April 26, 2004

They are much the same age, have banking backgrounds, share the same leisure pursuits, and have similar outlooks on life. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that Air New Zealand’s chairman of the board, John Palmer, and chief executive, Ralph Norris, spoke the same organisational language before they ever met to join forces at New Zealand’s troubled national airline.

My teenage son is in the process of assembling his own PC. It has necessitated much searching on the web to track down the best parts deals. My experience of

New Zealand chief executives’ salaries rose, on average, by 5.2 percent last year. Is that enough to stop them straying to more lucrative corporate pastures across the Tasman? When senior

With growing and more critical media scrutiny, increasing shareholder expectations of higher performance and better results, why would any smart senior executive pitch for the chief executive’s job? Paul Reilly

Make no mistake, the marketplace battle for talented executives is as intense as ever. And management is looking for strategies to win it. How then, do organisations find, capture and keep good people?

There’s no better barometer of prevailing organisational thinking than the way management presents its profile to stakeholders. Having weathered numerous fads since the largesse of the 1980s what is the quintessence of 21st century corporate communications?

The Greens are outliers in the parliamentary system. Their challenge for the next year is to become serious policy players. Since 1999 the Greens have supported Labour-led governments. In return

It is interesting how much more emphasis is being placed on productivity these days. Having been through an era of knowledge waves and innovation, there is now realisation that increasing

Improvising self-management, people-management and leadership is the norm. Most managers and individuals wing it through work and life. And it causes difficulties which, although limiting and frustrating, eventually become accepted as unavoidable. Simple, systematic approaches can be introduced incrementally to produce very significant results.

How much do Paul Holmes and Susan Wood spend on their wardrobe? What expenses did Bill Ralston charge to his company credit card? Why did TVNZ bosses clam up before

In September 2003, the Securities Commission sought submissions on nine key issues relating to corporate governance. The Commission’s inquiry resulted in a report In September 2003, the Securities Commission sought submissions on nine key issues relating to corporate governance. The Commission’s inquiry resulted in a report entitled Corporate Governance in New Zealand – Principles and Guidelines. It sets out nine “principles” of corporate governance, each accompanied by a set of guidelines which are intended to elaborate on how an organisation can implement the principles, key findings arising from the consultation process and the Securities Commission’s view on each principle.

Improving productivity is one of the major planks of the Labour Government’s economic policy. It wants New Zealand’s economic performance to rank among the OECD’s top 10. To do this

How to strike the balance between strategy and compliance – that is the question. And whether, by ignoring one at the expense of the other, the result is an untimely

The energy debate that recently hit the headlines generated great deal more heat than light. Does New Zealand have looming energy crisis or not? The discussion has cooled little, so

Economic discussion became energised – so to speak – by Meridian Energy’s decision to pull the plug on its plans to build the $1.2 billion hydro-electric scheme known as Project

If there’s one thing you need to know about customer relationship management (CRM) in 2004 it’s this: CRM is not the same thing as contact management. Why is this important? Because, according to CRM specialists, New Zealand businesses still regularly confuse the two.

Who does strategy? International corporate governance expert Mervyn King says it doesn’t really matter as long as someone does it. According to Massey University’s James Lockhart a critical point in the spectacular corporate failure of Air New Zealand was that, incredibly, no one was taking care of strategy. Lockhart examined organisational failure at Air New Zealand and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union for a presentation to the McMaster World Congress in Ontario earlier this year. This is an edited, condensed version of his paper.

Is New Zealand really facing a future energy supply and price crisis? Has the marketplace failed to deliver a solution to our future energy needs? Why are energy generators and distributors struggling to guarantee either price or supply? And how can managers second-guess both short and long-term usage and remain confident that business in general and manufacturing in particular will grow and remain viable in future?

The Securities Commission report on Corporate Governance in New Zealand provides a set of principles that all entities would benefit from adopting and trying to achieve, says professional director Doug Matheson.

Back to the Drawing Board By: Colin B Carter & Jay W Lorsch Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Price: $65 This book is about “designing corporate boards for complex world”,

By: Robert Shiller Publisher: Scribe Publications Price: $39.95 Robert Shiller is professor of economics at Yale University in the United States so, even before opening the book there was fair

Fonterra Co-operative Group’s birth in 2001 was not without complications. Its large, dairy farmer-dominated board, oversized constitution and, not least, cooperative structure raised serious questions about whether it was capable of running a global dairy business successfully and sustainably.