Waikato Business News March/April 2023

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26 VIBRANT CAMBRIDGE WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS, MARCH/APRIL 2023 PAUA Architects: Shaping Cambridge for over 25 years. Architect Antanas Procuta has been contributing to and helping to shape the town he calls home for over 25 years. Initially working from home in Cambridge, Procuta was joined early on by architect Richard Mauriohooho, who recently celebrated 25 years with the practice. Long-standing team members have been a strength of the practice, with architect Geoff Lentz also marking 20 years this February. Despite taking up premises in Hamilton in 2001 and completing projects across the Waikato, the practice has maintained strong roots in Cambridge, with both Procuta and strategic development manager Phil Mackay based in the Town of Trees. The practice has played an important part in shaping the town, with past work including the masterplanning of the Cambridge Park subdivision, the urban and architectural design of Le Quesnoy Place townhouse enclave, residential homes, and the recently completed Cambridge Police Hub. The common theme running through these projects is the importance of local context, with each project acknowledging and building on the unique character of Cambridge. In Procuta’s words: “The focus of our design is the individual, crafted response to the site, to the client and to their brief.” Cambridge Park In 2003 PAUA was engaged to prepare the overall urban concept and masterplan for a 330-household residential subdivision – now known as Cambridge Park. The neighbourhood is centred on a public green space at the heart of the community and designed to continue the original 1863 arcaded street design for Cambridge. The road and pedestrian walkway layout references this grid pattern to prioritise pedestrian activities through the neighbourhood. In 2009 the project won the Living Streets Aotearoa ‘Golden Foot Award’ for Walkability. Le Quesnoy Place PAUA was approached in 2004 by a local developer wanting to build on the unique character legacy of Cambridge. Inspired by Cambridge’s sister-city relationship with Le Quesnoy in France and occupying an enviable location on the banks of the Waikato River, the neighbourhood comprises fifteen, high-quality, two-storey homes designed to complement each other with similar architectural forms, materials and features. Papillon Townhouse Built for a local farming couple, this townhouse was designed around the conceptual idea of creating courtyard spaces and a sense of spaciousness within a smaller site. This idea prompted the ‘papillon’, or butterfly, shaped layout of the floor plan. A traditional architectural form was chosen to link with neighbourhood church buildings and houses in what is one of the earlier-settled areas of Cambridge. Local materials such as Hinuera stone were chosen alongside other high performing materials to craft a contemporary home that respects the context of the local area. Cambridge Police Hub The architectural brief was to provide a design that reflected the new approach in New Zealand policing and acknowledged the nature of the collaborative partnership between Waikato-Tainui and the NZ Police in this development. Reflecting on the importance of water in Māori culture, Senior Architect Richard Mauriohooho based the shape of the building on a Waka Hourua, or double hulled waka. The orientation of the building also makes reference to local maunga - Maungatautari, Pirongia, Maungakawa, and Kakepuku - through the alignment of walls and windows, while local materials were used in keeping with Waikato Tainui strategies. As well as the prominent Hinuera stone wall featuring a ‘niho taniwha’ pattern, recycled wood and bricks from the police house previously on the site have been used as features in the new building, connecting to the history and context of the site. CAMBRIDGE POLICE HUB Procuta Associates Urban + Architecture 07 839 6521 www.pauaarchitects.co.nz
Business communication: walk before you run When it comes to getting your strategic communications right, as a business, my advice for you today is: walk before you run. What do I mean by that? Well, I think sometimes as business leaders we can often be bamboozled into thinking our competitors and business colleagues are all doing the right things and we’re the only ones on the backfoot. And our perceived inadequacy often rears its ugly head when you hear about businesses jumping onto the latest social media channel or using a new communications tool. For instance, isn’t every business already on Tik- Tok? Shouldn’t you have a YouTube channel? Podcasting – isn’t everyone doing it? ‘No,’ ‘maybe’ and ‘no’ are the answers, by the way! Don’t fall into the trap of being pressured to start using the latest and greatest communications medium if you haven’t already got the basics right. If you’re not sure if you’ve got your business communication basics sorted, here are four foundations to put in place: Internal first The most important audience for any business is your staff. Be sure they feel well-informed about your business direction, excited about where it’s heading and ready to be an active participant in achieving goals. And don’t assume if you told them once, they’ve got it. You need to communicate with staff regularly and repeat messages often. Your staff have potential to be your strongest ambassadors or your biggest detractors. By prioritising your internal communication and staff relationships, you’ll find your external communications will go more smoothly. WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS, MARCH/APRIL 2023 27 Direct communication I’ve seen organisations prioritise external channels, such as media publicity, before communicating directly to the external audiences who matter most to their business – namely customers. Direct communications with priority audiences often doesn’t happen because it’s difficult. Many times businesses haven’t thought about gathering customer details or the details they do have are incomplete (for instance, you’ve got a phone number but no email). New Zealand’s anti-spam laws also pose a big communication roadblock. You can’t send any email communication to anyone unless the person opted in. If your data collection methods haven’t kept up with this law, then you’ve PR AND COMMUNICATIONS BY HEATHER CLAYCOMB Heather Claycomb is director of HMC, a Hamilton-based, award-winning public relations agency. got a major communication challenge on your hands. However, I urge you to figure out a solution. Rather than giving up and putting direct communication in the ‘too hard basket,’ the potential return on investment makes getting it sorted worth it. Multi-channel storytelling Your business won’t have longevity in your sector unless your customers, stakeholders and community trust you. And you can’t build trust if the only messages they see in the market are ‘buy my products.’ One of the best ways to build trust is to tell stories about your business, your customers, your staff and the impact you are making on the marketplace and in your community. People want to see the stories behind the product or service you are selling. When you are consistent with your storytelling and use many different channels to get those stories in front of your audiences repeatedly, you’ll reap the reward of improved brand loyalty. Relationship development Strong and positive relationships are the backbone of any business, whether that be with your staff, customers, partners, suppliers, industry stakeholders, near-neighbours or others. If your relationships suffer, your revenues and profits will most likely dip too. The mistake many businesses make is expecting their key relationships to develop ‘organically.’ This is erroneous thinking. Think of the most important relationships in your personal life - with your partner, kids, family. You need to invest time in these people so they realise you care. The same rules apply in business. So think about all your stakeholders and be proactive in developing ways to keep in touch and demonstrate your appreciation for the part they play in your business success. Tech talk with no tech talk In the often-befuddling world of software development, technical experts walk a fine line between showing that they understand the complexities of the hard stuff and taking their audience safely on the journey with them. TECH TALK BY VICKI JONES Proud to be part of the Cambridge Police Hub new build Tel: 07 849 9921 or email: hamilton@ckl.co.nz www.ckl.co.nz Did you know that you can now get a whole degree in ‘science communication’? The description for Otago University’s course says it can help you “Connect people with science through meaningful and creative communication”. What a genius idea, to develop that course of study, given how confusing scientific language can be. Well, the pandemic certainly showed us how hard it can be to explain highfalutin concepts to us mere mortals who don’t have a science education. Understanding the background and knowledge that your audience brings with them is obviously the important bit here. Over these last few years of working with the Company-X team, I’ve noticed the difference in how they communicate compared to others who seem to want to drown their audience in jargon. If developers are talking to fellow developers, they can go for their lives with the technical lingo, confident that they’ll understand each other. But even then, there’s an “approach with caution” warning on all discourse. No-one wants to come across as the arrogant “smartypants” in the room but, equally, clients need to be reassured that the team has the right level of technical expertise. If you’re literally talking the same language, the likelihood of what you’re saying getting lost in translation is much lower. But an awful lot of the conversations the Company-X people have with clients aren’t with people with deep software knowledge. They know what they need software to do for them but not the details of how to make it happen. After all, that’s why they contacted a specialist software company in the first place! It’s like when you go to your GP. Most of us don’t want the Latin names or Lancet-level terminology for whatever ails us. Personally, I’m more comfortable with a reassuringly simple description the puts my mind at rest that the Doc has identified it correctly, not the microbial detail. But there are some people, Vicki is the marketing manager at Waikato software specialist Company-X. of course, who want to know more details about the whys and wherefores, and the GP should, one would hope, be able to add that additional layer of explanation if and when the patient needs it. Part of relationship-building with a client is an honest and open discussion about genuine levels of technical knowledge. Whatever our business, we should pitch the way we talk at the right level for our clients to be able to feel confident in what we’re doing. There’s danger in making them feel inferior, the patronising effect of feeling like they’re being talked down to. A crucial strength in a software development team is knowing when to talk tech, and when to talk human. Successful teams appreciate that the need of every client differs and adapt the conversation to fit. What a relief - talking tech doesn’t have to be tech talk, after all.
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Waikato Business News March/April 2023

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