Firstsearch Home Page

What Scares Me New Zealand scares me. There is enough research data to more than suggest that NZ businesses are not in the Internet game. A few years ago it was suggested that NZ was two or three years behind in the world with which we compare ourselves. A few years on and what has changed, the world is moving on, while NZ could best be described as leaving the field. How long before three years becomes four, four years becomes five, five becomes . . . and so on. It scares me that corporate businesses are still being advised in matters regarding the Internet by "Madison Avenue" type advertising executives and that the advisors to the Main Street retailers have not recognized that the world changed in 1995 The other day I spoke to a Main Street retailer who was standing at the front door of his shop. The discussion turned to TradeMe and how many of the public used it. I suggested he place his product on the Internet. The public is on-line to research and view products and perhaps he would reach the buying public if he told and showed them what he had available in his shop. A blank look followed. He just didn't get it. I thought it was a good idea, far better than standing in the door way of the shop wondering where all the customers had gone. Our children and our children's children should be scared and we for them. We send them to school to learn, to obtain an education, they gain knowledge and when they are ready to enter the world what is their expectation, a developed nation or a third world country. Quote from Gord Hotchkiss the president of Enquiro a search engine marketing firm. "We have no idea how much our lives will change in the next two decades. It will be the most rapid assimilation of sociological change in history. Everything that forms our current reality will be reengineered and reinvented from the ground up. This includes our definitions of community, social relationships, family communication, our work and the simple act of searching will become the synapse that connects us to the World 2.0." It is human nature to advance and if there is no progress in the country of their birth perhaps overseas can offer more. And what can we offer to bring back the expats whose experience and knowledge we need. Forget the propaganda; there is no virtue in fixing things with number 8 wire. While we were doing that the world was moving on. Forget the propaganda that we lead the world in so many things. Legends in their own lunch box are tomorrows toast. If NZ business does not enter into the world that now exists, what message are they giving to their customers and if the young leave for overseas, what will it do to house prices and who is going to pay for my superannuation. Now that really scares me. (2006) Contact Us