Saturday, 30 May 2009

God Save the Queen

One of the nice things about New Zealand is that it celebrates Her Majesty's birthday with a public holiday. Monday is it.

This day will not however be entirely free of work, at least in this part of Godzone. More about that on Tuesday!

Thursday, 28 May 2009

Tauranga ICT Expo Presentation


Photos can be so cruel.....

Brett Roberts from Microsoft NZ spoke to a full house yesterday at the Pingar Sponsored 'Looking into the Future' workshop at the Tauranga ICT Cluster Expo yesterday. It was standing room only.

Not that the photograph above shows that. Believe me. I'm a journalist. It was!

Monday, 25 May 2009

TechNZ in Tauranga - 9th June

TechNZ is hosting a series of ten “survive and thrive through innovation” Research and Development (R&D) workshops throughout New Zealand this autumn to help businesses get ahead despite the recession.

The events, held in conjunction with regional TechNZ partners, are aimed at giving companies new tools to identify emerging business opportunities, develop new products and prepare for the inevitable economic recovery.

On the 9th June, Tauranga is hosting one of the ten workshops. Running from 9.00am - 1.00pm, the event will be held at Baycourt Centre. I have not seen the program at this point, but do know one thing. I will be speaking at the event to talk about my experience of working with WaikatoLink.

For more details of this event, visit the Events Schedule.

Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Tauranga ICT Expo - Wednesday 27th May

It's that time of the year again.

This year, Pingar is sponsoring a workshop entitled 'Looking into the Future'.

Brett Roberts, Microsoft New Zealand’s National Technology Officer, will talk about Microsoft’s vision for the future and how this will impact on every business in the Bay of Plenty.

I get to speak for about five minutes. It will go something like this.

'Hi. My name is Peter. And this is Brett. Good afternoon.'

It is a sign of the strength of the local Western Bay of Plenty ICT sector that the stands and the workshops for the Expo sold out in record time this year. Last year was the first Tauranga ICT Expo and it probably exceeded expectations. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of 'new business' was signed up. This year, the exhibitors are perhaps better prepared and more focused. This really will become an annual event.

As last year, entry to local businesses is free. For more details, check out the WBOP ICT Cluster website.

Be there......

Wellington Bound


[Postscript: Saturday 23rd May. The flight back to Tauranga has been cancelled due to wind gusts of up to 140km. And every flight to Auckland. So we are trapped. Another night in Wellington. Another reason why this place fully deserves its name - 'Windy']

Any misconceptions about where I am in the world will vanish tonight. I will land in Wellington to a seasonal cold blast from the south. (And in Windy, this is one long season).

It's the first of two fairly quick visits to the capital. Next month, I arrive for the NZ Microsoft SharePoint Users conference. This week, it is meetings with the usual suspects. Enough said.

I've been back in Tauranga now for five days. The mood on the street HAS slightly changed since I left for Hong Kong in April. The change is an absolute mirror of my final days in the UK just over a week ago. The common factor? The weather.

I'm no economist, but looking back to last October and November when the world's banks were having 'their moment', in NZ, spring was in the air and the focus here was on the beach. It all seemed so distant. Now the nights are closing in and the threat to jobs becomes more real, so does that change in mood. Contra in London. MPs may have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but the temperature is heating up - and so is the pound and the stock market. People are looking forward to the summer. Coincidence?

Over the next two days, I will put the theory to the test. Once I have found my thermals.......

Monday, 18 May 2009

Aussies Boost R & D Incentives

Foreign companies will be able to claim 40 cents for every dollar invested in research and development under new rules to be introduced by the Australian government.

Senator Kim Carr, the minister for innovation, industry, science and research, said companies would be eligible even if the intellectual property were owned outside Australia. “This is the biggest increase since records began and the biggest change to business innovation support in more than a decade,” he said.

The 40 per cent tax credit, to be introduced from July next year, would offer “more generous and more predictable incentives for doing R&D in Australia”, he told the Financial Times on Sunday.

The scheme, to be managed through the Australian tax-return system, would have no turnover limit.

I hope someone at the Beehive is watching.................

Saturday, 16 May 2009

VC - Do you need it?

I am now back in NZ.

The events of the past few days are fresh in the memory. So the experience of Palo Alto is highly relevant to an article I read this morning.

'With cloud computing and rentable hardware driving down the costs of starting up a Web company, venture capital is becoming less important for online entrepreneurs, according to a paper by Santa Clara University business Professor Robert Hendershott. Additionally, new business categories, such as iPhone and social networking applications, have development cycles that can be measured in weeks, not months or years'.

In part, I agree. In part....

The real cost of establishing a web company extends beyond the scope of development and hosting. Building a global presence is not cheap, so significant investment is still required to fund headcount, support, IP and structures. The question I think is rather, are VC's the ideal funding partners for this?

It is not a route that Pingar has taken. In NZ, the reason is quite simple. The lack of a competitive capital market means that the high net worth investor route has been more appropriate. Retaining IP in NZ would have been much more difficult if we had had to access global capital markets.

The issue raised by Professor Robert Hendershott is however an important and relevant want. An evolving technology market certainly impacts on web businesses funding options. As start up firms learn to become leaner and smarter in these 'economic times', venture capital is no longer the only play in town.

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Farewelling SF


Tonight, this particular series of market visits comes to an end. After 3 weeks 'on the road', NZ is just one flight away.

Over the next couple of weeks I will reflect on this trip through a series of posts. To be honest, there are so many actions to follow up, I may even revert to Jacqui's habit of writing 'lists'. The headings will be interesting.

Right now, I have one full day left in SF. And one final meeting.

And then its home....

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

Palo Alto has Attitude


The meeting in Palo Alto yesterday was upbeat. It says a lot about Americans approach to life. VC start up deals in 'the Valley' might be down by about 25% this year - but they still represent around USD 9 billion of new money. It backs up my post yesterday. It is all about size and scale.

It's also about attitude. Start ups looking for investment today have what was referred to as 'balls'. The fact that they are still actively pursuing funding in this market marks them out. Cheque books in this part of the world are certainly not closed at this point. Word on the street is that one NZ tech company is about to announce a major VC win here.

What I had not fully appreciated until my visit was the significance of the presence of Stanford University. Palo Alto is what it is because of Stanford. Tech spin outs and VCs have clustered around the University campus making this a key play in the US technology market.

The striking thing about this was how it mirrors Pingar's own engagement with the Universities of Waikato in NZ and Swansea in Wales. In both instances it might be small scale stuff by comparison, but the model is right. It reinforces my own view that this is one model that should be actively promoted in NZ. The structure is in place. It just requires significant extra funding. Is this possible?

I believe the answer is yes. Another key lesson learnt from yesterday is a changing perception and attitude towards high growth potential NZ tech companies by Valley-based VC. Our geography is no longer such an issue. The opportunity is. It's a message I will be taking back home. Right now, 'The Valley' is open for business.

Monday, 11 May 2009

Welcome San Fran

I do not know what it is about the States, but they certainly know how to create an impact on arrival (and I am not just referring to the Transit Lounge at LAX - this time).

It is all about size and scale. Although the view from NZ has been one of downright recession / depression here (and that is probably right), it is the pure size of the economy that we Kiwis need to think about. It might be going through a tough patch today, but as I discovered on a visit to LA a couple of years ago, the breakfast takeaway sector here exceeds New Zealand's GDP. That's a lot of chocolate muffins.......

So my focus tomorrow is based on that opportunity and how Pingar can best benefit from it. My meeting in Palo Alto at lunchtime is a follow-up to a couple already held in Auckland. It is not therefore new ground. The timing is good. I will explain why in future posts.

Right now though it is time to bed. The clock here says 7.45pm, Sunday. The same clock in London earlier would now be reading 3.45am, Monday. That's late. It's time for some sleep.

Sunday, 10 May 2009

'California Dreaming'

The UK leg of this odyssey is almost over. Tomorrow, I catch the plane for San Fransisco and then spend three days in the US of A.

It's an action packed 72 hours with meetings set up with Microsoft, an ex-Butterworth colleague and an attorney. Future postings will reveal the relevance of the trio.

It's actually my first visit to SF. And the Monday lunchtime meeting in Palo Alto is my first in Silicon Valley. It is an appropriate way to end what has been a 3 weeks + set of market visits. As time goes by, the significance of these visits will become more apparent. All I can say at this stage is that it is good news for those old friends of mine: the lawyers and the accountants.

I leave the UK with a sense of real encouragement. The structure here is now mapping the structure we created in New Zealand last year. With the additional resource at the Swansea Technium, we have established a real beachhead for UK and European expansion.

So my time here is almost done. One final leg before touchdown in Auckland next Friday. My 360 view of the world will be complete.

Until next month.........

Friday, 8 May 2009

Back to London


Technium 2 in Swansea

It was a busy time in Wales. By the time I next return to Swansea, I expect us to have a fully manned 6 person office in Technium 2.

The visit enabled me to renew old acquaintances if that is what you call the lawyers and the accountants. It was great to meet up with Emma Northam for the first time. Emma is our recently appointed GM in Swansea and will be responsible for building and managing headcount. I also had the opportunity to meet up with Dr. Mark Jones who used to work at the University of Waikato. Some very interesting opportunities exist in that space.

Today, I have final meetings at the Institute of Directors in central London.

(Useful hint to NZ businesses visiting London: If you join the IOD in New Zealand, it gives you complimentary access to the IOD's fabulous facilities in London. You get free internet access, use of meeting rooms, not to mention a decent bar and brasserie. And it is next door to NZ House on the Haymarket.)

I will reflect on further aspects of this UK visit in future posts to the blog.

I am now making plans for my departure. Next stop? Palo Alto and Silicon Valley. More news on that when I arrive in San Fransisco on Sunday.

Tuesday, 5 May 2009

Wales Bound

I'm off to Wales today and then look forward to two days in Swansea and surrounds.

It's now almost four months since Pingar first established its presence at the Swansea Technium. With a 'shopping list' of requirements for expanding headcount, it is a good time to re-visit and re-engage.

The 'shopping list' helps. It prices up the cost of funding necessary and the cash flow requirements for the rest of the year. It also emphasises the global basis of Pingar's sourcing opportunities. We can now compare relative costs in the UK, NZ, HK, Bangalore and beyond. Given the ease of international communication, it provides both flexibility and an increasingly natural 'hedge' for the company's offshore business.

The next two days are an important part of that global mix.

Friday, 1 May 2009

Welcome to the UK

As forecast, the last week has not been grim at all! It has however been unbelievably busy!

Pingar has gone beyond 'market entry'. We now have budgets to work with that will see an acceleration in headcount and an expansion of our presence 'on the ground'.

What has been particularly satisfying is seeing how the ground work laid over the past two years has now come together. We have managed to establish an amazing network of people and companies who are working rapidly to assist the UK roll-out.

Over the past few days, I have had numerous meetings as we collectively finesse the team here. The names will be familiar: Microsoft UK, NZTE, UK T&I. The outcomes though are more advanced.

I am halfway through this particular market visit. Next week, the focus is on Wales and the progress we are making at the Technium in Swansea. Meetings with International Business Wales and other agencies will help consolidate and then expand our operations there.

We are preparing for 'the curve'. And it is not far off. The UK has an incredibly important role to play over the next few months. All the evidence so far is that the operational framework to enable that role to be effectively executed is almost in place.

Next week's meetings are designed to reinforce that position.