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.

Youdrive chief executive, Kevin Wall spoke with Toni Street from TVOne’s Breakfast team about the Youdrive programme and what it’s offering young New Zealanders.

Youdrive is a secondary-school based, driver training programme that aims to improve road safety by developing higher order skills and knowledge in young drivers. With 15-24 year olds heavily over represented in New Zealand road accident statistics and a large number of secondary students leaving school without any form of drivers’ license, Kevin Wall saw an opportunity to work with schools to develop a programme that would deliver positive outcomes.

Edgewater College is the first school in New Zealand to offer Youdrive as part of their education curriculum. The programme is delivered on site at the school and is NZQA approved, which means students can achieve credits towards their NCEA level standard.

Click here to watch the full interview, or visit the Youdrive website to learn more about the programme.

ActionStep chief executive, Ted Jordan featured in the ‘Success’ section of The Business Herald where he talks about his computer software system and the growing interest from New Zealand and other international markets.

ActionStep is extending its software to Jack Stern Law, a US firm which specialises in representing Mexicans accused of illegally entering the US. Because public defense law is not well-paid, Stern was keen to cut costs by outsourcing the processing of legal paperwork. ActionStep’s software enabled them to do this by supplying them with a system that allows the law firm to conduct business 24/7 across the globe, via the internet.

Jordan describes his software product as a “complete business system that runs in the cloud and has all the software that you need for business”. It helps to save costs, removes the complexity of running multiple systems, and holds all the business’ data and information in one place. Through the use of the ActionStep software, Stern’s team can enter relevant information into its system, which can then be processed overnight by a team of paralegals in the Philippines.

Click here to read the full article and to find out more about ActionStep.

Minnie Baragwanath, the chief executive of Be. Institute, features in the September issue of MiNDFOOD magazine where she talks about a new initiative that is making New Zealand a more accessible place for those with a disability.

In a step towards highlighting disability issues and enabling a 100% accessible society, Minnie Baragwanath founded Be. Institute, a social change enterprise that is that is making a difference in the lives of disabled Kiwis throughout New Zealand.

Ms Baragwanath, who is legally blind herself, acknowledges that New Zealanders are by nature inclusive and socially aware, “we are seeking to build on this through specific practices in our program. Our view is that if we get our country working right for disabled people, we get it right for all people”.

Click here to read te full article in the MiNDFOOD September issue.

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

Be. Institute chief executive, Minnie Baragwanath, features in the latest issue of Next magazine as the ‘Change Maker’ of the month.

Ms Baragwanath sat down with Next magazine to discuss the development and goals of Be. Institute, a new social change enterprise that is making a difference in the lives of disabled Kiwis throughout New Zealand. Be. Institute is a national programme that aims to highlight accessibility issues within New Zealand and inspire and enable a 100% accessible society for all people.

The initiative started to develop after Ms Baragwanath was asked to manage the Rugby World Cup 2011 access programme for Auckland. As a major sporting event, Ms Baragwanath and her team identified the Rugby World Cup as key opportunity to create new conversation about accessibility and to leave an access legacy for the country.

Diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a condition that causes progressive vision loss, Ms Baragwanath who is legally blind, can personally relate to the challenges surrounding accessibility. “Being partially sighted has actually given me vision. It has affected the way I see the world, made me passionate about social change and led me to develop Be. Institute”.

Ms Baragwanath describes starting Be. Institute as a “dream come true”. She says becoming the chief executive of such an amazing organisation and working with an extraordinary is her proudest career moment to date.

Click here to read the full article.

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.

Tamlyn Stewart from Christchurch Press interviewed Ted Jordan about trends around Cloud adoption amongst SME’s.

The survey, commissioned by software firm ActionStep, found nearly half of the 250 businesses surveyed did not even know what cloud computing was.

Waikato Times reporter, Louise Risk, met with Minnie Baragwanath, chief executive of Be. Institute who was in Hamilton this week hosting a nationwide campaign Be. Accessible.

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

As part of the campaign, Be. Accessible recently embarked on a nationwide tour, Be. On The Road, with the ‘accessible’ campervan which visited 12 cities around New Zealand, including the 11 Rugby World Cup host cities. The Be. Accessible team held an informative seminar in each city to introduce the Be. vision and to identify what is and isn’t working access-wise, so that changes can eventually be implemented. 

Ms Baragwanath said the data that was gathered from the seminars is extremely important as being aware of existing issues is half the battle, “If we know the details we can work around them. Not knowing is the biggest problem”.

Click here to read the full article.