Forum Archive Index - March 2000

["Oliver Shapleski" <oliver.shapleski@vuw.ac.nz>]

Spot on Mike.  I felt that the investment statement even suggested that the
suppliers were queuing up!
In the main however, I'd like to comment on this idea of supporting kiwi
entrepreneurs.  IMHO, an entrepreneur is not necessarily someone who does
something currently not in NZ.  There has to be more than that.
Entrepreneurship to me seems to suggest a process of adding value.  It
involves the entrepreneur getting into an area where he or she can add
something not already there.  Where is the added-value with BDO?

ITC - that's a value-adding business if ever I saw one.  From memory those
two words are plastered thru-out its website, but they also walk as well as
talk.  Anyone who used Virtual Spectator and follows the development of that
product can see new value at every stage.

So why is BDO different from Amazon.com?  Amazon is self-evidently a
value-adding business.  It even loses more money than BDO but the share
value climbs up and up.  Why?  Amazon's CEO (I should know his name but I've
forgotten) IS an entrepreneur.  He didn't just say "we'll sell books on-line
around the world".  His vision was of an Amazon that could sell EVERY book
around the world - hence the huge losses - the inventory required to achieve
that vision is immense.  The vision focuses not just on on-line reselling of
a limited number of products, but of the construction of an immense
distribution network - a real empire - that can meet ANYONE's book needs
quickly and at a low price.  Unless Bronwen Evans was to do this, frankly
BDO might as well be a secondary school student's economics project (it
reminds me of something we used to do with the Young Enterprise Scheme run
at schools...!)

Keep the change.


> Ben,
>
> I agree with your sentiments entirely. But a company setting itself up to
> sell cosmetics, listing on the sharemarket and in the process soliciting
> investors funds has surely an obligation to first of all clarify it's line
> of supply. To find out one day after listing that there will be
> difficulties with major brands is failing the investors.



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