ICEHOUSE Head of Māori Development, Shay Wright, congratulates Bob Cottrell and Te Awahohonu Trust on their success.

“Bob and his team represent excellent practice in Māori farming and business.  It is exciting to see Māori businesses doing so well and being recognised by awards such as the Ahuwhenua Trophy.  What a proud moment for the Trust’s staff, board, trustees and shareholders.”

Shay Wright says there is an opportunity for Māori Trusts to reflect on their practice and look to examples like Te Awahohonu Trust.

“Te Awahohonu Trust is a great example of how a Māori Trust can take proactive steps towards running a better and successful business.  The Tarawera Station is their oldest asset – an oldie but a goodie!  We’re committed to working with Māori Trusts like Te Awahohonu that are looking to become beacons of success for their people.  It’s gratifying to walk the journey with Trusts that are living up to this commitment,” he says.

Another finalist for the 80^th Ahuwhenua Trophy was Te Hape B Trust, whose Chairman, Hardie Peni, also attended the ICEHOUSE Māori Business Growth workshop last year.

The Ahuwhenua Trophy measures sustainable Māori business success, and finalists are now widely regarded as among the best farmers in New Zealand.

Te Awahohonu Trust join Waipapa 9 Trust as ICEHOUSE alumni that have won the BNZ Māori Excellence in Business Award.  Waipapa 9 Trust Chairman, Dawson Haa, attended the ICEHOUSE Agribusiness Programme in 2007 and subsequently won the award in both 2010 and 2011.

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Darl’s strong record of research, teaching and leadership within the School makes him an excellent choice for this role.  With a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from Cornell University, Darl joined the School in 1992 to teach in MBA programmes.  He has received two MBA Teacher of the Year awards, as well as a University of Auckland Teaching Excellence Award in 1994 for his Stage One teaching.

Darl’s Master’s degree in experiential education (University of Colorado) has served him well in designing innovative and invigorating learning experiences, including the renowned Management 301 Mike’s Bikes simulation and a postgraduate concentration in Organisational Change and Innovation, whose alumni continue to make their mark around the world.

Darl has also received two Dean’s Excellence Awards for his Editorship of the University of Auckland Business Review and his work with the ICEHOUSE. He also served as the Founding Chair of the Business School Staff Council.

Darl has over 50 peer-reviewed publications, including A* journal articles,  6 books and has supervised 7 PhD students to completion. He has held Visiting Fellowships at the University of Sydney and the University of Cambridge.

Darl’s title will be Professor of Connectivity, recognising his pioneering role in the emerging field of socio-technical connectivity.  For over a decade Darl and his colleagues have been exploring how individuals, teams and organisations succeed  in a world of increasingly ubiquitous social and technical connectivity. Leading virtual teams of researchers based in Australia, New Zealand and the US, he has conducted a large-scale survey of 400+ distributed team members from 29 countries to discover how ‘requisite connectivity’ contributes to performance and wellbeing, as well as the relationship between communication choice (agency) and hyper-connectivity (overload).

As far as we know, Darl will be the first Professor of Connectivity in the world, signalling the School’s and the University’s support for new fields of inquiry.

Darl will take up his role with from June 1. We congratulate Darl on his appointment.

Darl is a facilitator on The ICEHOUSE Owner Manager Programme. To find out more about the programme, click here.

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Kinfolk invests in the evolution of great New Zealand companies, by partnering with other owner-managers who are ready to redefine their relationship with the successful companies they have created.  The group raises capital deal-by-deal, which they say gives them the ability to make longer-term commitments than is possible for limited-life PE Funds.

“If we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we might never have started,” says Phil Dixon, who is Owner-Manager of Sabato and part of Kinfolk’s leadership group.  “But now that we’ve put in the hard yards and made this breakthrough, we feel very positive about the unique contribution we can make to the New Zealand private equity community.”

Kinfolk’s Managing Director Ross McConnell says their approach has become increasingly focussed on the incumbent owner-manager and the outcomes that they want to achieve for themselves and for the future of their business.  “PE transactions typically do not put enough emphasis on the importance of these outcomes.”

Another member of the group observes how ‘unnatural’ private equity transactions must be for owner-managers.  “As entrepreneurs we are used to taking our own counsel and backing our own judgement” says Susan Harland-Smith, Owner-Manager of ESL Biosciences.  “But in a private equity transaction, these same owner-managers are surrounded by advisers and become accountable to a future business partner who is obliged to ask hard questions.  That can be a hellish experience for anyone who goes into it less than fully prepared, or without a clear understanding of the outcomes they want to achieve from the process.”

McConnell believes it’s a situation that is discouraging both owners and investors from participating in the PE market.  “That’s a real shame because great outcomes are possible for both parties when they get it right.  What’s needed is a framework that can bring them together in a constructive, collaborative way around a common set of interests and objectives for the investment.”

Kinfolk has developed just such a framework, which they call Ownership REVOLUTION.

“We’ve developed REVOLUTION so that other owner-managers can benefit from the experience we’ve gained over the last few years dealing in this market.  These insights have played a critical role in our recent breakthrough, and we’re keen to share them with other owner-managers who are part of the ICEHOUSE community.  It’s another way that we can invest in the evolution of great New Zealand companies.”

One company at a time…

Kinfolk will now focus on making sure its latest investment is a winner.

Kinfolk’s leadership is thrilled with the team of investors they have pulled together for the deal, which includes corporate CEO’s, an M&A veteran, a senior partner at a leading law firm, and a software sales executive, as well as the original fifteen-strong OMP18 crew.  They believe one of the strengths of Kinfolk’s deal-by-deal investment model is that it forces them to take on a broad range of insights and perspectives from the investor group.

“Every individual investor retains personal discretion about whether to support the deal, and therefore has the right to ask questions and make suggestions right throughout the deal-making process.  It’s quite a social and enjoyable process but hugely demanding at the same time,” McConnell says.

“The exciting challenge for me now is to focus all that experience and capability on supporting the development of our new portfolio company.  Part of my job is to manage all these inputs and present a ‘single voice’ to our new business partner.

“The investors have been very patient and constructive in their approach to the deal-making process, and these are the same characteristics that will make them great shareholders in our new business.

“Our new business partner has done a fantastic job over the last twenty years building a successful business from scratch, and we’re looking forward to helping him lead the company through another generation of development and growth.”

For more information about Kinfolk please contact General Manager Jono Steele;  email jono@kinfolk.co.nz, mobile 029 663 0626

That equates to the uploading of around 128 million photos to Facebook or watching your favourite YouTube clip on your mobile approximately 51 million times.

Telecom’s Head of Consumer, Chris Thompson, says New Zealand will be one of the first countries in the world to get the Samsung Galaxy S4, which launches globally on Saturday 27 April, and that its arrival calls for an appropriate ‘data-centric’ celebration.

“Smartphones are a huge part of our lives now and data – as the new ‘digital currency’- is what our customers tell us they value. So what better way to celebrate the launch of this extraordinary new smartphone than with a massive Samsung Galaxy data giveaway.”

The up to $5 million Samsung Galaxy Data Giveaway is available to those postpaid customers who purchase the Samsung Galaxy S4 on the Telecom Smartphone Network before 30 June, 2013.  Postpaid Customers who purchase the Galaxy S4 – provided they do so online – will receive an extra 1GB of data per month for 12 months, and there will also be a special data offer in Telecom stores for those postpaid customers who switch to Telecom from another network when they purchase the Galaxy S4.

Everyone who purchases the Galaxy S4 on the Telecom Smartphone Network will also go into the draw to win one of three big prizes of up to 500GB free data every month for the duration of their 24-month plan.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a number of compelling new features, including a larger and higher resolution 5-inch screen, dual cameras – which allow use of the front and rear cameras simultaneously – and the S Translator feature, which allows users to chat with friends in multiple languages by automatically translating the conversation to the user’s language.

Mr Thompson says global interest in the Samsung Galaxy S4 means stock at launch may be limited.  He is encouraging customers who want to get their hands on the new smartphone, and take advantage of the data offer, to do so soon, either online or in-store.

On launch customers can visit one of 34 Telecom stores around the country to purchase a Galaxy S4. Alternatively, they can purchase directly online.

Find out more here.

A great deal of research has been done into the psychological characteristics commonly displayed by an entrepreneur.  There is obviously no such thing as an “entrepreneurial personality” and there are great variances in the psychological makeup of successful entrepreneurs.  There are however some reasonably clear characteristics typical of many entrepreneurs which I have described below.  These are the basis for attributes such as a desire to be their own boss, and also the basis for attributes such as a reluctance, at times, to take professional advice from others which could be helpful.

Firstly what is meant by the word “entrepreneur” as differentiated from being “self-employed” and running your own business?  In terms of this discussion an entrepreneur is often motivated by innovation, growing their own business and making a profit. Whereas in terms of this discussion self-employment is usually based on the owner achieving their own personal goals and their work being their primary source of income.

So what are some of the commonly identified characteristics of an entrepreneur?

Firstly they have a need for achievement.  This refers to the need to strive hard for success in order to obtain a sense of personal achievement.   Entrepreneurs have a tendency to select and work hard at business activities that hold a moderate chance of success, or a great opportunity for personal achievement and satisfaction, but without the excessive risk of failure. Entrepreneurs in my experience will seek challenges but usually will not get involved in businesses where there is very little chance of growth and success. There is little chance of them gaining a sense of personal achievement.

Entrepreneurs sometimes find it difficult to understand why others in their organisation aren’t driven by the same need for achievement that they have.  In a successful entrepreneurial organisation it is extremely important that key individuals agree on values, vision and business objectives. It is however also possible that employees can make a valuable contribution to the business without the same need for success and a sense of personal achievement.

The second common characteristic is having what is known as an internal locus of control.  Locus of control refers to an individual’s perception of the causes for events in their life. An internal locus of control means they believe their environment, in this case the performance of their business, is controlled by their own actions.  That is, luck and fate don’t determine what happens and success or failure is a result of an entrepreneur’s abilities and experience.  This can increase an entrepreneur’s comfort in making business decisions. It can however at times also lead to a sense of failure if things take longer, or cost more, than they had expected even if there are good reasons for this occurring.

The third common characteristic is a tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty.  This refers to an individual’s ability and comfort to make a decision with incomplete or ambiguous information. Incomplete information regarding markets, cash-flows, competitors and IP development is often typical for an entrepreneurial business. Decisions are required however and entrepreneurs are usually comfortable making them.  Entrepreneurs may in fact find an ambiguous business situation desirable, even enjoyable and if things are just ticking over this may seem boring.  At certain points in a business’s growth however a period of consolidation may be valuable to the business, if not particularly challenging to an entrepreneur.

A fourth common characteristic is what is called a risk taking propensity.  That is the entrepreneur actively looks for risky ventures or assignments and has a greater tendency to take risks.  An important concept here however is taking calculated risks, not making impulsive or spur of the moment decisions. There is a difference between making a risky but calculated decision and simply taking a risk.  Entrepreneurs have a risk taking propensity but probably don’t see themselves as extremely high risk takers even if others do.  They tend to see things more positively than others.

To conclude then this is a brief description of some of the common, but not absolutely mandatory or always exhibited, psychological characteristics of an entrepreneur. There are of course a multitude of other factors of great importance in growing an entrepreneurial business beyond the psychology of the entrepreneur.

About Paul Gregory

For the last 20 years, as one of the founders of Caltech Capital, a NZ VC firm, Paul has been involved as an advisor and investor with a number of innovative start-up and early stage businesses with strong IP in software, hardware, electronics, telecoms and biotech. His expertise covers planning the venture, raising capital, achieving financial stability and expanding off-shore. Paul has an MBA and an MA (Hons) in Psychology. He has been an Escalator Programme accredited broker, and a guest lecturer at Auckland and Otago Universities’ Schools of Business. He previously managed the strategy and operations arm of a multinational consultancy with clients including telcos, airlines, financial services and utilities. His specialisation involved corporate advisory, strategic, merger & acquisitions and turnaround work and he has consulted to clients in NZ, Australia, North America and Asia

Leadership and improving a company’s performance are two areas where his combination of business and psychological expertise has been very valuable to the businesses he has been involved with.

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Intellectual Property (IP) protection is one of the most asked about topics among the entrepreneurs we work with. There seems to be a high level of uncertainty around how to protect ideas and products while at the same time get customer feedback and promote your business.

We want to help Kiwi entrepreneurs to better understand the world of IP. Therefore, we have teamed up with the IP experts from AJ Park and developed a half day workshop that will give you a comprehensive overview of all things IP.

Date: Wednesday 10 April

Time: 1pm – 5pm

Venue: The BNZ Partners Business Centre, Deloitte Centre, Level 7, 80 Queen Street

Cost: $49+ GST (Refreshments and afternoon tea will be provided)

This workshop is currently sold out. If you would like to be added to the waiting list please email Lisa at l.jansen@theicehouse.co.nz. 

What will be covered during the workshop?

This workshop is a unique opportunity to get a comprehensive overview of intellectual property issues, including the following topics:

• Patents, trademark and copyright – definitions and differences
• Who needs IP protection and who doesn’t?
• Timing – When is the right time to invest in protecting your IP
• The process – steps and timelines to protect IP
• Freedom to operate

During the workshop attendees will also hear from other entrepreneurs about how they protect their IP, how they determined that best course of action and what lessons they learnt along the way.

Additionally, experienced start-up investors will give an overview of their perspective on IP and what matters to them when evaluating investment opportunities.

The workshop will finish with a Q&A session to give attendees the opportunity seek further clarification on topics important to them.

Who will facilitate the workshop?

The workshop will be led my Anton Blijlevens from AJ Park and Ken Erskine from The ICEHOUSE. Anton and Ken will be supported by entrepreneurs and start-up investors to add their perspectives to the workshop.

Anton Blijlevens – Partner at AJ Park Patent Attorneys

Anton joined AJ Park in 1994. He specialises in patent and related intellectual property law, in particular for mechanical and manufacturing patents. Anton is also a copyright and designs specialist.  Anton’s clients include New Zealand’s top innovators such as Air New Zealand, Cavotec Moormaster, and Fletcher Aluminium. Anton regularly presents on intellectual property to organisations such as Auckland University, Massey University, IPENZ and business incubators. More …

Ken Erskine – Director of Start-Ups and ICE Angels at The ICEHOUSE

Ken Erskine has over fifteen years of IT sales and marketing experience in New Zealand and Europe. He has held senior management/leadership roles at Hewlett Packard and Compaq. Ken has extensive experience working with IP rich start-ups and R&D commercialisation. He has helped numerous entrepreneurs go from initial idea to successful business, including navigating IP protection issues.

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop has been developed for entrepreneurs wanting to learn more about IP. Our goal is to deliver a practical workshop that will answer the most common IP-related question we hear from entrepreneurs. Attending this workshop will be highly valuable for all entrepreneurs that are keen to understand how they can/should protect their IP.

Need more information?

If you have any further questions please contact Lisa at l.jansen@theicehouse.co.nz or 09 308 6230.

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The core objective of the hub is to increase international trade and investments between NZ and China. Often cultural difference is highlighted as the biggest barrier to achieving that goal and the development hub aims to minimize that by setting up formalized channels of communication and networks, enabling cultural support and business connections to more easily be formed.

To achieve that, part of Angela’s role will be to facilitate international relationships during key meetings. She will provide insights of the cultural layer that is a strong factor in business decisions, which the respective parties would encounter or otherwise have missed.  As her role transcends the whole ICEHOUSE organization, she would be privy to the pockets of Chinese-related activities occurring within the individual departments. She will then connect them up in order to establish a bustling hub that interested parties can then get access to, through an easily identified entry point (a.k.a Angela).

Lastly, she will be forming strategic partnerships with other related organizations trying to achieve the same vision, in order to be smarter and more effective through shared resourcing.

If you would like to know more about the China Market Development Hub or be part of it, please feel free to get in touch with Angela Lim at The ICEHOUSE – a.lim@theicehouse.co.nz

So with the start of the New Year, what opportunities are you going to make the most of?

“We face neither East nor West; we face forward”

-Kwame Nkrumah, First President of Ghana

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Of the first Aussie cohort, Deb says,  “They are certainly a group who are engaged and eager to be challenged and to challenge which is great.”  Brent Sutton, Managing Director of Sutton Group and an alumni of OMP1 back in 2001 and our inaugural Global Executive Leadership Programme last year, joined the group as a Guest Speaker on the Friday evening and the group thoroughly enjoyed having Brent share his story and his experiences since doing OMP in NZ 12 years ago.

Feedback from the first block was excellent and everyone is looking forward to the next 4 blocks.  It is really exciting to see the magic spread across the ditch.

According to Phillip Martin, HP NZ Storage Business Manager, “For the first time, our Converged Storage portfolio has been built on a single architecture, meaning that SMBs can access Tier 1 performance at midrange price points via the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 portfolio. This means that SMBs no longer have to compromise Tier 1 storage capabilities for affordability – they get the best of both worlds.”

Also announced were a range of new SMB storage and network solutions, designed to improve employee productivity by providing secure access to business applications and data via mobile devices.

Martin added, “Mobility will soon be a normal part of every SMB workplace, as it moves from being used primarily for email to supporting critical business applications such as CRM and sales inventory. To truly be successful, SMB’s must align and modernise their existing IT capabilities to take advantage of the business benefits and competitive differentiation mobility brings.”

For further information, please visit HP Converged Infrastructure or contact Phillip Martin on phillip.martin@hp.com

eBUS started operation in 2005 when Carmine Masiello decided to settle in NZ after sailing with his family around the world.

eBUS started with excellent momentum in the NZ market and then created a strategy for where to next, which essentially was Asia given the main markets of North America and Europe had already played out competitively.

The first international market was India which has subsequently followed with Indonesia and Australia. As part of this international expansion, and to be closer to the main international markets, the founder and head of development moved to Singapore in 2009, leaving COO Mike Orton to be based in NZ.

Current operations of eBUS include customers in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, India and Singapore as well as international deliveries to North America & Europe

The acquisition will allow IMD to strengthen its digital TV ad delivery service in Asia-Pacific where eBUS has established a peerless reputation as the most reliable and fastest service in the region with the widest geographical offering.

The powerful position of eBUS in its market can be traced to its unique, innovative completely cloud-based and scalable platform which, amongst other things allows TV ads to be delivered in less than 10 minutes. Other valuable eBUS customer advantages include native HD support, 24/7 access and automatic quality control.

Carmine Masiello says IMD’s investment in eBUS will speed up expansion in the Asia Pacific region. “We look forward to being supported by a shareholder that combines financial strength with an intimate understanding of what we do and who we are,” he says.

eBus came into The ICEHOUSE incubator in 2005 and was an investee of ICE Angels in 2012.

Read the media release announcing the acquisition.

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