Tim Calder

My Hero:) Rod Drury has today retired from personal blogging.

I was first introduced to Rod at the University of Otago, School of Business, when he came to speak to the Master of Entrepreneurship and Otago MBA classes. I was inspired by Rod’s successes with Aftermail and with his current global, online accounting software Xero. After listening to his lecture I started following his blog where I enjoyed reading about his opinions and learning from his developments. As an enthusiastic young entrepreneur myself I am keen to follow in his footsteps with some of my web based ideas.

Rod Drury will continue posting occasionally at http://blog.xero.com

The University has recently released iTunes on campus, which means that from the convenience of your own home you are able to download audio and video podcasts of lectures, music performances, and short films. The Otago University’s presence on the site puts it alongside some of the world’s finest universities, including Duke, Harvard, Stanford and Yale.

Novell NetStorage has also been made available at the University. This new system allows students to access their documents stored on the University computer network from remote locations anywhere in the world, like their flats.. Advances like this allow students time to be used more effectively as well as the computer resources on the University campus.

A new Anti-Progress Group, vehemently named “Stop the Stadium“, has formed against the proposed multi-purpose stadium in Dunedin. It is such a pity that these few people cannot see past their own lifetimes and self importance to view this development as what it should be; a 50 year vision. Local Dunedin TV station Channel 9 is running the story tonight as this topic continues to create a stir in the community. Channel 9 is also running a series called ‘The Great Stadium Debate’, designed to help inform the people of Dunedin about the proposed stadium and the controversy surrounding it. I took part in the second episode of the series, sharing my views as a current student at the University of Otago, and debating against three true “antis” (who were clearly blind to the benefits this stadium would bring to the city and instead, only managing to focus on the cost). I sincerely have no problem with people having negative views on the stadium proposal, my only gripe is when they decide to knock the project without being fully informed first, as if they were, they would find that all their concerns have already been addressed. I firmly believe this is the best solution for Dunedin and challenge those who oppose to try and come up with something better.

Our share investment company Chicken Stock Group Limited has just completed its purchase of Scott Technology shares which is a local public company in based in Dunedin. Earlier this year my Otago MBA syndicate studied Scott’s as part of our Financial Accounting case study report paper. After establishing that although Scott Technology is small compared to it international competition, with its large amount of cash reserves and innovative history this company is well positioned to take on international contracts that the larger firms have pulled back from. Thanks to the support of our broker Peter McIntyre from ABN AMRO Craigs, Chicken Stock Group also has shares in the New Zealand Agricultural sector as well as Australian Health care. I formed Chicken Stock Group Limited two years ago with four other friends that attended St Peter’s School in Cambridge.

One of our Otago MBA papers this module is Human Resource Management with PJ Bardsley from Polson Higgs. PJ has valuable business experience in small to medium enterprises with her work with the Employers Association as a Business mentor and her role as a Registrar at the Employment Tribunal. PJ has consulted on issues such as recruitment and retention, policies and practise, performance management, personal grievances and disputes, HR Audits, Systems analysis. Today we were fortunate to have Nick Winder, General Manager of the Dunedin Casino and an Otago MBA graduate, come and speak to our class to give us some insight into how the Casino operates and manages their human resources. Our class is now required to put together a report which identifies possible future problems and ways that they can be prevented or mitigated and procedures improved.

The Start.Manage.Grow event was a great way to get introduced to the new business services on offer from our well known government departments and to meet their local representatives. Hon Clayton Cosgrove introduced the National Launch of these new business services in Dunedin last night where he highlighted the significant value of SME’s to the overall New Zealand economy and how the government plans to support their development with the new publication & website ”Start, Manage and Grow your business“. Local entrepreneur Nigel Bamford from Escea explained how these services were fundamental to the sucess of his firm and how providing cash grants for R&D were particularly important. 

It was great to be part of the 10th of May Graduation Ceremony where I graduated with my Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Entrepreneurship. The best part was the address from the guest speaker the great David Kirk who talked about the need for us graduates to try new career opportunities that confront us. I will graduate with the Otago MBA that I am currently studying for in 2010 which will complete my University Education. The only disappointment of the day was that the Highlanders were beaten by the Blues in front of their home crowd. Our party made the second half after a perfect dinner at Plato. 

Last night was a hugely successful night for the Otago University School of Business as it hosted a dinner at the University Staff Club for all past and present MBA graduates, lectures, as well as supportive local business people which make the MBA Business Study Case Reports possible. The speaker for the night was former TVNZ presenter Susan Wood who is also an Otago MBA graduate. Susan spoke about her high profile career as a television journalist and how tricky it has been to reinvent herself to pursue other career opportunities. It was great to speak to so many other people that have completed there degrees and to hear where their careers have been taking them. Many of whom traveled a long way to be there. Hats off to the organisers as this night was truly an exceptional event.

BioSouth is Dunedin’s network of biotechnology and technology-based businesses. Through the Otago MBA Business School I received an invite to their biannual showcases held in in the Conference Room of the Dunedin Art Gallery. I thoroughly enjoyed this showcase as someone interested in business with out having a background in science. The next upcoming event is the Student Function on the 28th of May. This event will showcase some of the exciting career prospects that students have in Dunedin and will be held at the Centre for Innovation on the University of Otago campus.

It has been a long two months but my MBA Syndicate group and I have finally completed our Financial Investment Report on publicly listed, Dunedin based company Scott Technology. We have received excellent assistance from Chairman Stuart McLauchlan, CEO Chris Hopkins and former CEO and Director Graham Batts who have helped us gain great insight to form our opinion and recommendations. Our report is being assessed by Forsyth & Barr analysts Ken Lister and Lynette Scott as well as Otago University lecture Garry Heaton.