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As I'm here in the UK, I'm profiling UK things. This is my father's business, PROCAL, which builds industrial process analysers. They've been going over 20 years and have instruments installed around the world. Some even in New Zealand. Link.
Check out the attached tool, it's a form of insurance adviser business modelling - expressly designed to help advisers choose what the right growth direction is for them. It's simple to use, provided you have flash loaded in your system. Post questions to my email or comments for further information. It is an early version of the model, and I'd like your feedback on how useful you find it. Download joes_brokerage.pdf
Great to have the actual student numbers as feedback. I spent a few minutes trawling through the data. The figures I quoted in my earlier post were to 2005, from The Economist. There has been some reduction since then - but I hope NZ has maintained it's share. It's a good business, which adds culturally to New Zealand as well.
It has been so hectic with work over the last few days I have quite neglected the blog - and this really is a shame since almost every chance encounter and a dozen or so emails have produced a clutch of bloggable notes. So here's a quick newsblast:
Ombudsmen - there appears to be a bidding war breaking out between two ombudspeople. Each bidding the limit of their rulings higher - banking versus investment and savings. As their areas of operation overlap consumers may have the ability to shop. Advisers on the other hand would surely want a lower limit...
Sovereign's product launch - kept a good mate away from catching up and I was sorry to miss the event - but work prevailed. However, I picked up a pack at an adviser's office, and at the very next meeting I pulled out one of the flyers because it was the answer to the very problem the adviser was talking about. A rare and blessed piece of utility. Not all launches are like that.
"Let them draft it..." one participant (who I shall not name, but I liked his style) joked that the government is cheerfully happy to let the industry pay for their lawyers to improve draft legislation, so it doesn't have to be that well drafted before its issued. Another then quipped that the terror business obviously doesn't have such good lawyers, because their legislation you can drive a truck through. Oops.
Advisers and KiwiSaver: "I was dead against KiwiSaver" said a franchise owner for a major planning chain. "But now I think it's great, everyone needs to be told what to do, and it doesn't take long to tell them - so it's actually worth doing" [my emphasis added]. A nice summation of an optimal advice process! "I reckon it's building up funds for 5 to 10 years time which I will then manage for them" he concluded. Provided, of course, they don't legislate advisers out of the de-cumulation management.
Travel and KiwiSaver: As I write (its 11.45pm) I am waiting to board a plane to Singapore, en route to London. To keep me happy during the uncomfortable flight I am accompanied by Mary Holm's KiwiSaver guide, and Gareth Morgan's "KiwiSafer". Quite different reads, as I can already see. I am brushing up for the talk in London on the 6th, at the ABI's Saver Summit. That will be fun. I'll try and post a few photos along the way - so it'll be worth coming back tomorrow. Hopefully at Changi I can find a power point and post "Help Joe Grow" a neat little dashboard tool about how to help advisers grow.
You may have had some exposure to the education market. Perhaps you've read stories about foreign students, or visited a campus and been surprised at how international they feel. Some insurers (TOWER, and AIG, from memory) even offer special insurance products for international students.
You may NOT know just how big this industry is for New Zealand. We command a 2.5% GLOBAL market share - up from 0.5% in 2000. Compared to our share of global GDP, or even more so - population - that means we punch considerably above our weight. Australia's share at 6.5% is high, but bear in mind their economy is seven times the size. Japan's share is not quite double, at 4.6%.
Makes you think twice about those nasty restrictions that people advocate on International Students.
I haven't gotten too political for a while. But this post - and the video it contains - are well worth a look. Besides. There is a broad spectrum of criticism for the Electoral Finance Bill, so you don't have to share my politics to share my suspicion of it. You only have to share views with the Chief Electoral Office, the Human Rights Commission, etc, etc... Link.
Running is not really my thing, for a real fanatic you'll have to talk to someone like my colleague Tim Arrowsmith, or even Suncorp's Sean Carroll. They are real runners. However, sometimes I can only adequately work out the frustrations of the day on the road, running.
This warning is only given in self defence, so that when you click on the link below (if you can be arsed) you will dissolve into fits of laughter seeing that I named the run "Big". It's only a big run to me... however, I do suggest you click, because you can examine the powers of a cool site called MapMyRun.com Link.
From scrappleface. Link.
In preparation for the ABI saver summit, I've penned an article which just got published in Money Marketing. You can go read it at this link.
Evidence machines may be taking over the world... from the register. Remember, it's Friday, have fun.
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