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Microsoft Surface....

This is a must watch. Jim dreams of this stuff!

Targeting the unemployed in their 20's.

Remember back to when you were in your early 20’s. Life was probably a little bit simpler and you may not have nailed down exactly what you were really going to do with your life.

[Click Graph to enlarge]

Well 1 in 12, a full 19,300 people, aged 20 to 24 are currently un-employed. If you expand that to 29 year olds there are 29,000 people looking for work.

That excludes the ones that are studying or training.  It is the highest unemployment bracket by far (8.6%) and one would assume that these people have already given up on, or finished going to Uni or Polytech and are now in the work force.

I know that many of you would have had experience with this group being unreliable, particularly those who are unemployed. But surely if the transport and logistics industry is going to find people to full vacancies we should be targeting this group.

I know that the transport and logistics industry is not that sexy or appealing to them. So maybe it’s time to really work on creative employment packages for these people. In a previous post on Gen Y, I said that “Our industry will need to be a lot more creative about attracting Gen Y’s. They are not generally going to want to drive a truck for 60 hours a week. They will find pick/pack work dead boring.”

Maybe they would work 10 hour shifts, 4 days a week. Maybe they would want every fourth week off and make it part of their salary. Maybe they want more variety and flexibility.

There are 29,000 people unemployed between 20 and 29. That's 45% of all unemployed people are in their 20's.

What are we going to do to attract them to our industry?

Another Airline! What do they put in the water in Nelson?

Maori Trust, Ngati Koata has decided to set up a small air charter and freight service. They will lease two 18 seat Jetstream aircraft for the venture (old Origin planes I suspect). The trust is looking for companies that want to use its freight service in the Nelson area.

Recently another Nelson man claimed he was going to set up an Air Charter business but nothing came of it. In this case the Trust has applied for an Air Operators License.

How many regional airlines can a place like Nelson create? NZ is a very small market and some pretty clever and well-backed businesses have tried to enter the regional freight and passenger service. Unfortunately the airways are littered with their wreckage, metaphorically of course. I suspect this will be another one that last 12 – 18 months.

Land Transport and Transit to merge?

Land Transport and Transit are set to merge as further consolidation in the government agencies continues.  This follows the previous merge of Transfund a few years ago.

Minister of Transport Annette King said: "Despite recent improvements, transport agencies need to work more collaboratively and with a common purpose."

I believe that this is a sensible move and will remove one additional layer of bureaucracy and hopefully enable a quicker more consistent approach to land transport in New Zealand.

The government is also considering directing all road user charges to roading rather than the general fund.

If this happens and transit and LTNZ have a common vision we may actually see some real change and much needed infrastructure in place sooner.

Turnover is highest in the Jun Quarter

Statistics NZ released there latest employer-employee data last week. He are some interesting numbers I have discovered:

Staff Turnover
The transport industry had a 14.4% turnover for the year to March. This is down slightly on the same time last year which is 15.5%. For the wholesale trade (which includes many distribution centres) turnover is 13.3%

Looking at the stats it is interesting to see that the June Quarter is actually the highest turnover period for the supply chain industry and historically rises to around 17% for transport and 15% for wholesale. Time to keep a close eye on the your staff.

Number of workers
The other fact I found interesting was that since Mar 2002 (when agoge launched) work numbers in this transport category have increased by 15% from 61,000 to 71,000 people.

Workers in the wholesale industry have increased 14% from 96,000 to 110,000.

All in all a growth industry! While it would be nice to reduce the staff turnover I suspect that this will continue to rise. People are no longer committed to long term employment and will move jobs more frequently than ever.

Why can’t we have a simple budget?

Labour continues to deliver complex policies, that may have good intentions, but that in reality add extra layers of bureaucracy and cost to our country and slows progress to below that of a snail.

To recap, there is KiwiSaver, which will compel employers to contribute an additional 4% of salaries to the KiwiSaver programme.  Secondly there is the Regional Roading Tax for Auckland and Wellington.

Both of these will have a huge affect on the profitability and compliance costs for any Transport and Logistics business, and both have huge positives and negatives to them.

The enormous problem I have with most of what the Government is doing is this…

Nothing is simple!

KiwiSaver will be a huge administrative nightmare for business and rather than just give tax cuts or making contributions tax free they are giving tax credits. How confusing to the average person!

As for the tax on fuel to cover roading in Auckland and Wellington.  Labour have told the councils they must consult extensively with the public about where they spend the money. This means the money won’t start being collected for another 15 – 18 months.

Auckland and Wellington need roads now, not 5 years of consultation and happy talk.

Councils need the ability to lead, not get caught up in consultation and RMA’s.

For more simple summaries of the budget from treasury click the below links:

KiwiSaver Employers Fact Sheet (PDF)
Infrastructure Changes for Roads
18 Pages Executive Summary of Budget

Jayden on Bike

This is Jayden, my son. He is almost 2 and a real speed freak. I think he gets the dangerous thing from his mum :-)

The video doesn't really capture how fast he is going.

Empowerment a catchphrase from the 90s?

Finally a book from Ken Blanchard that takes more than one minute to put into place. Unfortunately it is still narrative and it would be great to read about a real company that really existed that made these things happen.

I brought the book because I was working on our strategies for the year ahead and noticed it talked about sharing information (something we do OK at) and creating boundaries (something we are currently working on). I hoped it would be something I could read with my team but as a story it is just to slow moving.

It lacks what John Allen calls "intellectual curiosity"

Did I enjoy it, not overly. Did I learn something? I always do.

Below is a summary of the book from a diagram call "The Empowerment Game Plan"

Click Image to see in full size

Book Summary

Empowerment - Takes More than a Minute
Ken Blanchard

Genres          Management, Empowerment
Pages           135
Readability     2 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment     3 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

42 Below Ad

In case you haven't seen it. Here is the 42 below ad that they run off-shore. I saw it a couple of years ago. It is a classic take at how others think about NZ from the other side of the world.

I love it. It is edgy so I thought I would post it.

Disclaimer: drinking 42 below may be linked to the killing of your brain cells ... blah blah blah.  You can view their other ads here.. (CONTENT WILL OFFEND)

I'd rather have no advice than bad advice.

I unashamedly post this entire quote from Jeffrey H. Gitomer. It's a great reminder for sales staff:

I can't help it. I read some bad sales advice today and gotta say something. I'll try to keep it positive, but my tongue is already bleeding from biting it.

The title read: When sales calls stall.

Every salesperson has experienced that barrier in one form or another, so I wondered what this “expert” had to say.

It started with the usual sales dialog: You have a meeting with a prospective customer. They’re hot, hot, hot, for your product or service. They ask for a proposal. You quickly oblige. A week later, you call the hot customer. And they have evaporated and won’t return your calls or emails.

What to do?

He recommends every manipulative “sales technique” from implying urgency, to getting creative (whatever that means), to using intrigue to connect. He advises to be prepared like a boy scout, appeal to a higher authority, assume all is well and they are just busy, and a bunch of sales talk mumbo jumbo that any seasoned executive would smell like a skunk that hasn’t bathed, and laugh at you.

This is why that approach will NEVER work.

FIRST: The prospect is not returning your calls for a reason. Wouldn't it be important to find out why? If you could discover that, it would help your next 1,000 sales calls.

SECOND: Why did you ever offer a proposal without making a firm face-to-face follow-on sales appointment in the first place? This is one of the most powerful – yet mostly lost – elements of the sales cycle.

THIRD: Stop trying to sell. Stop trying to be cute.

FOURTH: For goodness sake, stop trying to butter up the assistant. Assistants are loyal to their employers, not you.

FIFTH: The salesperson (not you, of course) did a lousy job in the presentation, left some holes, never discovered the prospects motive to purchase, was subjected (relegated) to a proposal/bidding process, never followed relationship-based strategies, and was too hungry for the sale and the commission than to uncover what will build a relationship. You didn't connect – you didn’t engage. Why are you blaming the prospect for not calling you? Why don't you take responsibility for doing a poor job and take a lesson. Not a sales lesson, a relationship lesson.

FIVE POINT FIVE: Their daddy decides, and you never met daddy, let alone know who he is. Someone else higher up told your prospect NO, and your prospect is embarrassed, or doesn’t care to tell you.

SALES REALITY CHECK: In sales you have ONE CHANCE. One chance to engage, one chance to build rapport, one chance to connect, one chance to be believable, one chance to be trustworthy, and one chance to meet with the real decision maker. You have one chance to differentiate yourself, one chance to prove your value, and one chance to ask for (or better, confirm) the sale.

BAD NEWS: If you miss your chance, or blow your chance, recovery chances are slim. OK, none. Not being able to reconnect with a prospect is not a problem. It’s a symptom. And it’s a report card on how well you’re doing. Or not doing.

GOOD NEWS: Lost sales and sales gone wrong are the BEST places to learn.

BETER NEWS: If you make a firm commitment to meet a few days later – not by phone – to meet face-to-face, you have a better chance of discovering the truth.

BEST NEWS: Once you get to TRUTH, you have a chance at SALE. Or better stated, you will have created the atmosphere where someone wants to BUY from you.

Sales techniques are increasingly becoming passé. So are the people that stress using them, rather than emphasizing the softer side.

I grew up selling, and I grew out of it.

If you have lost a connection, or if a hot prospect evaporates, or refuses to call you back or respond to you, the WORST thing you can do is try a sales technique. Why don’t you try something new? Try being honest. No, not with the customer -- with yourself.

I promise that a harsh self-discovery lesson may not help you reconnect with who you lost, but it’s connection insurance for the next s thousand. Take a chance. It’s the only one you’ve got.

Want more on how to connect instead of how to sell? Go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time visitor, and enter the word CONNECT in the GitBit box.

Linfox and PFL

Finally a small article appears in the NZ Herald.

Provincial Freightlines (PFL) was a successful privately owned logistics business with blue-chip customers, Linfox chief executive Michael Byrne said.

PFL served industries including logging, timber, packaging, chemicals, refined fuels and fast-moving consumer goods.

The acquisition would double the revenue base of the New Zealand arm of the Linfox business, Mr Byrne said.

It will be intresting to see if they are rebranded, merged or left alone in the medium term.