Lessons from Christchurch's earthquakes show that most Northland business owners are ill-prepared to survive and recover from an emergency, says Kim Abbott of the Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group.
She said many of the region's small to medium businesses were familiar with adverse events, such as flooding and bad weather, but needed to know more about how to respond to a wider and more serious range of incidents, hence the new CDEM-led regionwide programme of workshops on strategies for these worst-case scenarios.
CDEM has joined the New Zealand Fire Service and the Northland Chamber of Commerce to offer the business continuity workshops free of charge in several locations around Northland.
"The Christchurch experience underlined the fact an inability to access premises, contact staff or customers or deliver goods can lead to significant financial losses or even permanent closure but a relatively small amount of time spent on developing a good business continuity plan for these sorts of situations can keep an organisation up and running," she said. The 2 hour workshops would strengthen the ability of businesses to recover from isolated events such as a fire to ongoing disruption from a major regional event.
The first three of the half-day workshops are being held in Whangarei early next month.
Leadership
On Monday Refining NZ's company secretary and chief financial officer Denise Jensen will talk about her leadership journey as guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Whangarei Business Women's Network. A Northlander by birth and choice, Mrs Jensen joined the company in 2005 as internal auditor, was appointed chief financial officer in 2009 and company secretary in 2010.
Her responsibilities include accounting, treasury and taxation, business information systems, corporate administration, investor relations and risk and assurance. She will discuss the challenges she faced when returning to the workforce after 10 years of full-time motherhood, challenges she faced on the way up the corporate ladder, and what it is like to work at board level in a company the New Zealand Stock Exchange has named as one of the country's top 50.
Mrs Jensen will also give an update on the upcoming $365 million expansion project. A large number of new jobs will be created by the expansion. The company is already a major Northland employer, with 360 staff and another 200 on contract. Network organiser Barbara Jaques says questions will be welcomed after the address.
The group has no membership fee and no attendance requirements, all welcome.
Time: 5.30-8pm. Venue: A'Fare Reception Lounge, Lower Dent St, Whangarei. Cost: $45. Information/registration: bjprojects@xtra.co.nz. Registrations close 5pm today.
Smart work
This Tuesday is Increase Your Profit Margin, a free workshop with Whangarei accountancy and business performance specialist Sudburys, the third in a series of monthly workshops, all at Sudburys in Commerce St, beginning at 5.30pm preceded by free drinks and nibbles from 5pm.
The workshop focuses on eliminating waste; understanding the business life cycle, margins, and product mix; and improving business models, and the presenters are Leah Peacock, a director of Sudburys, and associate Catherine Scott.
The final in the series is "Your Most Important Investments" and offers a guide to what business owners should be investing in (this includes retaining good staff and effective training and marketing techniques).
Registrations: event@sudburys.co.nz or 09 430 4888.
All change
Thursday, September 20, the spring 2012 Making Changes expose holes in disaster planPaul Davies, director of intellectual property at EverEdge IP Professor Brad Jackson, co-director of the New Zealand Leadership Institute at the University of Auckland Business School.
Luncheon with Paul Davies, director of intellectual property at EverEdge IP, discussing "leveraging intellectual property towards commercial gains".
The speaker holds a degree in civil engineering and is a registered NZ patent attorney, and previously worked in Asia for 12 years, including nine years as head of the patent and designs section of leading Hong Kong/Asian IP firm Deacons.
Venue: The Apprentice Restaurant, North Tec Raumanga Campus, Raumanga Valley Rd, Whangarei. Time: Arrive 12.15pm for 12.30pm start. Lasts about two hours. Cost: Members $40 including GST, non-members $50, includes complimentary drink. Information/registrations: info@northchamber.co.nz or Janette Dobbs 09 438 4771 or 021 441 026. Registrations close noon tomorrow .
Plan ahead
Thursday October 4 and Tuesday October 16, Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group 2 hour workshops: how to plan for your business to survive and recover from adverse events. The workshops are designed to lead business owners/operators into the business continuity planning process, assisted by qualified business and emergency mentors.
The three Whangarei workshops (Oct 4 9.30am-noon, Oct 16, 9.30am-noon and 1-3pm) will be followed by others in Kerikeri, Kaikohe and Kaitaia later this year and Kaipara early next year. Numbers will be limited to 24 for each workshop.
Whangarei venue: Northland Regional Council, Water St, Whangarei. Information/bookings: Kim Abbott on 0800 002 004 or kimab@nrc.govt.nz
Thank you
Nominations are open through September for the two Northland Business Excellence Awards categories which give the public the chance to acknowledge outstanding service on a small scale or a grand scale: the Northern Advocate Business Hall of Fame and the More FM Customer Choice Awards. Customer Choice is divided into retail and service provider categories; while the Hall of Fame celebrates the achievements of businesspeople who have made significant contributions to the region, through service to their industry and the greater Northland community. Nominees need not necessarily still live in Northland but must have a continuing strong connection to the region, and the connection has to be widely known if they are not residents.
Nominations should include some information on the nominee and why he or she is being nominated, and emailed to awards@northchamber.co.nz. The winners will be announced on awards night, October 26. Tickets for the event are now on sale.
Governance
Thursday, October 18, Promoting Good Leadership through Good Governance, an address by Professor Brad Jackson, co-director of the New Zealand Leadership Institute at the University of Auckland Business School.
The event has been organised by the Northland committee of the New Zealand Institute of Directors as part of a series of workshops aimed at improving governance in the north.
Vice-chairman of the International Leadership Association, Professor Jackson has spoken to academic and business audiences around the world. He has published five books: Management Gurus and Management Fashions, The Hero Manager, Organisational Behaviour in New Zealand, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Leadership and Demystifying Business Celebrity. Time: 5.30-7.30pm. Venue: The Centre, Kerikeri, 43 Cobham Rd, Kerikeri. Cost: Members, $32, non-members, $37, including GST.
The power outage cost Northland businesses between $37.5 million and $80 million.