May 30, 2013

Are we paying lip-service to the diversity debate? Where are our women board members? We talk a lot about diversity but our boardrooms remain for the most part ‘unequal’, dominated by European males mostly 50 plus.

Reminder: nominations close in less than three weeks for this year’s Young Executive of the Year Award. The award gives senior business leaders an opportunity to put forward their most talented executives under 35.

Executive Update Edition 68

Gen-i and enterprise application software company SAP announced a partner agreement earlier this month for the delivery of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions to New Zealand businesses and Government. This is the first strategic mobile management partnership for SAP in the Asia Pacific Region.

A business trip to India, organised by ANZ Bank, has generated new business for several customers who took part.

ANZ took 13 New Zealand businesses, including meat, dairy, wine, fruit and juice exporters, on an eight-day trip to India last month – a key destination for New Zealand businesses looking to expand their export base.

Leading reputation management consultant Noke Kiroyan says it is “perfectly possible although not always easy” to run a business in Indonesia without resorting to corrupt behaviour.

He has issued a call to New Zealand companies to engage more fully with the fast-growing Indonesian economy – a market that Prime Minister John Key identifies, alongside China and India, as one of the “big three” economies vital for New Zealand’s future growth.

New research confirms the importance that NZ business leaders place on reputation, but reveals that many companies need to increase their investment in building and protecting it.

George Adams, the departing MD, of Coca-Cola Amatil, won the Leader of the Year award at this week’s NZ Workplace Health & Safety Awards 2013.

Last week’s World Class New Zealand Awards and the World Class Inspire forums organised by the Kea global network demonstrated the scale-up Kea has achieved over the past 12 months.

The calibre of high-powered Kiwi speakers and award-winners from around the globe was as high as ever but the international buzz around the Kea network that’s making its mark wherever high performing expats are located, is palpable.