Vodafone 3G Coverage misses the money

I really should have checked the SSC Broadband Map before signing up to Vodafone 3G coverage.

It appears that Roseneath, one of NZ’s wealthier suburbs, and where I live, is barely covered by Vodafone’s 3G service.
roseneath
Actually there are plenty of gaps across Wellington – including Karaka Bay, Worser Bay and Seatoun, where many of the folks from the Miramar movie industry live.

broadbandmap

You can forget about Vodafone highish speed mobile broadband if you have the time and money to ski Ruapaheu this year – there is not a whisker of Vodafone 3G
broadbandmap

While in Auckland the wealthy suburbs of Mission Bay and St Helliers seem to partially miss out as well. Is this a conspiracy against the wealthy?
broadbandmap

This is not great from Vodafone – either the map is wrong, or they are missing out on a segment of the market that can easily afford to pay for 3G, and one that travels around New Zealand a lot. Don’t start me on the huge posibilities of revenie from international travel – at least not until the global roaming rates fall a few of orders of magnitude below $30,000 per GB.

Around New Zealand coverage is pretty sparse, with State Highway one uncovered for much of the journey up the North Island, and many towns simply missing out.
broadband

The South Island is worse.
si

But Vodafone still wins here – as there is no Telecom 3G coverage for those maps. In fact their own coverage maps are hard to find – there are only links on that “coverage map” page. Here’s the Wellington one (pdf)  – too low resolution to be of any use, and vague as to what goes where.

However in Australia Telstra Clear went from dodgy last to being the best 3G service by far – and they did a similar thing to what Telecom is doing in NZ right now – upgrading their vast existing network and leapfrogging everyone else.

While I would like to see a pre-emptive coverage response from Vodafone NZ, I’m pretty sure they won’t invest – they have got a good percentage of the population, and it is hard to justify hitting the sparsely populated rural areas. In Australia though there was a tipping point, where it became obvious that Telstra has coverage in say, Leonora, and the others simply did not. so going forward, if you ever find yourself needing data in the middle of nowhere, skiing on Whakapapa say, then Telecom will look increasingly viable.

Guilty – but what about the Police organisation?

The Policeman who turned to chase a motorcyclist on Buller gorge, blocking the road and causing two other motorcyclists to be seriously injured, has just been found guilty of dangerous driving causing injury.

He is no doubt haunted by the accident – as a professional officer policing road safety the decision to make a 3 point turn on a narrow, windy and 100kmph road was very poor.

My earlier post questioned whether road safety was a value for the police force, or whether detecting speeding came first. The maneuver was reckless for three reasons – he could not catch the bike anyway, the turn itself was dangerous – especially as bikers often ride together, and the attitude of “stop all speeding no matter what” was not putting common sense road safety ahead of the letter of the law.

“The first and foremost duty of everyone on the road it to ensure safety – that of ourselves and that of other drivers.”

However there is much more to this incident than one individual’s actions:

“There is a systematic safety culture failure that really scares me here.”

When there is a personal failure we should look beyond the actions of one person and question the organisation. I know very little about the inner workings of the NZ Police force, but I would hope that they now internally understand the circumstances that led to Anthony Dale Bridgman making that 3 point turn.

  • Was zero harm when traffic policing reinforced as the number one priority to all staff, no matter what else?
  • Was there a quick safety process to check whether a pursuit will be safe? (e.g. a grown ups version of stop, look listen. I like answering a quick “what could go wrong?“)
  • Was the police vehicle and driver training suitable for the roads?
  • Was the road safe enough?
  • Was motorcycling speeding on that road a road safety priority?
  • If slowing speeds on that road was a priority, then was there a safer way to do so?
  • ..and so on. There are structured processes for conducting this sort of review.

I will note that from what I have seen on the roads and in the newspapers the NZ Police force seems to generally understand this sort of stuff more than virtually any other police force I have seen – and I have ridden on roads in over 60 countries.

However I am very concerned that the way statistics are coded and interpreted in New Zealand means that there is an overemphasis on speeding and an under emphasis on road quality.

It’s easy to code “excessive speed”, but much harder to say “yet another lousy NZ road” when reporting an accident. The primary cause of this particular accident was the incorrect actions of an individual, but “lousy road” was very high up on the list of contributing factors, along with the other answers to the questions above.

<update>

From a new article on stuff:

investigating officer Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Bernards said the verdict was “satisfying”.

He believed the crash was an “aberration” and would not prompt regular officer training.

The police manual required officers to be prudent and competent drivers and not put other motorists at risk, he said.

“This was a very unusual event.

“There are many times a day when officers make the decision to turn and do not because it is unsafe.”

How to blog anonymously

As we progressively lose our freedoms on the internet, it was timely to have a read of some of the excellent material written by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society – it’s part of the Harvard Law School and has the delightful url of cyber.law.harvard.edu – as it was started from a seminar way back in 1994.

The Center’s Internet and Deomcracy blog has a recent post on “How to blog anonymously“, and explains why anonymous speech is important:

Like 18th century phampleteers (or even the writers of the Federalist papers), anonymous bloggers are empowered by their aliases to challenge taboos, censors and government power.

…The internet is the last bulwark against totalitarian control because of its fluid and democratic character. That is why anonymous blogging is so important. Difficult to trace or gag, it is the kind of speech most likely to impact an increasingly interconnected and web-dependent world.

However – it’s a dangerous game this blogging:

Of course, be extremely careful. Use these tools at your discretion. Reporters Without Borders has a comprehensive list of jailed cyber-dissidents.

The GlobalVoices site has the guide to blogging anonymously,which comes with a chilling caevet:

These directions do nothing to prevent you from being linked through other technical means, like keystroke logging (the installation of a program on your computer to record your keystrokes) or traditional surveillance (watching the screen of your computer using a camera or telescope). The truth is, most people get linked to their writing through non-technical means: they write something that leaves clues to their identity, or they share their identity with someone who turns out not to be trustworthy. I can’t help you on those fronts except to tell you to be careful and smart.

The bold part is important. The surveillance measures that are increasingly coming in are not that important to the either “criminals” or “freedom fighters”. Decent police work is much more effective at finding out about bad things happening, which is why societies should make sure their police, court systems and bureaucracies are corruption free and focused on the highest risks. New Zealand always scores very highly on these stakes.

Anyway – to cut a long story short, if you don’t want the ISP’s in NZ (or anywhere) to be able to see what you are doing, then use Tor, proxy servers, gmail and wordpress, writing your posts offline in say notepad and secure erasing everything along the way. You may not be really avoiding any real threat to your personal freedom in New Zealand, but you will be helping people that have real issues.

It’s a draconian move to go undercover, but there are some topics and writers which lend themselves to being anonymous. Consider though the words of GlobalVoices:

A final thought on anonymity: If you don’t really need to be anonymous, don’t be. If your name is associated with your words, people are likely to take your words seriously. But some people are going to need to be anonymous, and that’s why this guide exists. Just please don’t use these techniques unless you really need to.

We are being watched now

Via the NBR I hear that ISPs can snoop on us from April the 5th.

S92 was nothing. The Telecommunications (Intercept Capability) Act, coming into full force on April 5, will let the Police, SIS and the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) execute search warrants on internet service providers to grab users’ data

Right now the law applies to voice calls, and April 5th sees that extended to everything passing over your ISP. That means email, VOIP calls, blogging, torrenting, facebook personal messages, intra-company communications, emails to your lawyer – and so on.

As the NBR helpfully points out, the spy base at Waihopai “has been able to tap internet communications systems for years” and from ISPANZ President Jamie Baddeley we hear

“some Ispanz members have already engaged already in legal interception. The police have been very pragmatic. I don’t think it’s a big issue.”

So nothing has changed really. Wire tapping can only be in place with a court order, it seems that this is happening already and that is how it should be. We just have to, as a society, make sure that the overall number of cases is low, and that tapping isn’t retrospective or go on for too long. Find the bad thing that you got the court order for then make an arrest, find nothing (or something else only) then turn it off.

But, along with section s92 of the NZ copyright act, the Australian Government’s somewhat clueless efforts to censor their internet and the NZ libel laws, we have an increasing chilling effect on our online behaviour, and expensive unwieldy compliance for our ISPs.

The ISPs are struggling merely to get us connected, let alone at a decent speed. Now they are being asked to police content, place surveillance capability in line and (in Australia) censor. All this adds cost and complexity, and ultimately degrades the service that we get in our homes and businesses.

Keith Locke from Green Party has the last word

“No one is denying we may catch a few more criminals through these powers, but there is a huge downside for us. The big downside has two aspects. One is our privacy, and the other is how these powers could be misused by agencies of the government.”

Where I live, What I do

I’ve always struggled to describe where I live and what I do. Here is some clarity.

Where I live

After almost two years of attempting to live in both Fremantle and Wellington (and largely failing at either), I am now back in New Zealand for the foreseeable future. I’m based in Wellington, and will commute and stay in Auckland as required.

It’s exciting.

I’m continuously amazed at the optimism and energy levels of people across a variety of industries in New Zealand. NZ feels ready to not just weather the storm, but also to take advantage of the global turmoil.

What I do

I work across three main areas – early stage businesses, consulting and directorships – often all three at once, and often including an equity stake.

Coffees
I’m always interested to meet and listen to people, learn about new companies, get the nerdy tour of the facility and products, give free advice and drink coffee. This first coffee meeting is always free, and will often result in some great ideas for your business and learning and fun for me, so please get in touch.

Consulting
If the coffee was good, then I am always looking for interesting strategic consulting work, short or long term. My specialties are turnarounds, growth and exits, and in pretty much any industry and company size.

Consulting can range from running short workshops, working for a few days with your team, providing ongoing advice –  through to taking the reins for a few months to drive a turnaround. You can see some examples of this work in the About Lance page above.
(If you cannot afford my increasingly outrageous fees then I can work for equity, for public good and for kind.)

Public Speaking
I’m more than happy to speak in front of groups – actually I really enjoy it. If you feel that some of my experience is relevant to your organisation then drop me a line.

I’m happy to talk about almost anything, from making the most out of you career and life, though to adventure motorcycling, leading teams and companies, Nickel refining (not really), web usability and of course media, dot coms, business strategy and investing. I like to think I am funny as well.*

Education
I’m keen to help out in an academic environment – at a University or even the occasional school. Drop me a line if you think a Yale MBA and too much consulting experience will impress your class.

Directorships
I will consider NZ directorships – from smaller companies that are going through rapid growth through to very large companies that need strategic advice. I have very strong views on the role of a director, which will be all too apparent to longer time readers and those that have been in a board room with me.

Investing
Aside from early stage investments, I am quietly looking for NZ based turnaround opportunities, distressed companies and start-ups to invest in. It could be an MBO, a take over or simply a turnaround with equity upside. In the back of my mind is my desire to raise some sort of fund and make a range of investments in distressed companies. If you are incredibly wealthy and looking for somewhere to put your money – then operators are standing by.

* Reader Opinions may vary. Also please note that I was in the losing team at the Foo Camp debate – “That the Future of NZ is F****d”. That was organised by Roger Dennis and myself, and he proved himself the better man by placing himself on the winning, negative, side. I  argue, or course, that the affirmative team was always set up to lose.

Current Portfolio
Here’s an update on the companies where I currently have a private investment:

Texmate NZ (PLC’s and electronics design and manufacturing) is going well, and even seeing strong forward orders. It helps to be a minnow in a huge market and to have a cheaper, more flexible solution than your competitors.

Lingopal (phone based phrase translation) (VC backed, founded by my cousin in Perth) is waiting for Apple to approve the first product. It was rejected on the first pass after 8 days so we took out some phrases and are re-submitting.

PowerKiwi (buy our products online at Powershop) is up and running with some very cool people on board. We’ve sold over 30,000 units of electricity credits already, growing from zero a few weeks back.

Chainui (NZ’s finest tea) is formerly Chai Tea NZ, and has re-branded as Chanui. “Cha” is tea in several languages, and “nui” is Maori for big – so that’s Big Tea. The new boxes are appearing on supermarket shelves, along with Chanui tea bags which will let us hit the other 90% of the tea market.

Valuecruncher (online valuations) has just made a big change – we now make recommendations for shares rather than giving a black slate. Check out Google: http://www.valuecruncher.com/companies/514

Widentifi (city based location, VC backed) continues on, under a confidentiality cloud, but progressing well.

There are two or three other potential start ups in very early stage, and plenty more out there. One is “Monsters” (toys), which has started to gain traction. This could be big, but sadly I’m keeping it offline for now.

I have lots of energy and time for these, and am keen to get involved in several more..

If you do wish to get hold of me, then drop me a line on 021 526239, use the Contact Me form or DM me @lancewiggs on Twitter.

Trains, buses and cars – we need them all

A nice rant by Bernard Hickey against the rushed Auckland electrification decision. I’m not arguing with him on the rushed aspect, nor on the specifics of this particular decision, which seem to be remarkably absent.

However the comments have unveiled a cars versus buses versus trains versus whatever war.

Let me copy my comment on the thread:

To me it is simple – a decent sized city (any city really) needs multiple modes of transport, and Auckland is currently a public transport joke.

The aim should be to make the retail cost of each transport option include the full cost or benefit of it’s economic externalities.

  • That means driving a car should incorporate the cost of smog, congestion and road building/maintenance.
  • Travelers on a bus should receive some of that car congestion subsidy – after all they are taking cars off the road.
  • Train riders should receive more, as they are using even less road space and resources per person.

And that’s why trains make economic sense – they work when you add the numbers up correctly.

When we add the true cost of carbon emissions to the equations then things will really start to pay off – for trains and for us all.

Meanwhile car drivers already pay a lot of tax for emissions and so forth via fuel tax, but they do not pay for the congestion cost. It’s a real cost – increased fuel consumption and wasted time spent in traffic for thousands of people.

But we can only start charging for congestion when we have a viable alternative transport system.

So yes – bring in more trains and other mass transit options, and especially bring in more transport to more areas.

Is Powershop forcing a competitive response already?

Is this the first response to Powershop? Via a secret source, Contact energy is offering 12% prompt payment discounts, up from 10%. In this game that’s a huge discount. Click on the picture to see the original (it looks the same). I don’t get the “no credit card” rule though – at least not from the customer’s perpective. The credit card companies take less than 2% commission, and payment is made to Contact on the same day, so why not give a 10% discount to those on auto-payment via credit card? It’s hard to set up a direct debit (especially for those like me with the inability to handle paper transactions), so I can see the reason for an incentive. But it is scary just how much Contact is giving away here – it is saying a lot about their current margins. It’s good to see a reaction, if that is what it is. Keep the sign-ups to Powershop coming, and let’s make the retail electricity market a bit more dynamic.

Powershop aims to open up the retail electricity market, and make it easy to select the cheapest deal. The prices are right, and you can sign up to Powershop via Flowerpower now – and get $20 of free power. FlowerPower is a PowerKiwi Limited product, and I’m a co- founder of that company.

Why living in NZ sucks, and how you can profit

I want another power cable for my Zumo motorcycle GPS unit. It’s so I don’t have to rip the one out of my KTM here in Perth, which gives me the option of doing an epic KTM sand tour again later this year.

So I Googled “Zumo Power Cable”, and find DirectDepot – a US store that has one in stock. I got through the checkout process, only to find that they do not ship out of the USA. Useless.
DirectDepot

I try http://www.challengermotors.co.nz/, but while they sell the Zumo units, they have only 126 products in stock and no Zumo cables. Useless.

Christchurch store http://www.mapworld.co.nz/ has Garmin GPS’s, and even mention the cable. But they have no store – only a phone and email. How am I going to buy? (It’s Saturday 10pm in NZ). I sent them an email. Whatever. Useless.

Garmin.com only gives me the world’s most random assortment of countries to ship to when I sign up.
Garmin
Useless.

I sent their CS staff an email as well. That was tough – as their support services seemed to be only by telephone, and only during strange hours. However I managed to find a buried link, and this time I was even able to select my country.
garmin

Amazon had the cable, a slick process and knew me. But the pricks won’t ship me a cable. That’s right – they won’t send a fucking cable, but they will send DVDs, books and what not.
Amazon. Wankers. Actually it is Garmin's fault.
I have to admit that Amazon has lost a lot of my business in the last few years – I used to buy hundreds of dollars worth of books each few months, but shenanigans like this have destroyed my trust. Useless.

eBay.com.au will sell me a Zumo car charger cable, but not a motorcycle charger cable

The http://www.downunderpilotshop.com.au (everything Aviation) looks promising, but their price is – well AU$45 for a cable.

Trade Me gives me one response – and that’s a music CD.
Trade Me

Boatersisland.com has them for US$15.99 – which is great.
Boaterisland
Yet their registration form looks like this..
Boaterisland

..and I don’t know whether they can ship to NZ. I suspect not and I’m still smarting from Amazon and Direct Depot. Useless.

Remember – this is Garmin’s fault (at least for Amazon) – they can allow Amazon to ship if they want to.

Ryda.com.au looked promising, but no cable in sight. I tried their amusing search (check the word Zumo below) and yes – there was one for $27.85. Just look at that saving!
Ryda
Ryda

But sadly they only ship to Australia. Useless.
Ryda

Octapc advertised through Google adwords, but has no Zumos. And their site is very poor.
Octapc

Useless

I went back to downunderpilot.com.au shop, hesitated at the form, then noticed they had a NZ shop. WooHoo.

I jumped in, ordered using the ridiculous form, suffered through an archaic process including a declined credit card with an incorrect error message.
Pilotshop nz

(The number was actually right, the name wasn’t.)

So there it is – NZ$53.50 for a US $15.99 cable.
dowununderpilot

The Downunderpilot.co.nz site feels so 1999, the price is wacko and it’s aimed at pilots for goodness sake. But good on them for being there and for having the Zumo cable available.

Why it sucks to live in NZ and Australia

In the USA or the UK I would simply go to Amazon or Garmin, order the  cable, and it would be there the next day or the day after that. And it would be cheap.

So  why is it so hard for Kiwis?
Why are overseas retailers not able to ship to New Zealand? (The suppliers tell them not to so the local distributors can charge monopoly rents)
Why are NZ retailers so poor with product selection, price and usability? (Our market is too small becasue suppliers treat us as a market, where we are ust part of the world like everyone else)
Why does it have to take so long to receive stuff? (We live a long way from critical mass, but if I can get a package from the USA in 3 days then anyone can)

So if you have got this far (and I’d apologise for ranting, but it is just so much fin) then here’s a business opportunity. Don’t worry – there are plenty of opportunities to go around.

1: Go and have a look at Torpedo7 and Fishpond.
Right – both operate out of New Zealand, have ecommerce stores in each domain and quickly service Australia and New Zealand. They treat the CER region as one country, have favourable GST breaks and can ship really quickly. So should you.

2: Look around the ecommerce space in the USA. Pick an area/store that is not represented (well) in New Zealand and Australia and that you feel will do well. Don’t be greedy and pick two or more – that’s doing what Ferrit did, and not doing what gameplanet, torpedo7 or fishpond did.
Talk it up on twitter and blogs so that if anyone else is doing it they will let you know, and you can do something else. No kidding – tell people now, and make sure you really have done your search for competitors. You did check Trade Me and eBay.com.au right? There is nothing worse than a “suprise” competitor that already owns the market.

3: Go and find suppliers that can drop ship, give you goods on consignment, get you good prices and just get you goods. Buy some of the 20% that you will need to ship fast, but keep your inventory low to save on cash spend – it’s going to start slow.

4: Build an online store. Copy shamelessly from the good ones like Apple, and do not ever outsource because that will cost you a fortune.

5: Get the word on the streets. Don’t spend much money – the best growth is organic. A few google ads and great service are all you need.

6: Call me, give me 5% of the company (or try Rowan Simpson) and put me on your board and quick dial so that you get free advice without having to read my rants. Seriously – share the equity around – use equity not cash where you can, and bring along a bunch of friends on the journey with you. After all – who wants to be a lonely multi millionaire?

7: Profit.
Oh – and watch your cash flow. Inventory can kill you and so will expensive board members. Don’t quit your day job until it is really obvious you can.

The real estate market plunge

Alex Tarrant over at Interest.co.nz had a couple of, well, interesting posts on the housing market in NZ.

There is a piece on the February housing statistics, which rose dramatically versus January, although the median price stayed down, and the number of days to sell was a record 62. Alex also looked at the REINZ commentaries over the last year, and to their credit REINZ has pretty much got it right each time.

So let’s look at the total year on year dollar transactions for the real estate market over the last year and a bit:(Red is older, green most recent)

REINZ

It’s been a pretty steady decline from October 2007, though February was an excellent month this year.

Let’s look at what is near and dear to the industry – estimated commissions. I’ve just used 3.5% as a wild guess – what’s important are the orders of magnitude. The fives months between September 08 and January 09 saw $182 million more less in commissions for the industry than the corresponding period a year earlier. $182 million pays for a lot of agents, and a lot of agents’ flash cars and investment properties.
REINZ, 3.5% commission estimated by me
Let’s also smooth out the effect of a lousy January and a great February – and apply the average of the two to them both. You can see that we are not really seeing a resurgence.
REINZ, my smoothing

Finally, as The Bank Manager notes in the comments on interest.co.nz, the February sales in 2009 were a huge drop from previous years. This chart is telling:

REINZ

Things are really not good for the real estate industry, nor for homeowners with large mortgages and uncertain jobs. Nice February statistics are a start, but is it a bounce or a dead cat bounce?

<update. Alistair from realestate.co.nz has introduced an excellent chart:
realestate.co.nz

This is really scary – it shows we still have quite a way to fall. Brace yourselves – and remember that these things tend to overshoot.>

Blame directors for failure, CEOs for success

Fairfax (Reuters) belatedly opines that Directorships are not a reward, but actual work. It’s an article based on US companies, but is applies to every jurisdiction.

I absolutely agree – a directorship is a very serious obligation.

I propose a simple philosophy

  • Blame the Board of Directors for failed companies
  • Credit the CEO and management team for successful companies

The Board is responsible to shareholders for the performance of the company. Their ultimate power is to take out the CEO and replace him or her with someone else. If they fail to exercise this power in time then value is destroyed, and (in a reasonable jurisdiction) they are opening themselves up for shareholder lawsuits and more.

The CEO on the other hand is there to do the best job he can do to increase the value of the company – and a smart board steps aside a bit and lets a successful CEO go for it. A smarter board will keep challenging the CEO with questions on strategy, implementation, culture and succession. They will also make sure the legal and fiduciary obligations are up to date and keep a very jaundiced eye on what could go wrong.

And plenty has gone wrong recently, often in companies ruled by a strong CEO/founder/majority shareholder.

So here are a few starter Q&A’s for existing and prospective board members

What should you do if you do not agree with the company’s strategy?

Voice your concerns. Your responsibility is to the shareholders, and you are their representative. So if you don’t like the strategy, then get the discussion going. You are on the board because your voice needs to be heard. If it is a matter of degrees, or if it is big but you can live with the alternative, then a good discussion (with well researched inputs, and a constructive atmosphere) is the right thing to do. If the strategy is wildly different from your beliefs then perhaps it is time to make a stand, or get out. More on that down the page.

What should you do if you think the CEO is “off”

CEO’s can go off – they may get stale, not grow with the company or change with the times. You may have employed the wrong person in the first place, or they may have out-grown the role and want to move on. Firstly talk to the other board members, and see if your concerns are shared. Then constructively engage with the CEO to help him change his ways or move aside for a successor.

However if the CEO is really going off the rails, or if you think there is fraud involved, then you need to get down and dirty. Call or meet with the other board members, or with the non-executive board members only. Agree on a course of action, which may be asking toe CEO to resign, issuing him with firm instructions or demands (or else) and/or shopping for a new CEO. It’s important to move together, and firmly.

What should you do if someone makes an offer for the company?

If they are serious, then you have a duty to the shareholders to maximise the value of their investment. This is a duty to all shareholders, not just the majority, and it is a duty taken very seriously by courts (at least in the USA). You should consider the company “in play” and the  independent directors need to step up to make sure that the interests of the executives and/or major shareholders do not come first.

Next you should retain professional advice (a great way to CYA), and seek to maximise what you can sell the company for. You firstly need  to have a very clear understanding internally of what you believe the company is worth – actually this is something that you should always have. If the offer is within reach of your internal range (or above your share price) then it’s time to create and run an auction process, whether public or not.

Should you accept board positions when the founder has a majority share?

Yes, But. Yes you can accept these, but the founder has to understand that you are putting your reputation and more on the line. That means he needs to accept that the board has a certain amount of “veto” power, and even more specifically that the independent directors have a de-facto veto over any major decisions. If they do not have this power then the board cannot represent the interests of all shareholders, and is a powerless advisory board only.

What should you do if the founder/majority shareholder/CEO/rest of the board doesn’t take your advice?

If it persists, then resign. You are not a figurehead, and if they demonstrate time and time again do not want to listen, then go gently into the night. After all you may be wrong, but like it our not as a board member you will be responsible for the failure of the company, and if you strongly believe they are going the wrong way, then you need to get off the ship. Of course this is a drastic action, but you have to keep your integrity.

What should you do if you see illegal activity happening by the company/founder/majority shareholder/CEO?

Resign, and quickly. This is the main power that you have, and you should also report any illegal behavior to the relevant authorities. Illegal behavior is a huge indicator of impending financial disaster, and so as a board member you should treat it with utter seriousness. It’s also, well, illegal, and you can go to jail yourself if you do not react appropriately.

On occasion the CEO (say) may have stepped out of line a bit, but not too  far, and the Board can place controls and mandates to bring things back into control. However as a board member your reputation and freedom are on the line so these will be treacherous waters.

What do you do if the board meetings unproductive or simply do not happen?

Step up and make the changes required. Boards that do not meet are asking for trouble, while poor board meetings will rubber stamp poor decisions. If you see this happening then it is your duty to shareholders to make sure that meetings happen and that the board it doing the right thing by shareholders. Once again it is your reputation and even perhaps freedom on the line.

How many boards should you be on?

Up to as many as you can cope with – and this is a function of what else you have on, but more importantly on how efficient and effective you are, and what else you have on your plate. It’s the old adage t0 give the busy person things to do and they will get done.

Should I recruit a “professional director”?

Rarely I say, and even then maximum one person. I’m defining a professional director as someone who is only doing directorships for income, they are usually older and retired from direct involvement in business. To me this risks losing perspective, as the professional directors are not engaged at the right level. It may make sense to have one elder statesman of this type for the history and network – but the majority of the board should be dynamic and involved. This doesn’t mean don’t get people that are experienced, but please make sure you have a mix of youth and experience.

I’m a founder/CEO – what sort of people should I have on my board?

People you respect, can learn from and will listen to – they have to hold you to account after all. People that are different enough from each other so they bring different points of view – be it from their skill set, industry experience, age, gender or ethnicity/country of origin or seniority. They are there to work, are are underpaid, so genuine interest and passion for the company is really important.

I’m a founder/CEO – how many people should I have on my board?

From 3 to 12, and it varies by the size of the company and the complexity of the business. The EBRD has a live-in board of 23 Directors and 20 alternates, along with a Board of Governors 126-strong (2 from each country). Somehow it works. I’ve also seen a board of 3 people work well for Lingopal. It’s the skill-set and the engagement around the table that is important, and you should get the minimum number that works.

How should you compensate board members?

Some research I saw (part-directed) at McKinsey was equivocal on a lot of board behaviors, but very clear on one. The more money on the table when the board meets, the better the results to shareholders. That means the major shareholders should be there, and that board members should have their own money at stake. It’s true for the 3 people Lingopal board meetings, and it is true for Microsoft and the EBRD. Let the non-investors accumulate shares, by earning them or buying them at a good price, (preferably not by options as it encourages risk taking) helping them pay for those shares with a loan. Pay them a bit in cash as well to help make ends meet.

That’s my take – Do you agree with these answers? What other questions are important?

Dell – useless useless useless

Go to the home pages of Dell.com.au or Dell.co.nz or Dell.com and search for “30 inch monitor”

Marvel at the results.

Well don’t bother actually – as here are those results.

On Dell.com you use this search box.
dell

and get a nice list of 30 inch monitors. No surprise there. There are even some NEC models shown.
dell

For the downunder sites the search box says “Keyword search”.
Dell NZ
No idea why. Perhaps it is because it doesn’t actually work. Note how the phone support phrases are different as well.

So let’s see the results. You know this isn’t going to be good.

On Dell.co.nz you get this – three error reports containing the search phrase. I really wanted to buy a monitor, and these error messages are kind of scary.
Dell nz

On Dell.com.au it’s even worse – I have no idea how the search found these two printers, and nothing else.
dell au

As an aside those printer photos and descriptions are completely useless. Oh and those two printers – are actually the same  model posted in different sections of the site.

This cannot be that hard to get right – yes search is hard, but for goodness sake the mother-site is working well.

I am continuously staggered and saddened by Dell’s descent, over the last few years, into usability hell. Fail.

Sometimes even Apple gets it wrong

OK so actually a lot of the time Apple gets it wrong, their US-centric approach has given us locked phones, locked and therefore useless DVD drives and, in conjunction with the RIAA and MPAA a crippled iTunes in outside of Nprth America. (That last one is solveable – but lots of lawyers are required to change a heck of a lot of contracts.)

However as Apple gets it right so often, it is still la bit surprising when they make a silly usability mistake – like this one on the Australian Apple website:

I was idly looking for a retailer near Fremantle:

where to buy

So entered “Fremantle” in the find a reseller box

Find a reseller

And got this useless and rude error message.

Whoops

That annoyed me.
What they could have done better is to also give me a list of states/cities to click, or a list of all of Australian stores or, even, better converted Fremantle into a post code (really not hard) and returned the right list.

I hit back and realised that a post code was the required input format, and  so I guessed.

Apple’s Californian staff may not realise that the rest of the world doesn’t really care about zip codes. The staff don’t seem to travel much – at least not independently  – so they probably don’t realise that travelers in a particular area are unlikely to know a local zip/ost code. Or the names of local towns.

Which is what makes the output list really frustrating.

The actual list

I really have no idea where these places are. How hard is it to plonk them on a map? I’m trying to find a place to buy your products after all.

Dissecting the NZ job summit output – Top twenty

After reviewing the raw output from the 6 groups, let’s now turn to the published “Top Twenty” list, and some quick comments.

Job Summit – Top Twenty
Core Workplace and Employment Issues

1. Retain and Upskill – the nine day fortnight
Retain jobs by reducing wage costs while firms earnings are down. Retain jobs short and long term by upskilling workers. Possible focus on a nine day fortnight or maximum 6 week block release.

–> The nine day fortnight (or less) is a personal favorite, and one I’ve advocated before for both employees and employers. Why not make it even more flexible – down to even 6 day fortnights? The extra free time can be filled by entrepreneurial activities for those so inclined.
–> Sadly the move seems to be for Government to pay for the day off, which seems a bit rough. Why not just reduce the pay?
–> “Upskilling workers” is a motherhood statement, and comes with a very real cost. External training can run to the thousands per person day, and even internal training comes with logistical costs. Meanwhile you are paying workers to be trained.
–> Giving unpaid time off to go to universities and polytechs  is a potential winner, though many people do this already without taking the time out.
For all of these the concern is that those that earn less money are unable to afford the unpaid time away from work.

2. Intra-national migration achieved
Creation of a seasonal work marketplace that will remove barriers (information, infrastructure, qualifications/skills) between employers and seasonal workers.
–> This makes no sense to me. Isn’t there a decent private enterprise system for matching jobs and potential employees? Trade Me and Seek seem to be pretty good. Who would create and run this rather unnecessary extra marketplace – the Government?. Aren’t seasonal workers able to get jobs anyway? And what about the working holiday tourists – will they still be able to partially finance their journeys?

Skills and Transition
3. Keeping people in education and creating jobs through education and training
Expand group training programmes, review current apprenticeships models with a view to sustaining and expanding levels of training and introduce a training requirement as part of government procurement processes. Support summer employment for students, facilitating retraining and promoting the importance and value of education.

–> What are group training programs? They sound like they cost money (see 1:).
–> There has to be some room for improving the apprenticeship system, perhaps with decent Government subsidies for employers? The idea of paying very small amounts in exchange for training is fundamentally a good one. However I’m concerned that some trades which were wildly popular in recent times with the mining and housing led boom will have oversupply of workers going forward. The market will clear, but sometimes it takes time.
–> A training requirement as part of a Government procurement process would discriminate against some firms, especially smaller firms. As I said above training is expensive and smaller firms will find it especially hard, while all firms will find compliance bureaucratic.

Remove barriers and increase enablers/incentives to ensure that the education and training system is well-placed to meet current needs and opportunities including a specific focus on Maori/Pasifika people.

–> What are the barriers? You want to lower entry requirements? How wil tertiary institutions cope with this? Won’t this decrease the experience for those that can qualify? I had always thought we were pretty good on this front, and very good when it comes to reaching out to all cultural groups. This feels like a land grab, and we’ve had years of working on this already.

–> What I would like to see is the return of (the tiny) payments to study. I used to get $80 per week to go to university in Palmerston North, but then I’m living in the past.

4. Improve matching of supply and demand for training
Improve identification and matching of clearly identifiable job opportunities in the short and medium term by industry groups to direct future education and training priorities.

–> more training. Please – we get the story, but really, it is not generating income i nthe short term. Who would do this? What is wrong with allowing market forces to determine what training gets used? – individuals will choose training that gets them a job. Meanwhile there is plenty of information about in training courses – try Google, or maybe someone can do a quick start up for $5000.

5. Redundancy and transition support programme
Improve support for people about to be made redundant or who are unemployed to help them transition to new work opportunities and training including:
-Particular focus on those most vulnerable
– Income assistance
-Collaboration
-Enhanced industry partnerships
-Auditing, integrating and streamlining
-Improving information and access to services

–> Good – we need to make sure the safety net is there when people fall. We also need to make sure we don’t create thousands of consultants or push people into fields that are politically popular but not sustainable in the log term.
–> However those bullets raise more questions than they answer – what does “collaboration” mean? What does “Auditing, integrating and streamlining” mean? Surely we are pretty good at this stuff these days? This feels like layers of bureaucracy to me.

Maori Economy, Local and Regional Government
6. Enhanced utilisation of iwi assets
Creating new employment in the primary production sector by bringing Maori land and water based assets into higher value export focused productive use.  This may involve accessing existing business support, legislative/regulatory review and active facilitation of intra-Maori partnerships.

–> This wasn’t (like a few of the top 20) in the group break out output, and it is certainly interesting. It does sound a bit like planting trees, farms, tourism and factories on Iwi land – a business-first solution with obvious issues. It’s a good idea, but we have to remember that Iwi are in charge of their own resources and while outsiders can encourage and offer to invest, it is up to the Iwi to determine their own future.

Investing in projects that support Maori kinship -based infrastructure, including iwi-led housing projects, innovative approaches to existing state housing stock, and marae development.

->This new idea could be really interesting, a good use for infrastrucutre spending.  It is hard to tell whether government funds is the idea or not. This coulkd be lousy or fantastic, with the devils are in the details.

7. Government systems
Ensure that government services to Maori deliver effective results.

–> motherhood, apple pie and useless as an action. What does this really mean? What have we been working on since 1984?

8. Urgently develop and implement new sources of bond funding
Aggregate local government debt to gain access to debt funding at lower than current interest rates. Also, prioritise New Zealand investment plan across central/local government, that ensures a job creation focus, incentives for expenditure, quality spend that best positions New Zealand for medium to long term and avoids competition for capacity and capability.

-> Will aggregation help – or is it that local government finances are the issue here? Aggregating (mortgage) debt to get higher credit ratings and lower interest rates is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place, while spreads for NZ and local government will be high regardless.
–> If aggregation is a good thing, then why has nobody in the private sector done it already?.
–> Prioritising local government investment is done by local government, and I am not so sure how much extra they have in their pockets.
–> I’m concerned about any statement that has the words “avoids competition” – tending to think that competition is a good thing resulting in cheaper, higher quality results.

9. Reduce regulatory compliance costs and impediments
Adopt a permissive approach to increase the range of permitted activities in e.g.  building and housing, food safety. Enable local government to determine appropriate level of consultation.  Seek a moratorium on drinking water and air quality standards. Improve practice in council processing of regulatory consents.

–> This is the anti-environment clause, and the again the devil will be in the details of this. While I do not doubt that regulation has gone a bit far and is certainly cumbersome, the idea of reducing our water, food or environment quality for a quick buck is one that will fail in the public domain. Food safety in particular is everything for NZ’s economy – we cannot afford to compromise.

Helping firms survive
10. Big projects fast track
Establish a taskforce(s) to report directly to a relevant minister to anticipate and actively manage approval and regulatory processes for major and/or complex processes.

–> I do like this idea – make it quick and easy for big projects to be approved – or not approved.
–> Muldoon called this Think Big, but this looks to be more of “enable private sector to Think Big” which makes sense.
–> This overlaps with #14

11. Rule-making freeze
Cabinet directive issued to government agencies/regulators to stop all rule and regulation making or extension, unless specifically approved by the minister.  Reduce all enforcement activity to focus on minimum acceptable standards (rather than ‘nice to haves’) and the overall immediate interest for New Zealand.

–> Easy, but will it make a difference? Rules will be made as new information comes to light.
–>How about a “Relentless Rule Removal” campaign – much like the Great Qango hunt in earlier times?  That’s something I could buy in to.

12. Boosting tourist traffic co-fund
Establish a government/private co-funded $60 million fund to support initiatives to increase visitor numbers targeting 1% global market share, through short and long haul promotional activity, domestic tourism promotion and targeted infrastructure development.
–> an interesting idea but $60m is pissing in the ocean for such a big industry. Pushing on airports to reduce landing fees, fast-tracking Australia/NZ domestic travel status and so on would be more effective. We are actually pretty good on a lot of this stuff already.

Business Investment
13. Accelerate energy, environmental and water initiatives for employment and productivity improvements
–> That’s a good idea. It overlaps with #9, #10 and #14 – between big projects and training this list has some recurring themes.

14. Streamline regulatory approval processes for major projects
Accelerate transmission grid investment by increasing threshold for Electricity Commission consideration of electricity projects to $50 million. Allow longer wheel-based trucks and heavier loading. Establish taskforces reporting to a minister for vetting major infrastructure investment proposals and ensuring regulatory processes are quickly and consistently completed.

–> Another good idea, which oddly seems a bit specific for electricity. I really like the taskforce based approach to large investment approval, together with aggressive timetables for decisions but aggressive reaching out to stakeholders.

–> what about the smaller stuff – making it easy for individuals and small businesses to sell back to the grid. Let a thousand generators blossom
–> what about smart metering. Great for infrastructure (we can make them here – and by we I mean Textmate could, and with no ongoing telco costs), but even better to help us each use less power.

15. Access to working capital delivered via an extension of the Export Credit Office
Extend the Export Credit Office to also apply to domestic firms that need cash flow funding for completion of confirmed contract orders.

-> This is a big one as the ECO does extend a lot of credit to Exporters. Extending it to domestic circumstances does seem pretty hard as we are now essentially creating another bank.
–> What about extending the mandate (and backing) of Kiwibank to aggressively target SME’s instead?
–> Why just contracts? What is a contract? How do you assess counterparty risk? Why not on accounts receivable as well? Why not for importers as well?

16. Level the playing field to NZ firms for local and central government procurement
Revise procurement guidelines to ensure they do not bias against local providers by stipulating a specified firm size or track record.

–> Yes, this is good. The track record one is amusingly and frustratingly Catch-22 – you can only supply if you have supplied before. The GETS system does need some work to be fair to smaller providers. Even the application process to view tenders is convoluted, seeming more to push you away than let you in.

Firm Funding
17. Super-charged debt market
Possibilities include streamlining reporting and disclosure requirements, long term bond issues, involvement by a wider range of organisations such as local government.
–> Yes – I’m all for better disclosure and the like.
–> Are we large enough to support a debt market like this? Who will rate the bonds – the discredited agencies?
–> Who makes the market? Who does this really benefit?

18. Government/bank equity investment fund
Develop an equity growth fund to allow large institutional investors access to quality investments in the SME sector that are currently unavailable to them.
–> This has potential, though the language is a little scary. Those large institutional investors have always been able to invest in SMEs if they want to – but they seem unable to do so. Meanwhile SMEs find it hard to get funds to grow – banks may lend on balance sheet items but not on P&L prospects and business plans, and that credit will tighten through the year.
–> But the details matter. Who will run the the funds? How do we adapt lending criteria to adjust for SME’s? Are we talking equity as well as debt? Most of all, what people will be involved?
–> And a related question – How many sustainable jobs have the VIFs created through their investments? By sustainable I mean that the firms are profitable and no longer need to be supported by investors.

19. Commitment by banks to providing capital to NZ firms
Banks and Government co-fund partnership for preferred equity, financed by bank and government equity, leveraged with debt funding.
–> Sure , but as long as the Government has equity in the deal and or the banks. This is what the banks should be doing on their own, and again the devils are in the finer details.

20. Banks to significantly invest in financial literacy
Investing in educational initiatives to improve the financial literacy of their customers with a focus on SME businesses

–> This is a bit too stable door for me, but always good. Are banks not doing this already? If not then why not? Being the trusted advisor on all things business is after all a great way to identify and close on opportunities.

Overall an interesting top 20, with maybe a few goers in there but a few losers as well. There are overlaps, and gaps, but it is a good continuation from the group outputs, tightening up some of the ideas, dropping many of them and substituting some good new ones. But it’s still pretty raw, and there is a long way to go from here to tangible actions.

So what does Government and industry do with this all? and what else will emerge from the individuals that were there?

Both Bill English and John Key gave speeches at the conclusion of the event, and there has more output after the event. Nowhere in these two posts, for example, have we seen the NZ bicycle track idea (something that I’ve seen kicked around for a while – including at FOO) but somehow it emerged as one of the lead stories.

So next up let’s look at the subsequent output in another post. In a day or four.

Dissecting the NZ Job Summit output – Group outputs

The Government sponsored Jobs summit was on Friday, and on the beehive website you can read the input documents, breakout descriptions, attendees, power point bullet outputs and  a top 20 laundry list. So lets get to it.

I believe a summit was a good idea – the depression looms, and that also the focus on jobs was right   – as it is in job losses where we feel the biggest impact of a depression. Loss of investment value, scaling down spending or even bankruptcy are all sustainable if you retain employment. Losing your job and being unable to find another can lead to loss of home, increase in crime and other social problems and personal depression. So yes – making sure we all have jobs is good.

Bill English, amongst others, mentioned that 80% of NZ’s GDP was represented amongst the participants, which is a pretty amazing statistic. It’s not so amazing that the people were there, it’s amazing that just 200 people could represent that much of the economy. It says a lot about our lack of diversification, but also about our tiny population. There were a fair smattering of current and ex consultants, (McKinsey was well represented) and a few folk I have met, and even one I have worked for (Joan Withers). I don’t see a lot of the dot com crowd there though, aside from Rod Drury. Maybe that is a liberal versus conservative thing, perhaps it is a generational thing or more likely there were no (aside from Rod) people that could represent the entire industry.

All in all it appears that the day went well, with people across sectors working together in a common goal. Well done.

So here are three quick posts on the day. I can only write about what I read and see on video – being there would give a lot more.

Following some kick of speeches, the attendees broke off into groups and later into sub groups. So let’s first look at  the groups, the aims for each group and what they each proposed for “Big” “Near Term and High Priority” actions.

Group 1: Core workplace & core employment issues (Rob Fyfe, Helen Kelly)

AIM: Identify workplace solutions that are in the long-term best interests of NZ by identifying specific potentially time-dated measures and agreements that are ‘right’ for these conditions.

Big, Near Term Actions

  1. Retain jobs by reducing wage costs while firms’ earnings are down and long term by using this opportunity to upskill workers.
  2. Creation of a seasonal work marketplace that will remove barriers between employers and seasonal workers.

Group 2: Workers – Skills and transition (Stephen Tindall, Joan Withers)

AIM: Concrete actions, not frameworks or taskforces, that utilize existing assets, and capabilities –public, private and NGO – including educational, to assist in re/upskilling labour and minimizing transition time and costs.

Big, Near Term Actions

  1. Keep people in training
  2. Improve matching of supply and demand for training
  3. Flexibility, enablers and incentives in education and training to build skills and create and keep jobs
  4. Improve support to help people cope with redundancy or unemployment

Group 3: Maori Economy, Local and Regional government (Ngatata Love and Lawrence Yule)

AIM: Minimize school-leaver unemployment. Define actions that will allow rapid deployment of Maori, and local and regional government assets into greater productive use.
Increase certainty and speed up regulatory functions to bring forward private sector investment.

Big, Near Term Actions

  1. Integrated Approach to Māori Secondary and Tertiary Education
  2. Integrated delivery of education and training in senior secondary and tertiary sectors, through existing Māori and other education providers.  Involves linking education and training to support the Māori asset base, and emerging sectors; and relaxing funding and regulatory barriers (eg, remove capping of Student Achievement Component funding to enable demand driven response; relaxing movements between secondary and tertiary; enabling use of alternative delivery sites such as marae.
  1. Councils agree to roll out good practice and streamline consenting processes
  2. Councils commit to bringing forward infrastructure development
  3. Mayors commit to broaden the scope of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs

Group 4: Helping firms Survive (John Bongard)

AIM: Implementable, targeted near-term actions that make a meaningful difference to identified industries.

Big, Near Term Actions

  1. Cabinet Directive issued to government agencies/regulators that “now is not the time to be introducing new or extended rules, standards or processes that create additional compliance costs for firms
  2. A fund for initiatives to encourage more tourists to New Zealand, both long and short haul
  3. Actively manage regulatory approval process for complex and/or major projects (over $25M)

Group 5: Business Investment (Wayne Boyd, John Shewan)

AIM: Create a package of policies and options that give business the confidence and rationale to not delay capex, and identify some specific new business opportunities that will see new, productive jobs created. In this area we expect to see some ‘upside risk’ as well as ‘downside mitigation’ from the policies.

Big, Near Term Actions

  1. Reform regulatory approval processes for major infrastructure projects
  2. Target and attract offshore investment and entrepreneurial migrants (e.g. wealthy investors, foreign students)
  3. Improve SME access to working capital

Group 6: Firm Funding (Rob Cameron)

AIM: Honest assessment of the role and goals of the bank sectors, with clear understanding of how the bank sector and government will work together for the best interests of the NZ economy on both firm and consumer sides – during this period. Identify solutions that ensure NZ is ‘core’ to the use of Australian banks’ use of funds, and will see bank funding at acceptable price and volume levels. Improve the set (range, speed, cost) of non-bank funding options for firms.

Big, Near Term Actions

  1. Stimulating the development of New Zealand’s debt markets
  2. Equity growth fund for SMEs
  3. Bank and Government transition fund
  4. Statement of commitment from banks to continue to meet the demand for credit

Quick Feedback

Some groups did well, while others came back with motherhood statements. Frankly this is all a bit too raw to over-analyse and thankfully a this work has been crystallized into a “top 20” – which I shall walk through next.

It’s really important in these sorts of session to take notes/actions well – usually you’d assign a consultant to each one. You can tell a lot from the outputs – some of them have bullets that are clearly inadequate, while others encapsulate tangible actions well. Well written actions are not everything, but they do make sure that everyone in the room has common understanding and agreement.

It is a bit pedantic, but very few of these these are actually written as actions, and none of these are written as actions that clearly describe what needs to be done, by who, by when and why. For example  “Equity growth fund for SME’s” can be interpreted in many different ways. My vision may be very different from yours, and I imagine that even within the room there could have been different ideas. I use this example as it is rectified somewhat by the top 20 list, it a powerful idea and clearly the result of some discussion. However it’s also indicative of how difficult it is to come up with crisp answers in short sessions, and with large numbers of opinionated participants.

I’ll pick on the local Government/Maori actions next, they were the only group requiring two separate Powerpoint packs to present their answers, and the Maori one (for example) addressed the question of unemployment by a long-winded answer which boils down to “training”. Unfortunately it takes a lot more than trained people to create jobs – as anyone in the Philippines will tell you. Fortunately better ideas did emerge in the top 20.

The Workplace Training group one didn’t really answer their question’s call for “Concrete actions” – how can we, for example, “keep people in training” or “Improve matching of supply and demand for training”, and who will be responsible for it?

The 4th Group – helping big firms survive – did very well  – coming up with 3 actions that could reasonably easily be written up with a workplan.

The last two groups are shovelling around big dollars, and we can anticipate some debate on their proposals – and debate is good. None of their proposals come across well in bullets, but the top 20 has more.

So next let’s look at the top 20.