Pro Experts

Where is your business heading? and what can you do to help get it there?

While being the best in one’s industry is a lofty business goal, in today’s climate it is crucial to set realistic, attainable goals rather than being caught up in the idealistic. As businesses continue to grapple with the fallout of Covid-19 and government mandates, businesses are left with less operating flexibility and certainty. It is therefore paramount that business owners...

What’s up with Town Planning for Housing Supply in Hawke’s Bay

To be blunt, like the rest of New Zealand Hawke’s Bay is flat out. Demands on planning and land development are high, with long lead in times for consultant support, and even higher demands on Council consenting, fuelled by low interest rates, high housing demand (social housing, and new housing – greenfield and infill and reinvestment in existing homes), along...

Productivity – not always the Holy Grail

The last couple of years have changed our lives on all fronts, at work and at home in sometimes unimaginable ways. It has changed the way we approach our work and personal lives, and has opened up opportunities for some. Some fortunate workers now have flexibility to balance their home and work lives in ways not previously possible. Positives have...

Making Security awareness a habit

Looking forward to 2022, we can expect another period of dealing with the invisible and deadly COVID-19 virus. Three years in, it has changed how we live, work and interact with others nationally and globally. We have trained ourselves to keep to our one-metre distance in public places, wash our hands thoroughly, and use sanitisers. We wear masks and use...

The Employee Experience – Now is the time

A tight labour market, closed borders and now The Great Resignation (a term used to describe an unexpected side effect of the pandemic, where people are rethinking how to live their lives and what type of meaning and purpose they want out of work and life), the task of finding and keeping talent needed to operate in business right now...

Understand legislation changes to land before acting

A hot topic for many years has been the house market. Specifically, how the Government has attempted to create affordable housing for those priced out of the market. The most recent of these is the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 and the proposed repeal and replacement of the Resource Management Act. Hastings and Napier District Councils will be...

Redesigning the way we work

COVID-19 has, in many respects, fast-forwarded changes that had been occurring slowly for years — it’s a big impact change that provided a platform to create a true shift in the way many businesses operate. We have seen the signposting for this change cycle of increased business flexibility via the rapid escalation and uptake of cloud based products such as Xero...

Digital display screens make big impression

Different types of digital displays are all around us, and both getting bigger (billboards) and smaller (watches). This technology is unavoidable, and although it looks to be changing and growing fast, it may not be as more significant change as we would expect. Before we see where we are going, let’s first take a look at where we have come...

Pro Legal

Who’s responsible/ The uncertainty of business liability when a cyber attack strikes

As technology continues to dominate everyday activity, the risk of cyber-attacks occurring also increases. Businesses, irrespective of their size, are becoming more vulnerable to the menace of cyber-attacks. Ransomware, malware, and broad sweeping data breaches are only a handful of the growing categories of cyber-attacks prevalent in today’s market. As the threat rises, questions of business liability because of an...

Pro RMA

Intensive housing options should be considered

erraced housing is not always on the agenda for developments, but surely Hawke’s Bay is on the cusp of providing for this type of housing as it presents an opportunity for another type of living within Hastings and Napier. The planning provisions in the Hastings District Plan provide for terraced housing. The expectation for terraced housing is generally to be...