoing facility audits that use 14 different criteria to measure the facility’s overall health and safety management practices.

“I am comfortable that health and safety is now embedded in Fonterra’s organisational culture,” says Ferrier “and it’s a good example of how seriously we take responsible governance.” M

We will be evaluating enterprises on published

available information, but we also want you to tell us

about some of your special responsible governance

practices.

Nomination forms can be downloaded from http://www.

management.co.nz/top200/responsiblegovernance.html

For further information please email Tania Vela at

[email protected].

The Kensington Swan Responsible Governance Award 2011

Visit www.management.co.nz/top200 for

more information and ticket registration.

DOES YOUR BOARD HAVE WHAT IT TAKES... to excel in New Zealand’s most prestigious business awards?

The Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Companies Awards 2011

The finalists and winner will be announced at this

year’s 22nd Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200

Awards, held at SkyCity Auckland on Thursday 24th

November 2011.

ENTRIES NOW OPEN

CONfERENCES&EvENTS


The meetings industry has al-ways provided a steady rev-enue stream for venues even when tourist numbers have

been less reliable. In the recent post Global Financial Crisis years, there has been a noticeable trend to one to two day events as workplace pressures have increased and companies have become

leaner and less able to afford to have staff away from their desks.

The recent recession has been chal-lenging for the sector as it grappled with a drop in business and a concur-rent and ongoing rise in expectation of technology and services provided. Several of the larger venues or chains spoken to by NZ Management sug-

gested they’d used the downtime in the recession to do refurbishments and prepare for the post-recession upturn.

“The Global Financial Crisis was in hindsight an opportunity for The Langham, Auckland and in 2009 we took our then Rangitoto ballroom out of operation in order to double its size and relaunch it as The Great

Conference market benefits

from climbing corporate confidence

CONfERENCES&EvENTS

North SouthEast Quest.Located everywhere you do business, Quest Serviced Apartments truly offer a home away from home, providing flexible accommodation options from studios through to three bedroom apartments and services such as broadband internet access, local restaurant chargeback, a pantry shopping service and with each apartment serviced daily.

Call 0800 944 400 or visit www.questapartments.co.nzThe Quest Serviced Apartment Group – over 125 properties throughout New Zealand, Fiji and Australia.

Your perfect travel companion.

How has the conferences and conventions industry weathered the recession?

NZ Management spoke to a number of the larger players to find out what lies ahead.


www.ellerslie.co.nz

Just a short trot from downtown Auckland, Ellerslie is the perfect place to book your next meeting.

Contact our Events Team on (09) 524 4069 or at [email protected]

Free parking. Makes having your next meeting at Ellerslie that much easier.

ARC Meeting News Advert v3.indd 1 29/04/11 4:57 PM

Room,” explained Janine Daniel, The Langham’s director of events and conferences. “This was a significant $8 million investment over a six month period, but the result was a venue which can now hold 1400 guests the-atre style and 900 guests for banquets.”

All operators concurred that the lead times for events had shortened. “We have found that over the past couple of years we have needed to be more flexible in meeting our custom-ers’ requirements,” added Daniel. “In fact flexibility is the name of the game

in terms of responding to a volatile market.”

The practice of organising events and conferences with a very short lead-time seems to be more prevalent here than other countries, says Monique Surges, chief executive of the New Zealand German Business Association. She takes many business groups to trade shows and conferences in Europe and assists New Zealand companies to exhibit. She is constantly astounded by the late planning of New Zealand com-panies when some major European

events are booked out years in advance.Although currently having to deal

with the short lead-ins, all the opera-tors spoken to agreed that further out business was getting better. “We are now finding more stability with our longer lead business and that greater assurance is returning with larger con-ventions now booking and confirming as far out as 2013,” says The Langham’s Daniel.

Noel Dillon, general manager sales & marketing for Heritage Hotel Management, says the conference

CONfERENCES&EvENTS


From Boardrooms to Ballrooms

NorthlaNd | aUCKlaNd | WEllINGtoN | NElsoN | haNmEr sprINGs | ChrIstChUrCh | QUEENstoWN

For modern venues, full aV and catering

services plus stunning locations,

events to remember begin here.

dedicated on-site conference teams will help organise

everything, ensuring your event is nothing but the

best. Contact the conference specialists today.

phone (09) 979 7525 or email [email protected]

www.heritagehotels.co.nz

P29

/181

15

business in New Zealand continues to reflect increased confidence from the corporate sector compared to last year. Interest from Australia is high and forward enquiries are coming in as far ahead as 2014.

“While the lead in time for New Zealand companies confirming confer-ence bookings has reduced, overall the future outlook for domestic conferences is positive for the Heritage Hotel group.”

Natasha du Plessis, director of corpo-rate sales for Scenic Hotel Group, was also positive about the future booking trends.

CONfERENCES&EvENTS

“We are definitely experiencing the beginnings of an upward trend in do-mestic conference and event bookings at our Scenic Hotel Group properties. We are seeing heightened interest in our regional destinations, particularly into Dunedin, Blenheim and Paihia.

“It is very encouraging to see the domestic business market looking be-yond the city limits and venturing into our fabulous regional centres. This is a positive trend for our company as we look forward to continued growth in 2012.” M

We are seeing heightened

interest in ourregional

destinations...

fINANCEANDTHEECONOMySERIES


The trigger figure

What to do when your employees come seeking advice on KiwiSaver?

Ruth Le Pla investigates.

government subsidies. But the betting must be that the scheme has now gathered sufficient internal momentum to weather such blips.

As with so many other issues, for individual savers the devil is in the detail. Those not already in so-called exempt schemes run by their own employers can select from some 33 providers who collectively offer a bewildering array of schemes taking conservative, balanced or growth stances.

They can also take their pick of single-sector funds focusing on everything from cash, shares, fixed interest, property or social responsibility.

Overcome by inertia, many workers have simply stayed away altogether. Paralysed by choice, others end up plumping for one of the six government-selected default providers where their dollars are stashed into funds at the lower end of the perceived spectrum of risk.

So far, Kiwis’ collective savings behaviour has largely been characterised by what OnePath’s general manager funds management David Boyle describes as a “set and forget” mentality. As a nation, it seems we close our eyes, take an almighty jump and then – wherever we land – lie very, very still.

Catherine McGrath, ASB’s chief executive of customers, markets and products, says individuals’ average balances are still well under $10,000. She predicts that, as average KiwiSaver balances continue to grow, savers will not only start to click on to the notion that they have a stash of cash invested, they’ll also increasingly start thinking about how to ferret out the best providers and funds.

Boyle puts the trigger figure at around the price of a second hand car, or between $15,000 to S20,000. Even with the changes in the recent Budget, he reckons it won’t take long to get there. Expect, he says, to reach that point in the next two to three years.

All of which will tap into our col-lective fear that, as a nation, we suck at sums. It’s commonly accepted that we’re a financially illiterate bunch. Yet, while it’s fair to say we’re not top of the class in the global maths department, we’re not as dumb at sums as many people think. More to the point, it seems we have some good building blocks in place to inch our way forward.

Dr Annamaria Lusardi, a professor of economics from the George Washington School of Business, re-iterated this point

Continuing NZ Management’s

series on finance and the

economy.

Sometime soon indiv idual KiwiSaver balances will reach what many in the financial serv-ices sector see as a trigger figure

for some altogether different thinking around saving.

The change wil l throw a new focus on an organisation’s role as the connecting point between its staff and the fund providers. It will all play out in the new post-July 1 financial regulatory regime framed by a revamped Financial Advisers Act and under the watchful eye of the ‘twin peaks’ of the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

Just over four years after its launch, KiwiSaver is now an $8 billion-plus treasure chest. Launched with the government aim of creating a low-cost work-based savings scheme at both the individual and employer level, KiwiSaver has grown fast.

More than 1.7 million people now have cash stashed away in KiwiSaver funds. That $8 billion stockpile is tipped to hit $25 billion in four years’ time. By 2021 it could reach $60 billion.

It’s stil l too early to pick the exact repercussions from the recent Budget changes which watered down


at a recent Financial Literacy Summit in Wellington when she compared our levels of financial nous with that of people in Russia, Japan, the US and a bunch of countries in Europe.

New Zealand, she concluded, is a model to follow for its programmes addressing financial literacy, the “unparalleled success” of our Sorted website and our surveys tracking changes in financial literacy over time.

James Beale, head of private wealth at Craigs Investment Partners, and who also attended the summit, says he finds it interesting that a lot of the focus at the moment is on people’s spending behaviour and on sensible borrowing rather than saving.

“It’s the right place for the focus to be now, and we need to make sure that finance companies aren’t preying on people who are less financially literate, but at some stage in the future it would be nice to turn that round and focus on investment literacy,” he said.

“Obviously it’s important for New Zealanders to balance the books on a household basis and it’s something that we haven’t done well in the recent past. We’re getting back to the position where disposable income is matching off against household expenditure now. We’ve been in a big deficit position so we’re now back into a neutral position, which is good.”

However much financial nous individuals may, or may not have, employers will need to play a more active role in their part of the equation as KiwiSaver balances grow.

How far employers can take their role is outlined by the new post-July1 regulatory framework around finance which states that they can’t advise individuals. In any case, providing financial advice is already tricky new territory for fully-fledged financial advisers as evidenced by the number of wry comments and comprehensive disclaimers at a Responsible Investment Briefing in Auckland recently.

Even so, employers tend to be a first port of call for their staff on many issues. So it is reasonable to expect they’ll at

least start fielding more requests from workers to help source information for informed decision-making.

Boyle predicts an employer’s role will evolve to become a conduit for information. “Through their intranets, payroll or HR areas they would have access to accurate up-to-date information that they can pass on to their staff.”

Boyle sees a role for providers such as OnePath in supporting employers in their discussions with staff through tools, materials and relevant updates.

Logically, too, organisations could also use higher-than-mandated employer KiwiSaver contributions as a staff attraction and retention tool.

David Beattie, chief investment officer and joint CEO of Grosvenor Financial Services Group, predicts a window of opportunity for companies to bring KiwiSaver, or superannuation, back as an integral part of the whole package of remuneration in the event of any possible economic upturn.

“My personal view is that compul-sion of some form or another will even-tually come through,” he says. “And then we’ll have a model similar to Australia where it’s completely neutralised and any employer must provide a contribution to the employee’s superannuation fund: no questions asked.”

Boyle points to the looming issue of portability for companies with Australasian operations. Once ratified across the Tasman later this year or early in 2012, this will enable people who transfer from either country to the other to take their superannuation or KiwiSaver dollars with them.

“From an employer’s perspective, information and support around how Aussie portability will work in the future will be very worthwhile and is something they should be looking at,” says Boyle.

He also points out that in 2012 the first wave of savers will be eligible to access their money.

“Their five years will be up. So what happens after KiwiSaver?... One of the things we’re looking at, and certainly

ASB's Catherine McGrath... Savers will increasingly start thinking about how to ferret out the best providers and funds.

OnePath’s David Boyle... Kiwis’ collective savings behaviour has largely been characterised as a “set and forget” mentality.

Craigs Investment Partners’ James Beale... “We’re getting back to the position where disposable income is matching off against household expenditure now.”

fINANCEANDTHEECONOMySERIES


encouraging, is that people don’t have to take their money out of KiwiSaver. We can offer them a capital draw-down option to supplement or top up their savings.”

The ASB’s Catherine McGrath raises concerns about the extent to which individuals can easily understand their KiwiSaver fees.

“The fee structure originally set up around KiwiSaver reflected how fund management more generally is done: which is to a more sophisticated investor. KiwiSaver is a mass market product so providers needed to push even harder to make things transparent, visible and understandable for customers.

“Generally, I don’t think things are as transparent, understandable or good as they could be.”

The ASB, she notes, has changed the way it charges for KiwiSaver. “We’ve got a very clear two-fee structure: an admin fee and fund management fee. And that’s it.”

McGrath urges CEOs to make sure they understand the fee structure of any scheme their company may use and consider whether it is appropriate for most of their employees.

“Make sure you are comfortable with the fund that you are in. Pick someone who’s going to be there for the long haul and who has good and strong governance.”

There’s also potential for an interesting debate around the extent to which individuals working for companies strongly aligned to social or environmental values may feel influenced to channel their personal Kiwi savings into funds set up to support similar goals.

No-one is suggesting companies would overtly steer their employees in such a direction. But it doesn’t take a great leap of logic to expect employees to join the dots between espousing “doing good” at work and in their personal lives and finances as well.

For now, that remains a moot point as savers are not using such funds in any significant numbers. The “Report of the Government Actuary (in respect of the KiwiSaver Act 2006)” for the year ended 30 June 2010 showed that, excluding default members, ethical funds were just 0.01% of total portfolio allocations.

Grosvenor’s David Beattie says he expects interest in socially responsible investments and other specialty funds to develop over time but sees no noticeable change at the moment.

“The sort of people who look at such areas and have the competency to do so make up one to two percent of the population,” he says.

For now, ethical funds are just one tiny part of a much larger nationwide savings landscape that is set on a huge trajectory of change. M

Ruth Le Pla is a freelance business journalist.

[email protected]

Name:

JobTitle:

Companyname:

Address: Postcode:

Phone(home): Phone(work): Email:

Iampayingbyq Cheque(enclosed).PleasemakechequepayabletoMediawebLimited

CardNo

From time to time we run subscriber-only offers related to other magazine titles we publish. If you do not wish to receive these, please tick. If you do not wish to receive offers from third parties, please tick.

Nameasitappearsonthecard:

ExpiryDate: Signature:

YES! q Newsubscriber

q Renewal

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE www.management.co.nz/subscribeMail to: Mediaweb, PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland, 1141, New Zealand • Email: [email protected]

I’dliketoorderanannualsubscriptiontoNZ MANAGEMENT (11issues) at$78.15+GSTPleasecheckwithsubs@mediaweb.co.nzforinternationalprices.

q Tickhereifyourequireataxinvoiceorreceipt

q Visaq Mastercard

SUBSCRIBENOW

All prices include GST

GST No: 102-417-023

Chequespayableto:

Mediaweb Limited

Postto:

Subscriptions

Mediaweb Limited

FREEPOST 288,

PO Box 5544

Wellesley Street

Auckland 1141

If I told you one in six of your employees has either had or will suffer from depression, you probably wouldn’t

believe me. But those are the facts. The Ministry of Health (MOH) estimates around one in six New Zealanders will experience serious depression at some time in their life.

What this means is that depression is highly likely to enter your own life in some way – in your home, in your extended family or close circle of friends, and almost certainly in your workplace.

Around the nation, there was a collective dropping of jaws when All Black legend John Kirwan first revealed he had suffered from depression since he was a young man. Despite his successes, even he wasn’t immune to a complex and often misunderstood illness, one that can be hard to talk about for both the patient and those around them.

Depression is separate from our natural emotional reaction to sad or traumatic events, though these can be triggers for depressive episodes. Some known risk factors include life upheavals, unemployment, stress, long-term illness or serious injury, family history and certain medications. But sometimes no obvious risk factors are evident. This can potentially make it even more difficult for a person to seek treatment – when they feel there’s no “reason” to be depressed. Depression, unfortunately, sometimes doesn’t need a reason to take up residence.

Whatever the underlying cause, depression can be a frightening

experience. But the condition is not a life sentence. With the right support and professional medical advice, it can be effectively managed and even overcome.

Workplace depression – being a good supporterMental health remains a highly personal issue. And in an economic downturn, employees may be unwilling to be seen as anything less than 100% productive.

Visibly encouraging good mental wellbeing in the workplace can let employees know they will be supported in seeking help. For many, taking the crucial first step of simply saying to their GP “I’ve been feeling down” can be the very hardest.

Offering an Employee Assistance Programme is one way to show your team that mental wellbeing is taken seriously by your organisation. This is an independent

service that provides confidential and professional counselling services to help employees work through personal and work-related issues. Other ways to support good mental wellbeing within the workplace can include:• Educating managers on the warning

signs that someone in the workplace may be experiencing depression. Signs can include reduced productivity, poor work quality, missed deadlines, overly sensitive or emotional reactions, lethargy and withdrawal from colleagues.

• Addressing the causes of workplace stress. These can be identified in performance reviews and confidential workplace climate surveys.

• Initiating workplace health initiatives, such as a sporting challenge. Little or no exercise, lack of sleep and poor diet are all lifestyle risk factors for depression.

• Offering seminars on how to recognise and support those with depression. It can also be a very upsetting and stressful experience to watch a loved one struggle with this illness. For more information and advice, see

www.depression.org.nz. This excellent MOH-run website offers easy to follow, practical steps for those who think they might have depression, and those looking to support them.

As JK says, a little bit of understanding can make a big difference. M

Peter Tynan is chief executive of Southern Cross

Health Society.

Phot

o: th

inks

tock

phot

os.c

om/J

upite

rimag

es

Beating the blues

Covering staff with Southern Cross health insurance means less sick days, quicker return to work1 and it’s an attractive incentive for retaining and recruiting employees. It all adds up to a more

productive and profitable business. Your profits, not ours. Because we’re not for profit, we’re for you. To find out more, call Southern Cross Health Society on 0800 323 555 or visit our website healthybusiness.co.nz

Healthy staff means higher productivity

Southern Cross Medical Care Society, Level 1, Ernst & Young Building, 2 Takutai Square, Auckland 1010

1. TNS research 2004.

Healthy people healthy business


M eXeCUtIve heALthpeter tyNAN


M eXeCUtIve DeveLopMeNt

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

NZIM courses SEE PAGE 55www.nzimnorthern.co.nzwww.nzimcentral.co.nzwww.managementsouth.co.nz

August8-9 MEntAl touGhnESS. Queenstown. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

9 GovErnAncE ESSEntiAlS. Dunedin. Institute of Directors. www.iod.org.nz

10 introduction to lAw for GovErnAncE And MAnAGEMEnt. Christchurch. Organisation Development Institute. www.development.org.nz

10-11 lEAn thinkinG. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

12 dAtAbASE intElliGEncE. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

15-16 MAnAGEMEnt coMMunicAtion. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

15-16 MAnAGinG PEoPlE. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

16-17 MAintEnAncE MAnAGEMEnt. Christchurch. Organisation Development Institute. www.development.org.nz

16-17 11th AnnuAl corPorAtE inSolvEncy confErEncE. Auckland. Conferenz. www.conferenz.co.nz

17-18 knowlEdGE MAnAGEMEnt: trAnSforMinG orGAniSAtionAl knowlEdGE into coMPEtitivE AdvAntAGE. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

18-19 PrActicAl EMAil MArkEtinG. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

18-19 PrActicAl lEAdErShiP SkillS 2: lEAdinG A tEAM SuccESSfully. Christchurch. Organisation Development Institute. www.development.org.nz

22-23 dEvEloPinG StrEnGthS into tAlEntS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

22-26 MAnAGinG PEoPlE And PErforMAncE. Dunedin. Executive Education, School of Business, University of Otago. www.execedotago.co.nz

23-24 EffEctivE buSinESS writinG SkillS. Christchurch. Organisation Development Institute. www.development.org.nz

24-25 contrAct lAw. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

24-25 MEntAl fitnESS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

25-26 PrActicAl EMAil MArkEtinG. Wellington. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

28 - Sept 2 coMPAny dirEctorS’ courSE. Queenstown. Institute of Directors. www.iod.org.nz

29-30 buildinG orGAniSAtionAl truSt – thE StrAtEGic coMPEtEncy. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

29-30 MotivAtion And lEAdErShiP. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

30 rEducinG workinG cAPitAl. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

30 ProjEct PlAnninG And control. Wellington. Project Plus Ltd. www.projectplusgroup.com

30 - Sept 1 how to intEGrAtE inforMAtion SyStEMS And buSinESS StrAtEGiES. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

30 GovErnAncE ESSEntiAlS. Tauranga. Institute of Directors. www.iod.org.nz

September5-6 buSinESS SkillS for nEw MAnAGErS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

5-6 StrAtEGiES for SuStAinAblE buSinESS. Auckland. University of Auckland Short Courses. www.shortcourses.ac.nz

7 flExiblE workPlAcES confErEncE. Auckland. Bright*Star Conferences & Training. www.brightstar.co.nz

For more detailed diary listings, visit www. management.co.nz

Make a REAL difference to your organisation0800 800 875 | www.shortcourses.ac.nz

To Darren Levy, The University of Auckland Business SchoolThank you for tailoring a leadership programme for our organisation. New insights were gained that are closely aligned with our business strategies and values. Your team have motivated and engaged our people.Michelle McBride, Southern Cross Health Society


MeXeCS oN the Move

Theo Spieringsfonterra co-operative has appointed Theo Spierings as its new CEO. He takes over from departing CEO Andrew Ferrier, effective September 26. Spierings brings 25 years of knowledge of the global dairy industry to Fonterra having managed dairy businesses across Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Geoff TaylorRural retailer farmlands has appointed Geoff Taylor as its new general manager operations. With more than 25 years’ experience in retail and farming, Taylor has worked with some of the country’s leading retailers including Countdown/Foodtown, The Warehouse Group and Goldpine Industries.

Gabriel MakhloufGabriel Makhlouf has been appointed as chief executive and secretary to the treasury for a five-year term. He has been acting in these roles since June 1, and prior to that was deputy chief executive to the Treasury with responsibility for the National Infrastructure Unit, the Financial Operations group, the Strategy and Performance team and the Finance team.

Ian Morrishinformation leadership has welcomed veteran Microsoft consultant and Sharepoint expert Ian Morrish as a senior solutions consultant in its Wellington team. Morrish has industry and technical experience and will continue to develop the company’s iWorkplace platform.

Ralph ChiversThe Institute of Directors (IoD) has appointed Ralph Chivers as its new CEO. He has spent most of his working life in the telecommunications industry. He was the inaugural CEO of the Telecommunications Carriers Forum, led the initial stages of the ultrafast broadband initiative for Government, and more recently led the recovery of Telecom’s business operations in Christchurch after the 22 February earthquake. He has also held a number of governance roles in community and voluntary organisations and was instrumental in the design and establishment of both NZICT Group and the Telecom Foundation.

Chivers says he is very excited to be taking on this role at a challenging time for directors. “The IoD is doing an excellent job of training and developing our governance professionals, but there is a collective recognition that there are opportunities to do more for our members, the companies they serve, and New Zealand as a whole.”

Mark Callaghanfrucor beverages has appointed

Mark Callaghan as CEO New Zealand. The role was previously held by Carl Bergstrom, who was appointed Frucor’s group managing director in June. Callaghan has worked for some of the world’s leading FMCG organisations. His previous role was Melbourne-based managing director Australia & New Zealand for Cadbury.

Mary-Jo McDonaldfirst Assistance, a leading assistance company, has promoted Mary-Jo McDonald to chief executive. Her appointment comes after five years as the company’s general manager and 10 years in the insurance and assistance industry. Over her tenure with First Assistance, McDonald has helped to expand the company’s global operations.

Sheila McLeod, Martin ButlerGravelroad has expanded its professional management consulting services team with the appointment of two directors. Sheila McLeod, most recently head of IT operations and testing at Vodafone New Zealand, has been appointed as joint head of programme & project services and Martin Butler, previously managing director at Optimation New Zealand, is now head of business strategy.

Looking to Gain More From Your PM Investment?Let Project Plus assist you and your organisation achieve more for less via project management-based approaches and techniques. From consulting

and resourcing through to NZ’s largest learning and development range for all levels. Get in touch to hear more.

www.projectplusgroup.co.nz


M top tIpS

First time managers

You’ve been working hard, you are a business expert and everyone knows how

good you are at your job and now that special day has come that the boss invites you into his/her office and gives you the promotion you have been working for.

Great news – right? You are now a boss, you have

people reporting to you and your whole working life is about to change forever. Here are a few tips to avoid those common first-time manager mistakes.

1 You are now bottom of a new ladder

Leadership requires a completely different skill-set to the one you required as a subject matter expert. Never think that promotion is the end of your learning journey, it’s actually just the beginning.

2 Remember it’s never about you

The old mentality of believing that a team works to support the boss is outdated; the leader exists to ensure that his or her team has everything they need, direction, a shared vision, skills and resources.

3 Accept that you will make mistakes

Nobody has ever started a new job and never made any mistakes. The big difference now is that your mistakes are likely to affect your team. Don’t beat yourself up, just apologise, learn from your mistakes and become a better leader.

4 Hide your frustrationsThe days of moaning about the

company or even worse moaning about colleagues are gone. You now represent the company so everything you say will be seen as a company statement regardless of its intent.

5 Talk to your bossWith a new job it’s likely you will

have a new boss. Talk to him or her and find out their expectations of you, how they want to be updated and what their priorities are for the company.

6 Talk to your teamEvery one of your new team will

have a slightly different idea of what your role should be and what you should be doing. Talk to your team and find out what they expect from you and explain what you want from them.

7 Lead by exampleWhatever is contained in

the company’s code of conduct or the performance plans people will always learn what behaviour is acceptable by your actions. You have to demonstrate the behaviour you want from your team, if you don’t you will never be seen as a leader.

8 Understand the organisational

culture Every company has its own culture and it’s vital to understand what it is. Each company has HR policies of different severity. Get to grips with the feel of the company so that you don’t accidentally come across as too tough or too soft.

9 Be prepared to be unpopular

There will always be times that the needs of the company will conflict with the needs of some individuals. Always explain your reasons, people may not agree but they will respect you. Remember you can lead a team if people don’t like you, but you can’t lead if they don’t respect you.

10 Don’t change who you are

The most common mistake that new managers make is that they try to become someone else or the kind of person they think a manager should be. One of the reasons you got this job is because you are you. By all means aim to be a better person but don’t deviate too far from who you really are. M

Mark Wager is a leadership coach for Elite LD.

Phot

o: th

inks

tock

phot

os.c

om

Focus on Management

Life changing experience for Scholarship winners

New ZealaNd INstItute of MaNageMeNt IN aCtIoN

This year the NZIM Foundation trustees chose three scholars from a very strong

contingent of candidates from all around New Zealand to receive the NZIM Foundation Scholarships for 2011.

The winners were Gray Crawford, manager of social services, Christchurch City Mission in Christchurch; Rebecca Lee, operations team manager, St John Ambulance in Blenheim; and

Danette Olsen, group manager, Cawthron Institute in Nelson.

“These three were all in widely different occupations, but they were outstanding in their commitment to the work they were doing,” says Wellington judge and Foundation trustee Arnold Solomons. “They were growing into positions that were going to be more responsible for people and leadership than they had been up until now, and they needed the tools to do this successfully. At the same time they had innate qualities that really shone – enthusiasm, commitment to their jobs, wanting to make progress and, I guess, that je ne sais quoi, something that shone out of them more than the others.”

This year’s scholarship programme saw the three recipients spend seven days in Sydney in June, during which they attended the Australia Human Resources International Convention, spent the day with international leadership guru Wilf Jarvis, and visited leading companies for boardroom briefings by iconic New Zealanders who have succeeded in Australia.

The highlights were many.“My week in Sydney has been a truly

life changing experience for me,” says Crawford. “While I learnt a tremendous

amount during the week, which I will now need to digest and implement slowly over time, what I will immediately focus on is how I communicate my passion and positivity in my work environment, painting dramatic word pictures and a clear vision of the future which resonates to both heads and hearts. A leader needs to be an inspiring storyteller, a facilitator of conversations. But as a leader I

also need to be conscious of how I frame what I communicate.”

“The NZIM scholarship has been immeasurable to me in the knowledge I have gained from inspirational speakers and talking to like-minded people in management who share similar challenges in their line of work,” says Lee. “One of the highlights of the trip was spending the day with Wilfred Jarvis, founder of the Four Quadrant leadership course. He was inspirational, answering many of the questions I had. This will definitely benefit my leadership growth and will also be beneficial for the staff I lead.”

“What a privilege it was to be one of the three recipients of the NZIM Foundation Management Study Scholarship,” says Olsen. “The week I spent in Sydney was perhaps one of the most inspirational of my life. The scholarship provided us with a unique opportunity to further develop ourselves as leaders and managers through a range of activities designed to broaden our thinking and understanding of what it means to successfully lead groups of people. The consistent message I heard was the importance of empathy, of respectful questioning, truth and trust, and the need to

The NZIM FoundationSending these three outstanding managers to Sydney was made possible by the important financial support the NZIM Foundation receives from NZIM members and other bodies. The NZIM Foundation was established some 10 years ago with the aim of developing New Zealand’s young leaders of tomorrow through scholarships and study programmes and this is the fifth year the NZIM Foundation has awarded its management scholarships.The objectives of the Foundation include:• The promotion and support of

education and research relating to management and leadership

• The improvement of management education

• The provision of financial assistance to enable individuals to undertake courses of study and research related to management education and leadership

• The establishment of a capital base to facilitate the above.

develop oneself as a whole person, so that you not only have the mandate to lead others, but also the ability to help those that you lead be the best that they can be. I have learned a great deal during this thought provoking week, and am looking forward to continuing this journey of discovery by putting into action some of the ideas that I have been exposed to – perhaps taking a few risks, and being

prepared to make a few mistakes along the way.”

Solomons says the judging panel for the NZIM Foundation Scholarships is looking for management potential and the people that show the greatest promise to develop their abilities, both in personality as well as capabilities.

“These three needed the opportunity to get out and develop themselves in a different environment – to see the challenges outside and put themselves up against it – and they thought it was wonderful. This will give them the impetus and the background to learn a lot more and a better feeling for what management is about.”

Danette Olsen Gray Crawford Rebecca Lee

on management

august 2011 Vol 06 NuMber 04 ISSn 1177-5815

Focus on Management

Communication: ure doin it wrong

Tetramap Tasters – getting to know the nature of behaviour

NZIM goes international with Qantas & Jetconnect NZIM Northern is excited to be working in

partnership with Qantas and Jetconnect to deliver the first ‘international’ in-house fundamentals of leadership programme. ‘Taking The Lead’ has been very successful within Qantas Australia, and on 4 April this year the initial group of New Zealand employees commenced the programme. Almost 40 New Zealand employees from both Qantas and Jetconnect have been invited to participate in the programme, which has been adapted to align with the National Certificate in Business (First Line Management) Level 4.

“The Qantas Group supports and encourages the personal and professional development of its employees, particularly through the identification of talent and the maintenance of relevant professional qualifications, and views learning and development as a shared responsibility between the employee and the company,” says Debra Denne, manager people relations for Qantas Airways. “It has been a very busy yet exciting time working with NZIM to map the content to the New Zealand qualifications framework, but worth the effort. Our participants come from a wide range of areas such as telephone sales, airports, cabin crew, flight crew, sales, finance etc, and the enthusiasm has been exceptional.”

Graduation is planned for early 2012 and Qantas, Jetconnect and NZIM Northern wishes participants the best of luck.

shorter and we run the risk that our message is lost in translation. All in all it’s a more casual approach that can easily slip into error or look unprofessional.

The need for short snappy messages has driven a shift from the lengthy phrases and big words that were once expected of management. ‘Because’ now replaces ‘due to’, ‘agreed’ replaces ‘a mutual agreement was met’ and ‘in order to’ is simply ‘to...’.

Business people rely on and are guided by the communications they receive. The challenge lies in knowing how to write a persuasive, unambiguous and easy to read message or document, which will successfully

influence customers and individuals in making the best decision. To ensure that your staff have these vital skills, call NZIM to speak to a consultant about our communication short courses: Interpersonal Communication Skills, Effective Business Writing, Report Writing and Assertiveness Skills.

A recently released behavioural tool,

TetraMap, is making an impact around the world. Developed here in New Zealand, it is a tool that can be used by individuals through to large corporations offering more natural, holistic strategies to develop people and business. To help people gain a better understanding of TetraMap and how it can be used to help their respective organisations, NZIM Northern recently hosted a series of 90 minute TetraMap Taster sessions. These short sessions were designed to give a brief overview of TetraMap, its applications, and how to use it to your advantage.

TetraMap incorporates nature’s elements – Earth, Air, Fire and Water – as a metaphor for behaviours and attributes. ‘Earth’ personalities tend to be confident, with control and achievement being highly valued. Finding logical solutions with an orderly and focussed mindset are ‘Air’ behaviours. ‘Water’ people are caring and loyal, with great patience, and promote harmony. ‘Fires’ are passionate about possibilities and encouraging others.

TetraMap enables users to understand the complexities of human behaviour through a simple model. With the elements placed on a tetrahedron, it unfolds into a TetraMap, using the premise that we are all connected and

inter-dependant. Each side is equal with no opposite, offering a different perspective on the world around us. A highlight of TetraMap is that it gives us an opportunity to view ourselves as well as others, and the world around us, through multiple perspectives. With a better understanding of why we are the way we are, we are in a better position to manage, communicate, and deal with conflict as well as build meaningful relationships.

NZIM Northern has successfully implemented TetraMap across a range of both public and in-company programmes with positive results. To find out more and view testimonies, please visit the official TetraMap website www.tetramap.com, or contact the NZIM Northern L&D team (0800 800 694) for more information about how your organisation could work with this universal application.

Getting your message across is becoming a growing challenge in today’s high

speed business environment. The internet and text messaging have certainly assisted business relations, but ensuring that your message gets through and understood is key to ongoing success. Everybody knows the cost to business if communications go awry. Wrong figures, incorrect orders, time wasted, not to mention added stress, lead to inefficiency, soured relations and decreased revenue.

With the abbreviated language of texting, and new catch phrases and vocabularies, clear communication isn’t made any easier. As trends change, so does written English and how we use it. Content isn’t the only important ingredient; the style of your communication sends a message in itself. As we seek to match our communication with our faster work schedules and lifestyle, we sacrifice punctuation, sentences become

Focus on Management

The need for a professional approach to managing projects is a reality.

Organisations are more than ever, relying on project managers who deliver strategic results.

This course is for individuals who have an understanding of, and are involved in project management, and are keen to undertake and complete a recognised qualification.

On successful completion of the programme, you will be awarded the NZIM Diploma in Project Management (DipPM), which provides formal recognition of your competency. You will have learnt the knowledge and applied the skills required for effective management of larger projects in a wide range of contexts.

Participants are required to attend four workshops, each of two or three days duration, and satisfactorily complete four post-module assessments. Specific industry examples are included as well as a work-based project.

Date: August 15 (begins)Cost: Members $7,000.00 + GST Non-members $8,000.00 + GSTFacilitator: Jim Young

When asked this question, I usually reply that PRINCE2 certification may get your foot

in the door for a job with central government, particularly in the UK, but not with private enterprise. Our NZIM project management courses are often attended by PRINCE2-certified public servants.

But doesn’t PRINCE2 certification mean that we already have the knowledge and skills needed to manage projects? Not at all – PRINCE2 training is mostly about higher-level project control and governance. It does not address project management fundamentals such as:• How to lead and motivate your project team, manage a diversity of stakeholders, or any other of those people skills essential for project management success.• How to apply basic scheduling, estimating, budgeting and control tools and techniques, and what specifically to do to keep your project on track.

Imagine completing big amounts of PRINCE2 pre-course work, attending costly and tedious classroom tuition about a multitude of confusing processes, and passing the requisite tests, all in the wishful expectation that you can now competently tackle your burgeoning project workload, only to discover you can’t manage a project!

While PRINCE2 does recognise the need to prepare a project plan with Gantt charts, budgets and cashflow forecasts etc (and you can’t progress to the next PRINCE2 gateway unless you do), it’s up to you to learn about such practical detail – hence the growing attendance of frustrated PRINCE2-certified students on NZIM project management courses.

PRINCE2 represents a hefty overhead, and is impracticable for smaller projects, which of course most projects are. And despite the rhetoric from smooth-talking sales people, scaling PRINCE2 remains problematical at best, since to a considerable extent the whole integrity of the methodology is compromised if you don’t complete it all.

If a cut down version is a must-have, it would be useful to retain the PRINCE2 business case focus, whereby the project remains rigorously aligned with business objectives. However, we don’t need PRINCE2’s bureaucracy and re-invented terminology to have sound justification

Diploma in Project Management

For your DiaryHow to create online experiences that people love – 5 August 2011

Optimal Usability was asked to distil learning from research and

design projects with 180 clients across 18 industries and present the most important online trends emerging here and overseas. Co-founder and CEO Trent Mankelow will share with you what they found out – join us for lunch to learn: • The three key attributes of world-class

organisations, using local and overseas examples from a number of industries

• How new devices are going to affect future experiences

• Why the chief economist at Google thinks that statisticians are sexy

• What swearing, fairies, and dinosaurs have to do with a good customer experience

• Why design is not the same as aesthetics• What you can do to join the fight for

great online experiences in New Zealand.

To register, or for more information on upcoming events and seminars, visit www.nzimcentral.co.nz or contact Susan Mckibbin, Membership Services & Events Manager.

for a project. A few years ago PRINCE2 was hailed as the panacea. Now the verdict is mixed. While it is mandated for UK government projects, this has not prevented some recent, classic failures.

So, “PRINCE2 certified” does not equate to project management competency. To achieve that goal we recommend an NZIM project management course, top among which is our Diploma in Project Management. This NZQA Level 5 practical qualification requires that course participants actually apply a commonsense methodology to their work-based project in order to graduate. See www.nzim.co.nz for details.

Is PRINCE2 certification useful?

Dr Jim Young FNZIM is an NZIM facilitator and Project Management Professional (PMP) and PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Congratulations to these three graduates who received their Diplomas in Frontline Management and Project Management at a recent function in Wellington.

by Jim Young

Focus on Management

and with assistance from Wilson Learning facilitators rewrote the material to form two four-hour workshops. In June we brought together a sample group of participants from a cross section of clients and ran a “Beta” workshop to test the design and content suitability. The feedback was extremely constructive and positive, providing us with excellent guidance for the refinement and finalisation of the material.

The result is an initial workshop, Living Through Challenging Times, that unpacks a change process and helps participants respond to their personal experience with traumatic change – a little like the airline briefing “put your own oxygen mask on, before helping others”.

The second workshop, Leading Through Challenging Times, focuses participants on the expectations that are placed on leaders during change and provides practical tools to assist them help their people.

Initial feedback from organisations contacted is extremely positive and public workshops commenced mid July. For details visit www.nzimsouthern.co.nz.

Helping leaders through challenging timescontinue to operate and establish a temporary location. Once that was under control we turned our attention to what was a new reality for our members and clients in and around Christchurch.

We knew that in the short term everyone would be focused on emergency response, on getting by and on business recovery. However we also anticipated that the duration of this event might be extended and if that happened, managers and leaders in organisations would come under increasing pressure to cope with their own situations, as well as leading their people and keeping their businesses on track.

Within the Wilson Learning curriculum was a workshop that had been used successfully in many countries to assist leaders and staff within organisations respond effectively to organisational change. Harry Fox, one of NZIM Southern’s learning and development consultants, thought this material might provide the basis for a set of workshops designed to assist leaders and managers to respond to the challenges of the Canterbury earthquakes and their after effects.

A group of NZIM facilitators was assembled

How to Manage & Lead Successfully

Karen GibbonsFacilitating How to Manage and Lead Successfully and The Generation Challenge is Christchurch-based organisational development consultant Karen Gibbons. Karen is

an experienced writer and facilitator of training and development courses who has worked in the field of training, human resources and organisation development since graduating from the University of Canterbury with a Masters in Applied Psychology. Her career includes working as an organisational development specialist for AIB Bank in Dublin, four years working for an HR and employment law specialist and running her own business performance consultancy.

Karen’s passion is to help people learn new skills and techniques to become more effective in their work. She takes time to understand clients’ learning needs, and is very effective at identifying the gap between current and desired performance, developing solutions that are targeted, tailored and relevant to each organisation’s needs.

Invercargill 19 AugustThis four-hour workshop looks at the challenges – and opportunities – of four different generations in the workplace. What are the characteristics that set each generation apart and how does this impact on our workplaces? Can we create an environment where they work in harmony and how do we attract, manage, motivate and retain the different generations?Topics covered include:• An introduction to the

generations• Generation-based workplace

differences• Harnessing the best of each

generation• Tips for working together• Attracting, recruiting and

retaining Generation Y• Selling products or services to

different generations

For more information or to register your interest in either of these programmes contact Joanne O’Connor, NZIM Learning & Development, 03 218 7451, [email protected].

At 12:51pm on 22 February 2011 EVERYTHING changed for Christchurch,

its people and the organisations they work in. For many, the immediate change was clear and obvious. For most however, the true extent and significance of the changes they are experiencing is only slowly becoming apparent. New implications and consequences continue to emerge as the days, weeks, and now months pass. While the quake was a specific event, the experience is ongoing. Located close to the central city in Madras Street, NZIM Southern’s building, Management House, was badly damaged and when the Red Zone was established we lost access as we were inside the cordon.

On 23 February we received an anxious call from our colleagues at Wilson Learning Australia inquiring if we were all okay and what, if anything, they could do to help. Our initial response was to confirm everyone at NZIM Southern was okay but that our premises, Management House, was seriously damaged and inside the no-go Red Zone. It took us a couple of weeks to gather our thoughts, address the immediate issues of how we could

Karen Gibbons.

The Generation Challenge

Invercargill 17-18 AugustQueenstown 9-10 NovemberDesigned for everyone with responsibility for managing and supervising employees in the workplace, this programme will provide practical advice, tips and techniques to help develop the skills and processes needed to succeed in today’s work environment. Learn how to:Show leadership and manage change: Identify your natural leadership style and use it to your advantage, learn how to create clear and compelling purpose, engage your people and minimise resistance to change.Improve team effectiveness: Understand the personality differences in your team and how to manage them, understand conflict and learn how to get your team working together, how to deal with communication issues and to solve problems as a team.Coach and motivate others: Understand people’s basic needs and how to meet them, identify and manage key relationships, coaching and mentoring skills and creating a culture of self-motivation.Manage performance: Setting effective and clear performance standards, effective performance management routines, managing performance and behavioural problems.

Focus on Management

SOUTHERNFor more information phone 03 379 2302 (Christchurch C), 03 455 5165 (Dunedin D) or 03 218 7451 (Invercargill I & Queenstown Q) or visit www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

august

8 Diploma in Management (Advanced) – Level 6 (starts)

10-12 Project Management

15 Diploma in Supply Chain Management

15-16 Building a Business Case

15-17 Team Leader – Building Effective Teams

18-19 Key Account Management

18-19 Presentation Skills

18-19 Facilitation Skills

22-23 Interpersonal Communication Skills

24 Diploma in Project Management (starts)

25-26 Business Strategy

30-31 Introduction to Marketing

septeMber

1 Managing Quality Customer Service

1 Emotional Intelligence

2 Develop a Workplace Learning Environment

5-6 Conflict Management

5-7 CEO Development Programme

6-7 Operational Management

8 Demystifying the Financial Machinery of Government

8-9 Project Risk Management

9 Lean 6 Sigma – Yellow Belt

9 Basic Budgeting

12 Speed & Power Reading

12 Principles of Policy Design


14 Writing an Effective Business Plan

14-16 Team Leader – Operational Management

15-16 Needs Analysis & Programme Design

19 Effective Use of Time

19-20 Coaching and Mentoring

19-21 PMP Preparation

20-21 Practical Management Skill

22 Principles of Policy Analysis


23 Introduction to Microsoft Projects

26-27 Developing a High Performance Team

26-27 Leadership

28-29 Performance Management

28-30 Professional Administrator Skills

30 Implementing Effective Performance Reviews

oCtober

3 Conducting Effective Meetings

august

8-9 Introduction to Performance Management C

8-9 Accounting for Non Accountants Stage 1 D

15-16 Developing Effective Teams C

15-16 Accounting for Non Accountants Stage 2 I

17-18 How to Manage + Lead Successfully I

17-19 Four Quadrant Leadership C

19 The Generation Challenge I

19 Speed Reading I

20-27 ESCO – Personal Discovery C

22-23 Project Management Diploma (starts) 4 x 2 days C

23 Effective Use of Time D

24-25 Practical Project Management C

24-25 Essential Selling Skills D

TBA Strategic Planning C

septeMber

1 Persuasive Business Report Writin C

2 Effective Use of Time C

5 Managing the Performance of Your Staff D

5-6 Assertive Behaviour Strategies C

6 Dealing with Different People + Handling Conflict D

6-8 Team Leader – Leading the Work Group C

7 People + Communication Skills D

8 Effective Business Writing D

12-13 Building Relationship Versatility C

12-13 Introduction to Marketing C

16 Building Your Brand C

20 Speed Reading C

20 Public Sector | Managing Risks to Outcomes D

21 Public Sector | Machinery of Government D

21-22 Workplace Law C

22-23 Presentation Skills C

26-28 Team Leader – The Essential Skills C

26 Managing Effective Meetings C

27-29 Four Quadrant Leadership I

30 Time + Self Management | (New) I

TBA Leading Virtual Teams C

TBA Practical Project Management C

oCtober

3-4 Accounting for Non Accountants Stage 1 Q

3-4 HR for Non HR People C

3-5 ABCs of Win-Win Relationships C

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

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

august

4 Emotional Intelligence

8 Introduction to Management (starts)


10 Taking Minutes and Preparing Meetings (starts)

11-13 Team Leader Skills – Building Effective Teams (Certificate in Business)

12 Advanced Facilitation Skills

15 Diploma in Project Management (starts)

17-18 Resolving Conflict (prev Conflict Management)


26 Lean Six Sigma – Yellow Belt

29 Manage Effective Workplace Relationships (DFM Modular)

31 Process Mapping and Continuous Improvement

septeMber

1-2 Presentation Skills

1-2 Leadership (Cert in Mgt)

5-6 Assertiveness Techniques (prev Assertiveness Skills)

5-7 Leadership, Motivation and Team Building

7-9 Professional Administrator Skills

12 Team Leader Skills – Building Effective Teams (Cert in Business)

13-14 Accounting for Non Accountants

16 Develop a Workplace Learning Environment (DFM Modular)

16 Managing Your Time

20-21 Problem Solving & Decision Making (Cert in Mgt)

22 Introduction to Management (Cert in Mgmt)

22-23 Strategic Thinking Tools

23 Lean Six Sigma – Yellow Belt


29-30 Advanced Project Risk Management (New)

oCtober

3-4 Dealing with Difficult Behaviours

5 Emotional Intelligence (starts)

5 Introduction to Management

6-7 Leading Virtual Teams

7 Lean Six Sigma – Green Belt10 Business Plan Writing10 Introduction to Facilitation (prev

Facilitation Skills)

10 Memory and Mind Mapping

11-12 Building a Business Case

12 Support and Promote Organisational Training & Development

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

OUR FOCUS IS TO:• Research leading management trends

and practice and promote a constantly developing model of best management capability for new Zealand.

• enable managers and aspiring managers to participate in learning programmes, mentoring, and events that provide the information and experience they need to develop their capability.

• Identify leading management role models and provide awards that recognise the career and educational achievements of managers.

NATIONAL BOARDgary Sturgess Life FnZIm (Chairman)mark Woodard aFnZIm Lynda Carroll aFnZIm Brian Soutar aFnZImDan Coward aFnZImJohn Sandford FnZImJoanne o’Connor mnZImash Dixon mnZIm

OFFICESNational OfficePo Box 67, Wellington 6140 Ph 0-4-473 0470, Fax 0-4-473 0479Email [email protected] website www.nzim.co.nz

Northern President 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

Central President Lynda Carroll aFnZImCEO Karin Callaghan FnZIm FIPaaPo Box 11781, Wellington 6142 Ph 0-4-495 8300, Fax 0-4-495 8301Email [email protected] www.nzimcentral.co.nz

SouthernPresident Brian Soutar aFnZImCEO Joseph thomas aFnZImPo Box 13044, Christchurch 8141 Ph 0-3-379 2302, Fax 0-3-357 8003Email [email protected] www.nzimsouthern.co.nz

MeMber CoMMeNt:

Huia Robert Ockwell, Emeritus Fellow, NZIM Southern

Fifty-five years ago I had a call from the supervisor of evening classes at Dunedin’s King Edward

Technical College. The caller had heard I was teaching Form VII accounting and commercial subjects at Otago Boys’ High School and offered similar level classes for NZIM and CIS. Thus began my association with our Institute.

In 1956 I was halfway through a University of New Zealand B.Com and Accounting Professional qualification. Throughout the 1950s Otago University’s Commerce Faculty was blessed with a very special cluster of part-time lecturers. They were all senior partners in public accounting firms – Tom Cowan, Jim Valentine, Scott Gilkison, Horace Tilly and RSM Sinclair come to mind – and were national figures in business education as examiners, authors of text books and contributors to the few business publications of the day.

As early as 1952 the faculty was proposing cooperation with the youthful NZIM. Tom Cowan in particular was keen to foster management education and was the first secretary of the Otago Division of NZIM post-war.

In 1960, Tom left public practice to become the faculty dean and first full-time lecturer. The following year he was appointed to the newly established Chair of Accountancy, the first in New Zealand. As dean, Tom was keen to gain approval for Otago University to become the first New Zealand university to offer a course in management. After much lobbying on his part the University Council agreed, and Dr Adolf Diegel took up the Senior Lectureship in Management in 1962.

After a couple of years at OBHS I realised that to become an effective teacher of business subjects it was essential I spend time in employment outside the classroom. Eighteen months as secretary/accountant of the Wilson Malt Extract Co, and two years’ marketing with BP New Zealand filled the bill nicely.

I entered Burnham Camp with 15th Intake CMT on 5 January 1955, joining the Royal New Zealand Artillery. My Territorial Officer training from 1956 and more intense Regular Force top-up through the ’60s placed a great deal of emphasis on the skills needed to lead men, efficiently manage a vast range of material and train men from every conceivable background in a bewildering gamut of skills. In recent years my admiration for our 1950s’ armed forces, who were able to manage the induction, medical, transport, camps, clothing, equipment, training and welfare of 63,000 testosterone filled young men, has grown by leaps and bounds.

In March 1963 “Ock” received a call inviting him to go to Malaya – with just a couple of hours to decide. After five months of intensive training he was Singapore bound.

A 2½ year engagement as Paymaster/RNZIR would take me from the Thai Border in North Malaya to the remote 2nd Division, Sarawak Borneo. I was proud to serve in this superbly organised infantry battalion whose five months in Borneo would be the first and last time a New Zealand Battalion would engage in operations in Southeast Asia. Just before our return to New Zealand in 1965 I was offered the position of Finance Officer and Treasury Representative at NZ Army Force HQ Far East in

Singapore. My wife said “say yes, if a cook goes with the promotion”. Thus began a 3½ year engagement that would exercise all the management and professional skills I had acquired since high school.

My staff were located in South Vietnam, North Thailand Borneo, Malacca and Singapore. As well as pay, medical support, housing, fuel supplies, rations and laundry contracts, schooling for 300 Kiwi kids and 150 fortnightly “wife allotments”, my principal task was facilitating final capital works and payments for the completion of the huge Terendak Garrison Camp in Malacca. Terendak was the base for 28 Commonwealth Brigade, a ready reaction force in the heart of SE Asia. Home to some 13,600 army and civilian personnel, it was jointly funded by the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Beginning with fencing, landscaping, 40 km of roading, stormwater, two reservoirs and a sewage plant, within four years barracks for 4,500 soldiers, 800 houses, primary, secondary and kindergartens for 2,800 children, eight medical centres, a 160 bed hospital (including 30 maternity beds), three churches and a chapel, a town centre with supermarket, shops, a bank, cinema and pub, and 15 sports fields were built and 10,000 trees planted.

Just as the last works at Terendak were completed, in 1969 the UK announced the withdrawal of their forces from the Far East. Our battalion relocated to Singapore, and negotiations regarding barracks, housing, schooling, etc, began again!

After six years in SE Asia I was offered a post at Army HQ in Wellington, but Dunedin beckoned. It was time to return to teaching.

King’s High School warmly welcomed me back. Along with my classes in accounting and business studies I was thrilled to be offered the position of careers advisor. In 1970 I had the privilege of coaching the school team as they won the first National Schools’ Business Management Game.

Our family happily settled in North Taieri, a warm and friendly rural community centred on the local school and church. In 1974 I moved to The Taieri High School, Mosgiel, as head of commerce and Form 6 dean. By 1987 my wife was ready to enhance many years of family history research with an extended visit to the UK. Based in Cheltenham, on the edge of the Cotswolds, I undertook “supply teaching”, worked as an agricultural labourer and indulged my passion for museums.

On return I did 12 years as acting head of department and relief teacher at various high schools before retiring in 2004, 48 years after walking into my first classroom. Over recent years, church work, family, volunteering, long distance walking, Friends of the Hocken Collections Committee, family and military history and museums of any style and size have kept me busy, happy and reasonably fit. I have led a privileged life!

and when it does you wantQBE on your side

QBE-041 MGMT Rapport Br

Imagine: an engineering and construction blueprintfor disaster.

What follows will change the road ahead for thoseinvolved. Contractors losing their businesses. Investorslosing their money. And all looking for someone toblame – and to pay compensation. The legal wranglesmight span a decade.

How 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

www.ngatarawa.co.nz

Heritage remains unbroken.History is still being made.

JUST RELEASED Ngatarawa Alwyn Winemakers Reserve Merlot Cabernet 2009

SOLD OUTNgatarawa Alwyn Winemakers Reserve Merlot Cabernet 2007Gold –Decanter World Wine Awards 2010

Management August 2011

Documents

Transcript of Management August 2011