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For civil construction businesses, margins and machinery only tell part of the story about their value. In this article, Louisa Meredith and Matt Thomson cover the operational, governance and financial factors that can make your business more resilient, more profitable and ultimately more attractive to acquirers long before any sale is on the table:

New Zealand’s food sector has avoided major supply chain disruption so far this year, but rising fuel, freight, insurance and input costs are continuing to squeeze margins and cashflow across manufacturing, wholesale and retail. Joel Gauntlett says these are no longer temporary economic conditions; they are now part of normal trading. He reveals what the more resilient businesses are focusing on to cope with this perpetual volatility.

If the margins in your construction business are already razor thin, rising fuel and material costs could push profitability even closer to the edge. Matt Hannah explains why accurate job costing, real-time financial visibility, and stronger systems have never been more important for construction businesses. He covers where risk is building across the sector, how poor costing can quietly erode profits, and the practical steps you can take to protect your cashflow, improve decision making, and strengthen your business for the years ahead.

Aotearoa has recently seen several high-profile data breaches, affecting healthcare services, a law firm and a community networking site. For companies that experience breaches, the result is significant reputational and financial damage.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (“ACFE”), NFPs lose about 5% of revenue annually to fraud, and small businesses globally have an annual median loss to fraud of $200,000.

How can New Zealand’s construction sector invest in a more successful future when times have been so tough? Business leaders with the foresight to build people resilience now will be ready to profit as their pipelines begin to flow freely again.

When it comes to sport, New Zealand tends to punch above its weight on the world stage. But, what’s our win rate on infrastructure projects? Infrastructure is the backbone of our entire economy, yet we underperform on delivering and maintaining our most essential facilities and systems.

The civil construction industry has been hammered over the past two years. How can business owners escape this trap?

Organisations face growing disruption, complex systems and evolving risks when it comes to managing technology. Here’s how to approach your pathway to resilience.

Although retirement villages can be profitable, this study has revealed it can take more than 20 years before an owner of an average village fully recovers their investment. It explores the commonly held belief about the retirement village business model disproportionately benefiting operators financially. The path to profitability: Separating fact from fiction in New Zealand’s retirement village sector, is based on a discounted cashflow financial model of two retirement villages that represent a cross section of the sector: Rural villas in Canterbury and urban apartments in Auckland. It covers a 25-year period comprising the key stages of a retirement village development from sourcing land and construction, to project completion and revenue generation. It then takes into account the sector-specific sensitivities that impact a village’s profitability, some of which include occupancy lags, ORA (occupation right agreement) sale prices and construction costs.

Only 5% of businesses have cyber insurance, even though everyone is at risk of a cyberattack – and the cost of an incident can sink your entire organisation.

You’ve been working hard your whole life, and you’ve built up assets that are worth protecting: a profitable business, a portfolio of investments, and a good reputation. But, can you turn that success into generational wealth?

Reduced consumer spending. Finding talent. Rising interest rates. Inflation. Supply chain challenges. Escalating global conflict. To say doing business is difficult in New Zealand (or anywhere) right now is an understatement.

Many Kiwi businesses eventually outgrow their systems and processes. Their financial, governance and management systems were a perfect fit when the business was smaller – but now, they’re hindering growth, not helping it.

Putting responsible business practices in place is often an overlooked opportunity to invest in the future of your business. ESG expectations and obligations are rising. Unfortunately, this can be perceived as a negative: a cost to be faced, a risk, and an annoying box-ticking exercise. However, it’s time to flip the script and seize this opportunity to build a better, more resilient enterprise.

This year has been a tough one for many industries. The pain has been widespread, so many business leaders are reassessing their operations. They’re asking: What’s working and what needs to be improved? How can we increase productivity? Can we use AI to overcome challenges? And is it time to develop new products or services, or refine existing ones?