Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Emma Lewisham, founder of a skincare line of the same name. From the outside, the cosmetics industry can … Read more
If you own a small- or medium-sized business, finding and accessing financial support amid all the noise and information can be overwhelming. So we’ve put together a list of what’s out there. Government support The Covid-19 wage subsidy With $11 billion paid out over the past three months, the government’s wage subsidy is the first … Read more
The Covid-19 wage subsidy was designed to pay workers throughout the lockdown and keep them employed. None of that happened at one company, despite it receiving over $2.1m. Workers who have lost their jobs at a South Auckland company are protesting the “deception” and lack of good faith that forced them to use up their … Read more
Based on the latest Kiwi Economics data, Kiwibank senior economist Jeremy Couchman explores what fresh economic shoots could be growing in the fertile ground left by Covid-19. New Zealand has done extremely well to crush the Covid-19 curve and allow the rapid reopening of the economy. At Kiwibank we have been pleasantly surprised at the … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Dr Gaetano Dedual and Jacob Kohn, co-founders of Futurity. It’s possible that in the future, we might just … Read more
It’s a state-of-the-art retail and hospitality centre opening in the jaws of a recession. Michael Andrew takes a look at the hurdles and hopes for the new billion-dollar Commercial Bay. Earlier this week, two days before its official launch, the Commercial Bay development in downtown Auckland opened for a discreet preview. A small group of … Read more
The local fashion industry takes another hit with Ingrid Starnes closing its stores after more than a decade. Fashion brand Ingrid Starnes has announced it’s closing the retail arm of its business due to the impacts of Covid-19. Its new store opening in Commercial Bay on Thursday and its current store in Ponsonby will remain … Read more
Visionweek is a not-for-profit web summit with an aim to stimulate a conversation about the future of New Zealand as we emerge from the Covid-19 crisis. We asked participants to give us their big ideas to transform the country. Running June 8-12, the Visionweek online summit features an array of New Zealand’s top business leaders, … Read more
An Auckland gym has joined a growing rush of CrossFit branded gyms to cut ties with the international fitness brand, over comments from the founder about the killing of George Floyd in the US. Alex Braae reports. The world of CrossFit is being shaken by comments from founder Greg Glassman connecting Covid-19 to the death … Read more
It’s not often that someone graduates from university one year and becomes a senior economist commentating on national media the next. George Driver investigates the meteoric rise of the high-flying Brad Olsen. Google “senior economist Brad Olsen” and you’ll find him quoted in no fewer than 167 articles in the past year, speaking on just … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Rachel Taulelei, CEO of Kono. Demand for New Zealand produce overseas is currently up. Our country’s careful and … Read more
With roughly 97% of New Zealand enterprises categorised as small businesses – that is, 20 or fewer employees – accounting software platform Xero’s newly released analysis provides a stark picture of the severe impact of Covid-19 throughout the sector. What exactly does the data show? Essentially, the data shows that year-on-year revenue for small businesses … Read more
With half a million members, the New Zealand Made Products Facebook group has become a national phenomenon, thrusting small-time businesses into the national gaze. But what makes a post stand out among thousands of others? When scrolling through the seemingly endless visual extravaganza that is the New Zealand Made Products Facebook page, you’re likely to … Read more
In the third part of our series with Kiwibank answering your questions about Covid-19’s impact on New Zealanders’ finances, two readers at different ends of their saving journeys ask what to do with their KiwiSaver account. Melissa Vasta, Kiwi Wealth GM retail and product, responds. Hi Melissa, My KiwiSaver ‘growth’ fund has been pummeled in … Read more
Waitomo is a town built on tourism. But as overseas visitors who have been flocking to its spectacular network of glow-worm caves for over a century dry up, the future looks uncertain. More than 130 years ago, the eruption of Mount Tarawera killed an estimated 153 people and buried Te Otukapuarangi and Te Tarata, the … Read more
Todd Scott made millions as a sales genius, and bought New Zealand’s best-known business publication. Then he lost his house. Duncan Greive profiles the country’s most enigmatic owner, and hears some blunt criticisms from the old friend he bought the paper off, Barry Colman. When Sinead Boucher bought Stuff for $1 last week, it brought … Read more
Covid-19 has given rise to a new era of remote working, potentially opening up more income, and regions, to New Zealand’s freelance economy. For many of us, the only obstacle that ever stood in the way of a prosperous life in Dunedin was its tiny job market. Now, thanks to Covid-19 and the fundamental changes … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to New Zealand investor and business advisor David Bell. As a university professor at Wharton in the US, David … Read more
How many hours you can and should work each week depends on the mode of thinking your job requires, writes Simon Hertnon. Our national discussion about a four-day week has jumped out of first gear, thanks to last week’s Facebook live video by prime minister Jacinda Ardern. In the video, which quickly garnered global media … Read more
One in three households are in financial difficulty and a greater number still at risk of tipping into hardship following the Covid crisis, finds a Commission for Financial Capability report. The Commission for Financial Capability has this morning published findings on the financial vulnerability of New Zealanders following the Covid crisis. And it makes for … Read more
Could a taiao values approach to our economy be the key to bridging the gap between protecting our environment and prospering as people? Dr Amanda Black from the Bio-Protection Research Centre explains how. Aotearoa has been economically dependent on our primary sector for generations. But in this new Covid-19-framed world, that dependence will be magnified. … Read more
When Stuff’s parent company Nine sold up in a management buyout, the sale price for the whole business was $1. So what does it actually mean when businesses are sold for a buck? When local media giant Stuff was sold earlier this week to CEO Sinead Boucher, one of the biggest talking points was the … Read more
The big media companies just want to get married. Duncan Greive makes the case for dozens of divorces instead. For the last few years, all the talk in New Zealand’s media has been of a need for consolidation. That our big for-profit media companies – TVNZ, Sky, MediaWorks, NZME and Stuff – all needed to … Read more
Duncan Greive assesses an extraordinary morning for New Zealand’s media. In the space of a tumultuous half hour New Zealand’s media landscape has been utterly transformed, with Stuff CEO Sinead Boucher completing an audacious management buyout from its Australian owners Nine, while hundreds of staff are about to be laid off at MediaWorks. The two … Read more
As Covid-19 continues to force an immense shift toward online shopping, the kind of authentic, face-to-face experience offered at one Auckland bike shop is becoming all the more valuable. When you walk into T. White’s Bikes on central Auckland’s Symonds St, you’re left in no doubt that bike riding is a serious business. Above every … Read more
As the bars reopen and businesses regroup in post-Covid Queenstown, George Driver finds a town filled with bargain prices, eerie streets, fear and hope. A “tourism bloodbath”, a “broke, empty paradise” facing a “tsunami of unemployment”. The headlines about Queenstown have not been positive. Neither are the figures. Unemployment expected to hit 30%. Tourism, 55% … Read more
Not only could carbon-neutral dairy farming be a sustainable way to mitigate climate change, but it could also be a profitable enterprise for New Zealand’s farmers, writes Prem Maan from Southern Pastures. The Covid-19 crisis has shown us what can be achieved in New Zealand if we work towards a common goal rather than wholly … Read more
The official contact tracing app, released to aid in the fight against Covid-19, is now available for download. So what does it do, what’s good about it, and what are the problems? What’s all this then? As of last night, the government has an official contact tracing app. It’s called NZ COVID Tracer, and is … Read more
New Zealand’s startup community continues to flourish despite Covid-19 – so much so that an Australian accelerator is expanding across the Tasman to help unlock the potential. As Covid-19 forces businesses and economies across the world to tighten their belts and count their pennies, it’s a promising sign of growth that an Australian company called … Read more