Latest / Best of Business / Jolie Hodson: Spark CEO on the company posting an 83 percent increase in net profit

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Jolie Hodson: Spark CEO on the company posting an 83 percent increase in net profit · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news talk set be
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  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Our Spark has rebounded from its disastrous first half year
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  Speaker 2: last year. It's net profit has nearly doubled to sixty
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  Speaker 2: four million dollars. Unfortunately, it is still short of analyst
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  Speaker 2: expectations of closer to one hundred million. Jolly Hodson is
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  Speaker 2: the chief executive. Hih, Jolly Hi that you must be
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  Speaker 2: relieved to get a decent one out of the way.
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  Speaker 2: I'm really placed.
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  Speaker 3: I think we've had a step up in the business
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  Speaker 3: and we're really delivered on the things that we said
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  Speaker 3: we do last year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, now you're seen as something of a bell weather
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  Speaker 2: as well for the economy. So what are you seeing
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  Speaker 2: out there?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think it's max still, but I think it
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  Speaker 3: feel like the economy sort of finding its footing. I
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  Speaker 3: can say that like that consumer, we're starting to see
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  Speaker 3: some improvement. I think in business is still a bit
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  Speaker 3: of low spend happening, but as I look forward, I'm
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  Speaker 3: positive about that.
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  Speaker 2: Outlook, what's going on? Is there still a bit of caution?
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  Speaker 3: I think so in terms of that, and different sectors
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  Speaker 3: are experiencing different things, and so the recovery is not
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  Speaker 3: the same for everyone. But when I look at activity,
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  Speaker 3: whether it's like new iPhone launch or things like that,
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  Speaker 3: we have seen a bigger pick up in those sorts
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  Speaker 3: of things.
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  Speaker 2: So what do you how long do you reckon it's
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  Speaker 2: going to take us to get back to what we
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  Speaker 2: would have considered a level of normal pre pandemic.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I need a pretty good crystal ball for that one.
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  Speaker 2: Hither is it this year though?
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  Speaker 3: Because you get you know, as you go down through
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  Speaker 3: calendar twenty six, I think you're still probably a little
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  Speaker 3: bit towards the end, but there are some promising signs
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  Speaker 3: and ultimately consumer confidence is an important part of that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And so I think it's making sure that businesses
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  Speaker 3: we're investing, which we are, and we're still innovating and
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  Speaker 3: doing new things. I think that's part of how we
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  Speaker 3: lift forward as a country.
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  Speaker 2: Really. Yeah, Now, let's talk about your business a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: To see you're losing a bit of market share with
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  Speaker 2: the mobiles. What's happened there, Well.
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  Speaker 3: If you look at the mobile revenues, we actually grow
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  Speaker 3: our revenues one point six percent, which is up on
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  Speaker 3: the prior period small, but we're market leader by some
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  Speaker 3: distance in terms of about five cheer points there. And
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  Speaker 3: we did see some competition and around sort of envy
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  Speaker 3: and o which is more of your maybe energy bundles
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  Speaker 3: and things like that. Oh yeah yeah, and so they've
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  Speaker 3: nibbled away user pattern.
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  Speaker 2: Is it two degrees?
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  Speaker 3: No, no, more like an energy so like a power company.
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  Speaker 2: Always see the power company is the one leading the
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  Speaker 2: way on this. Oh I see, okay, the weather. I
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  Speaker 2: mean I was thinking about this when the weather was happening.
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  Speaker 2: I thought, okay, we're talking a lot about how people
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  Speaker 2: are fairing here, but a lot of like you guys,
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  Speaker 2: there's a fair amount of infrastructure you've got out there
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  Speaker 2: has a best you about. So the infrastructure itself, like
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  Speaker 2: my bile sites and things like that, haven't been impacted.
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  Speaker 2: But of course we really heavily on power. So when
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  Speaker 2: power is impacted, we either have battery back up or
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  Speaker 2: we have gen sets going to different sites, and of
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  Speaker 2: course that needs to be delivered in a way afraid
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  Speaker 2: are cut off and things like that.
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  Speaker 3: That does make that challenging. So we focus really hard
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  Speaker 3: on working across the industry to make sure we can
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  Speaker 3: stand it. Up, you know, stand up service for everyone
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  Speaker 3: as quickly as we can do.
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  Speaker 2: Are you guys doing things to adapt? Because this is
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  Speaker 2: what the conversation is at the moment, right, how do
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  Speaker 2: we adapt and prepare ourselves for this to happen on
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  Speaker 2: the regular? What are you doing for that?
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  Speaker 3: I think if you think about that, we're looking at
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  Speaker 3: so battery lives. We're also looking i mean, work closely
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  Speaker 3: with the power industry might add as well in terms
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  Speaker 3: of when you think about recovery, where are they going
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  Speaker 3: to go first? What does that mean we go to separately,
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  Speaker 3: so we work across industry. It was significant weather event,
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  Speaker 3: so you do think about where you build your infrastructure.
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  Speaker 3: But the reality is if you locked across New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: in this last few weeks, it's you know, we've had
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  Speaker 3: with the events in many places, so it's not like
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  Speaker 3: you can say, well you won't do it there and
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  Speaker 3: you need it's critical to everybody communicating and living their life.
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  Speaker 3: So for us, it's just really around how do we
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  Speaker 3: continue to build resilience but also work closely with other
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  Speaker 3: infrastructures to make sure that if we are making investment
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  Speaker 3: is sensible. Across a lot of.
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  Speaker 2: Us speaking of which you haven't and you're going to
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  Speaker 2: launch this year the mobile to satellite service here is
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  Speaker 2: that Starlin, I can't.
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  Speaker 3: Say, Heather, we will say when we launch.
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  Speaker 2: We can take from that what we will. How are
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  Speaker 2: you finding AI? Because I see one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that popped up today was you're finding AI is increasing
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  Speaker 2: your productivity? How was that?
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  Speaker 3: Examples like in our contact hint to speeding up information
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  Speaker 3: about a customers so that our agents are able to
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  Speaker 3: help them better if you think around. We just talked
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  Speaker 3: about infrastructure. So some of the things we're trialing right
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  Speaker 3: now is AI using that technology to a cell site somewhere,
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  Speaker 3: make sure if the POW's not required at the same
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  Speaker 3: level that we can adjust it remotely and do those
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  Speaker 3: things you just.
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  Speaker 2: Try it down from it out.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. And then also looking at coding, you know,
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  Speaker 3: things like that, how do we help with natural language?
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  Speaker 3: Now you can do a lot more faster you have
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  Speaker 3: of human reviewing what's happening. But it's speeding up some
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  Speaker 3: of the dross as well in terms of the day
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  Speaker 3: to day work that people are doing.
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  Speaker 1: So we're just.
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  Speaker 3: Looking at it very much now from a process hint
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  Speaker 3: in because of course you just move work down a
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  Speaker 3: process if you only focus on one side and don't.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Do you think that this is the solution
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  Speaker 2: to our productivity problem in countries like New Zealand?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's certainly something that And I've had someone
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  Speaker 3: say to me, why wouldn't you want thirty percent more
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  Speaker 3: brain power that you get from something like that or
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  Speaker 3: to be able to remove where And I definitely think
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  Speaker 3: it's something that we should be adopting. It is happening globally.
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  Speaker 2: It will help us with productivity.
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  Speaker 3: It's always about finding the things that are really useful
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  Speaker 3: though for your organization, and not everyone's the same, so
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  Speaker 3: it's about I suppose. But what I would say to
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  Speaker 3: people is if you're not testing and trying and really
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  Speaker 3: understanding how you could do it, you're going to get
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  Speaker 3: left behind because your competitors will be totally jolly.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for coming in, it's been great to chat
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  Speaker 2: to you. Thanks Ether Jollie Hodson's CEO, chief executive brother
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  Speaker 2: of Spark. Right now, it is thirteen past six.
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