A new calendar year has started. This means the long awaited commencement of the Cricket World Cup and I am enjoying watching good hard fought cricket. The Black Caps have certainly been raising NZ’s expectations due to their strong performance over the past 12 months. I can’t help but feel very nervous about our chances. Personally I think that their achievements over the past 12 months have not been a fluke or just a fleeting improvement.
I am sure that their current and future success has been carefully mapped out by the Management, Coach and Captain. The business analogy would be the appointment of a functional advisory board (NZC board) to ask the hard questions and provide a breadth of experience and knowledge. An astute CEO (Coach Mike Hesson) and then an experienced, dedicated & dynamic Manager (Captain Brendon McCullum) all delivering on a single plan towards an aspirational vision.
After 25 years of dealing with many different businesses in a number of roles, businesses that follow a well-constructed business plan, have experienced governance, which all staff are aware of and contribute to that have tended to be the most successful and profitable. All sounds very management speak doesn’t it? However I would encourage all businesses to ensure that they have a business plan. Not one that is just put in the bottom drawer, rather one which is reviewed on a regular basis with their advisors and which makes the CEO and management accountable.
The business landscape for 2015 has started to be shaped by key, local issues such as the drought, the never ending Auckland property market and CHEAP Petrol. And hanging over us all is Greece and the Eurozone, Ukraine vs Russia and China’s slowing growth. What can we do about it? Not much directly as these things are generally out of our direct control. However like any sporting team as business owners / managers / advisors we can focus on doing our core roles really well and if you take care of the basics then some of the bigger issues may not seem so large.
The team at Lock Finance wish you all well for the 2015 year. Also do not forget to get behind your chosen Super 15 Team as my team, The Chiefs are looking good so watch out.
Craig Brown
General Manager Lending