The Daily News

For more than three decades, Ian Walsh, Managing Director of Intent Group, has been driving improvements in organisations around the globe. Ian understands deeply what is required to deliver and sustain improvement. Here he shares his thoughts on what New Zealanders can do to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. As I write this, we are in the run up to the election for 2020, with politicians offering promises and plans for how they will implement policy that will enable New Zealand to go in the right direction. This includes investment in housing, infrastructure, tax cuts and so on. I have heard almost no dialogue on how we are going to afford all of this and repay the huge cost Covid-19 has wrought on the country. The answer seems to be that we will stimulate the economy with these offerings and the implication is that this will fix it. I believe that some of these will help but ultimately, we have to address our poor productivity. I am concerned that we are still applying band aids to a sick patient and we are not getting to the root cause of the problem. As Einstein said, ‘We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.’ So, as New Zealanders, we must take collective responsibility for where we are – the bottom end of the OECD in terms of economic performance, and therefore our future and potential quality of life. However, the board of New Zealand is the Government, and over the last 30-40 years they are ultimately accountable for NZ sliding down the OECD. I have heard nothing that would suggest that there is an integrated plan to address our productivity gaps. Meanwhile we add more compliance costs and wage hikes onto businesses to […]

Business needs seven key things from the next Government, according to BusinessNZ’s election manifesto. A Business View for the 2020 Election outlines businesses’ medium-term needs and desires, based on a survey- of over a thousand businesses across New Zealand. The manifesto shows businesses are focused on succeeding in the economic conditions arising from Covid and on building a strong new economy: 1. Focus on the economy: businesses say economic well-being should be NZ’s priority right now. 2. Plan for reopening the border: they want to see the border opened safely as soon as possible. 3. Build infrastructure: most want to see the next Government spending on significant infrastructure to boost economic recovery. 4. Manage resources better: businesses want better systems for the allocation, care, and development of natural resources to allow for growth. 5. Cut regulation: Government needs to reduce unnecessary regulation on small businesses. 6. Build skills: businesses are seeking highly developed skills and want to see more apprenticeships and technical training for tomorrow’s workforce. 7. Stay ambitious for sustainability: businesses know customers want appropriate environmental standards and view them as necessary to future-proof business. Chief Executive Kirk Hope said the manifesto gives a snapshot of how business is reacting to the current uncertain environment and where they want the focus of the new Government to be. “Clearly, businesses are concerned to see rapid economic recovery from the Covid situation. “They want the Government that takes power next month to have a strong focus on economic growth and wellbeing, and to regulate in a way that lets business help deliver it.” The BusinessNZ election manifesto is here on www.businessnz.org.nz -The Deloitte and Chapman Tripp BusinessNZ Election Survey canvassed the opinions of 1,193 businesses of all sizes in all parts of New Zealand during June 2020.

By Ian Walsh, Managing Director, Intent Group What do we mean by world class? Over the last few years, I have facilitated business sessions on productivity with business leaders, based on this fundamental question. What I have found interesting is the majority of them don’t know what world class is. They believe it is something to aspire to, that is probably unachievable, but they can’t actually define what it is. Of course, it is different if you ask them what isn’t world class, or to describe the last world class experience they had. If you were to ask them to list examples of companies they would consider to be world class, I’m certain that a range of great restaurants, Air New Zealand, Apple and others, would populate these lists. World class is not about perfection, but rather beating or outperforming your competition in the important things that your customers care about and are willing to pay for. Why do people buy Toyotas? They are reliable (quality) and people pay more for them because of this. Toyota has figured out how to make cars cheaper and more reliable than anyone else by focusing on delivering this value. For perspective, Toyota identifies over one million improvements per year, or over six per employee, and over 90% of those improvements are implemented. How do you compare? Unfortunately, over the last 10 years, when posed the question whether they have asked their own customers why they choose them or what they value, 90% of SME’s responded that they did not know! Almost none of them have segmented their customers to figure out what the different customer segments value. As a result, they have misaligned systems and processes and are failing to deliver value as efficiently and productively as possible. Consider the value proposition of […]