Blog Archives

Lobby Groups, Vested Interests and Short Sightedness

December 11, 2009

Business and the Environment, Compliance, Economic Development, Efficiency, New Zealand

cubicle, dairy, ecan, farming, federated farmers, food miles, mackenzie, organic

(Warning – off topic, but still important) Despite statements to the opposite, New Zealand is a country that gains significant wealth from agriculture and horticulture. That we do so, such a long distance from our main markets, is in…

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Diligent Shareholders Consider Fight

November 28, 2008

Compliance, IT, New business, New Zealand, Strategy

Around the same time that Xero listed on the NZX, fellow tech company Diligent Board Books did also. Diligent is a web enabled service that provides board members with all the information they require, while still meeting all the…

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iPhone maximum price, data plans and contracts…

June 10, 2008

Compliance, Design, IT, Strategy

competition, iphone, telco

There been a lot (actually a huge amount) of talk about the iPhone 2. But the pricing and contract situation caught my eye. Firstly I have some queries about the “USD199 maximum worldwide” promise. For a start, and in…

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Small business and IFRS

October 16, 2007

Business, Compliance, Efficiency, My businesses, New business, New Zealand

The nightmare that is the new international accounting standards, IFRS, has been exempted for NZ small businesses until the government finishes its review next year. Over on the Xero blog there is a post about it and I’d concur…

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Liquidators hunting for Feltex directors….

August 3, 2007

Business, Compliance, Governance, New Zealand, Strategy

News yesterday that the liquidators of failed carpet maker Feltex are intending to sue it’s ex-directors for over $20mill relating to their actions regarding a potential takeover that didn’t eventuate in 2005 which, if it had occurred, could have…

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Are our heads in the sand….

July 29, 2007

Business, Business and the Environment, Compliance, Economic Development, Manufacturing, New Zealand, Society, Strategy

A friend (OK OK a facebook contact) sent me this link. Without being all right wing and going on and on about how ACT was sent here to save our souls (god forbid!) it does have to be said…

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If only the IRD had a customer service focus…

July 23, 2007

Business, Compliance, Efficiency, My businesses, New Zealand

I received a phone call this morning from the IRD. It seems one of the GST returns I did from the February/March 07 period (bear in mind I do GST returns for half a dozen different entities) had an…

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Google, kings of SaaS, up the ante….

July 11, 2007

Business, Compliance, IT, SaaS, Strategy

News yesterday that Google has acquired Postini solutions. Postini provides archive, security and compliance services and dovetails nicely with Google apps. Google apps has seen a following develop since it combined Writely functionality with some of the core Google…

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Phil O’Reilly has some answers….

June 24, 2007

Business, Compliance, Economic Development, Efficiency, Governance, New business, New Zealand, Society

Phil’s opinion piece in the NZ Herald brings out some of the traditional answers to competitiveness building for NZ businesses given the high value of the dollar. Some of his suggestions are a little naive, however one area I…

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Rod Oram on Carbon Zero…

May 6, 2007

Business and the Environment, Compliance, New business, Society

In today’s Sunday Star Times, Rod Oram wrote this opinion piece about what an opportunity Carbon Trading (or at least a carbon trading market) would be for New Zealand. While his rationale is sound – the fact that we…

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