Simon Moutter has just wrapped up a seven-year tenure at Spark, where the changes the company has gone through under his reign are nothing short of radical. From its name change (Telecom to Spark) and its operating model (traditional to agile), to its culture (publically called out to inclusive) and its structure (monopoly brand to many). Elly Strang sat down with Moutter had a candid chat about his journey to CEO and how one of his biggest lessons was he couldn’t solve a culture issue with process and strategy.
Browsing: tech
Company directors will need more than basic business accumen to execute leadership while technology becomes more prevalent and shareholders more engaged.
Wrestler has transformed Wellington into an interactive virtual reality experience called WellTown, that hopes to immerse people in the city’s atmosphere.
Fair to say, Spark is more than a telco. In recent years, it’s transitioned into the music space, sports, and business support. This evolution has been accompanied by a digital transformation and at the Adobe Symposium, Erin McKenzie sat down with data powered customer engagement lead Lena Jenkins to talk about Spark’s tech and people-focused core.
Airbnb has launched a new feature – Experiences – in New Zealand for the first time, allowing entrepreneurial local hosts to put forward niche experiences people can’t find anywhere else. Idealog talks with New Zealand company manager Sam McDonagh about what this new feature means, how hosts can use the platform to become micro-entrepreneurs, and more.
Ever wanted to open a cat cafe, but would rather not deal with kitty litter and furballs? Never fear: Dunedin-based games studio Runaway lets you experience such a life vicariously with their newest free mobile game – which just so happens to be bringing worldwide attention to Aotearoa’s burgeoning games industry. PLUS: Mount Maunganui-based Flightless’ new cross-platform game, Element.
True’s head of strategy and planning, Janisa Parag, outlines four cultural currents from SXSW she believes will drive change in our market today.
Run me a bath Alexa, put the lights on dim and tell me the news. We take a look at the virtual assistant space and how Kiwi media organisations will be using Amazon’s Alexa.
A year after hitting the drawing board, Netsafe and DDB have launched Re:scam, an AI bot that’s taking on scammers by wasting their time. We talk to DDB about how the campaign is the result of marrying creativity and technology, and the value of putting over 10,000 hours into a single project.
Illustrator and art director Kelly Thompson couldn’t create her works of art without using tech. For her, it’s all about striking that elusive balance between the old and the new.
Air New Zealand is trialling a new team member in the form of Sophie, a digital human created by Soul Machines to answer questions about New Zealand as a tourist destination and the airline’s products and services.
A New Zealand-created app that auctions items by dropping the prices during a 60-second countdown is about to take on the lucrative US sporting market. We chat with Dropit co-founder Peter Howell about how the app works, as well as why it’s setting its sights on international markets.
With the digital revolution upon us changing the way we work, live and play, the employment outlook for digital professionals is bright. The 2017 Digital Remuneration Report breaks down the incomes of different roles within the industry in Aotearoa, as well as how we fare against our Australian counterparts.
As part of Idealog’s Technology Month, it picked the brains of some of the movers and shakers in the industry to find out their favourite tech-related things, their biggest fears for the future and what other companies and individuals inspire their work. Here’s Wrestler’s Ben Forman.
FlexiGroup is targeting millennials with its new Oxipay product that fulfils their desire to manage their money without racking up long-term debt.
Allpress Espresso may be doing well for itself with roasters in six countries, but to bring its brand into the digital world, it teamed with digital innovations agency Gladeye to launch a new website.
Following on from its award-winning ‘Brewtroleum’ campaign, DB Breweries and Colenso BBDO have continued their mission to save the world through the power of beer with a new innovation that converts beer bottles into sand that can be used in construction. We’ll lift a glass to that.
Earlier this month, Accenture released its Fjord Trends report, showing what businesses should be wary of in the next year. Of the eight, AI was one to watch for its accelerated growth and rational decision-making capabilities. And with the next step being to create empathetic responses from chatbots, the day AI takes over customer service may be closer than you think. With this in mind, we take a look at a Kiwi company at the forefront of humanising AI technology, that’s revealed its first virtual assistant called ‘Nadia’, which has been voiced by actress Cate Blanchett.
New Zealand ad-tech company ikemu has secured an international deal with one of Japan’s largest crowdsourcing platforms, Lancers Inc.
The digital age has made us accustomed to the pairs of shoes and gym memberships that follow us around the internet taunting us to respond, but are we ready for job ads to pop up while we browse? Recruitment advertising specialist Big Splash is using programmatic advertising in recruitment to help companies target ideal candidates and take the stress out of trawling through irrelevant CVs.
TRA managing director Andrew Lewis thinks we would have seen Donald Trump’s victory coming if we listened to social media. But how? Zavy is raising funds to create a tool with all the answers.
Noel Leeming’s Massive Sellout is back for another year and for those who aren’t too keen on getting among the crowds, the retailer is offering a VIP experience with a robot to do the shopping for them.
Earlier this month, a young Auckland professional made headlines for using Facebook to try and land his dream job. Edward McKnight used ads on the social media site to target ASB staff as a way of applying for the role of youth and innovation sponsorship manager at the bank. And while McKnight has yet to be offered a job at ASB, it’s a sign that the traditional recruitment process of sending in a CV and crossing your fingers may be in need of a shake-up. Hoping to do just that is the new recruitment platform PreviewMe. Set to have its beta version go live early next month, the website hopes to reduce the pain points of both candidates and employers by introducing video to the recruitment process.
An app, still in its infancy, called Sidekicker is looking to use technology to well and truly disrupt the temping industry. Here’s its story.
If you think online ‘clickbait’ will be the death of journalism, take a ticket and stand in line. It has become the new orthodoxy. A cliché decrying listicles and ‘must watches’ and superlatives and cats. And it’s probably not right.
An ethical fashion rating app was launched yesterday, dubbed Good On You, which is free for Kiwis to download and provides a way for consumers to see how fashion brands in New Zealand stack up in regard to ethical practices.
For Idealog’s technology issue, we wanted to find a way to use contemporary technological processes to create a cover that embodied the kinds of technologies that would be covered within its pages. Could we code a cover? Automate the design with an algorithm? Get readers to download an app and make it come to life? Could we make it a hologram?
Vodafone has used Blacksand and FCB to promote its new Vodafone xone business accelerator programme and to tell the story of Kiwi entrepreneurs taking their startups to the market.
New Zealand ISP Bigpipe reckons it has the solution to an overcrowded internet connection with a new app that will give users the ability to prioritise their internet for different uses.
Last month, Uber transformed its back seats into a Dragon’s Den of sorts, to give Auckland entrepreneurs the chance to pitch to their business concepts to business leaders and investors. Aranui Ventures founder Robett Hollis shares three lessons he learnt at #UberPitch.