by JAK | Jul 12, 2025 | culture
Doublespeak is alive and well in Aotearoa NZ in 2025 and so are double standards. It is deeply ironic and dishonest to claim that your project is an attempt to setup principles that would result in better design of laws while at the same time trashing the actual...
by JAK | Jun 13, 2025 | big ideas, industry futures
A couple of weeks ago I was over in Queenstown for the Electrify Queenstown conference. Here are some of my notes. “Electrify Queenstown is a three-day event that brings together community, business, government, and industry to accelerate the transition to a...
by JAK | Jun 17, 2024 | culture, music
Back in the 80’s one of my flatmates worked for a high end audio store. He would sell Linn turntables and similar for what seemed like an absolute fortune. The payoff for our house was that we got to try out some great speaker / amplifier combinations of all...
by JAK | May 15, 2024 | big ideas, industry futures
It seems like the mainstream media stories are missing most of the good news about solar, wind and batteries ( renewables) dramatically improving the electricity generation future for NZ and many other countries. Because I am working on some futures type projects I...
by JAK | May 14, 2024 | big ideas, industry futures
Back in the 90’s early 2000’s I found myself at the BHP training centre in Victoria. I was there as part of an in house training thing for some consulting group that I worked at for a while. The point is – there was a swimming pool and the NZ team...
by JAK | Feb 19, 2024 | big ideas, development
From RethinkX “”We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most profound disruption of the energy sector in over a century. Like most disruptions, this one is being driven by the convergence of several key technologies whose costs and capabilities have...
by JAK | Jan 20, 2024 | culture, industry futures
As Mark Twain said ” rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated”. The Dairy sector is far from dead but sleepwalking towards destruction might be a better metaphor. As shocking as it sounds the impending death of the NZ Dairy sector should be taken...
by JAK | Dec 21, 2023 | culture, general business
For a very long time I have treated Australia and New Zealand as a combined population for economic reasons. I have lived and worked in Australia for the equivalent of a few years. Mostly I was in Sydney and Melbourne but also had extended stays in Brisbane and...
by JAK | Dec 6, 2023 | culture
I was reminded of the how important socialising is in business. Having a coffee is shorthand for getting a heads up and expanding your network, informal data gathering – knowledge sharing and the like. In other not unrelated news after a lifetime of coffee...
by JAK | Nov 13, 2023 | culture, music
Someone posted this clip today. Just imagine a few places stopping to share in this song. I learned how to play this song many years ago and I was in an orchestra for 5 years. The song itself (the Beethoven version) dates from 1824 but had actually been around as a...