Waikato Business News August/September 2020

16 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2020
PKF welcomes
new partner
What the world needs now...
Johann van
Loggerenberg
PKF Hamilton has welcomed
another partner to its line-up.
Johann van Loggerenberg has
been with the firm for three
years and was previously its
audit manager. He was made a
partner earlier this year. He joins
the five other partners: Alison
Nation, Steve Stark, Glen Martyn,
Matthew Fulton and Bernard
Lamusse. Born in South Africa,
van Loggerenberg moved to
New Zealand with his family when
he was 16. He graduated from
the University of Waikato in 2013
with a Bachelor of Management
Studies majoring in accounting
and graduated as a Chartered
Accountant in 2016.
Fast rail backed
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate
has welcomed the announcement
the Government will undertake a
business case to investigate the
potential for rapid rail between
Hamilton and Auckland. The
government intends investigating
four possible scenarios, ranging
from extending electrification
of the existing route to building
a new rail alignment alongside
the existing rail corridor. Each
scenario would connect both
city centres. Mayor Southgate
said investigating rapid rail was
a “natural extension” to the work
already underway to ensure better
connections between both fastgrowing
cities.
Is trust, sweet trust. business? When it comes
to being trusted, business is
not hitting the mark. People
What and whom
do you trust?
Worldwide, what
and whom the population
trusts has shifted significantly
over the past nine
months. And businesses,
as a whole, are less trusted
today than they were at the
start of this year.
I’ve referred to the
Edelman Trust Barometer
before in this column. It’s
an annual survey of populations
around the world,
including New Zealand, and
monitors public trust levels
of key institutions such as
government, business and the
media. Google “2020 Edelman
Trust Barometer” for an
interesting read.
After Covid-19 hit the
world, this year Edelman
updated the Barometer in
May from its annual result in
January. Predictably, people
are tending to trust government
more than ever before
as we look to government
leaders to get us through
this uncertain time.
Around the world, trust
in the media is also at an alltime
high. But predictably,
a majority of people (67 percent)
are fearful about misinformation
being spread about
the Covid-19 virus. Thus,
social media is not trusted by
the vast majority.
So, what about
want to see businesses doing
more for their staff, their communities,
their suppliers and
others who depend on them
for livelihoods.
The Edelman Trust Barometer
survey found that, “To
increase trust, business should
focus on solutions, not selling,
with respondents calling for
the private sector to collaborate
with competitors (and)
redefine their company’s purpose
and goals around fighting
the pandemic.
“Fewer than one in three
respondents (29 percent)
believe CEOs are doing an
outstanding job responding to
demands placed on them by the
pandemic…”
So, here’s a question for
Waikato business owners
and managers reading this
column: What have you
done since March to stabilise
and increase trust levels
in your staff, customers and
others who matter to your
business success? The complicating
factor in the current
environment, of course, is
that you must build this trust
with audiences who are often
worried, fearful, sceptical and
ready to find fault with any
wrong step you take. Plus, you
are likely focused on keeping
the doors open, finding new
markets, maintaining customer
bases, holding onto staff and
generally staying afloat. Who
can afford to spend time
thinking about maintaining
and building trust? I would
say you can’t afford not to.
Waiting until Covid-19 blows
over might just be too late.
So, what do businesses need
to be proactively doing to
keep their ‘trust banks’ full?
Here are a few key things:
Be seen.
If you are a company that’s
doing the right thing, caring
for your people and going the
extra mile for customers during
this time, remember to not
only do the right thing but tell
people you’re doing the right
thing. But be careful in your
delivery. This isn’t about blowing
your trumpet; it’s about
demonstrating your values to
those who matter. This is also
the time to ensure you can be
found offline and on.
That means having a great
social media presence and
interacting on each channel in
a meaningful way.
PR AND COMMUNICATIONS
> BY HEATHER CLAYCOMB
Heather Claycomb is director of HMC Communications, a
Hamilton-based, award-winning public relations agency
Listen more than you talk.
Whether it’s your staff, your
customers or your suppliers,
people trust someone who
genuinely listens. Now more
than ever, businesses must
adjust to continually changing
circumstances. You’ll
make the best decisions when
you’ve taken the time to truly
listen to those around you.
Tell great stories.
People want to be inspired
during this international crisis
we find ourselves in. Share
what your business is doing
through heart-warming stories
that endear people to
your company and your people.
And remember that while
words are great, videos and
photos are much better.
And remember that tried
and true strategy of trust
building: getting others – your
customers, your business partners,
your staff – telling your
stories for you.
Keep your promises.
This goes without saying.
People are looking for businesses
and leaders who tell
them what they are going to
do and then deliver.
Be consistent, show progress
toward goals and communicate
often.
This also means acknowledging
what you don’t know
and recognising when things
might have to change as you
navigate your way along this
new journey.
Keep it real.
No matter what you do, be
honest with people and be
true to who you are as a company
and as a leader.
People are overly sceptical
at the moment. Therefore,
they don’t want to
see anything overly glossy
or contrived.
Just be you. Authenticity
always wins when
trust is on the line.
Text-to-voice technology
Hiring voice talent for
voiceover work can be
expensive, particularly
if you have to do it multiple
times for different languages.
Many of the world’s information
technology giants offer textto-voice
or text-to-speech services
which turn typed text into
TECH TALK
> BY DAVID HALLETT
David Hallett is a co-founder and director of Hamilton software
specialist Company-X.
audible speech or voice. These
high-quality audio files can be
used to narrate software, both
in standard operation and help
sections, accompany training
videos, or even act as voice-over
tracks for videos.
While text-to-speech or
text-to-voice technology is
reasonably mature, the end
results are not always perfect,
and the scriptwriter has no control
over how the voice in the file
sounds. Company-X built a textto-voice
editor taking advantage
of this technology that allows
the user to make the voice sound
almost like natural speech.
Speech Synthesis Markup
Language (SSML) tags control
emphasis, pitch, speed and tone.
A variety of male and female
voices and languages are available.
The text-to-voice or textto-speech
editor builds a pronunciation
library of acronyms
and specialist terminology.
With this editing tool, the world
leader in milking equipment and
dairy solutions, DeLaval International,
has transformed the
manual voice translation process
internationally into a fully automated
digital process.
The Company-X text-tovoice
editor removed the need
for DeLaval to book voiceover
artists, directors, sound technicians
and recording studios
for six languages. Instead of
a half-day block of recording
costing tens of thousands
of dollars per language, the
audio files were produced in
minutes at 10 per cent of the
cost. DeLaval’s production
staff can edit and resynthesize
the result at any time using
SSML tags. If the material
needs to be updated the user
can replace the entire text and
produce the voice file within a
few mouse clicks.
Apart from the automated
voice file generation, the textto-voice
or text-to-speech editor
created a translation platform
significantly reducing
the time to deliver translated
content to the global market.
The text-to-voice or text-tospeech
tool delivers consistent
results across all regions.
Skills group
appointment
Waikato software specialist
Company-X co-founder and
director David Hallett has
been elected Information and
Communication Technology
(ICT) and Creative representative
of the Waikato Regional Skills
Leadership Group. The group
was formed in June to identify
and support better ways
of meeting future skills and
workforce needs in Hamilton and
the Waikato. It is supported by a
team of data analysts, advisors
and workforce specialists at
the MBIE. “My vision in joining
the Waikato Regional Skills
Leadership Group is to help
increase opportunities in the ICT
and creative space for the newly
unemployed and those who
want to enter the fields,”
Hallett said.