Archives for July 2011

Advisory Boards: What are they and do I need one? (North Harbour)

What are Advisory Boards and do you need one? This very good question will be answered by a panel at this Business Owners Forum event on Thursday 20 October.

This event will be held at the BNZ Partners facility on Constellation Drive, North Harbour at 5:30pm – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night.

We have a great panel on the night, each of whom will each come at this topic from a different angle. On the panel is:

Bruce Sheppard – a non-politically correct agent provocateur, founder of the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association and member of a number of Advisory Boards.

Tyrone Cooley – a senior associate at Kensington Swan, who will discuss the role of an advisory board from a legal and risk perspective.

Neil Movold – director of SB2 International. Neil has been working with an advisory board in his businesses for more than 20 years, and he will share some of the tips and traps gleaned from his experiences.

This will be a must attend session for any business owner who is interested in introducing some good governance, high level advice and external accountability into their business.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panelists. And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Business Owners Forums are held monthly on the third Thursday of the month – alternating between North Harbour and Whangarei venues.

If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before the end of 18 October. And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.

Good Governance for your Business (Whangarei)

What is Good Governance?

Is it more than just a term that separates ineffective organisations from those that are operated according to best practice? What does Good Governance mean to organisations below the corporate, government or local authority level? How can the principles of Good Governance be applied to owner managed businesses without adding a level of administrative complexity that is counterproductive?

Good Governance is not only a prudent way to operate – but it is also your obligation as a director.

On 22 September, the Business Owners Forum will feature a panel discussion on the issues around Good Governance for owner managed businesses – from three diverse points of view.

The panel will include Rebecca Brennan. Rebecca’s a Chartered Accountant, a director of Elevate CA Limited – and she serves on the advisory board of several of her clients. Rebecca will discuss what good governance means and she will share some strategies on how to rise above “compliance” in your business without creating unnecessary bureaucratic processes. Also on the panel will be a business owner who will discuss the journey towards good governance – and a lawyer who will discuss the legal aspects of good governance.

This event will be held at Elevate CA, 35 Robert Street, Whangarei from 5:30pm on 22 September.

As always, Business Owners Forum events are free of charge to attend. Just email Gemma Mitchell at gemma@elevateCA.co.nz before the end of 20 September to reserve your seat. And if you’d like to be included on the invite list, just enter your details in the boxes to the right.

A story of a bank and a careless email

This is a story of a bank and a careless email.

Since Alan Bollard reduced the OCR in response to the Christchurch earthquake, three year fixed interest rates on residential mortgages have been somewhere just under 7%pa. With floating rates down around 5.75%pa, there hasn’t been a lot of incentive or urgency for Kiwis to fix their rates.

But in the past fortnight we have seen the June quarter annual inflation figures well above expectation – as well as higher than expected economic growth. Many borrowers are figuring that time has run out for comfortably biding time floating while planning to fix just before rates rise – and we are already seeing some fixed rates creep upwards. Many folk who are a little risk averse with interest rates are starting to figure they should “do it now”.

So here is the response from a bank on Friday to one client’s request to negotiate a favourable 36 month fixed rate:

Thank you for your email.

With regards to your enquiry on a negotiated rate for clients Xxxxx Limited, I am pleased to advise that we can offer 5.75% for 36 months to retain your client.

Based on the information supplied, can you please confirm if your client would like to proceed with the fixing of their 02 suffix.

If accepted the offer will only be valid as quoted until 5.00 pm at the end of the next business day (25th July 2011)

Amazing. A 36 month fixed rate of 5.75%pa has been unheard of ever – except maybe during a few brief weeks in the depths of the GFC around February 2009. Surely that was a typo?

Of course our client responded within the deadline for accepting that nice rate – and also arranged to break their other existing fixed rates in order to jump onto this rather incredible deal.

Soon afterwards, the bank contacted our client explaining that the 5.75% offered in Friday’s email was indeed a typo – and that it should have read 6.75%.

Hmmm. So now where does the bank stand?

From my Commercial Law 101 days I know that the three main prerequisites to the formation of a binding contract are these: (1) offer and acceptance (2) consideration (3) an intention to be legally bound.

It seems to me that all three essential elements are covered right there in the email history between our client and the bank.

And as luck would have it, the director of our client company had a previous career as a lawyer – and she knows a lot more about offer and acceptance than I ever will. She pointed out to the bank in no uncertain terms that they had made a written offer which was accepted – and that a binding contract had been made by email.

The bank relented – and our client’s company will now enjoy the very nice rate of 5.75%pa fixed for the next three years saving a rather healthy sum.

So the moral of this story actually has nothing to do with interest rates or the unnamed bank. Really it’s all about this:

“Be very careful about what you commit to by email. Contracts made by email are legally binding in the same way as contracts made in writing or face to face.”

Managing Risk in our Current Economy (North Harbour)

Managing financial and operational risk is a challenge at the best of times. But in the current economic environment, businesses need some sound strategies in these areas.

On 18 August, the Business Owners Forum will feature a panel discussion on these very issues from three diverse points of view. Here are the panelists for this event:

Wayne Kiely. Wayne is a former Police DS, was head of NZ Post investigations and security, set up KiwiBank security and is a Certified Fraud Examiner – and is arguably the best Private Investigator / Fraud or Thief catcher in Auckland. Wayne will discuss the areas of business risk that he encounters.

Jeff Yeakley. Jeff is the BNZ Treasury Specialist who will discuss macro economic risks in these turbulent times – and in particular what should be considered with regards to treasury and currency risks.

Chris Lock. Chris is the Specialist Advisor for Reseach and Development to ATEED. His background is in product design and marketing and establishing off shore operations in the consumer electronics and machinery spaces. Chris will share some of his expertise and insights around intellectual property protection, digital theft and how to mitigate the risks around these.

This event is a must-attend for all business owners – and will be held at the BNZ Partners Centre on Constelletion Drive, North Harbour from 5:30pm on 18 August.

As always, Business Owners Forum events are free of charge to attend. Just email Fraser Hurrell before the end of 16 August to reserve your seat. And if you’d like to be included on the invite list, just enter your details in the boxes to the right.