Nick Smith interviewed Tom Bowden for The Business Herald on the recent successes for Healthlink. The online link to the article below can be found here

Healthlink , led by Tom, has had significant success in recent years including a few milestones such as:

• Technology Swap (Denmark)
• Acknowledged by US Based Commonwealth fund as world leader
• Processes 65 million items of clinical info per year.
• NZ is Guinea pig for world leaders
• Steady growth in turnover
• Australia and Canada now following NZ’s lead
• Healthcare IT is NZ’s largest single software export category, now worth $100 million

Kerri Jackson was in the process of planning a milestone birthday for her and a group of friends when we approached her about Waiheke Island Resort.

She was immediately taken in by the pictures of the resort and its location on the island. Kerri decided that Waiheke Island Resort would be the perfect venue for her and her group to kick off the birthday celebrations.

The resort also offered a night of accommodation at an affiliated group’s holiday house, including transfers and first hand recommendations of the best gastro and scenic adventures Waiheke has to offer.

Kerri wrote an article about her experience following her weekend away at Waiheke, which featured in the January 30^th 2011 edition of Herald on Sunday Detours.

For more information, visit: www.waihekeresort.co.nz

Founder of corporate and commercial law firm Lowndes Associates, Mark Lowndes speaks with Niko Kloeten from The National Business Review about his appointment as chairman of Multilaw, one of the world’s largest legal networks. 

Mutlilaw has 6500 member laywers spread across 60 countries, with 71 member firms; Lowndes Associates has been a member for 10 years and is the only member firm in New Zealand.

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

The Life and Times of a Brown Paper Bag by Kevin Milne

Vanity is not a character defect that longtime consumer advocate and Fair Go presenter Kevin Milne could be accused of possessing. The title of his memoir, an engaging and entertaining jaunt through his broadcasting career, is inspired by a quote from a Listener review: “In an age of glossy packaging, Kevin Milne is a brown paper bag.”

This is no false modesty on the part of Milne, who has suffered enough slings and arrows in 40 years in television to have long since abandoned concern for critical opinion; as he notes, with the hint of a sigh, when TVNZ CEO Rick Ellis was asked how long he thought Fair Go would continue, the reply was, “As long as it rates.”

There might be a conspicuous lack of sentimentality from the top brass, but Milne’s affection for the show, and pride in what it has achieved during his 25 years as a reporter, is palpable. Chapters with stand-out stories of crooks being nailed and good folk getting their just deserts make for reading alternately mouth-dropping and heart-warming.

Though he registers his gratitude – and surprise – at the results of a poll that put him second on a list of most-trusted New Zealanders, Milne doesn’t assume that the goodwill he has amassed from a quarter-century of appearing in living rooms as a consumer crusader means that anyone wants to know what he has for breakfast.

Thus, the book is heavily weighted towards the professional, with only a few of the 26 chapters touching on the personal – his early life and education, his meeting and courtship of Linda, the Briton who would become his wife, and his family life with three sons and a daughter.

It is, however, the personal that is most engaging, reminding the reader that for all his renown and celebrity friends, Kevin Milne is just a good egg, with virtues and flaws common to many New Zealanders. The flaws, in his case, are a dicky heart (watching the news of Bill Clinton’s heart bypass in 2004 prompted Milne to see his doctor, precipitating the diagnosis of an aortic valve problem) and a pituitary gland tumour for which he underwent brain surgery in 2009.

That made for a good story. Upon receiving the Best Presenter prize at the 2009 Qantas Awards, a category in which he had twice been a losing finalist, Milne took the stage and said of his fellow finalists, sports presenter Andrew Saville and then-Breakfast host Paul Henry: “Sav will be taking this like a man. Paul will be muttering to the person next to him, ‘This is the first time a tumour has ever won a Qantas Award.’”

It is not all light-hearted. Milne movingly describes the effect of the sudden death of his much-admired older brother at the age of 23, and reflects with evident sorrow on the premature deaths of several of his friends in the media world.

But through it all, he maintains a genuine wonder at his own good fortune and the company he has found himself in: describing a dinner with Richard Long and Judy Bailey, he says sitting across the table from them was like watching the 6pm news in 3D, and his rather graphic account of a later incident at Long’s home conveys, again, that lack of vanity. On the page as on-screen, Kevin Milne knows how to spin a yarn.

 3.5 / 5 stars: The engaging memoir of a beloved broadcaster.  Click here to view more Easy Mix Book Reviews.

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.

Business execution specialists Results.com were in the SME spotlight on 24 June, when CEO Rod Hill appeared on TVNZ’s NZI Business to discuss how the company helps businesses grow in New Zealand and overseas.

Rod spoke with Corin Dann about their success in working with business owners who are ambitious enough to seek outside help to scale their business. Something he says has happend more often since the recession. He says businesses often struggle to balance the different conflicting goals internally and a qualified team that can independently help them define a clear plan and an executable strategy for implementation has been a recipe for success for many of their clients.

Founded in New Zealand, Results.com has set up offices in Calgary and is now expanding into Los Angeles with a growing portfolio of international clients.The worldwide expansion of Results.com was a strategic goal of the founding directors, who bought the url last year in anticipation of the establishment of a global brand.

Its operation as part of a global network has assisted business growth in New Zealand by providing ready access to world class research, case studies and top shelf business speakers such as Tom Peters, Jim Collins and Jack Daly.

Results.com also hosted Jack Daly, sponsored by Telecom for his Winning Sales Strategies full day seminar on 30 July 2010.The event attracted over 430 business leaders and recieved exceptional reviews.  View images from the seminar here.

The event was held at the Ellerslie Racecourse Event Centre in Auckland ran from 8am to 5pm, with a morning session from 8am to 12:30pm on winning sales strategies, and an afternoon workshop from 1:30pm to 5pm on sales management. Auckland Mayor John Banks delivered a keynote speech to open the afternoon session.

Click here to view the full interview of Rod Hill, CEO of Results.com

Here are a few photo’s to give you a feel for the event:

Rod Hill was also interviewed by Michael Wilson for TV3 News . Click here to see what he had to say:

“While small and medium enterprises – SMEs – are experiencing some positive flow on from the economic recovery, cashflow is still a major problem. Business advisor Rod Hill of Results.com says some tax incentives might be needed to get more investment into SMEs.

Stephen Lynch, chief operating officer of NZ business consultancy firm Results.com, has spent the past 15 months setting up the Calgary office and is now in LA setting up the firm’s first US office.

His overseas experience has been captured in the article Expanding your horizons – work overseas by Gill South in Heraldjobs, NZH.

Stephen shares his insights to working and expanding a business overseas.  A young company, it is a far cry from taking a secondment with your well established international business, he says.  “We are boot-strapping our way on to America, paid for by clients we have picked up along the way.”

The business’s focus is on helping companies execute their business strategy, which it has been very successful with in the NZ market.  “What we learned is that what we have done in New Zealand can work in a global context, and you need to think bigger, on a much grander scale,” he says.

Now in LA, chosen for its proximity to New Zealand, he has already tapped into various relevant business networks. Results.com is already working with clients in Texas in a virtual way. “We find the US market highly receptive. We are already working with firms throughout the US.”

Click here to read the full article about Expanding your horizons.

Mark Lowndes of Lowndes Associates speaks with Corin Dann on NZI Business

A commercial lawyer says clients have become more discerning as the impact of the global financial crisis hits the sector and the growth of social media frees up information.

Mark Lowndes from Lowndes Associates represented New Zealand at the recent Multilaw conference in South America and says while the feeling in New Zealand is that we are emerging from the crisis, American and English lawyers still felt like they were well in the middle of the recession.

Lowndes told NZI Business that commercial law firms in most countries have had a drop off in revenue and have had to trim costs and look at their business model.

In boom years people get a bit careless with costs, Lowndes says and he believes more flexibility is needed with the way legal services are delivered.

Lowndes says while the traditional hourly rate charging model is convenient and easy to understand, it doesn’t necessarily align itself to value. As clients become more demanding, Lowndes says lawyers need to stay close to them and really understand what they are looking for.

Younger managers and lawyers have different expectations around work-life balance and the formality of the way service is delivered, says Lowndes.

And he says clients tend to turn up well informed. Lowndes says lawyers need to be collaborating with them as business people, not just information providers. He says clients aren’t  prepared to pay large fees for routine transactions.

“The days of doing standard transactions and delivering standard information and making a good living out of that are gone.”

The difference between a master craftsperson – a true artist – and someone who has done a ‘paint by numbers’ job is often easily discernable to observers. But where do you start in demonstrating your expertise? Like all professionals you have a day job – KPIs to meet, a company to run, clients to engage, a board or investors to answer to. You want to take the next step in your business model and have a hunch that getting some publicity might be one of the necessary steps.

I am often asked what the best way is to attract ‘good’ media attention (getting attention for the wrong reasons is easy).  There are some basic things that, with planning, will ensure you optimize opportunities when they come your way.

Here is where the disparity between a master craftsperson (who relies on contacts, relationships, and expert knowledge of your market and the media agenda) and a paint-by-numbers PR practitioner can become most evident. The latter approach is unlikely to be sustainable – it’s a far better idea to work on the basics so when the time comes and cashflows can sustain it, you are in a position to partner with a professional PR firm that can help you engage with your markets in a meaningful and perpetual way.

After all, luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet. It’s also true that while gaining positive publicity is essentially about trust, relationships and content, there are some basic paint by numbers initiatives that can get you closer to your PR goals. Being an expert in your area helps too.

While there are many other factors that affect whether you are quoted or not (eg the news agenda of the day, the availability of journalists, what the competition is saying) here is a list of building blocks that will help get your name or company closer to featuring in the media as an industry or key opinion leader:

1.  Have an opinion – be willing to comment clearly and pithily on industry issues and how they relate to the national / local news agenda

2. Have a quality, creative photo (not a passport- type photo) that demonstrates your personality / what you do

3. Have an elevator pitch for your company and know how to adapt it according to the situation

4. Have a good, relevant (short-form) bio

5. Be open to using business milestones to illustrate economic shifts and trends – for example:

• You are investing in a new strategy / building / refurbishing / market
• You are moving factories / warehouse / plants / stores
• You are acquiring or being acquired by a company
• You have an overseas visitor / international CEO / manager / guest speaker that has relevant ideas for New Zealand
• You have done research on your markets
• You have a new product or service that has relevance to business or consumer markets
• You have invested in a community initiative – are ‘paying it forward’ in some way – or are attracting your community through a creative idea

6. Once you have a few ‘runs on the board’ and are getting quoted regularly and have developed trust:

• Create an In The Media section on your website – this will help you build momentum and share your media milestones with customers and prospects
• Share your media links, such as interviews and opinion pieces, in your e-mail signature, newsletters, and with staff – these create talking points for people within your company. When teams are talking with customers, that’s a good thing.
• Send your loyal clients and prospects a copy of the latest NBR, Unlimited or New Zealand Herald in which you or a company executive has been quoted. It’s a conversation starter.

7. Write a regular blog – this creates another opportunity to share your thoughts/ opinions/ ideas with your immediate community of staff, partners, stores, sales teams, regional teams etc. If they are written in a relevant way they can also be syndicated to mainstream media and used to ‘bait one-to-one coffees with journalists.

8. Learn how to tell stories. Nothing much has changed since sitting around the campfire thousands of years ago. Journalists know their readers like anecdotes and real stories that capture their imagination.

9. Get to know the journalists and bloggers in your area of specialization. Read what they write and be ready to engage them on relevant story ideas.

10. Ask for recommendations of your work on LinkedIn and on your own website – these  add credibility when journalists are investigating your background.

11. Don’t send a “media release” to multiples of outlets expecting journalists to pick it up. They receive hundreds, sometimes thousands a day.

12. Be  mindful of the deadlines and leadtimes of the various media as well as what editorial features they have planned. Bugging a journalist at the wrong time won’t do it.

13. Write a book – it’s not only a giant business card , but another good excuse for a conversation.

Campaign Overview

Auckland-based commercial cleaning company Clean Planet redefined the meaning of green-washing when it launched as New Zealand’s first truly environmentally-friendly cleaning company in 2008.

It grew exponentially in its first 18 months of operation, from an initial three franchisees to more than 25 throughout Auckland by the end of 2009.

In this formative stage, in addition to winning contracts with clients such as Fletcher Steel, Bear Park Childcare Centres and healthcare provider Labtests, the innovative start-up also began manufacturing its own range of eco-friendly cleaning products. The products are specially formulated to meet Clean Planet’s high standards of environmental integrity, and are independently certified by Environmental Choice.

“There’s huge demand for truly environmentally friendly services, not just tokenism, and companies are paying attention to what’s going down their sink for both the health of their staff and the health of our environment,” said Clean Planet co-director Mark Houghton Brown.

AC’s main brief was to build the brand’s profile within the business community, particularly among SMEs, and to articulate the cold hard truth about what chemicals people are exposed to in the office and the impact that has on their health and that of the environment.

Results

A story titled ‘Green cleaner trades on environmental health’ featured in the NBR’s Executive Health section in December. The reporter interviewed Mark Houghton Brown and highlighted some of the health implications for office workers, such as asthma and other respiratory ailments, commenting on the alternative service provided by Clean Planet for businesses looking for a more sustainable option.

The SME-focused publication Business to Business ran a story titled ‘Green cleaning business walks the talk’, featuring Clean Planet as the lead story in their online email newsletter and on their website in November.

Clean Planet co-director Chris Morrison was interviewed for the Unlimited Lives series.   In addition, the story was picked up in trade publications NZ Retail and NZ Franchise magazine and online on scoop.co.nz, voxy.co.nz and infonews.co.nz