Waikato Business News November/December 2020

TKI2
56 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS November/December 2020
Grassroots
fund for rugby
Be prepared
The future of grassroots
amateur rugby across
the Waikato has been
boosted by the creation
of the new ‘Friends of
Waikato Rugby Fund’ by
Momentum Waikato and
the Waikato Rugby Union.
It was made possible by a
significant foundational gift
from a generous group of
directors and other rugby
supporters. “Grassroots
rugby is the heartbeat
of many of our region’s
communities, schools
and clubs,” said Waikato
Rugby Union acting chief
executive officer Carl
Moon. “Ultimately, we see
rugby as an avenue for
greater community unity
and wellbeing, so that will
be the focus of the Fund’s
future distributions. We
are certainly grateful to our
foundation supporters for
providing the initial donation
to kick-off this Fund
managed by Momentum
Waikato.”
Co-working
space launches
Impact Hub Waikato has
officially launched its coworking
space in central
Hamilton. Located at 236
Anglesea Street, the space
offers a shared office space
for rent on a casual or
permanent basis, as well
as meeting room hire and
a virtual office service. The
launch of the Hamilton
co-working space gives the
network its first physical
presence in New Zealand.
I know. No-one could be fully prepared for
what hit us this year, but 2020 highlighted
the need to consider the many factors that
should make us rethink our marketing.
I, mostly unsuccessfully, try to
avoid jargon and buzzwords
but ‘pivot’ has re-entered
the vernacular this year with a
hard-hitting wallop. Lots of us
have had to try a new direction
in our businesses. For many of
us, only a little, but some have
needed to make significant
changes.
In some cases, a change
to the environment in which
our business operates means
we need to look at different
channels to reach
new audiences.
We can be certain that 2020
has seen businesses embrace
digital marketing even more
rapidly than in recent years.
The inability to connect faceto-face,
even if only for a
comparatively short time here
in New Zealand, forced businesses
to reassess how they
could connect in other ways.
But it’s worth reminding
ourselves that a global pandemic
isn’t the only event that
can rock our boats.
There are countless changes
happening around us all the
time that we need to be able to
adapt our marketing efforts to
face.
The challenges of new competition,
or a competitor introducing
a tantalising new product
or service, can push us to
tell our own story in a different
way or to highlight a previously
under-told message.
The Waikato is apparently
becoming an increasingly
popular home for New Zealand
businesses, and expat
Kiwis are returning home and
setting up here too. So, making
sure that we stand out and can
be clear about our offer in this
ever more competitive environment
could be something
for which we all need to be
prepared.
Faced by any need to
change tack, we can be reviewing
the range of media options
that are genuinely feasible for
the people we want to reach.
If a decent proportion of
your audience are high consumers
of social media, stay on
social media. If your audience
is stuck in the daily commute,
perhaps bus backs and billboards
are still a viable option
too. And equally, if you know
that many of your audience
enjoys their local community
newspaper or specialist publication,
use those vehicles
to tell your story.
If you’re struggling to stand
out amongst the crowd in one
place, maybe it’s time to consider
where else your audience
might be able to see you more
clearly.
Fractures in supply chains
have seen many businesses
need to reconsider their product
range or manage expectations
about speed of delivery.
These problems aren’t unique
to a pandemic and can happen,
albeit on a more localised
scale, any time. But 2020 will
hopefully have taught us to be
prepared for these changes,
including how our marketing
and communications can keep
customers happy when we
can’t serve them as we’d like.
Sadly, many businesses
have reduced income, as consumers
cautiously tighten their
belts.
Although, in theory, a
time when you need more
customers should really mean
you reach out to potential customers
more, the harsh reality
is that some have had to cut
marketing budgets.
But, as the world has seen
many times before, it’s not just
pandemics that force financial
downturns that mean we have
to make our money go further.
Particularly in small businesses
(and that’s a lot of us, right?)
we regularly face bumps along
the road that make us adjust
TELLING YOUR STORY
> BY VICKI JONES
Vicki Jones is director of Dugmore Jones, Hamilton-based brand
management consultancy. Email vicki@dugmorejones.co.nz
our marketing spending, even
if only for a short period.
There are times we have to
be prepared to step back and
rewrite whatever old rule book
we followed and, if we’re up
for it, be braver and think creatively.
It might be as simple as
switching from talking about
ourselves to telling our story
through our clients’ eyes. Or
it might be change in the tone
of voice we use, or a striking
new look.
When you need help to get
out of a hole, you might only
need to put your hand up to
get someone’s attention. But if
you’re in a crowd or the hole
is deep, be prepared to wave
both arms, shout or sing, otherwise
you’re simply waiting for
the crowd to clear in the hope
someone will find you. Whatever
the medium, changes in
our marketing hinge on the
power of the big idea, the clarity
of the message and the way
that our stories are told.
As our world changes
around us, it emphasises that
we can’t necessarily do things
as we always have done them.
And in some cases, it might
purely mean we do the same,
but need to be prepared to do it
differently.
LIC invests
LIC has increased its
level of investment in
its AgCelerator Fund
and announced two
investments designed to
deliver more value to New
Zealand dairy farmers. The
cooperative has confirmed
investments in New
Zealand-based TrackBack
and Mastaplex. Aucklandbased
TrackBack uses
blockchain technology
in the agriculture sector
to provide trust and
transparency through the
supply chain for global
confidence in quality,
integrity and provenance.
Dunedin-based Mastaplex
has developed a proprietary
mastitis testing device.
LIC AgCelerator Fund
manager Eleshea D’Souza
and Trackback CEO David
McDonald.
Changing health outcomes
Waikato DHB gastroenterologist
Dr Liz
Phillips says the
rollout in the Waikato of the
FIT bowel cancer screening
programme offers real opportunities
to change the health
outcomes for many New Zealanders.
In her early teens, Liz
Phillips briefly contemplated
becoming an undertaker, based
on her curiosity about death,
cryopreservation, and Egyptian
mummies.
When it became apparent
that career choice might
make her look odd among her
classmates, she fell back on
doctoring, which she had chosen
when she was four. More
than 40 years’ later, she has no
regrets.
Dr Phillips is the clinical
lead for Bowel Cancer Screening
for the Waikato DHB, in
which people aged between 60
and 75, will be invited to complete
a faecal immunochemical
test (FIT) to detect traces
of blood in bowel motions that
may be an early sign of pre-cancerous
polyps (growths) or
bowel cancer.
The programme will be
rolled out in March next year,
after being delayed by Covid.
With more than 26 years’
gastroenterology experience
in the UK, including clinical
director of gastroenterology
across a three-site hospital in
Northumberland in England
for six years, she is well-qualified
for the role.
She came to New Zealand
in 2013 after overseeing
a period of significant change
in the National Health Service,
which meant working “almost
every single hour of every single
day.”
While that work was stressful,
it also encouraged new
ways of working that she
believes will have benefits for
gastroenterology in New Zealand.
This country has one of the
highest rates of bowel cancer
in the world, and one of the
highest death rates. But the
number of gastroenterologists
per head of population is low,
leading to regional socio-economic
and ethnic inequalities.
A report in 2018 by the NZ
Society of Gastroenterology
said increases in bowel cancer,
inflammatory bowel disease
(IBD) and Hepatitis C, plus
the demands of the National
Bowel Screening Programme
were placing huge pressure
on GE specialists, and creating
long waiting lists for follow-ups.
Dr Phillips says one solution,
based on her experience
in the UK is to train more
nurse scopers (endoscopists)
to do colonoscopies on some
of the symptomatic patients,
which frees up doctors and
covers the time when those
doctors are on leave, keeping
wait times down.
When fully signed off, a
nurse scoper could do a standard
colonoscopy or upper
gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy
and recognise pathology
such as polyps. They
would also be able to remove
polyps of up to 1cm.
One fully trained nurse scoper
employed by the Waikato
DHB is now doing six colonoscopies
a week.
In her role as clinical lead
for the National Bowel Screening
Programme, she also sees
opportunities to get a higher
uptake among Māori, who have
a high incidence of presenting
late with bowel cancer.
Based on the experiences of
the Lakes DHB which rolled
out the screening programme
a year ago, and achieved a
45 per cent uptake, she is
focused on working closely
with iwi to reduce any barriers
to participation. Invitations
to participate will be sent out
on an area by area basis, to
forge local connections.
The messages about the
need to screen will be based
on a person’s whakapapa,
rather than individual health.
“It will be about looking after
kaumātua so they can look
after their family.”
The screening programme
is predicted to increase the
number of referrals to the
DHB by around 28 per cent.
While FIT test positive
patients will be dealt with
through the public health
system, some other patients
who have symptoms such as
a change of bowel habits or a
family history of bowel cancer
will be outsourced to private
hospitals such as Braemar.
The data indicates 1200
colonoscopies will have to be
outsourced by Waikato DHB
each year.
Dr Phillips says public and
private can work well together
to ensure everyone gets the
treatment they need at the time
they need it. It also ensures
efficiency.
She says the bowel cancer
screening programme provides
the opportunity to change a
lot of things. “If we don’t the
Ministry will check on us. That
means people in the Waikato
will not get screening. It is a
huge incentive for management
to get processes right.”
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