Waikato Business News February/March 2018

4 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS February/March 2018
Conversations
with William
William Durning -
chief executive, Waikato Chamber of Commerce
Just like you, there are times where we
get to the end of the day here at the
Chamber and there is still lots to do.
Being busy is something that we all want
to be and is often a part of how we greet
others. But being busy isn’t really the objective
- it’s all about being effective and
in my experience that comes down to a
couple of factors, clarity of what it is that
you want to do and then the appropriate
resources that you deploy to get the job
done.
The clarity of what needs to be focused
on is really the output of good strategic
thinking and planning and that topic alone
is worthy of its own separate commentary.
What I would like to touch on is the
second part - the resources to deploy once
you know what must be done and those far
too often experienced moments where the
task that needs attention is significant in
size, complex in its nature and you don’t
have any spare people or budget to employ
people to get it done. What is one
to do?
This is a perennial problem and is a
significant issue for smaller businesses
or those in the not for profit space. A
resource to help that is sometimes overlooked
is our graduate students from the
tertiary sector. From personal experience,
if you are open to being a little creative in
how you use them you can get some astounding
results.
As part of our ongoing work
plan the Chamber board and I
agreed that we could do a lot
more to improve our health
and safety processes and the
reporting to the board.
Both the University of Waikato and
Wintec have clearly articulated that they
have students who will act as interns to
help those in business improve their productivity
and in return give to the student
valuable work experience - allow me
dear reader to tell you of how here at the
Chamber we have used such a resource.
As part of our ongoing work plan the
Chamber board and I agreed that we could
do a lot more to improve our health and
safety processes and the reporting to the
board. This project had significant scope
CHAMBER EVENTS
28th February – Habit 7: How to make your brand stick
William Durning - chief executive,
Waikato Chamber of Commerce.
and complexity allowing an HR student
from Wintec, Sanah Ali, to spend more
than 120 hours on the task. In that time
she collated and reviewed our existing paper-based
system and then took that information,
along with current best practice
learning and using Safe365, a cloud-based
system designed here in Waikato, implemented
a significant superior solution that
we benefit from today.
Another example is a law student from
the University of Waikato, Angus Campbell
who is currently reviewing the Hamilton
City Council 10-year plan which is
open for submissions. Angus is reviewing
the extensive support material, understanding
what the key issues are from a
business perspective and then is collating
feedback for the Chamber submission
that we will make on behalf of our members.
In both cases the expectations on me
aren’t huge, my role requires defining a
clear outcome that the student works towards
and then regular sessions where I
act as a sounding board on the approaches
that are being taken. In addition to getting
the work done, I have found some
of the approaches and solutions are quite
dynamic and have been a learning exercise
for me as well. I have also had the
real privilege of helping in my small way
develop the next generation of business
women and men who are our upcoming
leaders. The cliché of it being a win/win
really feels an appropriate way of succinctly
describing the experience, and did
I mention that it is completely free!
If you are keen to also benefit from this
untapped resource drop me a line, it would
be my pleasure to also help you have a
more effective rather than a busier day by
making a student a part of your business.
12th - 14th March – New Kiwi Career Success Programme
13th March – Diversity Regional Roadshow, The workplace of the future
14th March – Lunch with Sir Graeme Dingle
15th March – How to be a CEO in 10 years: Hamilton Young Professionals
22nd March – The RedSofa with Alibaba Group, Stark Property and official
partners of Justin Bieber!
23rd March – Smith & McKenzie Mini Golf Tournament
Waikato Chamber of Commerce
Business Floor, Wintec House
Cnr Nisbet and Anglesea Street, HAMILTON
07 839 5895 | help@waikatochamber.co.nz
www.waikatochamber.co.nz
Gallagher’s head office in Hamilton.
Gallagher celebrates
80 years
Gallagher is celebrating its 80th
anniversary as a leading technology
company in the animal management,
security and fuel systems industries.
The family owned-and-operated
Hamilton company
was founded in 1938
by the late Bill Gallagher Senior
and 80 years ago was a 10-person
business which designed
and delivered New Zealand’s
first electric fence solution.
Today, the company employs
1100 people across a
global network in ten countries.
To celebrate 80 years
Gallagher will hold a series
of events for customers and
employees throughout North
America, Europe, Asia, South
Africa, Australia and New
Zealand.
“The innovative spirit of,
my father, our founder Bill
Gallagher Senior – who 80
years ago worked to solve our
first problem – is alive in the
generations of our people who
continue to deliver previously
unthought-of solutions,” said
Sir William Gallagher, chief
executive and chairman, Gal-
lagher.
“Each year, for 80 years,
our customers have experienced
continual increases in
the power of Gallagher technology
to transform their
working lives.”
“Our longevity is a credit
to our employees, business
partners and customers whose
dedication to the brand are absolutely
key to our success. As
part of our anniversary we’re
looking forward to events
throughout the year that will
celebrate the strength of those
partnerships built over decades.”
A significant investment
into the company’s people will
see employees from throughout
New Zealand and their
families join together with the
Gallagher family for a milestone
ceremony. The celebration
will include food inspired
by office locations across the
globe, fun family activities
and headline entertainment.
Around the world, additional
Gallagher celebrations
are well underway, including
the following, among many
others:
- The installation of a giant
‘spark’ graphic on Gallagher’s
head office in Hamilton,
New Zealand
- Worldwide anniversary
product initiatives for customers
- An official gala dinner at
the Gallagher residence in
Hamilton, New Zealand for
a number of key customers,
suppliers and business
community members
- Sponsorship of additional
organisations as a thank
you to the communities
where Gallagher operates.
To further mark the milestone,
Gallagher moments
will be captured in a commemorative
digital format,
to be published at the end of
the year, as a reflection of the
brand’s presence over the past
80 years. The digital book will
be available to view online at
gallagher.com and Gallagher’s
customers and business partners
are invited to contribute
heritage archives via eighty@
gallagher.com.
“We’ve achieved a lot in
the past 80 years but we are
just getting started,” said Sir
William.
New boss at Momentum
Hamilton City Council’s
high profile general
manger city growth
Kelvyn Eglinton has been appointed
as Momentum Waikato’s
new chief executive.
Mr Eglinton will take up the
role at the community foundation
in mid-March. Founding
chief executive Cheryl Reynolds
has left after four years at
the helm to establish a new social
enterprise for generosity.
Momentum Waikato chairman
Leonard Gardner says
he is pleased the foundation’s
board has appointed Mr Eglinton.
“We are grateful Kelvyn
is joining us. He has a very
strong background in community
engagement and growth
and that, combined with his
strategic approach, will drive
Momentum Waikato through
its next important phase.”
Mr Gardner says Mr Eglinton
is a strong supporter of the
Waikato region, and will be a
perfect fit for what is a unique
role in New Zealand.
Momentum Waikato Community
Foundation is an independent,
permanent resource
for high-impact philanthropic
giving within the Waikato region,
linking generous donors
to strategic charitable investments
targeted at transformational
change. Among other
things it is currently convening
donations to deliver the new
Waikato Regional Theatre.
Mr Eglinton, who has held
the city growth role at Hamilton
City Council for two years,
has a strong background in
corporate social responsibility
in mining in New Zealand and
Australasia, and has long-term
connections to Waikato.
“The Momentum CEO role
was very attractive because
my background is in working
across communities and within
corporate organisations, particularly
around corporate social
responsibility. Waikato is on
the cusp of great things and
Momentum Waikato is aligned
with many good business people
seeking to make the region
a better place.”
He plans to build on the
work already put in place by
Ms Reynolds and the Momentum
Waikato team to specialise
in brokering deals by connecting
donors and projects, and to
make Waikato the most generous
region in the world.
“We have about 460,000
people across our region, making
us the third biggest economy
in New Zealand. We have
communities wanting to build
a sense of place, a strong iwi
in Waikato Tainui and solid opportunities
to leverage across
New Momentum chief
executive Kelvyn Eglinton.
projects and programmes. So,
we’re big enough to trial things
but we’re flexible and have
great connections, and therefore
we can adapt and amend
quickly if we need to.”
Mr Eglinton says Momentum
Waikato already has the
support of many generous individual
donors, and he’ll also
be looking to work with corporate,
iwi and community organisations
to benefit the Waikato
community. “Corporate social
responsibility is still really in
its infancy in New Zealand,
but we are seeing great changes
in many industries. I hope to
be able to talk with companies
here about providing benefits
to communities in such a way
that makes good sense to organisations.”