Jeff Walters, partner at law firm Lowndes Associates took on the hot topic of Auckland housing in the latest opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald.

Highlighting the demand and struggle to enter the property market Mr Walters recommended a strategy to enable young families to purchase their first home.

The article struck a chord with the New Zealand Herald readers with the comments section providing an interesting cross-section of opinion.

Daniel Jarosch, one of the Australian-German entrepreneurs behind brandsExclusive spoke to Hamish Fletcher from the New Zealand Herald about the consumer relationship with both online retail and traditional ‘bricks-and-mortar’ stores.

Daniel explained that while there are many advantages to online retail, the walk-in shops still have the advantage in satisfying many consumer needs, such as instant gratification, trying things on and taking part in a complete retail experience.

brandsExclusive launched in New Zealand in October and already has more than 50,000 members.

AMS Group founder and MD, Kevin Wall sat down with NZ Herald’s Gill South to discuss matching the skil

ls gaps in youth for future employment in the transport sector.

Kevin provided Gill South with a unique insight into the requirements of the transport industry and the efforts of AMS Group to ensure people entering the workforce have the core skills required to succeed.  Kevin believes formalised driving education in schools will not only strengthen the New Zealand industry and economy, but will also benefit the community by making New Zealand’s roads safer.

AMS Group provides a full range of driver training and courses for both individuals and businesses. As part of this comprehensive training strategy, AMS Group also provides an in-school education programme entitled ‘youdrive’, providing students with safe and sensible driving knowledge and skills. youdrive, has as part of its NZQA-accredited programme that fits in with the NCEA curriculum, an interactive driving simulator and has launched successfully in several schools across New Zealand.

Read the full story at the New Zealand Herald here.

Botany Town Centre recently featured in a front page article in the New Zealand Herald, Business Herald section, which talks about the relationship between promotional sales and consumer spending.

According to research conducted by BRW and AMP Capital Shopping Centres (owner of Botany Town Centre) in Australia, retailers across the Tasman are facing an uncertain future as shoppers increasingly become immune to promotional sales and discounts offered by retailers. However, unlike their Australian counterparts, there is no sign of New Zealand shoppers getting ‘sales fatigue’. Barry Hellberg, the New Zealand Retailers Association spokesperson, says that despite the challenging retail environment in New Zealand, discounts and promotions are still an effective revenue-driving tool for retail companies.

Botany Town Centre Senior Marketing Manager Desiree Clark agrees that New Zealand retail is slightly more optimistic. “New Zealand hasn’t suffered from the massive discounting and sales culture of the United States and Australia.

“Unlike the Aussies, we have the Rugby World Cup 2011 to look forward to which will give our retail environment a much needed boost.”

Click here to read the full article.

South Canterbury Finance receivers William Black and Kerryn Downey of McGrathNicol have confirmed the $44million sale of their stake within Scales Corporation.

The receivers sold their 79.7 per cent shareholding in Scales Corporation to Direct Capital Investments – another New Zealand investment company.

The completion of this transaction comes just one week following the confirmation of the sale of Helicopters New Zealand to Canadian Helicopters for $154million. Receiver Kerryn Downey says that the sale of their Scales Corporation stake is a “very positive outcome for the company, its shareholders and us as receivers”.

Click here to read the full article on nzherald.co.nz

Campaign Overview

A new social change enterprise, Be. Institute, was launched at the Auckland War Memorial Museum on 6 May 2011.

Three innovative national campaigns were introduced on the evening: Be. Accessible, Be. Leadership and Be. Welcome. All three are highly significant for New Zealand. Be. Accessible is the country’s first nationwide accessibility programme, and Be. Leadership, New Zealand’s first national disability leadership programme. Be. Welcome is a unique location accessibility assessment programme.

Be. Institute aims to inspire and enable a 100% accessible society for all New Zealanders. The driving force behind the programmes is to improve the accessibility of the physical environment, enable better access to information, promote the inclusion and leadership of disabled people in employment and the community, and change social attitudes and behaviours.

Alexander Communications was briefed to assist with building the profile of Be. Institute and raising awareness of the three programmes and the recent Be. On The Road national tour.

In June, Be. Accessible launched a nationwide tour, Be. On The Road. The three-week roadshow visited the 12 Rugby World Cup host cities to introduce the Be. vision and accompanying programmes, and to discuss the current and future accessibility of each city.

Results

The Be. On The Road tour received a warm welcome from each host city and the Be. team met with passionate advocates who shared and supported the Be. vision.

The news of Be. On The Road caught the attention of local media, which were curious to learn more about the Be. Institute and supporting programmes. Reporters attended the presentations, and face-to-face interviews with Be. Accessible chief executive Minnie Baragwanath were secured.

The regional publications supported the campaign by including stories about Be. Accessible visiting their city to address local accessibility. Articles were featured in the Taranaki Daily News, Southland Express, Manawatu Guardian, Nelson Mail, Waikato Times, Northern Advocate and Manawatu Standard among others.

Local radio stations and television also showed excellent interest in the campaign and several interviews with Minnie Baragwanath were secured. The news of Be. On The Road and the accessible campervan featured on Dunedin’s 9 Local News, and interviews with Ms Baragwanath were broadcast on The Breeze Manawatu, Newstalk ZB New Plymouth, More FM Rotorua and Classic Hits Whangarei.

Most recently, Next Magazine featured Minnie Baragwanath as the Change Maker personality in its August 2011 issue. The full-page spread includes a Q&A session with Ms Baragwanath and references the Be. Institute and its founding origins. In positioning Ms Baragwanath as an industry leader, the article also discussed why a social change enterprise such as the Be. Institute is necessary for our community.

Earlier in the year Simon Collins from the New Zealand Herald sat down with Tony Howe of the Disability Resource Centre. They discussed Be. Accessible and the vision of the campaign for a story which featured in the New Zealand Herald metro section.

To find out more about the Be. Institute and the supporting programmes, visit www.beaccessible.org.nz

Ted Jordan, the chief executive of leading software company ActionStep, was interviewed by New Zealand Herald reporter Hamish Fletcher this week to discuss the phenomenon of ‘cloud computing’.

Jordan describes cloud computing as a technology that enables companies to source computer software and services from an off-site or even offshore provider. With cloud computing, companies no longer have to install a suite of software onto individual PC’s, instead users only need access to the internet where they can log into a web-based service which hosts all the programmes they require for their job. This means companies need only pay for the software their staff actually use – a major benefit for small business that are struggling to stay afloat.

Despite the success and popularity of cloud computing overseas, Jordan explains that many New Zealand businesses are unaware of the IT model and its benefits. Of the 250 small-to-medium businesses asked about cloud computing, 70 percent do not use or are unaware of “the cloud” services. Jordan says that the results are surprising considering the advantages that the cloud provides, “You’d think businesses would be looking for anything that could make their lives easier…they are missing out on straightforward ways to grow productivity and profitability, which are challenges for Kiwi companies at the best of times”.

Click here to read the full article and learn more about cloud computing.

A new enterprise was launched on Friday 6 May, along with two new campaigns.  Be. Institute presented two significant initiatives: New Zealand’s first nationwide accessibility programme, Be. Accessible, and the first nationwide disability leadership programme of its kind, Be. Leadership.

Simon Collins from the New Zealand Herald sat down with Tony Howe of the Disability Resource Centre to discuss Be. Accessible, and the vision of the campaign.

The driving force behind the Be. Accessible campaign is to inspire and enable a 100% accessible society. In a step towards achieving this goal, the campaign encourages sites likely to be visited during the Rugby World Cup 2011 to make any necessary changes that would make them more accessible to visitors who may be temporarily or permanently disabled.

As a result of the campaign, disabled people have been secured some of the best seats at Eden Park and the North Harbour Stadium. Public transport and ‘fan zones’ have also made changes to become ‘fully accessible environments’ so that those who are in need of additional support have the chance to contribute fully to society.

To date, about 60 Auckland sites likely to be visited by Rugby World Cup visitors have been audited by Be. Accessible.  Mr Howe is also training other assessors to audit facilities in the other 11 Rugby World Cup cities.

Click here to read the full article.

Morale-boosting author Stephen Lundin discusses his famous “Fish” philosophy in an interview with the Herald on Sunday’s Andre Hueber.

The Knowledge Gym proudly presents Stephen Lundin, co-author of the best-selling Fish!.  Lundin is in New Zealand this week to conduct a number of seminars and spread his fish philosophy to business managers all over the country.

Inspired by the lively and motivated work environment observed at the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, the Fish philosophy uses a set of simple and practical tools to create a more positive, energetic and happy work atmosphere for managers and their employees. Essentially, the Fish philosophy focuses on having a good time, “Freedom is the most motivating thing you can provide in the workplace”.   

Click here to read the full article or find out more about The Knowledge Gym

The clinical psychologist designing Auckland’s long-awaited residential eating disorders service for Challenge Trust wants it to have a kitchen located at the heart of the home.

Martin Johnston interviewed Clive Plucknett (pictured left), CEO of Challenge Trust and also Chris Thornton. He wrote about the new service in the Weekend Herald on August 21st.

Click this link to follow through to the story on www.nzherald.co.nz

Clive was also interviewed by Susan Pepperell from the Sunday Star-Times who wrote the article ”Auckland to Get Eating Disorders Unit” on the 15th August. You can read further on the Stuff website where the article is republished.