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Thursday <strong>July</strong> <strong>16</strong> <strong>2020</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz NEWS 13 City shooting survivor among Istanbul mosque celebrations CONTENT MARKETING Each week we profile a local Christchurch organisation to give them a plug and see how they’re going as the country eases into recovery. This week we spoke to Rick Hill, a director of accounting and business advisory firm Hargreaves On the up • By Louis Day A MOSQUE shooting survivor was among celebrations in Turkey around the decision to convert the historic Hagia Sophia back into a mosque. Hundreds of Muslims, including mosque shooting survivor Wasseim Alsati, have gathered outside the historic site after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced it would be converted back into a mosque following a High Court ruling which stripped the site of its museum status. Mr Alsati and his four-yearold daughter suffered multiple gunshot injuries at the Al Noor Mosque during the March 15 terror attacks. Photos posted on his Facebook page show him waving a flag outside the Hagia Sophia while wearing a face mask. Turkish authorities made wearing facemasks compulsory in Istanbul and 46 other provinces as cases began to climb following the reopening of businesses last month. Mr Alsati did not respond to requests for comment from <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong>. <strong>The</strong> first Muslim prayers are set to be held at Hagia Sophia next Friday. Hagia Sophia was built as a Christian cathedral nearly 1500 years ago and turned into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of 1453. It became a museum in 1934 under Turkish Republic founding father Ataturk. While the move to reconvert the site to a mosque has been welcomed by the Islamic community, it has been opposed by Turkish secularists and the Catholic Church. At a service in the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was “pained” by the decision to convert the site back into a mosque. <strong>The</strong> World Council of Churches has also called on the Turkish president to reverse his decision. One of Turkey’s most famous authors, Orhan Pamuk, also told SURVIVOR: Wasseim Alsati, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the March 15 terror attacks, was among the hundreds of people celebrating outside the historic Hagia Sophia in Istanbul after it was announced it would be reconverted into a mosque. the BBC that the decision would take away the “pride” some Turks had in being a secular Muslim nation. Burglars target retail outlets • By Matt Slaughter RETAIL SHOPS and other businesses in the central city have been hardest hit by burglaries over the last few months. New data from police shows 26 per cent of the premises burgled between April 1 and June 30 had electronic security equipment that was not on or not working, while 88 per cent of construction sites had no electronic security features. Data released from police has revealed there were 396 burglaries of commercial premises during this time period. Retail shops were hit in 31 per cent of these burglaries, other commercial premises came in a close second at 21 per cent. Detective Senior Sergeant Damon Wells said the reason central city retail and commercial premises were targeted most for this three month period was because there were far less people around as a result of Covid-19 restrictions. As a result, empty businesses such as car yards were some of the main targets. Of these burglaries, 69 per cent took place in Christchurch city, while 17 per cent took place in more rural parts of the district including Selwyn and Banks Peninsula. <strong>The</strong> statistics cover some areas outside of Canterbury including Mackenzie District, Ashburton, Timaru and Waimate. Fourteen per cent of these burglaries occured in these areas. <strong>The</strong> methods used to break into non-residential premises have been simple during this time, with doors being used as entry points 47 per cent of the time. However, the number of nonresidential burglaries was 39.8 per cent less than between January 1 and March 31. Tell us about Hargreaves We are a small longestablished accounting and business advisory firm operating from Christchurch’s CBD fringe. One little-known fact about our business is that until recently we ran the New Zealand arm of Interflora. We’re part of the team that made sure those flowers and box of chocolates you sent your mum always arrived on time. <strong>The</strong> recent lockdown has been tough on everyone, what was the toughest aspect for Hargreaves and its people? How did you adapt? Lockdown was in some respects deja vu – it wasn’t that long-ago businesses in the CBD were scrambling in the aftermath of the earthquakes. Thankfully, we learnt our lessons from that episode and were able to transition swiftly to at-home work. <strong>The</strong> technology side of things was relatively painless – just pick up a laptop and go. What’s more, Zoom, Facebook Messenger video and chat minimised the feeling of isolation. Now that lockdown has been relaxed, are you expecting to operate differently? What aspects of your business do you think will change permanently? We’re back in the office, though with a new outlook on workplace flexibility. When it makes sense to work at home – when someone is sick, for example – then we’re geared up to do it. We can trust our staff to be productive, but sometimes coordinating work is a challenge, when people in remote locations are working on the same set of accounts. Supported by What role does technology play at Hargreaves? Which technology has been most helpful? Are you using any new technology now? In the days after the earthquakes we relocated our servers to CCL’s data centre and rolled out Windows Remote Desktop, which gave us the ability to work from almost anywhere. Now we’re planning our next move to Microsoft 365, which will further simplify workplace flexibility and document sharing. We’re also looking forward to using Microsoft Teams. Do you have a sense of what the future looks like for Hargreaves? <strong>The</strong> future of workplace systems is in the cloud. Correctly done, cloud services run trouble-free, flatten running costs, and give everyone the tools and information they need wherever they choose to work. Finally, what lessons have you learned from this chapter in our history? More than anyone else, Cantabrians know to expect the unexpected. You’ve got to be resilient – and that means having a plan in place. That’s how we were able to cope with lockdown. However, the one proviso is that everything must be set up correctly. Security must be right from the start. Cloud systems might be a quick way to get up and running but the untrained operator will leave them full of holes. <strong>The</strong>re are plenty of horror stories out there. Our partner CCL ensures everything is done properly. www.hargreaves.co.nz Email: reception@ hargreaves.co.nz Phone: 379 7484
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