Category Archives: Global

2 tips for being more generous and compassionate.

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On a wet humid evening we sat outside on the bustling street corner, in the heart of the action, waiting to enjoy our meal. The restaurant we chose, our clothes and the colour of our skin screamed to the locals that we were wealthy foreigners to Phnom Penh, and almost immediately we were confronted with invitations to purchase or give. Girls the age of my daughters selling bags, young men selling books and a Mother with a young child simply begging. At first we engaged with them, then quickly learnt it was easier to ignore them and their need.

Later as we meandered along the streets we saw a young child (12 – 18 months) standing on the footpath. I glanced down to see her mother bent over a rubbish bag scavenging for food. As I walked past I realised it was the women who had begged from us at dinner. The woman and child I had ignored. I returned and gave her some money, she thanked me, and went back to scavenging in the rubbish.

I learnt some lessons that evening, learnings that have implications beyond the poverty encountered in Cambodia.

We must be prepared to give:
When I hit Cambodia I hadn’t formed this thinking, which meant each situation I encountered required me to make yes/no decisions. Soon the answer just becomes NO.

You can’t fix everything you see, so being prepared means having the forethought to know what you believe in giving to, and how much. And to whom.

This applies equally back home. Knowing what we will give to, helps when people knock on the door or telemarketers call. Importantly knowing what you believe in giving to, means you will give. If you’re not prepared the answer quickly becomes NO.

We must be ready to give:
If being prepared is a state of mind, then being ready is practical. For us it meant having small amounts of money available for donations. Whether running in the morning or on a Tuk Tuk, we had money to give without hesitation to make a small difference.

At home, I barely ever carry money, and therefore it is significantly harder for me to give without hesitation to make a small immediate difference.

∴

I know a lot of people like me have a heart to give, to be compassionate and yet miss opportunities. So may you prepare your hearts to know when and how you will give. And then may you be ready to give without hesitation.

May you encounter the joy of making a difference.

Lesson 1 from Cambodia visit 2012: Being prepared to give.

Dead and Useless?

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James said, “What good is it, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well’—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”

This is a photo of Charles Mareu talking to a resident of Wailea Settlement in Suva. Charles & Tina don’t have much, and yet they don’t talk about compassion and caring for the poor, they live it.

Their faith is proved real.

Their faith is alive!

This morning I asked God to convict people as we talked at CBC about being compassionate.

Instead He convicted me.

Deeply.

318 | 365 Visit to Wailea Settlement, Suva, Fiji

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This is Aneil. When my family and I met him in his 6ft x 8ft corrugated tin house with a curtain for a door, he looked unwell. Naively I asked him if he was really sick, he responded “No, no I am just really tired as I haven’t eaten in 4 days”.

I admit that I was caught off guard by his answer. I would feel and look unwell if I hadn’t eaten in 4 days. Hours earlier we had a beautiful breakfast in our resort in Nadi, then drove to Suva, now we sat in the slum house of a man who hasn’t eaten in 4 days.

As I sat with him all I could think of was the verses in James that say, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough."

Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” I will write more on Fiji in a later more detailed post.
 

170 | 365 Glocal

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Day170.jpgMy ONE shirt was used as a map on a couple of occasions last night at Agora Goes Live. This is a shot of Octaves Ibounga and a couple of the team from Jerk Freaks (a jerk dance team), pointing towards their home countries of Congo and Egypt. The Jerk Freaks are part of our Glocal community.
 
Glocal is a term I read recently. It’s a term that came about in 1989 and describes the changing convergence of people and cultures. Glocal describes a culture that combines both local and global. A culture where we can locally affect global, and global can connect directly back to local.
 
New Zealand is becoming more and more a glocal community. Global people from varying cultures, birthplaces and history converging locally.
 
Very exciting.

The NZ Dollar is not high, nor bad!

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Ex ASB 270707

I read an article out of Australia about their strong dollar last week. What struck me the most was how positive they are about it. The know commodity prices are up, they know they have growth and they know that they are stronger in the world market.

Compare that to the reaction in New Zealand. Exporters are screaming. Alan Bollard is driving our dollar up because of interest rates. When, oh please, will it come down?

Here are my issues with the way we view the dollar in New Zealand.

  • The NZ dollar is not overly strong. The US dollar is very weak. Compare these four graphs GBP vs USD, EUR vs USD, AUD vs USD and NZD vs USD. Notice any trend? Those who want the dollar to drop want us to become worse off against the Pound, Aussie and Euro!
  • We are missing all the positives. A weak USD means the US economy is weak, means we have more opportunity.
  • The positives of a strong dollar is cheaper imports. Fuel is 25c a litre cheaper than it would be if the dollar was around 60c against the US. Is this the real problem for the government and Bollard. Cheaper imports equals more spending?
  • The exporters (small ones) seem to be complaining about the dollar. We are never going to compete against China as a manufacture point for low value products. We need to build businesses herein NZ, that have supply chains elsewhere (like icebreaker).

I spoke to a couple of large exporters recently, they make high end, high value goods, they are hurting but for them it was part of the cycle of business and had more to do with hedging that the dollar. If you are selling to Aussie or Great Britain or Europe, even through the USD, the net result is not as bad as you would think by just looking at the NZD vs USD.

Finally, I don't claim to be an economist so don't take this all as gospel, and overall the tradeweighed index is up. But the graphs and Aussie attitude seem to speak for theselves.

Is it such a bad thing that we have a high dollar?

What's your view? Click HERE to comment!  View Andrew Nicol's profile on LinkedIn Add to Technorati Favorites 

Linfox and PFL

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Finally a small article appears in the NZ Herald.

Provincial Freightlines (PFL) was a successful privately owned logistics business with blue-chip customers, Linfox chief executive Michael Byrne said.

PFL served industries including logging, timber, packaging, chemicals, refined fuels and fast-moving consumer goods.

The acquisition would double the revenue base of the New Zealand arm of the Linfox business, Mr Byrne said.

It will be intresting to see if they are rebranded, merged or left alone in the medium term.

Linfox buys Provincials

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LINFOXLinfox as purchased Provincial Freightlines Ltd effective today. It hasn’t hit the general media as such.

While the sale of privately held companies to Aussie companies is inevitable I must admit I think it is a loss to New Zealand. It is further evidence that the Transport market is maturing in NZ, as the medium size companies either grow or are acquired.

Provincials had some really rocky years back in the 80’s and I remember well their merger with Heatons. In the last 10 years however they have developed a really strong brand.

Their silver trucks with simply the word “Provincial” on the curtains is a crisp, clean and very well recognised brand.  They have developed a strong customer focused niche business.

What will become of “Provincial”? Time will tell. They were the first customer of agóge and I appreciate their loyalty and continued support. I wish them all well in this transition.

Setting up in Australia

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Mainfreight today announced that they have conditionally sold Pan Orient Project Logistics business and its 75% interest in LEP (New Zealand and Australia) to global logistics company Agility Group for A$83 million. It is the last of the non core Owens businesses to be sold. The funds released from the sale will be used by Mainfreight to fund its ongoing international expansion.

With Mainfreight, Freightways and others slowly establishing significant off shore businesses I wonder what a successful strategy would be for more NZ companies to do the same?

The road to overseas subsidiaries it would seem is littered with more stories of failure than success. Air NZ and Ansett, Telecom and AAPT (yet to see the end of this movie) are examples of huge companies struggling to make it happen. How then is it possible for a NZ company to stem the tide of Aussie investment and head into their backyard? What are the key points to consider?

#1 It is harder than you think.
Summed up well by Josef Roberts who launched Red Bull in the two countries. "Don't rush overseas. Australia might have five times the population, but it also has five times the competition, and Kiwis aren't used to dealing with Australian bureaucracy. Roberts worked out a worst-case scenario, and then doubled the cost and doubled the time. "We were about right," he says. "It took three times as long and was three times as expensive." [From Idealog "Meet the man who gave Red Bull wings"]

x NZ Herald

#2 You need to avoid the Valley of Death
Rod Drury wrote about the Valley of Death "From New Zealand, once you have saturated the local market, you then have a massive transformational change to address another market. You may need to introduce capital, add new staff, learn foreign rules – the list goes on. For us to take almost our first step of expansion, to enter only our second market – we bet our businesses. I'm calling this – the Valley of Death."

#3 You need to take your time.
This would be the key lesson I have gleamed from companies like Mainfreight, Freightways or even Michael Hill who have set-up in Australia. They seem to make slow educated decisions about their growth into other countries. They take the time to understand the markets, people, culture and regulations and they take small incremental steps. They have done this well and don't bet the NZ business on it.

I don't have much first hand experience. Hopefully one day I will, but in the meantime I am interested in your thoughts.