We’ve all become very sceptical about politicians espousing ambitious goals for the nation and then doing very little to make them happen, while spending huge resources on 2nd and 3rd order problems. Too often, public policy programmes look like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.  Many businesses suffer from this too. Setting big goals requires commitment to substantive action, not tinkering at the edges.  However, that doesn’t make the ambitious goal any less worthy.  So, if you’re an New Zealander, I commend to you an initiative from one of the country’s most noteworthy business leaders, Lloyd Morrison, together with the NZ Stock Exchange.

A Measurable Goal for New Zealand - How will you make a difference?

New Zealand lacks a common purpose. No one knows exactly what we want. We hanker for a return to the times when we were one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We want everyone to be better off, knowing that individual wealth does not result in freedom from crime and the social fallout of excessive disparity. However, there is no clearly articulated goal we are pursuing and no solid plan of how we can get there.

As a result, there is no definition or accountability for policies or policy-makers. Policies are often clothed with loose positive objectives and ultimately ineffective aims. There is no co-ordinated accountability for these policies (or politicians) in terms of their ability to contribute towards a common measurable outcome. Consequently, we continue our steady decline. As the attached analysis shows, current forecasts have our GDP per capita slipping below Kazakhstan and Botswana by 2025.

I’ve been discussing this with colleagues and friends, and we believe that NZ needs to embrace a common objective that will provide the means to deliver what we are seeking as a nation.

Whatever the objective chosen, it needs to be simple, clear, measurable, understandable, aspirational and, most importantly, catalytic in terms of driving positive change that makes the outcome achievable.

We’d like to stimulate a broader discussion over what that goal should be for NZ. To kick-off the debate, here’s our starter for ten: NZ should aim to be back in the top 10 countries in the world based on GDP per capita by 2025. Not just the OECD, the world. Unachievable? No way. Ireland, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan all achieved the required level of growth over the last twenty years. It will take real collective commitment and more creative thinking about our economy – but that’s exactly what an ambitious goal will generate.

I’m hoping you’ll participate in a broader discussion about an aspirational, measurable goal for New Zealand. Please read the document here (pdf). Pass it on to your friends. Participate in the debate by emailing measurablegoal@hrlmorrison.com or contributing to the forum on the NZX blog.

If you agree with what we’re proposing, show your support. If you don’t, please share your ideas for a national goal. Together, let’s take the first step in defining and delivering a better future for New Zealand.

I was at a business function last night.  By coincidence, we talked about ambitious goals and how to make them happen, while also achieving other objectives such as a great workplace culture, green business, community support, etc..  The overwhelming opinion - go for the big goal.  The 2nd order goals are design features which can influence how you achieve your primary goal. But first and foremost, you focus on how to achieve that primary goal. Success there makes all else affordable.

So, how will you make a difference?

I’ve always looked at EBITDA with a sceptical eye.  EBITDA (or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) is assumed (usually wrongly) to be equivalent to free operating cashflow in a business, and I’ve seen lots of valuations wrongly based on EBITDA multiples.

Most businesses need reinvestment and renewal of their capital equipment and products (if R&D is capitalised) to maintain earnings and remain viable. Free cashflow is what’s generated after that necessary re-investment.  That’s what should be the basis of valuations, not EBITDA. But EBITDA is an easily calculable number, so it’s used as a quick proxy. That proxy has become standard practice, resulting in over-valuations.

Given my prejudice against EBITDA, I like the innovative financial measures used in the latest newsletter from Unlisted, an over-the-counter share trading facility in New Zealand:

• EBITDAFT: earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and financial tinkering, followed inevitably by
• EBITDAFTER: earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and financial tinkering, with extra regulation.

Read the whole thing on page 2 of the newsletter (short pdf).  You might need to get through their website disclaimer page first.

Thinking about moving somewhere else for low taxes?  An expat tax lawyer based in Hong Kong, aka. the blogger Cactus Kate, has written, in her own inimitable style, a quick run-down on the pros and cons of the main candidate destinations, and the importance of planning, discipline and professional advice.  Even if you don’t have enough dosh to bother thinking about tax exile, you’ll at least be better informed and have a laugh.

By now the whole world (or at least those that follow tech stuff) will have heard about Microsoft’s announcement that it will offer massive utility computing, software-as-a-service platforms and online versions of its near-ubiquitous end-user tools, under the Azure label. Even mainstream news media have picked up the story, emphasising its significance.

In a recent piece on the Cloud, I quoted US writer Kevin Kelly:

In a cloud world, all your work and data are stored on the web. For daily routines you are usually connected. Your devices are primarily gateways to the cloud.  You do all your work on the web, using web-based applications.  ….  Most importantly clouds should be invisible. You should not be aware that your music, or term papers, or shopping cart is stored on a distributed server farm. It should feel like all this info and activity is on your pod.  

In effect, Microsoft has decided to join the revolution (so far led by the likes of Google and Amazon), while smartly maintaining strong links to its existing installed base of server and end-user software, and its huge network of product and services partners:

… the Azure Services Platform provides developers with the flexibility and ability to create applications while taking advantage of their existing skills, tools and technologies … Developers also can choose from a broad range of commercial or open source development tools and technologies, and access the Azure Services Platform using a variety of common Internet standards …

This could be as significant as IBM’s entry into the PC market.

There have been many facile attempts to link strategic thinking in business to strategic thinking in war. Notwithstanding those, there is much to be learnt from a thoughtful study of military ideas. The director of the UK’s Defence Academy, Lt General John Kiszely, recommends these ten books as essential reading:

• Carl von Clausewitz. ‘On War‘ (edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret). The historian Bernard Brodie said of this book, with only some exaggeration, that it is “not simply the greatest but the only truly great book on war”. It is certainly the work of a genius, and one with an unsurpassed understanding of war. His insights into its enduring truths are striking. Don’t be put off by the length of this book or its heavyweight reputation or the fact that the author’s untimely death resulted in much of the book remaining unrevised. Start at the back of it with Brodie`s excellent reading guide and, if time is short, read selectively. [webmaster’s note - ‘On War’ is available online, free of charge, via Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=223685]
• Martin van Creveld. ‘Command in War‘. This is brilliant analysis of how commanders throughout history have coped with the challenges of decision-making, communication and weaponry, and the extent to which their ability to do so has determined their success. Idiosyncratic and sometimes over-bold in his prophecies, Martin van Creveld is out of fashion with many historians at present, but at his best – and this is an example of his best – he is outstandingly perceptive and highly readable. (See also his ‘Technology and War‘, ‘Supplying War‘ and ‘Fighting Power‘.)
• Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman (editors). ‘War Diaries 1939-1945. Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke’. Alanbrooke’s complete and unexpurgated diaries give unique insights into:  the conduct of the Second World War at the highest level; the workings of the grand-strategic, military-strategic and operational levels, and the interface between them; the management of coalitions; the characters of Churchill and of Brooke, himself – and all under the most testing circumstances. There are also candid, first-hand observations of contemporary national and international leaders – the sort the libel laws normally prevent. All of this adds up to a most important book from which the senior military professional has much to learn.
• David Fraser. ‘Knight`s Cross. A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel‘. “Rommel”, writes Fraser, “believed that war was a reckless, untidy business, and that the habits of mind of a methodical manager are alien”. This belief was at the heart of Rommel’s success, but also of his limitations, and it is at the heart of much that makes Rommel as military commander such a fascinating biographical subject. This book is not only the outstanding biography of Rommel, it also makes an exceptional case-study into the development of intuition (and not just for land commanders). The time-constrained reader may wish to skip some of the passages on political developments. (Other highly recommended books by Fraser are ‘Frederick the Great’, ‘Alanbrooke’ and ‘And We Shall Shock Them’.)
• Andrew Gordon. ‘The Rules of the Game. Jutland and British Naval Command‘. In analysing the reasons behind the failures exposed at the Battle of Jutland, Andrew Gordon (who teaches at the Joint Services Command and Staff College) brilliantly traces the evolution of the Royal Navy from the time of Nelson, illustrating, amongst other things, challenges to progress and transformation in peacetime – challenges by no means restricted to one Service, nor to a bye-gone age. Particularly illuminating are the contrasts drawn in leadership styles between ‘controllers’ and those with a ’sheer monkey-wit, rat-catching instinct for war’ - and the tensions between them.
• Alastair Horne. ‘A Savage War of Peace. Algeria 1954-1962‘. When looking for historical parallels or case-studies which might guide us in the type of operations that we face today and tomorrow, we tend to fall back on perennial favourites such as the Malayan ‘Emergency’ and the Vietnam War -  an overly narrow approach. In widening the focus, we would do well to include a much over-looked but highly instructive campaign: the French colonial war in Algeria (or, as it is variously called in Algeria, the revolution or the Jihad).  This book is a most thought-provoking account of that conflict - a salutary story, not least of tactical success and strategic failure, with a lot of lessons there for the taking. (Other excellent books by Alistair Horne: ‘The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916′ and `To Lose A Battle: Sedan 1940`.)
• Michael Howard. `The Franco-Prussian War`. In the view of many, including me, Sir Michael Howard is the greatest living military historian. Many of his books (for example, `The Causes of War`, `War in European Society`, `War and the Liberal Conscience`) rate a place on this list, but this book is, for me, the most illuminating, and is the book that made his name – deservedly. It set a gold standard for military history in this country, and is a fascinating account of a clash of military cultures. Full of shrewd insights, it is a delight to read. Some may consider that the Franco-Prussian War is too obscure a subject to warrant attention; I doubt they will after reading this book.
• HR McMaster. `Dereliction of Duty`. It is difficult to over-state the importance of this book for those destined to work at the military-strategic level, particularly in the Ministry of Defence. It tells of the intrigue, folly, corruption and, ultimately, the alleged dereliction of duty of, amongst others, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff that propelled the US into the quagmire of Vietnam. Impressively researched and persuasively argued, the book is an adaptation of the author`s thesis, written as a US Army major on sabbatical in the late 1990s. He recently commanded 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq.
• William Slim. `Defeat Into Victory`. Perhaps the greatest British commander of the 20th Century, Slim is also one of the most gifted with the pen. His account of his commands in the Burma Campaign of the Second World War is masterful, and written in an engagingly self-deprecating style. His innate understanding of the operational level, of coalition warfare, of what would now be called the `manoeuvrist approach` and of human nature, is palpable. And there is more to be learnt about leadership from this book than from any other I`ve read.
• Robert S Strassler (editor). `The Landmark Thucydides`. Thucydides`s magnificent account of the Peloponnesian War is, indeed, as he intended it to be, `a possession for all times`. His insights and observations feel as fresh today as when they were written over 2,000 years ago – largely because they are just as relevant. There may be more eloquent translations, but this book is the best introduction to the subject and the most readable due to its outstanding editing and maps which help the reader through the otherwise confusing business of precisely who is doing what to whom, where and why. Even so, it`s worth taking this book at a measured pace, leaving plenty of time for reflection. [webmaster’s note - this text is available online, free of charge, from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/714].
  

I see that my home phone company is pulling out of FlyBuys, the leading NZ multi-vendor customer loyalty scheme.  I’m not surprised - I never understood why they were in it in the first place.  Loyalty schemes seem to have an impact only when frequent repeat purchase decisions are made, not one-offs or “once every few years” decisions.  Selecting your phone company is a “once every few years” decision.  After that you don’t think very much about which phone company to use to make your call, at least until you move or get fed up with them for some reason.  Likewise, buying a car, or a major household appliance, or a house. Yet there are businesses in those fields who are part of the Flybuys family.

Loyalty schemes for frequent travellers, supermarket shoppers, motorists buying fuel, and coffee drinkers all make sense; as does deciding which credit card to use. I generally use the one that gives me the most air-travel points with my usual airline, because I use my card a lot and I travel a lot (distance-wise). I rarely use the credit card that offers me shopping vouchers - it’s there only as a back-up in case of loss of my preferred card.

I accept that at the margin, earning loyalty points on major infrequent purchase decisions may be a small factor in selecting from competing vendors with identical offerings,  but I’d lay odds that for most people, the presence or absence of loyalty points is largely irrelevant.  I’d need to see some solid empirical market evidence to persuade me that the cost of supplying loyalty rewards to all customers is amply outweighed by the profit on the marginal business.

I rarely write about blogging, and today’s no different, but if you’re interested in an erudite explanation of why people blog, take at a look at what Andrew Sullivan has to say at The Atlantic magazine.

Congratulations to my old chum Rob Steele, who’s just been named as the new Secretary-General of the International Standards Organisation, based in Geneva.  Rob headed Standards NZ for a number of years, and has played an international leadership role almost from Day One.  SNZ boxes well above its weight in the global standards arena, and Rob helped make that so.

I first met Rob in late 1992, when I interviewed him for the role of CFO at power company Electra.  Rob helped me take Electra through corporatisation and industry reform, whilst also sorting out the finance function.  With that done, he and I drove a major restructuring and performance improvement programme, which led to Electra becoming not only the lowest “operating cost per customer” electricity business in the country, but also the recipient of several commendations and awards for its customer service and fair contracts. The customer service group we put in place is now the hub for the country’s largest electricity generator/retailer. I was delighted when Rob succeeded me as CEO, and took the company on to new heights.

I fondly remember the day that some of the Electra team came to see me with an idea for a company catch-cry to set the standard for everything we aimed to do: “Bloody Amazing!” If it wasn’t bloody amazing, it wasn’t good enough. We adopted it with enthusiasm, and it’s great to see Rob still living up to that standard. Bloody Amazing, Rob!

Jim Cramer is the frontman on popular CNBC TV show Mad Money, and is famous for his intemperate style. Last week, in an otherwise fascinating segment on the problems caused by reckless sub-prime insurance, he went beyond the pale, urging his audience to take direct action against the employees of AIG, the troubled giant insurer.

“We should hound them in the supermarket, we should hound them in the ball park, we should hound them everywhere they are. We should make fun of them and we should point fingers at them and we should tell them that you have no shame.”

This was bad on several levels.  Edward Liddy, AIG’s new CEO, immediately stood up for his team:

Those comments are outrageous. I demand they be retracted and that you apologize to AIG’s employees. It is one thing to criticize the executive leadership of AIG - that’s fair commentary. But it is way out of bounds to incite people to confront and harass other AIG employees - hard-working, dedicated people who are running good businesses and are committed to our success. The employees of AIG did not cause this mess, but they are paying for it - in diminished 401K savings and in some job losses as we sell companies to repay the Federal loan. The irony is that AIG employees did not cause the problem, but they will solve it. For that they deserve our praise and our gratitude.

Cramer has since apologised, but in a weaselly “I mis-spoke” way, saying he didn’t mean everyone at AIG, just the top leadership.  He made no such qualification when he made the offending statement in his highly scripted rant. I think he (and his writers) knew exactly what he was saying.

Here’s a tip.  When you’re in the wrong, avoid qualification and keep it simple: “I was wrong to say/do that; I apologise.”

When I first started this weblog, I received about 10 spam comments a week, thankfully most trapped by the software. Then it reached 100.  Then a 1000. Now it’s about 1000 every day, and growing. I know there’s a logic to the spam - one click in a thousand views makes a very little money - but it’s costless for spammers, so a 0.01% return on bugger all is still a good result. Suing the spammers will deter the big players, but most spammers are minnows and there are millions of them hoping to make a few dollars a day. We need a smarter solution.

US technology writer Kevin Kelly has posted a thought-provoking article on his Technium blog. Entitled “Cloud Culture“, it explores ways in which human thinking and culture might be affected by the increasing trend to have our information, communication, services and therefore an increasingly large part of our lives delivered/sourced via “The Cloud”:

In a cloud world, all your work and data are stored on the web. For daily routines you are usually connected. Your devices are primarily gateways to the cloud.  You do all your work on the web, using web-based applications.  ….  Most importantly clouds should be invisible. You should not be aware that your music, or term papers, or shopping cart is stored on a distributed server farm. It should feel like all this info and activity is on your pod.

Kelly goes on to explore how we operate and think of ourselves; for example:

The Extended Self. Where is my stuff? If I google my own mail to find out what I said, or rely on the cloud for my memory, where do “I” end and it starts? If all the images of my life, and all the snippets of interest, and all my notes, and all my chitchat with friends, and all my choices, and all my recommendations, and all my thoughts, and all my wishes — if all this is sitting somewhere — but nowhere in particular — it changes how I think of myself. What happens if it were to go away? A very distributed aspect of me would go away. If McLuhan is right that tools are extensions of our selves — a wheel an extended leg, a camera an extended eye — than (sic) the cloud is our extended soul.  Or, if you prefer, our extended self. 

Right now, many people are concerned about the potential for misuse of all the data that Google can see about us.  Others believe that the convenience of “the cloud” will outweigh those concerns; that such misuse would kill the goose that laid the golden egg, so there’s a powerful incentive to “do no evil“.  I suspect that over time the “cloud” industry will evolve akin to banks and medical records professionals.  Absolute confidentiality will become a core ethic.  Maybe that old epithet about “the high priests of computing tending the machine” will become reality. Or should that be “Vestal Virgins“?

Continuing our series on selling a mid-size privately-held business, in Part I of question 13, we looked at some of the choices  for the actual sales process.  Now let’s look at a typical process (although there are many variants):

• Contacting the potential buyers, often with a teaser (written or verbal) which doesn’t identify the company or give too much away, just enough to get them to sign a confidentiality and good behaviour agreement in order to get the next level of information.
• Sending out a brief 2-4 page overview of the business, to get expressions of interest in bidding and, sometimes, proof of substance that they have the wherewithal to buy the business.
• Sending out a detailed information memorandum describing the business, with ample details to enable an indicative bid to be made.
• Selecting a short-list of bidders to enter negotiations.  This is where things can get tricky, because indicative bids are non-binding, and some competitors can make high bids just to get into the next stage.
• The next stages can go in various orders: site visits, executive presentations, due diligence (thoroughly going over all your records and learning all your secrets), preparation of final binding bids, negotiation of sale agreements.  Some buyers like to get a deal done, subject to due diligence not showing anything untoward, others want to do due diligence before committing to a price.  Some do it all at the same time. Although it’s your process, it’s here you might need to be flexible.

Most executives and owners have limited experience of business sale.  By now, if you’ve followed this series from the beginning, you’ll have realized that planning, preparation, execution and coordination form a huge task. We’ve already looked at selling the business yourself or using an agent.  You should most definitely involve your accountant and your lawyer early in the process. (By the way, a great deal lawyer costs big bucks, but can really make you money). However, they can’t do all that other stuff we’ve been talking about throughout this series, and your executive team is busy running the business, remember.  So that means it’s probably down to you.  However, you can bring in help, to advice you and to manage the process. Just watch out, though - there are a lot of wannabees out there. Ask - and check - about experience, reputation and integrity.

Advertisements and disclosure: This is a free plug for Peter Castle, who’s been my big-hitter lawyer on several major projects over the years, and who fits into that rare category of “expensive, but worth it”. My company Isambard provides strategic advice and interim executive resources before, during, and after the sale/acquisition - on either the buy or sell side.  I like to think we’re expensive, but worth it, too! 

Overheard at the gym this morning:

What’s Wall Street’s definition of an optimist?  Someone carrying a placard saying “The End is Nigh!”

Now we know for sure that the UK economy is in dire straits. The Times reports that Aga sales are down. For those unfamiliar with Aga, think of the wood-burning range in your great-grandparents’ cottage.  In a particularly English affectation, an Aga is the cooking appliance of choice in smart upper-middle class homes (especially if it’s a lovely country house in a picturesque village).

To be fair to Aga, their stoves, including wood-burning, gas and electric variants, are very good combined cookers and hot water heaters, at least in the opinion of their fans. People are proud to say that they own an Aga.  I’m sure Aga would qualify as one of Kevin Roberts’ Lovemarks. And the Aga stove is a classic story of design solving a problem - in this case, a newly-blind engineer wanting to improve life for himself and his over-worked wife.

PS. There’s even a genre of chick-lit - Aga Sagas - of which Joanna Trollope is the standard bearer. Not that I’ve read any myself, you understand.

Writing earlier about alligators and backsides reminded me of another turn of phrase.  A former boss of mine in New Zealand had previously worked for a US company.  In  response to a gripe about New Zealand market needs not being met by the group’s product range, his then-CEO told him: “You bastards are like a pimple on the backside of the world.  Itch too much and we’ll just squeeze the pus out.“

I subscribe (for free) to Seth Godin’s weblog.  Godin is a US marketing writer, with several very successful books, a big fan base which gives him a lucrative speaking income, and one of the top blogs on the planet.  I don’t always agree with what he says, but he nearly always makes me think twice about a subject.  A good example of Godin’s ability to explain an idea is “Do you have 16 boxes?“, his take on oiling the squeaky wheel, where you overreact to the noisiest customer, the grumpiest staffer, the most irritating problem on your plate, just to stop the noise, while ignoring all the other facets of your business, and quite possibly missing the truly important issues and opportunities you should address.

Put it another way, “When you are up to your arse in alligators, it is difficult to remind yourself your initial objective was to drain the swamp.”

I”ve written before about the world of stuff.  The world of stuff is back, big time.

My somewhat loose definition includes smart service businesses that support the world of stuff, albeit indirectly.  The Sage of Omaha has joined me, opining in the NY Times that now is the time to buy quality equities - those stocks whose true value have little in common with what the lemmings in the stock-market do.

“fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.”

As I’ve said before. life goes on despite the finance crash; good companies will continue to be good companies.

The October lunch of the Vista Group followed its usual rambling course, from operating virtual organisations to virtual IT to online banking to the BNZ Bank rebadging, the transformation of Fisher & Paykel into an international prestige appliance brand and F&P’s need to transfer the allegiance of its loyal home NZ market to its new mid-level Elba brand.

Our conclusions (not necessarily unanimous):

• In the right context, virtual business teams are possible, and may be preferred or even necessary, but they work best when there is a genuine community of interest which sustains and encourages the virtual group to keep in touch and collaborating. Genuine creativity and high performance delivery, combined with mutual respect and selfless peer support, seem to be common elements of virtual groups that sustain themselves over the long term.
• ICT technology and services are rapidly reaching the point where many small and mid-scale businesses should not need to operate their own ICT (servers, software, communications, support, etc); but most don’t know that yet. The ICT industry still has a major packaging, integration and useability job to do before “cloud computing” really is a viable, easy- to-buy, easy-to-implement, whole-of-business solution. But it’s not too far off.
• Having had a few weeks of the new BNZ Bank logo, we have started to sort of like it (note the lack of enthusiastic praise), but thought the back story to the change was implausible, irrelevant and showed a serious case of someone believing their own bullshit. It’s a rebadging job, but it’s still the same old BNZ,
• F&P Appliances (a great company, by the way) really is rebranding its mainstream appliance range in NZ with Elba, keeping the Fisher & Paykel brand for top-end prestige products it markets globally (e.g. DishDrawer). It’s a reasonable strategy and follows the text book for brand transition, except that the ad theme “just does what it should” doesn’t show any brand personality, but instead emphasises the lack of one. Maybe that’s the point right now, but building a long term Elba personality could have begun from Day One.

All this and food, interspersed with Jack Yan’s fake Edinburgh accent, which didn’t fool our Scot waiter for a second. You can’t take some people anywhere.

“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.”

Gordon Gecko is coming back, according to the BBC. Twentieth Century Fox is working up a sequel to Wall Street, the 1987 film which starred Michael Douglas as the notorious financier. It’s not yet clear if Douglas will play the role again, after Gecko’s release from prison and his return to the world of high finance. The recent boom and current bust must offer a rich context for the story. Let’s hope the dialogue is as memorable as the original.

I’m not known for being a fan of matters bureaucratic, but credit must go to where credit is due. At the 2008 world conference of national trade promotion agencies, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise has been named as the world’s best trade promotion organisation, winning the “best developed country” award (beating other finalists Britain, Australia and Austria) and the overall “best of the best” award.

Tim Gibson, NZTE CEO, attributes the win to three key elements:

• The Beachheads programme which supports companies establishing offshore operations, and has grown steadily to include the US, UK, China, India, SE Asia, and the Middle East.
• Better By Design, which encourages companies to adopt design discipline throughout the business.
• Performance evaluation, which tracks each programme and the gains made by the firms that participate.

According to NBR:

The award judges said NZTE was “an exemplar to developing country TPOs” for its continuous innovation, growing international presence and excellence in country branding.

I’ve had experience in several businesses dealing with NZTE and its forebears since 1995 and they’ve got steadily better over time. Congratulations to the team at NZTE.

OK, the rush of blood to my head has abated. Normal service will be resumed shortly.