Category Archives: Business

Want to write? Get a $1345 Webstock package

Posted on January 19, 2011 by

AllAboutTheStory.com is offering a full journalism scholarship to the biggest and best web event in New Zealand – Webstock. Webstock’s cool – and has a host of awesome and famous foreign and local speakers. In their own words: Webstock 2011 … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Internet Business | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

YouTube Instant

Posted on September 11, 2010 by

Yet another classic Stanford undergraduate story. Google releases Google Instant, and so Feross Aboukhadijeh creates YouTube instant. Try it. Very shortly afterward Feross received a tweet from YouTube CEO Chad Hurley offering him a job. That’s smart – other students … Continue reading →

Posted in Broadband, Business, Internet Business, NZ Business | 2 Comments

Be good and be different – but do it the right way

Posted on November 8, 2009 by

I’m reading Zag – a little book with the thesis that to succeed you not only need to be good – but you need to be different from everyone else that is good. It’s a nice way to look at … Continue reading →

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Let’s have one industry awards not two

Posted on September 7, 2009 by

So I’m disappointed with the “2009 New Zealand Internet Industry Awards”, given the poor wording of the entrepreneur of the year award. It’s a new annual award organisation and created by the Liz Dengate Thrush Foundation. The purpose of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Internet Business, media, NZ Business | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Sky TV’s easy credit

Posted on August 24, 2009 by

Sky’s results came out this week – and while subscriber numbers grew the financial results were at the low end of expectations. I feel that their product is disappointing – with too much rugby translating into a general loss of … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Investing, media, NZ Business | 5 Comments

A great experience – at Experience BMW

Posted on August 14, 2009 by

Occasionally I get great customer service experiences – and so it is each time with Experience BMW in Auckland. At BMW stores there is no hard pressure to buy – the stores let the bikes sell themselves, and like Apple … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Internet Business, NZ Business | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

How consumers shop – some lessons

Posted on August 8, 2009 by

After a laughably dumb registration process (use fake data) you’ll find the  ChannelAdvisor report on How Consumers Shop Online. Let’s start with a caveat – the sample size is 824 people from 29 states in the USA, but there is … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Internet Business, media | Tagged | 2 Comments

The NBR is in trouble – what should they do?

Posted on July 17, 2009 by

I’ve been really impressed with the NBR in recent times – their website was going from strength to strength, and their writing was increasingly excellent. I even praised writer Chis Keall, who writes for (but I understand is not employed … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, media, NZ Business | Tagged , , , | 35 Comments

When bureaucracy goes wild

Posted on July 15, 2009 by

The USA’s tax code is wildly complicated, and that means that the sheer act of understanding exactly how much you owe for your business and personal tax takes a lot of work. It’s administered by the Inland Revenue Service – … Continue reading →

Posted in Business | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Making sure you make money from your business

Posted on July 15, 2009 by

These are notes from a whiteboard session that I led at BarCamp on Saturday. There were plenty of people in the room for the end of day session, and we had an excellent discussion. We were trying to answer the … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Internet Business, Investing | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Plenty of opportunity with Telecom’s XT bills

Posted on July 14, 2009 by

With iPhone pricing comparisons all the rage right now, I decided to have a first look at my Telecom XT Bill. I knew this would be entertaining, but despite everything below there is a minor victory, in that I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Internet Business | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Snow job in Greenland

Posted on June 26, 2009 by

Whitewash “A West Coast man has lost his feet and a hand to frostbite after surviving three days in an Arctic whiteout.” Let’s look at the facts here. He had No EPIRB to locate him if all failed No Food … Continue reading →

Posted in Business | 1 Comment

Radio NZ interview – How to survive and prosper this recession

Posted on June 22, 2009 by

I’m just back from an entertaining interview with Kathryn Ryan on the Nine to Noon program. You can listen to it at Radio NZ: How Businesses Can Survive The Recession (and more) Links to some things we talked about: Social … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, NZ Business | 2 Comments

5 Recent posts that I like – and a new page

Posted on June 22, 2009 by

I’ll be on Kathryn Ryan’s Nine to Noon program on Radio NZ at about 9:20am Monday 22nd. There are a few potential topics to cover – including why NZ is a good place to be right now, what businesses can … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Internet Business, Life, NZ Business, Politics | Leave a comment

Bribes, jobs and wine – not a good mix

Posted on June 19, 2009 by

There are two  jobs sites in NZ with critical mass – Seek and Trade Me Jobs. It’s a tough road to get to the top, and when Seek and Trade Me themselves have lost thousands of listings it’s even tougher … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, NZ Business | 2 Comments