The Mood of the Boardroom is back today for its 22nd year.

The annual survey of the country’s top CEOs and business leaders has seen a broad tick of approval for the coalition Government, with strong support for Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis and their economic plan.

But they want to see the Government be bolder and set out their vision for New Zealand’s future, and that could include tackling some of the most contentious economic issues in our country.

Today on The Front Page, NZ Herald Business Editorial Director Fran O’Sullivan is with us to digest the thoughts of our top business leaders.

You can read all of the Mood of the Boardroom stories at nzherald.co.nz.

Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.

Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer: Paddy Fox
Producer: Ethan Sills

The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Senior business leaders are rating Christopher Luxon well on keeping his Cabinet focused on delivery, and Education Minister Erica Stanford well on performance.

More than 100 CEOs and board chairs have been quizzed for today's Mood of the Boardroom survey.

They've identified energy prices as their biggest concern, followed by the cost of living.

Dame Joan Withers, Chairperson for the Warehouse Group, told Heather du Plessis-Allan that they’ve one incredibly well, and have addressed key issues up front, or tried to do as much as they can.

She said that business people are in consensus that we need to pivot and start maximising New Zealand’s opportunities both domestically and also in terms of our place in the world.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Genesis Energy has confirmed it will spend $64 million on taking a majority stake in ChargeNet - the nation's leading EV public charging network.

Under terms of the agreement, Genesis will acquire a 65 percent stake in ChargeNet, which was founded in 2015 by tech entrepreneurs Steve and Dianna West.

Genesis chief retail officer Stephen England-Hall says decarbonising New Zealand's transport output is critical to the country's future.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government has continued its push to increase the use of remote building inspections to speed up the construction and consenting process.

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has voiced disapproval with the current process - and claimed that remote inspections will make the building process more efficient and affordable.

NZ Certified Builders CEO Malcolm Fleming says this process works well in remote parts of the country - or high-congestion areas like Auckland CBD.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A proposal to re-develop Marsden Point's decommissioned refinery is being considered.

Channel Infrastructure NZ recently entered a conditional agreement with Seadra Energy to create a bio-refinery at the Northland site.

Seadra would purchase it for about $53-million and use some existing, decommissioned assets like tankage and jetties.

Milford Asset Management's Jeremy Hutton unpacks what this could look like.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Real estate agents are among the businesses feeling more upbeat.

The Herald's latest Mood of the Boardroom survey shows that business owners are more optimistic than pessimistic about their industries, as well as the local and global economy.

Optimism varies across the different sectors, with the real estate industry topped the list with an average score of 4.33/5, a substantial jump from last year’s 2.60/5.

Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson told Kerre Woodham that what businesses needed was good news, and that’s what came out of today’s conference.

He said that they’re already starting to see people come back to their auction rooms, and looking back at the last few months, they’ve seen a big uplift in the number of listings on the market and sales being made.

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The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mood of the boardroom survey, more than 100 of our top business leaders have had their say on the government, its ministers and the economy today.

CEOs ranked the performance of the Cabinet Ministers with ‘1’ being not impressive and ‘5’ - very impressive.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon scored with 3.73 whilst keeping his cabinet focused on delivery and education, Minister Erica Stanford was top of the class for Minister Performance resulting with a score of 4.01.

Simeon Brown, Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop came closely behind Stanford, Brown resulted with a score of 3.89, Willis and Bishop tied on 3.88.

Managing editor for NZME Duncan Bridgeman says that after a year of having a new government, he believes there's some uncertainty around the delivery that Christopher Luxon and his team can pull through when coming down to economic growth with the business community.

The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the latest episode of Business in Between... it's our new series, on our new podcast channel, that features long-form chats with NZ's most interesting business minds.

This week we hear the incredible story of how a Kiwi entrepreneur turned an idea for a fitness goal setting app into a global business with customers in over 150 countries and revenue exceeding $80 million a year.

It’s the story of Adam El-Agez and his app called The Conqueror.

Adam started his fitness goal setting app in 2012 after 10 years of being an entrepreneur with limited success.

The idea was relatively simple, instead of ‘just’ going for a run, walk, a ride or swim, you’re working towards a virtual fitness goal, immersed in community and with a tangible race medal delivered on completion.

Over six years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later the app was floundering.

All the signs were pointing to giving up all together and he even started getting his CV together and applying for jobs.

Then, in 2019 he met Raul, a “marketing guy”, online.

In a bizarre series of events, he ended up hiring Raul, who lived in Romania, to run the digital marketing with immediate results. Raul started growing sales and from an annual revenue of under $100k they grew to $2m in the first year.

The next year they did $40m and $75m in the following two, having secured licensing agreements with franchises like The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Harry Potter.

The business has now expanded globally with around 70 staff in 6 countries with customers in over 150 countries.

Adam’s story – and the growth of his company – is insane.

We talk about navigating a cyberattack, how they built their Facebook community with 378,000 people in it, and why they were spending $250,000 a day on marketing.

This story will blow your mind - and it’s the first time it’s been told.

Come for the storytelling and stay for Adam’s brilliant business lessons at the end. This is an ep not to be missed.

There's an exciting opportunity available to sponsor this channel, if this interests you, please get in touch.

Follow and subscribe to this Business in Between channel in your podcast app. We’ve got big plans to grow this space, so following, liking, subscribing and all that stuff means the world to us.

Enjoy.

The podcasts in the SME Stream contain general information only, not financial or professional advice. Any opinions expressed in the podcasts are not necessarily shared by BNZ, or its related entities. BNZ is not liable for any losses resulting from the content of the podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.