20 years ago I was 14 years old and just finishing my first year of high school – the biggest decisions of my short life were likely to do with which subjects I’d take in fourth form (Art and Woodwork for anyone who cares!)

However, 20 years ago was also the day that Murray and Sue Pearson founded Cadimage Solutions – the business I started working for 13 years ago and which I purchased 3 years ago.

In 1989 New Zealand was still in a recession following the crash of 87 and everyone told Murray it was not a good time to start a business – Murray’s opinion: it can only get better!

Twenty years later it is almost fitting to have survived another recession and be looking forward to returning to strong growth in the coming years.

Over the years Cadimage has had some remarkable achievements and now consists of a group of four companies with both local and global focus’s (foci?)

The Team at Cadimage (both past and present) have built a strong customer driven business which we can all be proud of.

New Zealand’s economy is built on small business and I personally think 20 years is a remarkable achievement.

I’d therefore like to thank everyone including the founders, past employees, current employees and most importantly our customers both here and around the globe to contributing to this success!

Cheers to 20 more!

Some of the readers of this blog will click immediately to the significance of 1957.

Yes, that’s right! 1957 was the last time Otago held the Ranfurly Shield.

After our 6-0 win against Canturbury during the Super 14 we couldn’t match the Cantab’s on Saturday night, in what was our second attempt this season.

In the last 52 years we have had 21 attempts and I can remember at least 2 years where we fortunate to get 2 bites at the cherry.

Anyway, what I found quite interesting which helps illustrate how long it has been was the following:

• 1957 was the year of New Zealand’s last execution!
• John Lennon and Paul McCartney met and 3 years later the Beatles were formed!

52 years is a long time…

Another of the great speakers at Morgo was Bill Reichert from Garage Ventures who presented his new rules for Entrepneurs.

Andy Lark has covered these very well on his blog.

I especially like rule number 6 “Be global day one.” While this doesn’t mean you need to sell globally and open offices around the world from day one, it does mean you need a global mindset in which to build your business on.
New Zealand is a great place to do business but on the world scale we are an extremely small economy and, if you have a very specific market (eg Architects), it can be extremely limited.

Constantly thinking about how you can build your business globally opens up new markets and large opportunities and also enforces an ‘efficiency mentality’ where you need to consider in a wider context, and in a context where you may never meet your customers face-to-face.

In this day and age the internet has made doing business globally a natural extension to many businesses especially software. Being able to communicate easily and undertake business electronically has broken down all the historic barriers to exporting. This is extremely beneficial to business like ours that are based on the opposite side of the world to our major markets.

In my opinion going global actually enhances a business from a New Zealand point of view – Not only for the founders but more importantly for our local customers. Our New Zealand customers benefit hugely from our international businesses as they get the ongoing benefits of innovation that directly help their work without the cost that would be incurred if we were only selling to New Zealand.

I had the opportunity and pleasure to once again attend Morgo – a conference for entrepreneurs held at Waitangi.

The conference was again full of great people, stories and fun. From Jetpacks to Electric Cars and Surgical Robots to Venture Funds in West Africa the 2 days were jam packed with inspiration.

I especially enjoyed Selwyn Pellet’s talk on “Setting out with the end in sight” and Mark Billinghurst from HitLabNZ who shows us his lifelong dream regarding Augmented Reality (more on this in another post when I get time!)

I could recount all sorts of highlights however I’ll leave this to other people who attended and have already typed up their notes!

NZ Angels review of Day One

NZ Angels review of Day Two

I was checking through the NBR Online the other day (no not the paid subscription – you can read here, here and here what Lance Wiggs has to say about that!) and I came across this article that caught my eye.

Now getting a Building Consent is one of the most frustrating parts of any building project. Over the years with leaky buildings and such, the process has become more involved, rigorous, costly and longer!

Apart from the fact that changes are being made the comments at the bottom of the article interested me most:

building act need IT solution

the solution here has been stareing all and sundry in the face.get the companies office to build the department of building ( local councils) an internet site which is interactive, where the whole design process is online and the client attaches their plans.

While the idea misses the mark a little the concept behind it is incredibly sound – don’t just dabble with the current processes but take a completely new look at it.

Changes to the way buildings are designed and constructed is the business I am in and I have been involved both directly and as an advisor in projects trying to encourage these changes.

Without wanting to ‘pigeon hole’ them a couple of my customers, Predefine and Bisco, are looking at addressing this issue, with a commercial and residential focus respectively.

On the other hand these changes are nothing new, the Singapore Government implemented an ambitious project that involves code checking of intelligent 3d building models (ie BIM Models.)

You can read more about the CORONET e-PlanCheck here.

what I’ve learned about surviving tough times

I have just finished reading Michael Hill’s recently released book ‘Toughen Up’ I found it an extremely easy and interesting read and the messages inside really helped my re-focus on where my energy should be put.

The general message is one that I have previously written about that the current economic times are a re great time to look for opportunities.

The book is broken up in to 16 chapters which form the basis of Michael’s business philosophy:

• Don’t Panic
• Tough times are good for you
• Never be afraid of change
• Hunt the right people and help them become better
• Get down to the coalface
• Embrace mistakes
• Work is the wrong word
• Keep an eye on the underdog
• Now you see it: the power of visualisation
• It’s nothing personal…
• Start at the bottom
• Present yourself perfectly
• Keep your balance
• Give back and you shall receive
• Find your point of difference
• Money is just a yard stick

Unlike many business books only about 50% of the book relates directly to business, the other 50% is a mix of stories from some of Michael’s staff and a series of anecdotes that help provide the context for each of the philosophies.

I definitely recommend the book – I for one like to read about other business leaders stories and ideas – and it is especially good to read about a New Zealander.

As many of you know Michael has done pretty well for himself (private golf course etc etc) and for that reason all the proceeds of the book to Cure Kids – an extremely generous gesture.

Which is why on Saturday we did the 5 man-relay not the Solo Ultra-Marathon of the Te Houtaewa Challenge 2009

At 8:30 Saturday morning Sally set off to run the first 3 km section of the 63km Relay down Northland’s Ninety Mile Beach. For the next 4:47:19 we took our turn to run a 3km section and then drive down the beach slowly making our way from the bluff to Ahipara.

The team consisted of:

• Gav
• Ed
• Wazza
• Sal
• Me

All of them seasoned pro’s having run the event as many as 6 times before (it only started in 2003!) I was new to the relay but had run the extremely monotonous Half Marathon back in ‘99.

The guys were a little nervous at the start when they heard there were 5 other teams entered this year, however the nervousness was uncalled for as we ended up winning by over 45minutes.

Hats off must go to Tony Ahern though as he finished only 38 minutes after us having run the whole 63km himself!

Hats off also to the organisers – the event is very well run and has a fantastic Far North Community feel about it.

I am currently in Munich to catch up with some of our Cadimage Tools partners during the BAU2009 Trade Show.

To say BAU is enormous is an understatement – BAU 2009 is being held at the Munich Trade Fair Center and covers all 16 Exhibition Halls.

Not surprisingly all the big names in Architectural Software were there. More surprising for me was the number of other CAD solutions on offer.

However, BAU is more than just software and IT though it is all about Building and simply the sheer quantity of building products – from mail boxes to car stacking systems – was mind blowing.

During the show I got a chance to catch up with some more Kiwi’s on the FrameCAD stand - it was really great to catch up with another New Zealand company taking architectural software to the world. FrameCAD were very pleased with the response they were getting from the show – not only from German companies but companies from Turkey, Poland, Romania, Iran… the list goes on.

It’s that time of year again when academia celebrates another year of study and dishes out a number of prizes to students.

This year Graphisoft New Zealand have become the Principle Sponsor of the NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Awards – for this year and the next 3 years.

This sponsorship represents a sizable investment for a company of Graphisoft New Zealand’s size but I am sure we have made more than a few students happy.

Two nights ago we had the major Prize Giving where 4 students from each of Auckland University, Unitec and Wellington University competed to win a $5,000 cash prize along with an overseas trip.

Last night we handed out $10,000 in prizes to 16 students from across the first four years of study at the Unitex ScALA.

Tonight we do the same at the Auckland University School of Architecture and Planning.

Of all the Sponsorship, Advertising and Marketing we undertake, this exercise will be the hardest to quantify from a success/return point of view, but I can easily see that the money is going in a deserving direction.

I was never a good enough Architecture Student to come close to winning prizes of this nature – probably why I moved more into the technology side of Architecture. However, that said I know the money will be well received – even if some or all of it is spent on alcohol - and I am pleased Graphisoft has been able to support the New Zealand Student Community in this way.

I received an email last night Subject: A Measurable Goal for New Zealand.

To be honest, at first I thought it was Spam! I qucikly glanced at it on my Blackberry and saw it was from ‘admin@…’ – a very common sender of the Spam I receive.

It wasn’t until later that I paid closer attention and discovered it to be a legitimate email and one I am glad I didn’t simply delete.

While the email wasn’t signed off by anyone (and i don’t actually know anyone called ‘admin’) I fairly quickly guessed that it could be the doing of Lloyd Morrison of Morrison & Co. Morrison & Co is a New Zealand company that manages infrastructure investments on behalf of Infratil and the NZ Superannuation Fund.

The PDF attached to the email starts with the following quote:

“New Zealand needs a vision that will excite and motivate every citizen to reach new and heretofore unheard of heights. There is no reason why this country cannot be one of the most prosperous nations in the world and a model for others.”

Dr Michael Porter, 1998

I think this initative has a very worthwhile objective behind it and already there is some lively discussion as to what we need to do. There are also some interesting comments by Mark Burgess outlining how our quality of life has changed not only in a financial sense.

For more information and to add your voice to the discussion check out the NZX Blog at: A Measurable Goal for New Zealand.