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Author Archive for Ben Kepes
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Kiva is a US based peer-to-peer lending system that allows people to temporarily loan money to entrepreneurs in the developing world. Kiva acts as the agent hosting profiles of entrepreneurs for lenders to access, collecting the funds to be distributed through agencies on-the-ground, and, once a loan has been repaid, giving the funds back to lenders who can then chose to re-lend, keep, or donate to Kiva. I’ve been lending in a small way with Kiva for a little while and my experience follows that of others I talk to who boast of an exceptionally low default rate on their lending.
Kiva in the US has just announced that it will begin to allow for US based enterprises to access Kiva funds, recognising the fact that it’s not only Guatemalan agriculturalists who find access to credit difficult, so to does a Kentucky based plumber.
Here in New Zealand I was interested to read the other day that the rate that lenders charge small business for loans has hardly moved despite a massive cut in wholesale interest rates – it seems that traditional banks have little appetite for funding seemingly risky SME loans.
Even worse than the rate SMEs have to pay for loans is the bottom-line accessibility of funds. The reality is that without good collateral (generally a house) on the part of business owners, banks won’t look at SMEs as potential candidates for finance – this despite the fact that both property prices and potential to sell houses has taken a dive for the worse. And this also despite the fact that a number of applicant businesses are cash positive, have real potential, and have been trading successfully for many years.
Business owners I talk to tell of the difficulties they face securing even modest working capital – this despite the fact that, in many cases, cashflow is high and has been for some time.
The issue was raised at the job summit a few months ago, but it seems that traditional lenders have no real desire to change the systems to free the flow of capital for small businesses – it’s an issue that is close to the hearts of all the stakeholders in bizchat – after all having a place to find advice is all very useful, but without the metaphorical blood to feed the muscles of enterprise, it’s only half (or less than half) of the solution.
It’s something we’re looking at and are keen to hear from others with some time and energy to give to the cause.
Jim posted the incredible story of the New Zealand Immigration Service (NZIS) proposing a $117 million upgrade of IT infrastructure, a sum that equates, from Jim’s reckoning, to $234k per NZIS process worker.
It’s a sorry tale and one that, as Jim points out, smacks of desperation, silo building and vested interests. Given the somewhat depressing post I thought I’d revisit a success story for Government 2.0.
I’ve long been a fan of New Zealand’s Ministry of Economic Development – long before co-founding a community site for New Zealand small businesses, I was involved (and continue to be so) with economic development and advisory work for SMEs as well as running my own small businesses – in my dealings with the various branches of the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), I found them to be effective and efficient. This impression was strengthened with their wholesale adoption of modern communication channels in order to engage with their “clients”. it doesn’t matter which channel you look at – if their constituents embrace it, it’s a sure bet that the various MED departments will soon be there.
Recently I met with another Government department that I’ll leave anonymous. They’re also striving to engage with their constituents. The people I talked to were invariably passionate advocates for the enabling force that engaging with their client base can be – unfortunately their department has some silos within it, people who for whatever reason attempt to block the sort of initiatives their colleagues over at the MED embrace. The result? Frustrated staff, programmes that lack the reach they could otherwise attain and, most importantly for those who evangelise the democratizing power of Government 2.0, inefficiencies that affect the very SMEs these departments are set up to help.
So circling back to the genesis of this post – the NZIS plan for IT upgrading, I’m sure there’s some people within the service who have been flying the flag for quick and relatively economic solutions to the inefficiencies apparent in the system – and you can bet they’re blocked at every turn by anti-progressive and institutionalised individuals who can’t see past the status quo.
Shame…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Disclaimer – This is in no way a discussion about the David Bain case and specifically his guilt or otherwise.
That said I was a little uncomfortable to read this morning that Joe Karam, David Bain’s tireless supporter has received $330k in the past couple of years from legal aid – based on a $95 per hour rate.
When I saw the interviews with Karam and Bain post verdict, I felt a little nervous, as if Karam was carefully stage managing what Bain said and did. And then the fact that one of the defence lawyers is Karam’s son… also paid through legal aid.
Sure he’s put huge time into this fight but it all rests a little uncomfortably with me… anyone else?
For a long time I’ve been something of a lone voice (I’d like to think somewhat akin to the little boy in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”) crying foul about the economic development direction we seem to take in this country.
Part of the reason I co-founded bizchat was because I saw that everyone, from central Government to private enterprise, is forgetting what is in fact the largest proportion of wealth creation in this (and other) countries – sole operators and businesses at the micro end of the SME description.
I have the utmost respect for those who determine their path is to build a high growth, rapidly scaling business. But I do bemoan the fact that everyone else seems to be forgotten in the process.
I’m biased of course, being co-owner of a small business that, while being somewhat boring in that it still actually manufactures physical products – still keeps 15 or so people employed and has done profitably for going on two decades.
And just so you see that I’m not in total denial – I’m also involved in a number of businesses that seek a different trajectory – with large global aspirations.
A couple of years ago when the (ultimately doomed) Buy Kiwi Made campaign was in full force. Icebreaker CEO Jeremy Moon and I went head-to-head on National Radio “discussing” his contention that companies manufacturing offshore should be permitted to leverage the Buy NZ Made brand. While I was against the BKM campaign (I saw it as an attempt to coerce consumer to buy NZ made product, generally out of some kind of guilt) nevertheless I didn’t think for a moment that it should be broadened to include those sourcing 100% of their product offshore.
So news last week that iconic New Zealand brand Fisher and Paykel is having a Chinese bailout to the tune of 20% should have, in my view, been cause for a hint of sadness – after all this was a New Zealand success story that had been proud, in recent years, that its decision to move much of its manufacturing offshore would enable it to become (and remain) competitive on an international level.
Instead it seems we’re all holding this up as some sort of success story – even our Prime Minister, John Key, wined and dined the Chinese on his recent visit in an effort to lubricate this deal.
So we now have a situation where a New Zealand brand manufactures offshore, where the profits from its (assumedly profitable) trading head offshore, and where more and more of its operational management is also handled overseas – so my question, as always, is what’s left for us here in Enzed?
(With apologies to the late Ed Hillary.)
On Sunday I ran my first ever half marathon as part of the Christchurch SBS Marathon. Before then the longest I’d ever run was about 15 kilometres and that was a fairly casual affair. One of my workmates is a bit of an athlete and has run both the SBS and the Buller half marathons previously and after three years taking part in the Waikari Fun Run and Walk I figured it might be time to get a little more serious.
I wouldn’t class myself as an athlete by any stretch of the imagination. I was a fat, asthmatic kid who studiously managed to avoid doing PE all the way through high school. It wasn’t till I was about 18 that I discovered cycling (both road and off-road) and spent a few years racing club events in both disciplines – never with any huge success but with a fair degree of resolve.
Being in my late thirties, and eternally petrified of regressing to my youthful physique, I tend to do a fair bit of physical stuff. Most mornings I either knock of a couple of km in the pool or go for a bit of a run – but a full blown 21.1km was something completely new for me. I’ve always remembered the words quoted by Rowan Simpson;
The half marathon is 16km of hope followed by 5km of truth
I had no idea what sort of time to aim for – I’m a pretty competitive sort of guy, but then again am not in any way, shape or form a runner. I kind of figured anything under 2 hours, and with no walking, would do me fine. At the back of my mind a sub 1:40 would make me happy and a 1:30 pretty ecstatic.
I had a pretty poor build up to the race – after a week spent in Denver (some call it altitude training – I just call it jet lag) I came back home with the intention of making the last two weeks before the race count. Unfortunately those two weeks included 3 separate trips away and the four days before the actual race out of action with the flu.
Race day thus dawned with me coughing and spluttering and the weather forecast promising wind chill of –9 degrees Celsius and sleet.
As it happened, despite a brief hail storm just before the start, and other than some bitterly cold winds, the weather for the race was pretty reasonable.
I seem unable to do any sort of physical activity on a full stomach so my strategy was to eat well the night before the race, and then go into the event having taken on no solids or liquids – I know it sounds like a bizarre way of doing things but it seems to work for me. The unknown was how I’d feel in terms of energy nearing the end of the event.
I managed to get a good start, putting myself near the front to avoid the inevitable trip-ups – and had a fantastic pair of pace-setters (thanks to Aubrey Begley #1123 and Ruby Morgan (yes – of *that* Morgan dynasty) #2224), for 8km and 12km respectively. I felt really good for the first 10km or so, and less-so, but still ok, for the next 8km.
About the 18km mark I started to fade – the flu was taking its toll and I was also rapidly running out of energy. I managed to keep it together and other than being passed by a few people, kept going through to the end.
My final time upon crossing the line was 1:32:29 which, considering the build-up, the weather and my novice status, I was really stoked with. Of the 2300-odd bodies doing the half I managed to break into the top 200.
So I’ll be back again for sure – I’m mulling over whether to try for a sub 1:30 or just to dive in and go for a full marathon – I’ll ruminate over that in the next few months I guess.
I’ve always had a huge amount of respect for the team over at HB media – this isn’t just because I’ve been involved with them in past and present projects – long before my work with Idealog magazine I commented on their innovative business model that takes the (arguably) dying world of traditional media and infuses it with something new. In fact even when I was writing for the competition I was publicly complementing the innovation they were bringing (and privately bemoaning the fact that others weren’t doing likewise).
The aforementioned business insight property that I’m curating (I see my role as different from content creation, editorship or moderation – curator being the best way to describe my role) on behalf of HB is an example of their creative approach – take a look at the website, the printed publications and the other parts of the IBM media campaign to see what new media can, and should, look like.
HB is run but a couple of smart guys, Vincent Heeringa and Martin Bell, and was originally co-founded by them along with David Macgregor, a person with whom I’ve argued often, but never lost a great deal of respect for (and whom one day, I’m sure, I’ll actually meet in person).
Anyway – HB is announcing this morning that they have acquired NZ Marketing magazine along with the awards it owns, the TVNZ Marketing Awards. NZ Marketing Magazine was part of the stable of publications owned by the failed group 3Media which was put into liquidation last month.
While I haven’t discussed it with them, I do know that HB have some ambitious plans around building an integrated media company and I’m sure they’ll do great things with both the magazine and the awards, but more importantly with the synergies that exist between them and their current offerings.
Check out the slideshare from a presentation Vincent gave to the Sustainable Business Network last week – it’s better with his (often self-deprecating) commentary, but it gives you an idea of what they’re about.
HB Media at SBN
View more OpenOffice presentations from vincentheeringa.
So congratulations to everyone at HB – looking forward to seeing what comes of the new babies…
On my way to the United States, US Airways unfortunately misplaced my bag. Faced with the prospect of a week without my stuff i made a quick assessment of what I really couldn’t do without. Top of the list 9after a NZ/US power adaptor) was my gym gear. I trundled on down to the Denver NikeTown to fix myself up – and therein lies the genesis of this post.
The sales assistant at the store was really friendly and obviously knew everything there is to know about the Nike product line – i heard all about stone protection, Kevlar fibres, midsole impact cushioners and the like – but was surprised at how little the sales banter actually looked at my body, my use case and my needs.
I ended up buying a lovely pair of shoes (a size too large – he didn’t actually check that part) which I’ll go and replace today. My beef however isn’t with this guy, he was only doing his job. It’s with a society that forgets the actual purpose of a product in favour of some aesthetic or vanity induced criterion.
My last experience with buying shoes was at The Frontrunner in Christchurch. That time I was put on a treadmill, slow-motion videoed and the sales assistant (actually worthy of the title technician) discussed the specific traits i displayed and what shoe features to look for in order to correct those traits.
The sad thing is that Nike has its genesis in high level athletics, but now it’s just another label pimping new products every season – and rapidly inventing new “design features” every season to do so.
Ahhh – it makes me proud to be involved with a company that (shameless plug) doesn’t design for planned obsolescence, has an approach of “ethic construction” and is pleased that its products look, and work, similar from one season to the next.
I don’t blog often over here on Diversity any more – CloudAve takes much of my attention these days. Diversity is more about an opportunity for me to be opinionated or to tell stories of Kiwi success stories – I try and do that over on CloudAve too but for some reason some US readers get sick of my parochialism 
.
A few weeks ago at the Web09 conference in Auckland I finally had a chance to meet CEO of SmartPayroll, Asantha Wijeyeratne – we immediately found much in common, especially regarding our views of what the real barriers to growth are for small businesses and the potential of connected applications to drive efficiency and productivity gains for SMEs (excuse the volley of buzzwords there).
Anyway, Wijeyeratne just pinged me to tell me that SmartPayroll has just completed it’s integration with Xero. SmartPayroll is the largest of the IRD registered payroll intermediaries through their relationship with Datacom and they’re obviously looking to augment this offering with the addition of a software plus services offering. As part of this integration, Xero have nominated SmartPayroll as their Premium Payroll Partner in NZ.
With another twist in this story, for $83 per month customers can get SmartXero – so what is SmartXero? It is Xero bundled with a high level service and integration offering. Despite all the Web 2.0 tools in the world, as a SaaS vendor grows to scale it simply cannot continue to offer high levels of individual service – as an example Xero provides email support, but no phone support – that’s fine for those of us prepared to either wait or to tinker, but arguably doesn’t address the needs of those who want help from a real person – and now.
So that’s where SmartXero jumps in. I questioned Wijeyeratne about the difference between the monthly subscription to Xero and the offering they are providing – his response? “We will set up the chart of accounts, set up the Bank feeds etc and the general set up. We will then send a trainer to sit with the customer while they do the first month. So all that eliminates the fear of the changeover. Then we back that up with 0800 24×7 telephone support backed up with on-site support if required.”
Of course the biggest gain to be made is by users who use both SmartXero and SmartPayroll – they’re then leveraging both a technology integration and a high level services offering. Asantha indicated the potential to provide a reduced bundle price for those using both products.
While it’d be nice to think that SaaS requires no third party help – the reality is that SMEs need handholding – SmartXero is providing a valuable service for those businesses.
Update – SmartXero has had a name change! It’s now known as SmartBooks Plus
It’s been a big year of conferences for me so far – both domestic and international. It’s been great fun – busy but fun.
I’ve been fortunate to have covered two New Zealand events for Idealog magazine. Webstock in Wellington and Web09 in Auckland. Webstock is a seasoned event, polished over the years and with significant momentum and credibility. Web09 is a new event and shows real bravery on the part of its organiser and sponsors to embark on a new event in the current climate.
A comment by the usually thoughtful Chris Keall of the NBR wound me up the other day. In a post reviewing the keynote given by Xero CEO Rod Drury, Keall decided to judge the entire event based on half an hour’s attendance on the first day of two. Keall wrote;
Incidentally there was a fantastic buzz at Web09 when I swung by this morning. The organisation is slightly rag-tag, with no audience mics or PowerPoint (yay!) but in a way that only adds to the feeling that its an event born out of the web community itself, rather than conceived by a professional organiser. (Though with 200 delegates paying up to $745 a head, it could also teach the pros a couple of commercial lessons.) If there was ever any doubt that Auckland could run an event to match Wellington’s webstock, it’s gone.
Chris, sorry but this is just poor. For a start there were PowerPoint presentations (Drury’s presentation being the sole one without) but more importantly the off-the-cuff remark comparing Web09 to Webstock is unhelpful.
From my perspective having attended both events this year I can say that Webstock was a far more polished event – this isn’t a criticism of Web09 per se – its a first year event and it would have been a miracle if it was up to Webstock levels. But beyond this it needs to be remembered, as Webstock organiser Mike Brown (who attended Web09) put it in a seemingly exasperated public tweet;
it’s not a freaking competition! Wish NBR would get over that. Seriously.
I’m with Brown on this one – New Zealand is a big enough place for both a Wellington and an Auckland based event. Web09 succeeding is a good thing for Webstock and vice versa.
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