It appears as though I made it to the front page of the NBR today. It was in an article written to defend the seemingly arbitrary and certainly poorly implemented decision last week to charge outrageous fees for access to a part of NBR’s online content: NBR publisher Barry Colman said the service was introduced …
Category Archives: NZ Business
Analysis or Opinion, Faith or Facts?
I had a good email exchange yesterday with a friend. It started after the Tuesday post on improvement – and my comment about switching from MYOB to Xero. My friend is a big MYOB fan, and challenged the assertion that Xero is better. Now I happen to believe Xero is better as a result of …
Bad Stuff, bad Cadbury
Cadbury is already in trouble with New Zealand consumers – so the last thing I expected to see was something else to make me annoyed. First my mouse turned into a paint brush… ..and then the entire page was covered. Stuff – are you are letting the cash get in the way of the service …
Tuesday Three: 3 ways to improve your business
Count them and cost them Make sure every computer is being used. Nobody gets two and none sit idle. This seemingly easy task is made much harder that it should be by many organisations. I’m very much in favour of spare computers, but they should be centrally located, under the control of the help desk/IT …
Continue reading “Tuesday Three: 3 ways to improve your business”
NBR continues their descent into madness
Here’s NBR homepage, above the fold, this morning. I’ve helpfully crossed out in red the articles that are subscriber only, and in black the one article that has a bad link (which I suspect would be subscriber only anyway). Note that the articles in the Most Popular section on the right are all also in …
The lost art of saying hello
Answering the phone was always a ritual when I was growing up, and indeed it was also a ritual at work and beyond. You had to be polite and clearly identify who you were and who you represented. “Hello it’s Lance Wiggs speaking” was the norm at home, and “Hello, BigCompany, Joe Smith speaking, can …
Apple’s N90, and a suicide
Apple 4th generation is called the N90 iPhone, and the disappearance of one has caused a newish employee to jump to his death. Strangely enough I discovered this after seeing traffic stats for an old post go through the roof. So as a favour to those folks coming here after that search, here are some …
Let him speak your honour
You wake up – hearing a crash as the front door to your house is battered down. Shouts and bangs startle you out of bed as police fan out and run through your house. You leap out of bed, only to be forced to the ground by the policeman entering your room. You stay still …
Weatherston Guilty of murder – before jury returns
Complete with quotes from the family – here is, via Google, premature article from The Press on Weatherston’s guilty murder verdict. (Hat Tip to @rachel_a) Accidents do happen in the editorial room (I’ve done it myself) and as these things go it’s not a bad one. It was published at 11:45, which was, it seems, …
Continue reading “Weatherston Guilty of murder – before jury returns”
Tuesday Three: 3 ways to improve your business
Are you brave enough to kill the dinosaur? Kill SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle or whatever big system you use. Let’s face it you aren’t actually saving money by using it, everyone hates it and it costs a fortune to own in fees, upgrades and training. Get each department to run their own books – using Xero, …
Continue reading “Tuesday Three: 3 ways to improve your business”
The NBR is in trouble – what should they do?
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 by Chris tells me he is, in fact, employed by NBR – my apologies) the …
Continue reading “The NBR is in trouble – what should they do?”
How not to add twitter followers
There are plenty of ways not to add Twitter followers. Here is one: Here is what she should have done, and still can do: 1: Used her real name. We like talking to people not bots or spammers – and I’d like to refer to you by name not “she” 2: Started a blog – …
iPhone prices – a failed experiment
NZ iPhone plan comparison It’s sad – but this great idea – a collaborative iPhone pricing spreadsheet for New Zealand – has completely failed. It’s a mess, there are people deleting things and Telco or device religion rather than science seems to be driving behaviour. I don’t care how much Vodafone’s rates are – their …
Tuesday Three: 3 ways to improve your business
Think like you think for yourself Switch to Gmail Get a ‘best friends’ telephone deal for your work. Don’t use a business deal if the personal ones are better Get rid of almost all of your printers – and make the ones you have harder to get to, and track printing by person/cost center. It’s …
Continue reading “Tuesday Three: 3 ways to improve your business”
Why I don’t read Public Address
Via Not PC I see that there is a top NZ political blog ranking system. That’s interesting. Well not really – but I do like to read a range of views, and follow No Right Turn (#6, blogspot), Kiwiblog (#1), not PC (a rabble rousing #3 – also on blogspot) and The Visible Hand in …
Lance Wiggs 