Pro Experts

Are You a Good Leader?

If you are a business owner or manager you are responsible for leading others in pursuit of the organisation’s success. Whether it’s a small business with a few employees or a large entity with multiple divisions, if you are the leader of a team you are having an impact on a daily basis by what you do, or don’t do....

Android or Apple?

For the un-initiated Android and Apple are both operating systems that are leaders in mobile phone, tablet and PC operating Systems. Android is now owned by Google and has been the market leader in the mobile phone space for a long time and continues to rise. Its market leadership is larger due to range and price of devices rather than...

Working together is a better solution

Water Conservation Orders (WCO's) are mechanisms under the Resource Management Act designed to recognise and protect outstanding values of particular bodies of water. Commonly associated with movements in the 1980’s to protect the country’s most wild and scenic rivers from hydroelectric dam initiatives, they are legal instruments that can be used to set rules that Councils must abide by. A...

Pro Business advice

Real-time accounting software helps streamline businesses

Real time accounting software and other business applications can help run your business and make your life a whole lot easier. The overwhelming increase in industry specific add on applications which integrate with accounting software enables business owners to create their own customised accounting platform. Here are some key apps to consider in order to streamline your entire hospitality operation;...

Pro Property

New legislation sets timeline for fixing earthquake prone buildings

It’s an acknowledged fact that New Zealand is prone to seismic activity and ultimately ensuring the safety of people is our priority and our buildings need to be safe for occupants and users alike. As from July 1, 2017 the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016 came into effect and the legislation affects owners of earthquake-prone buildings, territorial authorities (TAs),...

Pro Legal

New Bill to manage Meth contamination

On 23 May 2017, the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill (No. 2) was introduced to Parliament. This Bill proposes amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act and is significant as it seeks to, as stated by Nick Smith MP who introduced the Bill, to “ensure our tenancy laws better manage methamphetamine contamination, liability for careless damage and the tenancy of unsuitable properties”....

Pro HR

Don’t downplay the power of the Pen

We talk about the pen being mightier than the sword. Of course these days it wouldn’t be a pen it would be a keyboard, but it’s the same notion of the power of the written word. We in HR are sometimes accused of being bureaucratic pen-pushers, smothering people in layers of agreements, letters, forms and file notes. Naturally we have...

Pro IT

Under Attack from Cyber Crime

WannaCry, the recent global cyber-attack highlighted the threat our businesses face from the online world. This attack wasn’t hugely successful when putting into context of the number of devices it infected worldwide, but it did generate a discussion on what the future holds for future threats. The ease of which this threat was curtailed may not be the same going...

Pro RMA

How Efficient is Too Efficient

Obviously resource management involves the consideration and management of competing interests, or if not ’competing’ certainly ‘different’ interests. That’s the democratic society we live in, and one person’s frustration can be another person’s preferred outcome. It’s the fact we’re different and come from different perspectives that it seems so hard to agree on an approach, and people often question whether...

Pro Finance

When your conservative portfolio is not so ‘conservative’

The word ‘conservative’, particularly when it comes to conservative investment portfolios, usually suggests stable, slow-to-change and steady-as- she-goes, but in these changing times, there are early warning signs that a ‘conservative investment portfolio’ may no longer be the haven that it once was. Most people who don’t have a huge appetite for risk, often because their earnings potential is declining...