On Linkedin, they say you shouldnât connect with people you havenât worked with, although in the early days of the site, there were some of us keen to connect with the âpower connectorsâ, those who had amassed lots of connections. Who knows if they really had worked with that many people? But before we knew much about social media and oneâs regular tribes, some of those numbers looked really appealing. In later years I found myself disconnecting from them to give Linkedin visitors a more accurate picture of who I had actually worked with; and sadly, in some cases, disconnecting from people I really had worked with because I noticed my contact list was getting raided by newer power-connector wannabes.
But hereâs someone I havenât connected with on Linkedin, as I assume he isnât on it (based on a fairly comprehensive search): Thomas Nguyen of Professional Painting & Decorating Ltd. And you know he must be good if heâs wound up getting a blog post about him.
Thomas has been working on my partnerâs rental property, both inside and outside. Heâs proved to be reliable and accommodating. And when another contractorâwho I still donât think knew what he was doingâscrewed up his part of it and walked off the job, we asked Thomas to finish things up, which he and his team did.
So far heâs stuck to his quotes, been very flexible as we asked him to do extra things, and heâs even gone above and beyond in a couple of instances. Heâs taken all feedback on board, too, like a real pro. Even his SMSs are well written!
No surprise heâs received four 100 per cent ratings on No Cowboys.
We checked out some of his earlier work before we hired him, so we arenât one-offs.
Heâs been going for five years and relied on word of mouth to get business. I told him I had a particularly big mouth when it came to Twitter, but a blog post seems less fleeting, and more sincereâwe really do think highly of him. If you need someone in the Wellington area, Thomas and Professional Painting & Decorating Ltd. are highly recommended.
Daniel at Harrisons has looked after us on the carpet front and heâs also proved capable and friendly. Out of the carpet people weâve approached, heâs also been the best, though admittedly you donât have as much contact with the carpet salesâ rep as you do with your painters.
That didnât take long, John.
I know, the economic statistics arenât pleasant.
Wellingtonâs economy is stagnant and our population growth lags behind Aucklandâs and Christchurchâs. I did predict this in 2010.
The difference is that I donât give up on us quite so quickly.
I donât think political leaders should.
Not if weâre looking at a long-term view. Yes, the last three years havenât been great, but then weâre not rebuilding from as large a shock as our brothers and sisters in Christchurch.
In fact, if you have spent any time here, and I suspect that since you work here, you would have seen that the ingredients that men like the late Sir Paul Callaghan believed could lead an export recovery are here. Innovative thinking, intellectual capital. We just havenât nurtured it properly because weâve entrusted same-again politicians to do the job.
But, Prime Minister, youâre right to at least raise your points, because at least weâve kicked off a debate.
A debate about just what Wellington is, and should be in the next half-century.
This is not just a knee-jerk, defensive response from a little town so offended by comments made in Takapuna.
We recognize that there are problems, and since itâs election year, itâs our opportunity to fix them.
Youâll see from todayâs reactions, in the video that Andy Boreham has filmed here, that thereâs civic pride in Wellington, most likely because Wellingtonians see what I do: a more cultured, globally minded workforce thatâs intelligent and savvy. We know Sir Peter Jacksonâs not aloneâbecause there are so many other innovators here, not necessarily in something as glamorous as film. Theyâre the backbone of our cityâs economy.
Youâll also see that this identification with and sticking up for Wellington is the same energy that drives everything from trade to Olympic bids, more so than nation branding efforts have ever managed.
My plans, if elected, call for not only identifying and promoting those great firms that are innovative and socially responsible, but the use of my knowledge globally to do just what is needed for Wellington. Like the cityâs next big firmsâthose who have Weta, Trade Me, 42 Below potentialsâtheyâre all waiting there, their latent energies ready to be released. I see them regularly, and the regionâs mayors and I can work with Grow Wellington to identify them with a new set of criteria, then market them properly.
Itâs why in 2010, and again in 2013, Iâve made innovation a priority. Free wifi, which I proposed and we now have, was only a signal to say Wellington is open for business. The costs of extending it are relatively low. Pedestrianization, greening the CBD, and transportation improvements are neededâand we have the nous and the knowledge to get them done.
If prime ministers can lose faith in a city in three years, I believe we can begin rebuilding it in less timeâsince, as youâve seen, weâre united. Youâve given us the perfect opportunity to prove our mettle.
And you know my record, Prime Minister. If I can work at the C-level with companies around the world, I can work with central government, whomever is in power, for a fair deal for Wellingtonians. Weâre not asking for sympathyâweâre getting ready to show you what weâre made of.
Long before Google started pissing me off with its various funny acts (such as spying on users without their consent), it released a program called Google Earth. I installed it in July 2009 on my laptop, and decided to feed in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009, just to see how it had rendered the White House. Other than various Wellington locales, that was my first search query. This was the result, confirmed by others at the time:
There’s no White House there, unless when the Google Earth people made the program, aliens had beamed up the entire block temporarily.
Google has since fixed this. However, back in 2009, it didn’t know where the White House was. And here I was, thinking that it was an American program, where those working on it would double-check where its most famous building stood. This was four years after Google Earth was released.
So any time people say that a big company full of techs must know more than an individual, think of this example, and some others I’ve posted over the years.
The same lesson, I might add, applies to big countries versus small countries. Big definitely doesn’t mean right. The key for the small countries often is to outmanĹuvre the large ones, by being more inventive and more innovative.
God, I love New Zealand.
The Motor Trade Association, whose conference and expo are on in Rotorua this November, has some last-minute sponsorship deals going. I’ll be heading up to speak on social media, and if anyone would like to reach this industry and the sizable numbers that are going to be there this year, events’ manager Anna McGeorge has some specials and would love to hear from you.
You can have your logo on the vehicles heading between the Repco Carnival and the MTA Gala Dinner for NZ$3,000; speak at the MTA Council breakfast on November 11 at NZ$1,500 (along with having your display banners and signage up); sponsor the MTA Gala Awards dinner (no reasonable offer refused, but retail is NZ$20,000); buy a full-page ad or insert for $500; or get your logo at the registration desk (with wifi) for NZ$1,500. The PDF brochure with further info is linked here, and you can reach Anna on [email protected] or 64 4 381-8802.
There have been a few times in the history of this blog where I stepped away from writing regularly. At the end of 2006, I had a pretty good excuse: I was in France. This time, my reasons for stepping away for a few weeks do not include: (a) I was spending too much time with the Miss Universe New Zealand contestants; (b) laziness; (c) being trapped in 1983 and discovering that DCI Gene Hunt controls the Lost island.
I was, however, chatting to a few more of the parties that we needed to realize some of my election promises. And doing a few media interviews. And looking at more ways Wellington could get nearer balancing its budget, as our deficit has ballooned over the last decade.
On May 15, I joined my opponent, Councillor Celia Wade-Brown, on Access Radioâs Espace Français, in what was my first political interview in French. I expected a nice-natured chat till our hosts said they wanted a political debate. So the Councillor and I gave the audience one, coming from very different angles. I believe we are the only two Francophone candidates. And I donât think Access does a Cantonese programme.
You can listen to the interview here, though they only store the programmes for six weeks. You can also download from this link.
I kept Leauna Zheng waiting for weeks while I prepared my emailed responses to her interview for Skykiwi, the leading Chinese expatsâ site in New Zealand. Despite her wait, she wrote a marvellous article (in Chinese, here), and for those of you relying on Google Translate, please note that the term Chinese expatriate is not translated correctly. (I believe this is the first Chinese-language interview to include my name in Chinese ideographs.)
And, finally, my interview with Bharat Jamnadas on Asia Down Under aired last Sunday. Heâs very kindly put it on YouTube, though the aspect ratio is a tad off and I look thinner than usual. There are very nice comments from two members of the Wellington business community, Laurie Foon of Starfish and Brent Wong of Soi, to whom I am extremely grateful.
The conversation at the end about Wellington v. Auckland was a good laugh, but there were some serious bits.
And this Tuesday just gone, it was a pleasure to play a âdragonâ in a Dragonâs Den-style setting analysing some of New Zealandâs entrepreneurs for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.
My thanks to Bharat, Leauna, Kenneth Leong, Laura Daly at Access Radio, Jean-Louis Durand and Arlette Bilounga, and Maria Gray and David Powell.
