Workshop 1: Cleantech – Seizing the Opportunities 7.30am - 9.30am, Tuesday 20 July 2010, Stamford Plaza, Auckland
The clean technology (cleantech) global movement offers great opportunities for New Zealand, and for NZ businesses of all sizes. This workshop is a call to action. The world is moving to a low carbon economy, with some countries already having a big focus on cleantech. Business people must understand the opportunities and implications, or be left behind:
What are key forms of clean technology?
What are the branding, revenue, cost saving and other benefits to all businesses from embracing cleantech?
What is Phillip Mills' big hairy audacious cleantech goal to transform the economy?
What are the wide ranging New Zealand and overseas cleantech projects that show that cleantech is already the way of the future?
What are the clean technology offerings that global markets and investors are hungry for?
All businesses use energy. This workshop is of direct relevance to every shareholder, manager, director and investor.
Phillip Mills
Les Mills
International
Chris Mulcare
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
James Muir
Sinclair Knight Merz
Phillip heads the 100% Plan, a group of business leaders with a common belief that New Zealand must view the world’s inexorable move to a low-carbon economy as an economic opportunity. He is one of seven business leaders identified by Unlimitedmagazine as change agents with a goal to transform the New Zealand economy.
Phillip Mills revolutionized the fitness industry in the 1980s and Les Mills International is the world’s leading provider of group fitness programs and is sought after worldwide for his expertise in Group Fitness Management. Every week, millions of people participate in its eight choreographed programs in more than 13,000 clubs in over 70 countries around the world.
As Investment manager & Clean Technology at Investment NZ, a division of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Chris’ role is to introduce offshore investors and strategic partners to New Zealand companies that are developing clean technologies or projects, to attract greenfield cleantech ventures to New Zealand, to find opportunities to develop and deploy clean technology and to promote an economic vision for New Zealand based on sustainable, high value, low carbon exports.
Chris has over 20 years experience in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Middle East in engineering, project management, commercial/ marketing roles and technology commercialisation.
Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) is a leading engineering, sciences and project delivery firm with 42 major offices worldwide and with experience in numerous clean technology projects in New Zealand and overseas.
James Muir is the Clean Energy Finance Manager in SKM’s Strategic Consulting Group in Auckland. His role is to assist leading organisations to evaluate, develop and implement low carbon, clean energy solutions. James has experience in establishing the architecture for the geothermal power sector, has particular strengths in working at the interface between financiers, governments and developers and has worked with commercial and quasi commercial lenders and development organisations.
It’s the risk takers, goal-setters and dreamers who drive growth and innovation in our economy. Some have overcome the start-up hurdles and built international businesses. Many fail. What are the key challenges all growing businesses face and how can they be successfully overcome? Three of New Zealand’s most seasoned entrepreneurs talk about building a business from idea to success, and what comes next. What went well, and not so well.
Concept - the key initial questions: Will it work? Does the market want it? Will customers buy it?
People - how to find, motivate, reward and keep the people you need. Finding the right mix of skills.
Funding - once the seed capital has been spent, where you find the development capital and funding for the longer term?
Development - getting to market without running out of money in the process.
Growth - when to bring in new talent and experience. Must the founding group stay in control?
Governance - getting the right balance of skills and experience on the board. Key issues for the directors and senior management.
Exit Strategy - developing and executing a successful sale/divestment process.
Colin Harvey
Founder -
Ancare
New Zealand
Chair - Ancare Scientific
NextWindow’s journey is from a start-up in 2001 to a major player in the global touch screen industry, with customers like HP, Dell, Sony, Samsung and NEC. The company is privately funded. As CEO since 2002 Al Monro has been responsible for creating the strategy for the company and building the team for its success.
Prior to that Al was part of the IBM New Zealand executive team, including roles as Auckland Regional Manager and National Sales Manager. He graduated LL.B from Canterbury University and has worked in private equity.
NextWindow is a designer and manufacturer of optical touch screens for integration into all-in-one computers, computer displays, and large format screens. With offices in New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Korea and the U.S., the company’s scope includes high-volume, cost-effective manufacturing for PCs as well as solutions for digital signage, and interactive education.
It has been said of Selwyn Pellett that he has redefined the term 'serial entrepreneur' for New Zealanders. Since 2001 Selwyn has founded and co-founded 3 technology start-ups, 4 other businesses while investing in three others. As the CEO of Endace he focused on network security solutions and was instrumental in the company becoming the first New Zealand company to list on the UK's AIM stock market in June 2005. Today Endace has operating entities in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, America and England and enjoys revenues of over 50 million dollars.
In July 2007 with a market capitalization over $180 million Selwyn stood down as CEO of Endace to focus on acquisitions and the commercialization of Imarda's 3rd generation fleet management solution.
Selwyn is passionate about New Zealand and helping develop a high-wage, high-growth, elaborately transformed and sustainable economy.
Colin started Ancare in 1985 with a mortgage on his house and $15,000 in holiday pay. Since start-up, Ancare has gained an international reputation for innovative animal health products, particularly for the sheep and cattle parasiticide market, and significant market share across several animal health categories. By the time Ancare merged with the multinational Merial in 2008 it had an annual turnover of $45m. Recently, Ancare opened a multi-million dollar research and production complex in East Tamaki.
With the sale of the Ancare business, Colin started Ancare Scientific, an R&D company to develop animal health products for Merial internationally. The company employs of twenty researchers in New Zealand and uses contractors around the world. During 2010 Colin has chaired a New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Task force reviewing Primary Industry Strategy and outlining a whole of government strategy for Food and Fibre Industries.
Workshop 3:
Leadership and Top Performance in the New Environment 7.30am - 9.30am, Wednesday 29 September 2010, Stamford Plaza, Auckland
The recession may be over, but it’s left its impact on how we go about building and leading a great team. Many aspects of the economy and business environment are different post-GFC.
Hear from three outstanding chief executives: How to build and lead a high performance team in the new environment. How to engage and train talent. The role of values and how they have changed.
Team Building - selecting, training and motivating talent whilst addressing different generations, backgrounds, attitudes and aspirations.
Culture - how it is developed, who contributes to that development, how does it become a shared culture, can the culture change if business conditions change?
Performance - setting and communicating standards and expectations; monitoring performance, the pitfalls in a high performance culture.
Employees - remuneration and incentives, retaining key staff, responding to employee aspirations for recognition, development, working for an ethical organisation, life friendly workplaces; sharing a passion for the business.
Goals - should more account be taken of external factors and stakeholder expectations such as ethical investment, green and sustainability issues, community needs?
Roger Bell
Vero Insurance
New Zealand
Brian Blake
DB Breweries
Mike Pollok
Ricoh New Zealand
Vero Chief Executive Roger Bell is responsible for the strategy and operational delivery of general insurance operations in New Zealand including the strong Vero intermediary business and a number of successful niche specialists. Roger has held many roles, both in Australia and New Zealand, during his 37 year tenure with the Royal & SunAlliance Group. After representing New Zealand on the Promina Executive Board, Roger was appointed to the Suncorp Group Executive following the banking and insurance group's acquisition of the Promina Group in 2007. He now represents New Zealand on the equivalent Senior Executive Committee for Suncorp Board.
Under Roger’s leadership Vero New Zealand was awarded the coveted Gold - World Class award from the NZ Business Excellence Foundation using the internationally respected Baldridge Criteria. Roger is Chairman of the Board of the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation. He is Past President and also sits on the Board of the Insurance Council of NZ and is a Board Member of the NZ Business Roundtable. He was the inaugural winner of the Insurance Professional of the Year award in the General Insurance Awards in 2009. He is a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance. He has a strong passion for politics and cooking, the latter of which he has made time to master in recent years.
Brian Blake has been the Chief Executive of DB Breweries since 1993, the last 12 years as Managing Director. Under his leadership DB has seen a significant turnaround through excellent brand marketing (Heineken and Tui in particular) and organisational culture change, with significant EBIT growth and profitable market share gains.
A BCA graduate from Victoria University of Wellington, Brian is a qualified accountant, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has attended the Strategic Marketing course at Harvard Business School.
Brian is Chairman of Excelerator - New Zealand Leadership Institute at the University of Auckland Business School. Excelerator is a charitable trust established by the University of Auckland’s Business School in partnership with organisations committed to building leadership in all walks of New Zealand life. In addition to its Leadership Development programmes, Excelerator has a strong focus on leadership research.
Brian is also Chairman of the Brewers’ Association of Australia and New Zealand which includes all major breweries. Brian’s interests include all sports and current affairs. He played senior rugby in Wellington and coached at Under 21 and Colts levels.
In his 15 years as managing director of Ricoh New Zealand, Mike has steered the company from sales of stand-alone black and white printing devices, into the full colour, fully connected world of today’s technology industry. Ricoh is now a global leader in document solutions for business.
Mike is a firm believer that long term business sustainability requires looking after profit, people and our environment. These principles have seen Ricoh New Zealand continue to grow and remain profitable, even through the recent economic turmoil.
Businesses have increased their focus on improving efficiency and, thanks to Mike’s leadership; Ricoh has played a key part in enabling companies to achieve their goals in this area.
Mike advises managers to empower their people, giving them opportunities to challenge the way things are done, and to recognise and reward them accordingly for innovation and when they achieve efficiencies that benefit the organisation and its customers.
Outside of Ricoh, Mike is a trustee of START (Stuttering Treatment and Research Trust) and is a keen cyclist, having ridden the length of the South Island in February 2010 in the “Ride for Heart” raising money for heart research.
Post-Workshop Interviews:
Ben Young author, prominent business blogger and co-founder of Young & Shand interviews our speakers on video and shares some of their answers on leadership.
Workshop 4:
The Big Debate: A United States of ANZAC - Would a Trans-Tasman Union be Good for NZ Business? 7.30am - 9.30am, Wednesday 3 November 2010, Stamford Plaza, Auckland
Is it time to join forces with Australia? Many think so, many oppose the idea vehemently. What is the best answer for NZ business?
As the Australian and New Zealand governments work to decrease the barriers between the two nations, Kiwi support for a Trans-Tasman merger is rising:
Will a Trans-Tasman economic union boost the NZ economy?
Will being part of a bigger market create more jobs and give better access to opportunities for careers and education?
Will there be a level playing field for Kiwi businesses in Australia?
Should NZ business push for economic integration only or full political union?
Would a union grow the two countries’ influence and leadership?
Would there be a price to pay for NZ business in the loss of sovereignty and national independence?
What are the challenges for NZ businesses to exploit the opportunity a union may offer?
What are the downsides for New Zealand business?
Will our “clean green” image survive a close association with the minerals exporting Australian model?
Will we see an exodus of Kiwi talent over the Tasman?
Will there be an acceleration of offshore ownership of New Zealand businesses and assets?
Hear four outstanding speakers debate this important topic, two arguing for a union, and two arguing against:
Rod McGeoch
Co-Chair, Australia & New Zealand
Leadership Council
Rod McGeoch enjoys a remarkable career as a leader in business, sports administration and the law. Perhaps best known as the leader of Sydney’s successful Olympics 2000 bid, Rod is also chairman or director of a wide range of major corporations and has been chairman emeritus of one of Australia’s largest law firms. He is a former chairman of the Committee for Sydney.
A recent ABN AMRO report described Rod as being Australia’s most influential director. He is closely involved in Trans-Tasman issues as chairman of SKYCITY Entertainment Group Limited and of Saatchi & Saatchi’s Trans-Tasman Advisory Board and as Co-Chairman of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum. From 2001 to 2010 he was a director of Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited.
Andrew Main
Business Editor, The Australian
Apart from a brief but exciting interlude as an institutional stockbroker in Sydney, Paris and London between 1987 and 1992, Andrew has been a financial reporter since 1979. He spent about 14 years with the Australian Financial Review having previously been at the Sydney Morning Herald. While with the AFR Andrew reported on the HIH Royal Commission and later published a book Other People’s Money - The complete story of the extraordinary collapse of HIH.
Andrew has an indepth knowledge of corporate governance issues, the ASX and equity markets, mining, resources and energy sectors. He is much in demand as a speaker and moderator with business audiences and has a regular radio spot on ABC 702 in Sydney in which he tries to unravel the mysteries of business.
Rod Oram
International Business Writer,
former editor of Business Herald
Rod Oram has more than 30 years’ experience as an international business journalist including with the Financial Times in London and New York and as Editor of Business Herald in Auckland. He is currently a columnist for the Sunday Star-Times and Good magazine, a regular broadcaster on radio and television, and a frequent public speaker on business and economic issues.
In 2007, Penguin published Rod’s book on the New Zealand economy, Reinventing Paradise. He was winner of Landcorp’s Agricultural Communicator of the Year award in 2009; and this year he was the individual winner in the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards and columnist of the year in the Magazine Publishers Awards. Rod is an adjunct professor in the business faculty at Unitec in Auckland.
Mark Weldon
Chief Executive, NZX
Mark has been chief executive of NZX since June 2002. In that time he has led NZX through its transformation from a mutual to a listed company, changed the exchange’s overall approach both domestically and internationally, and brought home the relevance of capital markets to New Zealand.
With a Juris Doctorate degree and a Diploma in International Law from Columbia University, New York, Mark also has a Master’s degree (1st class honours) in Economics, and Commerce and Arts degrees from the University of Auckland. His overseas experience has included working with the New York law firm of Skadden, Arps and at McKinsey & Company, advising a number of Fortune 500 corporations. An Olympic swimmer, Mark represented New Zealand at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
