I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.

Refreshingly non-PC
Posted by Rod in Exporting, TechBiz at 6:20 pm on Monday, 12 November 2007

In Sydney for the day I immediately saw 3 examples of how much more aggressive things are in Australia. Business is much more direct.

  1. Coming up to the election the TV adverts pull no punches. I look to the carpet when they come on such are our New Zealand sensitivities.
  2. The scheme proposed for Boy Racers. Strike 1 your car is impounded for 3 months. Strike 2 your car is put forward for crash testing and put on YouTube. Brilliant.
  3. Front of the business section in ‘The Australian’, they bag rivals AFR for not covering the proposed Rio Tinto merger in detail. “Unrivalled coverage of Australia’s Mega-Merger”

I still remember Al Munro at CeBit a couple of years ago saying. There is no New Zealand word like ‘un-australian’. It’s a different speed over here.

Trackback uri |

Comments(4)

    Comment by Ben Kepes at 6:38 pm on 12 November 2007

    And there was me thinking that the un-PC comment was related to my post about Rod and late night spa-pooling!




    Comment by sue at 7:56 am on 13 November 2007

    yay for lack of aggression, having been in Australia during the now infamous election where the Howard government lied and deceived the public over immigration. I’ll take wimpy any day




    Comment by Peter Crow at 9:35 am on 13 November 2007

    You make a good point Rod, although I don’t interpret it as “aggression”, rather “can do”. Being married to an Australian for over 20 years, I’ve developed quite an insight into the Australian (particularly Sydney and Brisbane) culture. My view is that Australians want to, and expect to, get things done (and win). We see it on the sports field, in business meetings and generally in the community. New Zealand has become “nice”, “polite” and oh-so-PC. With that said, I choose to live in NZL. Why? Because bigger and brasher is not always better. There is more to life than simply pushing one’s weight around to get ahead.




    Comment by mark at 10:28 pm on 13 November 2007

    yes, behind the bravado is often not a lot of substance.
    I would not live anywhere else though as Mbne is a big wellington with a much greater Med influence.
    One thing that really grates me is the blame game that lot of business people here play. You can’t nail the pricks!!
    Mark