The Budget contains little to get excited about in terms of driving the economy forward, says BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander – though that is partly understandable in the context of needing to get the record 8.4% of GDP budget deficit under control.
Our National Government could take some political comfort from the Australian Labor Government’s crackdown on welfare expenditure in last week’s Budget across the Tasman – given Labour’s temerity on this issue here. Executive Update’s economic correspondent Bob Edlin reports on the Aussie Budget.
Companies are dropping foreign partners in fear of corruption liability, says a new Dow Jones survey. More than half of companies are so concerned about their liability under anti-corruption rules that they are ditching their relationship with agents, distributors and consultants in global business transactions.
More than half of New Zealand businesses have rehired former employees and most consider it to have been a good move, according to a research report released this week by recruitment agency Hudson.
The search is on again for New Zealand’s most reputable organisations. Have your say on who you admire most in our corporate, state-owned enterprise, government and not-for-profit sectors.
Working with people, “encouraging them and putting in place appropriate frameworks and structures to help them be the best they can be”, is the most appealing aspect of management and leadership, says Keith Reynolds, CEO of Beca, the 2010 Deloitte/Management magazine Company of the Year.
There has been a steep decline in CEO turnover worldwide Booz & Company has found in its latest annual survey of CEO succession among the world’s top 2500 public companies. The study also found that more CEOs are being appointed from inside companies, rather than from outside, and the more involved HQ is in operational decision making in a company, the more tenuous a CEO’s tenure is likely to be.
Although the economy has been very weak for almost a year, the labour market has continued to tighten up, albeit slowly, says BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander. He expects that tightening will become quite pronounced as growth accelerates from later this year, meaning employers need to be giving greater thought to their recruitment and staff retention strategies.
A shift to a new generation of html, the programming standard that underpins the internet, will further boost the power of mobile devices, accelerating changes in the way people consume content and meaning that businesses’ mobile strategies will grow in importance.
Last year’s Budget was full of optimism with the most significant tax changes in 25 years targeted to provide a platform for productivity and economic growth. A year and two Christchurch earthquakes later, with the Government’s accounts looking less rosy, the 2011 Budget sees the first tentative steps to tackling Government entitlements, says Deloitte CEO Murray Jack. But is it enough?
A recent survey of New Zealand senior executives by the Sustainable Future Institute has found that the uncertain quality of government decision making is the thing most likely to result in a disturbed night’s sleep for this country’s business decision makers.
In a country that prides itself on its reputation for a corruption-free business environment, why do so many New Zealand corporates appear cavalier about meeting the kinds of global measures of ethical and responsible governance performance that companies in other countries, such as Australia, more willingly embrace?
