ON THE MONEY
Neville Jordan’s road to riches,
particularly good, particularly helpful and it was a great success. other small Kiwi companies?
Yes, for example there’s a company called ZyGEM [DNA analysis tools]; BioVittoria [a natural sweetener company]; SMX [an anti-virus software company]; GFG, they’re doing secure bank transaction processing; and Veritide in Christchurch, they’re doing bacteria detection, particularly meat contamination.
It sounds like you have a bit of a science focus.
We’re very much looking for what I call defensible intellectual property. So this can be knowhow, it can be registered designs, it can be speed-to-market ability or it could be patents . . . and a lot of people think of it just being patents but it’s not. It can quite often be trade secrets or knowhow. That’s equally important.
If a child asked you the best way to make money, what would you say?
I think the first thing I would say is, don’t set out with the objective of making money. You need to have a service or a product that people want and are willing to pay for. So it’s finding that need and filling it and then money is the denominator of success, in that respect.
What’s the biggest lie about money you’ve ever observed?
The excesses of some of the finance companies over the last 10 years here. There’s no doubt people were simply lied to. It’s bad for the investors, of course – people lost a lot of money – but also it was very, very badly damaging to the country.
I’ve had a lot of [overseas] people say to me, is that what your regulations have allowed to happen? And how is it that such large amounts of cash disappeared? Mind you, a lot has been tidied up, the Financial Markets Authority and so on, but you know, the outlook persists.
What is your view on spending, then?
I don’t splash out on conspicuous stuff. Really, I lead a pretty simple, straightforward life. I don’t buy expensive stuff and I try and keep my life uncluttered.