The Japanese syndrome, IRD strikes gold, Corporate Reputation, Light switched on shadowy companies

It looks as if New Zealand’s political system is turning Japanese, Rob Hosking writes.

As National’s opponents continue to fail to make a dent in the government’s popularity, it is starting to look as though New Zealand is in for a similar long-running government to that displayed by the Japanese Liberal Democrats since 1955.

National is not likely to enjoy anything quite so prolonged. But what the MMP electoral system did do was entrench the policy settings of 1996. That does not mean those cannot be changed – it just makes it much harder to do so.

Freeview has never loomed large on Sky TV investors’ horizon. Soon, it will.

The Crown-subsidised Freeview has always been the poor man’s option.

But recent developments in streaming have seen Freeview’s place in the world become more obvious and more appealing to the next-generation, broadband-age viewer rather than the out-of-pocket couch potato, Chris Keall writes.

Angel investors plugged a record $55.9 million into New Zealand start-ups last year, with software companies taking the lion’s share. When angel group investment activity was first measured here in 2006, just over $20 million was being invested annually. Angel investing is inherently risky – about half the companies fail outright – but New Zealand Venture Investment Fund chief executive Franceska Banga lets Calida Smylie in on what the attraction is.

New laws come into effect today that will make it harder to register companies for illegal purposes.

The Companies Amendment Act 2014 requires businesses to be more accountable and transparent about their ownership, while also giving greater enforcement powers to the registrar of companies to investigate them. The new act will make it a lot harder to misuse our system, which as a trusted place to do business is more valuable than gold,” Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Paul Goldsmith tells Nevil Gibson.

When it comes to award-winning marketers, the taxman doesn’t usually spring to mind. But Inland Revenue showed its advertising nous at last week’s Beacon Awards where it took home several gongs for a $1.1 million campaign. Furthermore, the campaign used no TV or radio but was instead focused on online advertising and making use of platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn, Victoria Young writes.

What is reputation? Why do corporations treat the concept so seriously? A company’s reputation is part of the most efficient system of production ever devised for dealing with market competition. Nathan Smith unpacks the machinery of modern business in this inaugural feature for NBR’s Intelligent Business Series.