RWC Blog

I thought I’d share with you what a recent reader of my first book thought about this book – the below feedback arrived with me today. I didn’t impose the book upon her to read – rather it was something that she wanted to do. All I do in life now is make “suggestions” as to what I think a commendable/ worthwhile line of thought/ course of action is, and let others make their own minds up as to what…

Within the LinkedIn community currently there is a steady flow of thoughtful dialogue taking place on the topic of how the SME community could conceivably take greater responsibility for its own destiny. One point of this discussion – that being the question of would it be beneficial for any form of “Small Business Institution” to be integrated into the tertiary education provider framework – has prompted me to write this article. I graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor Degree…

Increasingly, those countries that are focused on building “intellectual capital” through the brainpower of their people are going to be the most prosperous in the world. There will still be a place for natural resource rich countries such as New Zealand – largely due to the ongoing need for people to eat, but increasingly such resources will represent a diminishing comparative advantage in the global economy. And this is why I continue to beat my drum that the New Zealand…

Having managed large companies (national entities) over the years I can confidently say that “the” single most difficult challenge where the setting and implementation of strategic direction is concerned is to get all internal stakeholders singing from the same song sheet. As many may know, the less inclined stakeholders are to not only sing from the same song sheet, but sing in the same tune/ key also, the less commercial effect/ penetration (brand presence/awareness and market share) the brand is…

This article communicates my considered opinion as to how expansion of the Napier Port could be achieved without close to 50 % of equity ownership potentially being transferred away from Hawke’s Bay stakeholders (Ref: the HB Regional Council Initial Public Offering – IPO). I read with much interest – and was impressed by – the four well-contemplated and articulated mature views of respectively: Mark Peterson (Chief Executive for the NZX, Alan Pollard (Chief Executive of NZ apple & Pears), Anna…

This file consists of a set of wisdom that I largely live my life by now. It may help others in their lives…    

It is easy, in the busy lives that we all lead, to overlook – or not pay attention to – the impact that we have on those people who we interact with. A big part of emotional intelligence is self-awareness and the ability to gauge the impact/ impression that we have on other people when/ while we’re interacting with them. As I teach Eastern Institute of Technology commerce students, how we say what we say is just as important as…

In the classroom at the Eastern Institute of Technology teaching commerce I divide the available lecture time into: a) Me imparting understanding to students in relation to key terms/ principles/ practices; reinforced with the use of “real world” case studies – many relating to my own commercial experiences. b) Set exercises/ challenges performed by students working in small groups – culminating in a representative from each group presenting their group’s determinations to the wider class. This practice develops the skill…

As most business people will/ should know; the most important “post implementation” phase of any given marketing activity is to monitor and measure the response from the market. However, what many business people do is only focus on measuring market responses in relation to the specific products that featured in the given marketing campaign.  Here’s a bricks and mortar sales conversion and sales performance monitoring/ measurement approach that is used by some of the best in business – in fact…

I read with some amusement some of the debates that take place via LinkedIn which concentrate on best ways of knowing that you’re appointing the right person for a role. I’m not sure who the bright spark was who invented psychoanalysis, but they sure influenced a flourishing recruitment industry as a consequence. This post/ blog is an earnest attempt on my part to try and inject a serious dose of realism into the practice of recruiting people; for I can…