Another NZ specific post here – first a summary for the offshore folks.

Michael Stiassny sits on a number of boards of listed companies and has a reputation as a heavy handed chairman. Some months ago he went behind the back of one of his CEO’s (of Vector, an energy company) to talk directly with our Commerce Commission to try and sort out some differences between the business and the regulator. At the time he was happy, the regulator has now decided on some uncompetitive behaviour that Vector was engaging upon and punished them…..

It does seem to be the case of a little boy having a tantrum when he doesn’t get his way. Love or hate our regulated economy, the commerce commission is there to do a job. To criticise them and complain that a business can’t make as much profit as formerly because of some action they’ve taken….. isn’t that the whole idea? To stop rorts and underhanded consumer affecting behaviour?

On a better note – Stiassny did announce an intention to invest in a fibre infrastructure roll out – once again this announcement is conditional on “a positive regulatory environment” – what the hell do they expect – Government to underwrite their risk???

Some more detail here. And yes I realise that this is perhaps a career limiting post – oh well…

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

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