Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/49418
Tony Falkenstein Just Water Limited, Executive Director What is the biggest challenge facing New Zealand this year? Recognition that we cannot continue with the same high standard of living with which we are accustomed. What will your main business focus be on achieving? Reducing debt. How do you intend to work smarter? Working more online. What do you plan doing more of in 2012? Reducing both personal and business debt. And less of? Eating rich food. What will your technology purchase be this year? I keep on buying mobile phones, and will continue to do so. What was the best book you read last year? Delivering Claudia Batten Victor & Spoils, COO What is the biggest challenge facing New Zealand this year? I think the key challenge for New Zealand right now is to try to get more digitally connected. New Zealand is geographically isolated and we risk excluding ourselves from much bigger global opportunities and marketplaces. There is so much scope for innovation in the online space; so much potential for Kiwi Ingenuity to play with. By tapping into the global conversation and getting online at scale, we can develop new lines of expansion for existing businesses and a lot of entrepreneurial possibility. We need to embrace technology as a means to drive broader opportunities for the country. What will your main business focus be on achieving? I am really excited about 2012. 2011 was a blast and we are really positive about our position in the industry. V&S has developed technology platforms that are changing the marketing industry, allowing brands to tap into consumer insights directly. We'll be introducing these platforms into more client campaigns in 2012 and the results will be provocative. The market is so ready for a new way of marketing, let alone advertising, and we continue to find untapped opportunities. I can't wait to keep evolving what we are doing. How do you intend working smarter? I have recently started getting up earlier in the morning realising I just can't get everything done otherwise. There is just too much exciting content to devour and work to be done and I steadfastly refuse to let my personal life pay the consequence. So I just have to sleep a little less, just let me know if the bags under my eyes get too prominent. What will your technology purchase be this year? I just bought a Smart TV, which I am fascinated by. Two years ago I decided to cut the cord and since then have watched TV only through online resources like Netflix and Hulu. To power this I bought a pretty 'spec'd out' laptop and its been an incredible learning experience (albeit incredibly frustrating at times). The incredible thing about the Smart TV is you don't need the laptop anymore. And the progression of the apps is so impressive, you can really see where TV viewing is going to end up. My passion is digital media, so to see this all evolving in front of my eyes literally makes me giddy. How did you pay it forward in 2011? This is something that's Happiness by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com Who would you most like to sit next to on an international journey this year? All my staff. If you could change one thing about the world right now, it would be? Burst the bubble earlier than later, and let us go into a depression so that we get out of it earlier with a new way of economic thinking. Your best advice to school leavers is? Take any opportunity to get employed, even if it is working for free. Your best advice to people starting a business this year is? Make sure your business model is sound, don't go into retail and don't go into debt. built into my life. Mostly this takes the shape of trying to make time for people who want some business advice, but I have had some real opportunities to be a guardian angel this year which has been very rewarding. This year was a big one for the realisation that life is a lot more rewarding when you truly can help other people. If you could change one thing about the world right now, it would be? It would be wonderful to think of a world where ego didn't play such a big role. It seems to me it's the reason behind many of the issues that face us, from financial misfeasance to wars to inequality. I hope that doesn't make me sound like too much of a Boulder hippy, but I really struggle with the need for big egos in today's world. In fact, I like to think we are moving beyond that. Your best advice to people starting a business this year is? A digital world allows brands to get immediate feedback from their audiences – so if you are not already, you better start listening! HER MAGAZINE | December/January 2012 | 29 Photographer: Marcel Tromp