Factors of production

In business studies, we have been looking factors of production. What are the factors of production I hear you say?

Well basically they are what you need to make any good or service. Natural resources (land), Human resources (Labor + Entrepreneurs), Capital resources (What you use to make your product), and finally the good and/or services (What you were making)

Still confused? That's fine. Let me explain. Natural resources (land), anything that came from the earth, (water, dirt, clay, wind, sun, fish, animals,etc). Human resources (Labor + Entrepreneurs), the people who came up with the idea, and the people who made that thing. Capital resources (What you use to make your product), anything that has been made somewhere else, used to make this thing (Buildings, tools, factories, paint, etc) good and/or services (What you were making), the thing you end up selling.

Still confused? Wow. Ok then. Here is an example

Natural resources (land)	Human resources (Labor + Entrepreneurs)	Capital resources (What you use to make your product),	good and/or services (What you were making)
Soil, water, bees,	Farmers	Fertilizer, wooden stakes, string, etc	apples

Do you get it now? Good. I'm glad. 😌

Sam Morgan

In business we are looking at different New zealand entrepreneurs. I have already looked at Peri Drysdale, now I looked at Sam Morgan. 

In early 1999, 23-year-old Sam Morgan was looking for a second-hand heater to help him survive a draughty Wellington flat.  Being computer-savvy, Morgan turned to the internet to help with his quest, but couldn't find what he wanted on any New Zealand websites.  That experience inspired him to create Trade Me. There was still plenty of room for an entrepreneur (even one on a Kiwi-sized budget). “I literally sat on the couch and built the site on a laptop over a five- or six-week period." Once the site was completed, Morgan scraped together $8000 through overdrafts, credit cards and savings and launched Trade Me into the wilds of cyberspace.  Success wasn't exactly instantaneous. 

Morgan persevered - but didn't give up his day job. After a few months, Trade Me started to gain a little bit of traction, signing 5000 members and attracting some 200,000 visitors. At that point, Morgan started getting offers for the fledgling business.  In typically cheeky Kiwi fashion, he listed Trade Me for sale on eBay, with a "buy now" price of about $1 million. He didn't attract any bids before eBay withdrew the auction.

With the company still only months old, he sold close to half the company to several former Deloittes colleagues for $75,000.  As a result he was able to start working on the business full-time. Morgan was working longer hours and earning a lot less than when he was a consultant, but there was always the hope that some day it would pay off.

Even with Morgan's full-time attention, the next year was a struggle.  Listings on Trade Me were originally free, and advertising was expected to pay the bills. It wasn't working.  We had to turn the charging model on. "We did it in a couple of stages: first we introduced premium fees, for bold print and other enhancements to the basic listings. And we had reasonable usage of that but certainly not enough to pay our bills.  "So in September 2000 we introduced success fees [a percentage of the final price for sold items] and that went pretty well. And so that basically saved us from the cliff."

So what does it take to run New Zealand's most popular website? A steadily expanding team of technical, customer service and administrative staff, now totalling 52. And they're not in it for the glamour.  The staff who inhabit this open plan environment don't take themselves very seriously but they are intensely passionate about their work. They're a close knit family but only one is a blood relation - Sam's sister, Jessi, was his first employee back in 2000.  Now she's head of operations for Trade Me - and emails have exploded to 1000 a day - and that's not counting the junk mail, a hefty 10 million pieces of spam every month. And amid of all this chaos - no private office, comrade - sits Sam Morgan, now a couple of hundred million dollars richer, but still the same fellow who used to answer customer service emails at three in the morning back in 1999.

So why sell Trade Me now? There are seven hundred million good reasons. Morgan would have been perfectly happy to stick with business as usual - Trade Me is very profitable, thank you, with projected earnings of $26 million in the 2006 financial year, $44.8 million in 2007. But even with those sorts of earnings, it would still take more than a decade to accumulate $700 million.

Much has been written about Morgan. Pocket snapshot:: born in 1975, left school after UE, spent his seventh form year in Germany, came back with no idea what to do next. The university dropout had three post-university jobs in quick succession, saw a gap in the market (and a chance to develop his web-building skills) and came up with Trade Me. Took on global giant eBay at its own game - and won. Why did Morgan set up Trade Me in the first place? To quote from an Unlimited magazine interview in February 2000: "I wanted something where I could be a high achiever."

Questions:

1. Where did Sam Morgan’s interest in buying and selling come from? He wanted to buy a second hand heater but couldn’t find a site in new zealand so he made one himself 
2. Describe the early days of Trade Me. bad, He didn’t make much money, people were listing things for free, expecting all money coming from ads.
3. How did Sam Morgan turn Trade Me into a multi-million dollar enterprise? “First we introduced premium fees, for bold print and other enhancements to the basic listings. And we had reasonable usage of that but certainly not enough to pay our bills.  "So in September 2000 we introduced success fees [a percentage of the final price for sold items] and that went pretty well. And so that basically saved us from the cliff."
   

  

Peri Drysdale

In business studies we are looking at New Zealand entrepreneurs. I have been looking at Peri Drysdale. Here is the work thingy I did.

Untouched World fashion leader Peri Drysdale has been named North & South magazine’s New Zealander of the year [for 2005]. Ms Drysdale, who has an MBE for services to manufacturing and export, received the award at a function in one of her Christchurch stores.

North & South said Ms Drysdale was a New Zealand businesswoman and entrepreneur who had a vision for the country. She is a successful exporter of top of the range lifestyle New Zealand-branded fashion wear.

North & South editor Robyn Langwell said Ms Drysdale was a ``wonder woman: tenacious [determined], tireless and truly inspiring’’.

``Where others see barriers she just sees fences to climb and opportunities to be grasped with both hands. She has guts and guile [cunning] wrapped in a gorgeous glamour package and her business integrity and conviction stand as a lesson to us all.”

New Zealand Silver Ferns netball captain Adine Wilson said Ms Drysdale deserved the accolade. "This is a fantastic and well deserved award for an extremely hard working person. Peri has great ethos, helps promote NZ overseas and she has an outstanding product in Untouched World.

``She is a real icon of the NZ fashion industry and I wish her all the best for this award.''

Ms Drysdale and Untouched World have been riding high with the Hollywood set. Untouched World is one of 20 luxury products from around the world invited to be presented to A list celebrities at the Oscars and Golden Globes.

It’s just part of the trend for Untouched World since Bill Clinton and other world leaders wore the gear at the Apec leaders’ conference in Auckland in 1999. Clinton has since returned to NZ and bought more UW gear for his family.

1. What does Untouched World produce? -- clothing, 
2. Write down words used in the article to describe Peri Drysdale’s character. -- extremely hard working        --wonder woman: tenacious [determined], tireless and truly inspiring -- businesswoman and entrepreneur who had a vision for the country.
3. Why do you think Untouched World succeeds? -- Because Peri Drysdale see fences to climb over instead of blocks/walls

Case study: John Britten

John Britten was a revolutionary motorcycle designer whose home-brewed machine won international praise with its stunning design and performance. The 300+ km/h blur of speed, the smell of burning rubber and the distinctive roar of the Britten V1000 motorcycle linger over the tarmac of kiwi myth and the world of motorcycle design.  The prototype engine was baked in a backyard kiln and the shell modelled with No. 8 fencing wire and a glue gun.  

As a child Britten built go-carts out of disused packing. Mucking around with old engines Britten and his mate Bruce Garrick stripped them apart, reassembled them, trying to figure out their internal mechanics: what made them tick.  After attending St Andrew’s College, Christchurch, Britten completed a four-year mechanical engineering course and was employed as a cadet draughtsman at ICI. He then took his OE, travelling to the United Kingdom and Europe; he returned to New Zealand to take up a position as design engineer for Rowe Engineering.  

In his late twenties he had begun to race motorcycles in local Christchurch competitions, and in 1986, unhappy with the performance of the bikes he was riding, Britten decided to re-design his Ducati racing bike by creating his own body-work. From here Britten became determined to design a prototype racing bike from scratch.  Free from pressures to conform, Britten’s first drive was to exploit New Zealand’s geographical distance from the rest of the world. He was following in the footsteps of fellow visionary Richard Pearse who, almost a century earlier, conjured up one of the first flying machines from farm scraps in his shed down the road in Temuka. 

    

Unlike the established manufacturers, who were obliged to match huge investment dollars, Britten could persevere on a trial-and-error basis until his vision was transformed to machine. ‘Not possible’ was a foreign concept to Britten. He and his team of many willing helpers (left) conceived and built everything themselves, doing their own drawings, making their own patterns and designing their own engine. 

By 1990 Britten's efforts were making racing history and in the Britten V1000's international racing debut at the USA Battle of Twins in Daytona, Florida, it finished third.  In 1992 he set about completely redesigning the bike.  In the same year he set up Britten Motorcycle Company, which was initially located in the garage/workshop at his family home (later moving to its current premises in central Christchurch). The redesigned bike won its first race on the international circuit in the International Twins at Assen in the Netherlands.  Then Britten took the new model back to the prestigious Daytona race.  Hopes were high.  

     

Ridden by Aucklander Andrew Stroud, the new V1000 dominated the 1992 Daytona Supertwins race.  Right from the starting grid it exploded to the front. But in the second to last lap an electrical fault (a cross-wired battery) forced Stroud to pull out.  After the race, the designer of the bike that was almost entirely self-designed and built was heard to wryly remark: "[it] serves me right for using a Ducati part". Britten recognised his New Zealand roots, as he urged in an interview with NZ Business: “There is a niche market for Kiwis to exploit at the high quality, low volume end of manufacturing. It has to be top shelf.”

In 1995 the Britten bike, ridden by Andrew Stroud, stormed the international circuit, taking 1st place in the BEARS World Championship.  Earlier the Britten team had claimed the New Zealand Superbike Championship and the New Zealand Grand Prix as well as the New Zealand Battle of the Streets. 

At a time when Britten’s prodigious creativity had only just begun to make its mark, tragedy struck. Britten died aged 45, on September 5, 1995 shortly after being diagnosed with melanomic cancer. He is survived by Kirsteen and three children, Sam, Isabelle and Jessica. 

1. How did John Britten's upbringing contribute to his interest in bikes? 
1. As a child he built go-karts with disused packing. He mucked around with old engines with his friend, srtiping them apart, reassembled them, trying to figure out their internal mechanics: what made them tick. 
2. In what ways did Britain's methods involve “Throwing away the rulebook?” 
1. He could persevere on a trial-and-error basis, 
2. .
3. What do you think Britten means by, “A niche market for kiwis? 
1. I think he is meaning that some companies will get low quality things out faster were as he will get high quality things? I don’t know. 

Richard William Pearse

 Richard William Pearse was born on the 3rd of December 1877- at waitohi flat, temuka, the fourth of nine children. He played the cello. He was kind and gentle. After finishing primary education he wanted to go to canterbury college but his family could not afford it. When he was 21, he was given a 100 acre farm block where he built a workshop, designed his own forge and lathe. He spent most of his time inventing things. In 1902 he first patented a new style of bike. But he was focusing on flying, not cycling. There is evidence that he was working on ideas for powered flight from 1899. He built his first two cylinder petrol engine, by 1902. He then built (Using bamboo, tubular steel, wire, and canvas), a Monoplane. He made his first public fight attempt down a road next to his farm. After around 50 meters, he crashed into his own gorse fence. Later he wrote that he did not achieve proper flight, and did not beat the Wright Brothers. A great deal of eyewitness testimony suggests that 31 march 1903 was the likely first flight attempt. He continued to experiment, achieving sevale more powered take offs or long hops, most of them witnessed. None of them was considered a true flight, in terms of length and controle. In July 1906, he patented his aircraft.  A failure as a farmer and treated unkindly by his neighbours, Richard moved to South Otago in 1911, where he farmed at loudons gully near milton. He thought up ingenious farming equipment, before being conscripted into the otago infantry Regiment in may 1917. He was sent overseas in January 1918, but an illness prevented him seeing any action and he returned in October the same year. In 1921, he moved to Christchurch, where he built three houses. In the early 1930’s,in the garage workshop of one in woolston he set about designing and building a second aircraft. He applied for a patent in November 1943, and it was finally approved in 1949. Constructed in great secrecy, Pearse's plane had some of the main features of the Harrier jump jet, with a tilting engine to allow for vertical take-off and landing. Pearse became bitter that aeroplane companies did not show more interest. He became increasingly paranoid and was admitted in June 1951 to Sunnyside Mental Hospital. There he died on 29 July 1953 following a heart attack. He had never married.

1877- he was born on the third of december

1898- he was given a 100 acre farm block,  he built a workshop, designed his own forge and lathe

1899- There is evidence that he was working on ideas for powered flight 

1902- he first patented a new style of bike, He built his first two cylinder petrol engine. He then built  a Monoplane, using bamboo, tubular steel, wire, and canvas. He made his first public fight attempt down a road next to his farm. After around 50 meters, he crashed into his own gorse fence. He latter said he did not beat the Wright brothers.

1906-  he patented his aircraft

1911- Richard moved to South Otago, where he farmed at loudons gully near milton.

1917- he was conscripted into the otago infantry Regiment after thinking up  ingenious farming equipment

 1918- he was sent overseas in january, but due to illness he came back in october.

1921- he moved to Christchurch, where he built three houses.

Early 1930’s- he set about designing and building a second aircraft ,in the garage workshop of one of his houses in woolston

1943- He applied for a patent in November 

1949- It was finally approved

1951- he was admitted to Sunnyside Mental Hospital

1953- he died after a heart attack on the 29th of july. He never married 

Pre-european Business

In Social studies we have been looking at Pre-european times in New Zealand. One of the aspects we are looking at is the business part of it. I made a mindmup to show what it was like, here it is



so ya. I hope this was helpful or interesting for you, but if it wasn't, oh well.