There is a lot to be said for knowledge and experience in all areas of life.  It is only when you are faced with a consequence that knowledge and experience will be of benefit.  How much knowledge and experience does someone need to know the potential of a consequence? 

Last weekend I heard a story regarding a new match official who was in a position of having to use knowledge and experience against a backdrop of potential consequences.  This was the situation.  It was this match official’s second game that he had refereed; it was the second half with approximately 20 minutes to go and the score was 12/10.  A scrum was packed and a player was left injured on the ground with an unknown but significant enough injury to stop the game on the basis that it could have been a serious neck or back injury. On to the field come well-meaning managers, who want to pick him up and take him out of play so the game can continue. The match official, who had recently attended a duty of care seminar, said that they were not to move him and that he would phone for an ambulance,  which he did, but the ambulance would be at least 20 minutes.  Do you move the player knowing the risk?  If there were no other players around you wouldn’t move him but there were cries of “let’s continue the game.”   The game was more important to the players than the player was. The managers started to move the player; the match official told them that if they physically moved the player that he would leave the ground.  Consequently he called off the game and left the ground.  The ambulance arrived; the player was taken to hospital for observation and it was discovered that he had sustained a back injury.  

We all have a duty of care to not only know the circumstances but also the consequences.  When you make decisions based on a duty of care then the consequences will have far less exposure to risk. 

The match official did the right thing, as he was the only one who showed a duty of care.  It is not only paramount in business but in all walks of life. The consequences of not respecting duty of care could have been quite dire for this particular player.

These were a series of questions sent to me through Alexander Communications regarding my business travel experiences.

This is due to be published in The Independent next week.

What are the best/worst airports – and why?
Auckland – based on the fact that I know it; the short-cuts, check-in counters and Customs.  Delhi airport is the worst – there is no APEC; it’s ciaos as you come through and baggage takes at least half an hour.  I do know however that they are building a new airport which is understood to be the biggest in the world, hence why it probably isn’t so great now.

What is the best/worst hotel/accommodation – and why?
The Westin in Shanghai.  It’s centrally located but one of the few hotels that actually has an area around it, which is unusual in such a heavily populated city.

Your best/worst hotel experience? (eg. Did you ever get stuck in a lift for 12 hours, or find your hotel was actually a brothel, or have your best wool suit shrunk by the laundry service?)
The worst hotel was a capsule hotel I had to stay in because of a plan diversion into Hong Kong. A very unusual experience – I probably know how a morgue feels.  It had a very claustrophobic feeling to it.

Best/worst airline for service – and why?
Emirates.  The feeling is very calm on their flights; unobtrusive service and they seem to rely on the passenger to be the best judge of their behaviour.
The worst airline is Dragon Air.  Two reasons for me personally; firstly, I don’t understand Chinese and secondly the age of their planes seemed to be more dated than most other airlines.

Which is the best airline on the Tasman (NZ-Australia) route?
Air New Zealand is the best airline for the Tasman.  They have a number of services which makes flying easier and the process quicker.  They have very much lifted their processing points across the Tasman route to now be the best.

Which domestic airline do you rate best?
Air New Zealand is the best domestic airline.  The introduction of the e-tag Fast Bag and their valet parking services takes them to the top of the list.

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How do you market a business, a product or a service successfully while keeping in line with a marketing budget?  The first thing is to work out your marketing budget.  I was fortunate to be taught early in my career about percentages.  Understanding of total revenue base and how a business can maintain a profit by working in percentages. 

I was with my friend this morning and he has a car wash business.  He will have an annual turnover of about $300,000 per year.  He has run this business for just on 3 months.  What should he spend on marketing? What marketing should he do? How does he measure the results? 

When you take into account a business and the three key costs which are generally labour, premises and marketing, usually labour will be approximately 45% of total turnover, premises 5%, and marketing should be no more than 4%.  The balance are generally sundry costs which add up to around 20%.  This gives the business a target of 25% gross to net profit.  If we quarantine marketing then he has a total spend available of $12k.  It doesn’t seem much but there again he is in the business of making people feel good about their car 

What we all know is who our customer is.  80% of his customers are known.  So immediately he has a target but if he can only spend on average 4% of his total turnover to attract a customer then where does he target it? 

The best form of marketing for his business is brand marketing through the customers that he currently is getting.  Emphasising loyalty and referral will be the best way for his business to continue to grow at a steady rate.  Remembering that the customer of his business will always want their car washed.  The question for him is “will they come back?” 

It is important to know the percentages within your business, they are standard and how you market your business or your product, linked with your service, is a key to new customers and customer retention.  In our business of real estate, generally the focus is on the product and rarely on the brand but with many businesses the focus is on the brand and then it drills through to the product.  My recent experience at looking at cars shows an emphasis on the brand which then provides the different products within that brand.  How much do you spend on marketing and is it at the 4% level?

Our newspapers every day are full of headlines about the economy, crime, the political scene and other world events and you read those articles and that is what makes up our news.

When you go to the airport and you are going through the process of boarding a plane, leaving aside the sometimes frustrating experience that surrounds the process, when you look around at airports, they are an incredible place in the fact that the real news within us could be seen at an airport.  Rarely any other place will you see the emotion of families about to be separated and how that is expressed.  Conversely in the arrivals hall the joy that people have in being reunited with friends and family.  It really is amazing that the real news of the day can be seen at an airport. 

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There is a lot of hype surrounding social media. 

I read a statement recently that social media is the new high ground for successful business leaders.  I would strongly debate that under the basis that social media falls into the non- contact mode.  I would agree with the commentators that say that having  a social media position is vitally important, but in saying that, I would strongly disagree with any business leader who believes that social media is the new high ground. 

There has always been two forms of high ground in business.  The first is recognition and the second is reputation.  There is an old saying that “charity begins at home”.  The high ground in business is with your own people.  I have on most occasions been able to keep the high ground in recognition.  I am not saying that this is unchartered territory but I would stand by two disciplines that I believe will serve any business leaders or person in sales better than social media presence will ever serve.

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