August 2021 - Bay of Plenty Business News

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6 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS August 2021 BOP PERSONALITY PROFILE Sampson takes over top role at Port of Tauranga Leonard Sampson – who has just taken over from the long-serving Mark Cairns as chief executive of Port of Tauranga – was quick to remind the Bay of Plenty Business News that he had known and worked with his predecessor for many years. By DAVID PORTER Before joining the Tauranga port in 2013 as commercial manager for six years, he held senior roles at KiwiRail, Carter Holt Harvey and Mainfreight. He was subsequently the port’s chief operating officer for 18 months before taking over Cairns’ role. Cairns told Bay of Plenty Business News in a recent interview that he was a strong supporter of Sampson’s elevation to the top job and also encouraged him to take up a recent three-month intensive Harvard Management Programme on-site course in the US. “I already knew the port quite well and negotiated contracts with the Metro port in Auckland and knew Mark well,” Sampson said when he sat down with us for his first interview in his new role. The new chief executive noted that he was already involved in a lot of the strategy of the port’s business and its delivery. ‘It’s difficult to say we’re going to need wholesale change and not also assume responsibility for things that are already being done,” he said. Good strategic initiatives underway “From a business perspective we’ve got some really good strategic initiatives underway. We’ve got a lot of growth in the industry. For example, the kiwifruit industry is growing and we need to be able to respond to those changes.” Sampson noted that there were still changes evolving in shipping dynamics with vessels continuing to get larger. “We will continue to see the consolidation of carriers,” he said. “In our view, essentially as the vessels get larger there will be fewer ports and greater levels of transhipment. “ Port of Tauranga is already now effectively the busiest port in New Zealand, he said. “We have 2 million containers through the terminal a year at the moment,” he said. “We are the largest container terminal nationally by 45 per cent. We move 45 percent more containers than Auckland.” Sampson was cautious in being drawn into comment on Ports of Auckland activities. However, he said Auckland clearly faced some challenges. “From a NZ supply chain, and from a Port of Tauranga perspective, we really need them to get back to some level of productivity, but they’re not there yet unfortunately,” he said. Automation challenges and labour issues in Auckland “That’s a combination of automation challenges and labour issues. It doesn’t really matter what they are, but from our perspective we just need them back. “We need vessels to arrive on schedule and we need them to be worked on schedule and that just does not happen at this point.” The onset of Covid-19 has clearly played a role, but there were also delays in Auckland, he said. Most observers have noted the increased incidence of vessels being moored outside the port awaiting access to space at wharves inside Tauranga. “The reality is we have had 100 less container vessels through the port this year compared to the same period last year,” said Sampson. “Our schedule relies on the ship calling on Auckland first then discharging at other ports and picking up Leonard Sampson: was the in-house choice as new port CE0. Photo/Supplied. empties, and then moving on to Tauranga. Once it does that and it’s late, then everything is late.” Sampson recently noted the chair of an international container lines committee in NZ stated they were accessing eight less voyages a year because of the delays. Sampson was quick to point out that the Tauranga port had been fortunate to have quite a good diversity of cargoes that had performed strongly this year. “It’s been a tough year, but one that will be OK,” he said. Covid-19 was certainly causing delays and congestion in some other ports in the world, including China and Singapore, he said. “By the time the vessel reaches NZ there is typically a transit time – this affords the ability to catch up on some of those delays. “They might get to New Zealand to three days off schedule. But that’s not the significant difference. When the vessel calls into Auckland first and discharges imports and then takes another seven days, the ability for us to catch up on time around the coast is difficult. “There are more ships having to wait to get in because our berth windows are being extended – they’re all arriving off schedule.” Berth extension plan still underway The Port of Tauranga recently attracted news attention because its announced plan to extend the scope of its berthage was knocked back. However, Sampson insisted the plan remained unchanged. “Because of the growth and the response to the growing trade, we need to develop the Sulphur Point container terminal and as part of that we are going through a process to consent the development of up to 380 metres of a new container berth with the initial development likely to be 280 metres,” he said. The extension is to the south of Sulphur Point. “This has been in the longterm district plan for over 20 years.” Last year the port was instead invited to participate with the extension in the government’s planned “shovel ready” projects. Sampson noted there were some 300 jobs likely to come from the Sulphur Point extension, where geo tech work has already been undertaken. “That’s because of the growth we are going to have there in terms of trade, but we were unfortunately declined through the ‘shovel ready’ projects,” said Sampson. “We weren’t looking for funding, just to get going.” Sampson said instead, this May the port expansion plan was admitted under the BOP Regional Council’s conventional consent process and it has also requested a direct referral to the environment court. The relevant minister had suggested that was the path the port should look to undertake given the importance of the development. “It hasn’t been knocked back, but just put on another path,” he said. Psychological Safety: Why it Matters for Managers in Today’s Workplace While the importance of physical safety is a given, many underestimate the need for psychological safety as a driver for team performance. With our mental well-being and resilience being tested by the rapidly changing world, psychological safety has taken on new importance. We present survey results from 6,509 respondents across 20 countries. What You’ll Learn The difference Psychological Safety makes to: • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion • Organisational Agility • Employee Engagement • Staff Retention • Resilience How to Create Psychological Safety in your team FREE SEMINAR Tauranga Friday August 20th, 9am-10:45am Hotel Armitage To Register for Tauranga: www.eventspronto.co.nz/21TPS01 Investment: FREE Contact Us: Dale Carnegie BOP Waikato Michael Shaw Michael.shaw@dalecarnegie.com 0275 429144 www.bop-waikato.dalecarnegie.com Programme Schedule: www.eventspronto.co.nz/dalecarnegie
August 2021 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS 7 Why debt collection is often a waste of time Over the past 15 years I have loaded thousands of debts for collection and one thing that has always rung true is that those that will pay will pay and those that won’t pay won’t pay. This may seem like a simplistic view of an entire industry until you drill down into why it is so. Why does debt collection sometimes work? The reason that debt collection sometimes works is that the debt collector is not the creditor and there is a feeling of escalation, giving the debtor the impression that if the debt remains unpaid it will continue to escalate to an unknown conclusion such as default listing or court action. In these cases the debtor will often pay the debt to get it out of the way or in some cases they have simply forgotten to pay and the embarrassment of this is enough of a prompt. Why debt collection often doesn’t work Debts mainly occur for the following reasons: 1. An underestimation of what something will cost. 2. A dramatic change in financial liquidity on the behalf of the debtor. 3. A genuine dispute around the provision of services and or products. 4. A miscommunication between the parties involved that turns toxic. 5. A practiced recidivist debtor who never intended to pay in the first place. 6. An oversight in payment. In my experience only two of the above can be resolved quickly and easily by using traditional debt collection techniques. The debt collector is either the reminder to pay or the threat of further action and cost is enough for the debtor to reprioritise the payment or access funds from another source to pay the debt. With the other four reasons, not only can traditional techniques fail to render payment, they can actually make the debt harder to resolve by causing the debtor to entrench their position forcing the debt into the disputes tribunal or higher court, creating a chronological and financial drain on both parties and rendering the relationship unrepairable. In my experience once a debtor states their position three times to a creditor it is very, very unlikely that they will back down from this, irrespective of its validity, as they feel unheard and the non-payment becomes one of principal despite the consequences that this may have as they see the fight as a noble one. So what is the solution? What I have found is that the difference between successful “Debt Collectors” and those CREDIT CONTROL > BY NICK KERR Nick Kerr is a Business Advisor at NJK Advisory Ltd. He is also director of International Private Investigations Ltd. Nick can be reached at nick@nzipi.com who just play the percentages game is that the successful ones know how to mediate the situation that underlies the non payment and allows both parties to feel heard. Thus payment of the debt In my experience once a debtor states their position three times to a creditor it is very, very unlikely that they will back down from this.” is not an admission of wrongdoing, but rather the logical conclusion to the conversation where outstanding issues are resolved. The outcome of this is not only that the creditor gets paid, but also the situation is resolved with no residual ill will. Through my work with IPI we have mediated situations where the parties were at such a level of toxicity towards each other that merely seeing each other in public would lead to a physical confrontation. After the mediation, the parties shook hands and were both noticeably unburdened from the stress surrounding the situation. Many people believe that once a debt is paid then that is the end of the matter. However, in this age of connectedness there is no way of knowing how many current or potential clients a business could have lost because of how a situation is resolved or through the actions of an aggrieved party, such as negative reviews, social media posts or even going so far as to personally call large potential clients of the creditor in an attempt to dissuade them from using the business. I see this time and time again, especially in the construction industry. It is imperative to consider the future while addressing the past. Just a thought NEWSBRIEF Seeka announces an equity investment in Fruitometry New Zealand’s largest kiwifruit grower Seeka [NZX:SEK] announces an equity investment in Fruitometry an innovative horticultural agritech. In its first year Fruitometry successfully delivering a new commercial Digital Crop Estimation (DCE) service to kiwifruit growers, managers and packhouses in the North Island. Fruitometry’s exclusive technology enables the $3billion kiwifruit industry by growers being able to measure fruit set and growth by row throughout the growing season. Fruitometry CTO and Founder Christopher Miller said “We are delighted with our performance after commercially scanning a thousand hectares. Grower feedback has been fantastic; it affirms our hard work to transform a challenging concept into a horticultural metrics provider in three years. Seeka is an ambitious, growth-oriented leader. Their investment is rocket fuel to rapidly scale our operation, broaden our product line and launch innovative tech towards additional crops and beyond New Zealand.” Fruitometry’s new service utilises advances in telemetry, imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) using deep neural networks that quickly digitise orchards to provide insightful reports for targeted orchard management, horticultural process control and supply chain fruit volume estimation. Their proprietary software streamlines realtime image processing, AI training annotation, data warehousing, analytics and comprehensive report generation into a scalable service. Seeka CEO Michael Franks says “We identified Fruitometry as an innovative start-up that will enable us to better manage our orchards and provide accurate pre-harvest fruit volume estimation. With his proven track record developing inventive America’s Cup technologies, Chris and the team really bring the X-factor to designing innovative solutions. We believe there is a lot of value for both companies in this investment.” Seeka’s minority investment of $2.6 million values Fruitometry at $10 million. Fruitometry will continue to operate independently while expanding their service. Fruitometry’s head office is in Katikati, Bay of Plenty. Fruitometry’s purpose is to provide knowledge that empowers growers to efficiently manage their orchard, maximise their yield and provide accurate pre-harvest crop estimation for the entire value chain. Fruitometry has been supported by Callaghan Innovation with a research and development project grant. Fruitometry Director and Co-Founder Mike Ullrich said “We are thrilled to work with Seeka who are a significant leader in New Zealand horticulture. This investment will help us accelerate our product development, continue to build our innovative intellectual property and scale up our team and services. “Agritech is a key driver to improve productivity and provide a competitive advantage for New Zealand companies and we are excited to be leading the way. We look forward to sharing more of our innovative services in the future.” Our city’s expanding, so is our team From property to roading to large-scale subdivisions, Holland Beckett is thrilled to welcome Jaimee Kinzett’s big city experience back to Tauranga. Jaimee has recently returned home to the Bay, with more than a decade of practising law in Auckland giving her all the experience she needs to deal with all your pressing property issues. Jaimee has spent the last three years at Auckland Transport as a specialist in Technical Property Services, working closely with Auckland Council, Kāinga Ora and large-scale property developers. Prior to this, she spent 10 years in a leading specialist commercial property and resource management firm advising a listed national property company, institutional investors, corporate and private clients. Jaimee brings vast experience to the Holland Beckett team, including acquisitions and disposals; commercial, industrial and retail leasing; developments/subdivisions; due diligence investigations; Public Works Act and Local Government Act matters including acquisitions and disposals; and roading matters, including road stoppings, legalisations and encroachments. Jaimee Kinzett Associate DDI 07 577 8680 Mobile 027 230 3338 jaimee.kinzett@hobec.co.nz hobec.co.nz HOB26338 BOP_BN
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August 2021 - Bay of Plenty Business News

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