SMALES FARM NEWS
New Sovereign CEO enjoys Kiwi difference
New Sovereign CEO Charles Anderson talks about the challenges facing his industry, and what’s different about Kiwis.
Charles Anderson has a big appetite for change. He is new to living in New Zealand, and has taken on his new role at a critical point for the insurance and investment industry.
“Our industry is about to be regulated for the first time,” he says.
“We’re also going to be taxed differently as an industry from 1 July. We went through this in the UK 15 years ago - I’m excited about and looking forward to the changes. I think they will help us to preserve our market leadership: if you’re in a leadership position, turmoil is a great way to win.”
Sovereign’s distribution partners will also be regulated for competency, and be subject to a code of conduct. Charles says Sovereign’s size and strength will help it deliver maximum support and training to its partners.
“The extra training and compliance costs will decrease profitability – we intend to use IT to boost productivity to counter that. We’re welcoming our IT team – currently based in our Albany facility - to Smales Farm. That will raise our Smales Farm head count by 45 people.”
The majority of Sovereign’s workers live on the North Shore. “It’s a different feel from downtown and we benefit from that by being able to bike, run and walk,” Charles Anderson says.
“There is a light and user-friendly feel at Smales Farm. It’s not a struggle to get here – even city folk travel counter to the rush hour. I am thrilled by the office environment here. It does what it was designed to do – create very easy and frequent communications across all different people. It’s a lovely environment that I personally like working in. It has everything a forward looking company should have, including strong environmental credentials and good break out spaces.”
Charles Anderson has environmental credentials of his own. He is looking at a parcel of land in Wanaka suitable for seven ‘green’ houses that will share renewable energy production and waste management.
“I want to showcase leading environmental buildings in an area of great natural beauty,” he says.
“It’s just a spectacular place.” Charles Anderson came to New Zealand 15 years ago on an amateur cricket tour. He has holidayed 12 times in New Zealand since then, and competed in the NZ Ironman in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
“I’m a frequent user of BodyTech gym and there are always a lot of Sovereign people there,” he says.
“The same is true of Quarry Bar and Columbus. The ambience point is a very strong one. I regard Columbus and Quarry Bar as an extension of our premises.” Charles has spent seven years working in Asia, establishing and running business units across India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. He says the cultural differences were challenging and rewarding in equal measure.
“Everyone has a different way of working and thinking. Each nationality has their own way of thinking about the world and their role in it. Sometimes I was in five countries in five days, trying to be effective in all of them. You have no ability to pick up intuitively what is going on, whereas to locals it is very straightforward.
“The New Zealand culture is egalitarian. You are hard working people interested in the balance of life, and the quality of life. People are very practical here – there’s great skill and ingenuity. I do notice that Kiwis don’t seem to like standing out. You might ask how someone’s weekend went and they’ll say ‘yep, I had a good weekend’, then later you find out they kayaked 300 miles or swam to Tasmania. There’s an inherent modesty there.”
Smales Farm Hosts $6.5 Million Centre
A new $6.5 million traffic operation centre has opened at Smales Farm, providing a hub that enables New Zealand to monitor its highways on a nationwide basis for the first time.
The centre will monitor and manage what’s happening on Auckland’s 8,000km of roads and motorways 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year.
The Smales Farm site contains New Zealand’s largest video wall. More than 200 closed circuit cameras transmit live images into the control room for operators who monitor traffic flows, manage roadway incidents and adjust the region’s 700 sets of traffic signals. The traffic management centre is in the Q4 Building next to TelstraClear's headquarters at Smales Farm, with its strong fibre optic connection.
The new centre is part of a national network for managing traffic operations on state highways throughout New Zealand. Outside of Auckland, the centre manages Wellington’s state highways at night, and controls roadside electronic messages on the national State Highway network. The Northern Busway stations, and Northern Gateway Toll Road operations, are also run from the centre.
Drivers can look forward to a new information service, with 150 electronic message signs being progressively commissioned over three months. Positioned on the approaches to motorway on-ramps, the signs will show estimated journey times in minutes for travel to a destination via a motorway. They will help improve traffic flows and provide more predictable travel times.The centre will also provide traffic updates to radio stations and websites to give accurate and timely information to motorists.
Northern State Highways Manager Tommy Parker says the Smales Farm site was chosen for its proximity to police both at Northcote and Takapuna, as well as to the motorway and the busway. “As a 24-hour operation, the wellbeing of our staff is a key factor in choosing a location,” he says.
“Smales Farm offers excellent staff amenities on site, in a campus-like environment that suits our operation. There are also very good transport options for staff, with the Northern Busway station only a couple of minutes walk from the offices.”
Mr Parker said the new centre allowed all traffic management operations to be brought together on a single site. It has a start-up staff of 50 people.
“The centre offers plenty of room to expand operations, which will be needed when Auckland's new generation of motorway tunnels beneath Victoria Park, Waterview and Waitemata Harbour are added to the roading network,” he says.
“The Smales Farm Management team has been extremely helpful in assisting us to set up our new operation, and I look forward to a very successful ongoing relationship.”
The NZTA is forecasting $53 million in productivity gains per year from the new centre. It says providing reliable travel information helps to avoid crashes, clears those that do occur more quickly and safely, and makes more efficient use of the existing motorway system by reducing travel times, energy consumption and pollutants.
Right: Bill Smale, Greg Smale,
Daniel Henderson and Traffic Management Unit Manager Mark
Walker at the opening of the new
$6.5 million centre.
Art competition at Smales Farm aimed at emerging artists
A $35,000 competition has been launched by Smales Farm Technology Office Park to select a New Zealand artist to create a permanent sculpture or installation which depicts and celebrates the history of Smales Farm as a transport hub on the North Shore.
Artists’ concept proposals will be considered by a selection panel including North Shore mayor Andrew Williams, Smales Farm director Greg Smale and chair of Takapuna Community Board Martin Lawes.
The winning sculpture will occupy a prominent position adjacent to the Smales Farm Bus station.
The judging process will be led by professional art curator Rob Garrett, whose more than 30 years experience in the visual arts includes leading Auckland City Council’s public art review, curating Britomart’s ‘Auto Garage’ public art project and curator of New Zealand Sculpture Onshore in 2008 and 2010.
The deadline for artists’ proposals to be received by the selection panel was Monday 14 June. Smales Farm received 19 proposals from 20 artists. Project Curator Rob Garrett says he was impressed and heartened by the quality and volume of the responses.
“The proposals are so strong and so interesting – the calibre of thinking and imagination is very high. Smales Farm will get a fantastic result from this competition,” he says.
The proposals showcase a broad range of ideas from both emergent and established artists. The artists use diverse materials that include metal, rubber, neon, wood and fibre optic cabling. There are abstract sculptures as well as representational forms.
Rob Garrett says the selection panel will be looking for one entry that is artistically outstanding and that expresses a clear connection to the site and its history. Even though many of the entries are abstract Garrett believes that New Zealand audiences are quite sophisticated when it comes to looking at art.
“I have great faith in how interested and inquisitive people are. For that reason I think some of the best public art can be a bit mysterious and we shouldn’t fret about whether people ‘get it’ immediately. It’s OK for a work to be puzzling because these works can actually have a longer life in the community, especially when people are walking or driving past the same work every day. You can get a ‘slow burn’ effect where people gradually get their heads around the sculpture as they see it in different weather conditions and at different times of the day.”
The selection panel will now look at all the proposals, and Rob Garrett will give a recommended shortlist of around six works.
“The panel has a lot of talking to do, and a tough decision to make over the next few weeks,” he says.
“When we have weighed up the artistic quality, the scale, the connection to the site, and the likely lifespan of each proposal we’ll then commission the winning artist to take their proposal through to developed design phase, to make sure that building and installing it
is achievable.”
The winning concept will be announced this month. The project plan calls for the completed artwork to be officially unveiled during November-December 2010.
Project curator Rob Garrett says the competition is particularly aimed at providing a major opportunity for emerging artists.
“Smales Farm wants to encourage artists who have great potential, but not necessarily the opportunity up until now to have access to sufficient
funding and resources to realise their creative vision.”
North Shore mayor Andrew Williams says Smales Farm has been at the centre of the development of transport on the North Shore – going right back to the days when the farm grazed horses used for the first coach service in the area.
“It’s great to see Smales Farm supporting the creation of a permanent work of art near the bus station which both adds to the environment as well as connecting us to the past. We’ve come a long way with transport on the North Shore. We have a long way to go. I hope to see a great work of art which commemorates and expresses that journey,” Williams says.
Visit www.smalesfarm.co.nz
to see full details of the competition.
Below: Smales Farm Director Greg Smale, North Shore City Mayor Andrew Williams and Takapuna Community Board Chairman Martin Lawes discuss history story boards to be mounted at the Smales Farm Bus station. Below right: Smales Farm has been a transport hub since 1898. Below right: Smales Farm Station on Auckland’s Northern Motorway. The pink line marks available space for installation of the winning artwork.
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