EDITOR’S LETTER Something To Celebrate

Half century after the first issue of this magazine hit the desks of managers throughout the country, we’re celebrating not just 50 years of the magazine but also 60 years of the New Zealand Institute of Management – the organisation which has stood behind the magazine since its birth. In that time, much has changed and yet much remains the same. While the outward expression of management-speak may evolve with the passing years, the underlying premise remains the same: readers want to hear about effective managers and leaders.
Here’s betting they’ll still want to know about them in another 50 years’ time. We spent much of last year looking back on the past 50 years in series of articles by Ian F Grant who charted decade by decade the trends, thoughts and issues of the day. Now, to celebrate the month of our birth, we’re looking forward. But not by another 50 years. While we’re used to ambitious projects and won’t shy away from the odd punt on the future, we know another 50 years will bring so many variables as to make any predictions meaningless. As Carl Davidson, director of No Doubt Research, noted wryly when we interviewed him for this month’s cover story: “History makes fools of us all.”
The art of looking into the future lies in picking the small changes that together will add up to big swings. “If you look back,” says Davidson, “the world is different now in some major ways not because of massive revolution but because of bunch of incremental changes. That means we have to continue adapting to small changes in the future as they occur.” So, this issue we’re looking forward another 25 years – or one generation – when today’s children will be tomorrow’s fully fledged managers and leaders.
This month also sees the launch of the New Zealand part of major international survey of business value. Management magazine is partnering with leading brand and communication agency DNA Design to find out how New Zealand businesses view the strength of their intangible assets. As the news article “Surveying business value” states on page 12 of this issue, the survey probes how organisations use reputation, customer loyalty, brand and goodwill to differentiate themselves from their competitors, foster values-based cultures and maximise returns from customers.
The 2005 allaboutbranding.com Business Value Survey is open to senior decision-makers from organisations of all sizes at www.allaboutbranding.com/bizsurvey. Please give 10 minutes of your time to fill it in. You’ll be just 12 answers away from judging the strength of your intangible assets. We’ll report the results in our June issue.