Business Link Pacific Podcast

Achieving a high level of business resilience is something every business should strive for.

Business resilience planning is an investment in the future well-being of your company. The ability to be able to work through whatever problems or events your business faces depends on the plans you have put in place. But what if you had no plans and the economic climate changed drastically, as it has with the current COVID-19 pandemic?

In this podcast, we delve into the topic of business resilience and identify ways growing businesses in the Pacific Islands can adopt best business practices to ensure the sustainability of their business.

To shed light on this topic, our host Emma Crawford-Falekaono spoke with Chris Elphick, Co-Founder of Breadfruit Consulting based in Vanuatu.

Breadfruit Consulting is based in Port Vila, Vanuatu, and is a BLP approved Partner and business advisor for growing businesses in the region.

Host: Emma Crawford-Falekaono

Emma has over 15 years’ experience in chartered accountancy and commercial environments globally. She started her career in accounting before taking time out to deploy as a Military Police Officer to Southern Afghanistan. In 2014, she made the move into the tech industry and is now a Business Consultant for Business Link Pacific, delivering professional development and skills training courses to growing businesses in the Pacific region.

Credits:

Recorded, mixed & edited by Dave Rhodes of Dave Rhodes Productions.

Music credit: Alex Khaskin

Business Link Pacific is a private sector programme supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade and DT Global. The core team is based in Auckland, New Zealand and supported by in-country partners in Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Cooks Islands and Vanuatu.

For more information visit the Business Link Pacific Portal.

In this episode, we talk to EGM Business, Wealth & Advisory Services of Kina Bank, Deepak Gupta about how access to finance can lead to greater innovation for SMEs in PNG and throughout the Pacific.
Deepak also tells us about digital transormation within Kina Bank and how they have made accessing their services easier for SMEs.

In this episod,e we hear from Paul Wendland, Deputy Director at Business Link Pacific on the pros and cons of accessing finance in the Pacific. This is the first of a series on finance so keep your eyes and ears peeled for more in the coming weeks!

All businesses should pay special attention to obtaining, improving and retaining the knowledge and resources needed to operate efficiently. However, small to medium sized businesses in particular have to be creative in the way they do this, often because of limited time and resources.

In this podcast we talk to Anthony Sarathkumar, General Manager at Spectrum Consultancy Services based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Anthony details how Spectrum is helping to build the capacity of SMEs in Papua New Guinea through the provision of best practice business advice, in the areas of financial management, business planning and training.

Spectrum Consultancy Services is a BLP quality approved business advisor in our network.

Host: Emma Crawford-Falekaono

Emma has over 15 years’ experience in chartered accountancy and commercial environments globally. She started her career in accounting before taking time out to deploy as a Military Police Officer to Southern Afghanistan. In 2014, she made the move into the tech industry and was a Business Consultant for Business Link Pacific, delivering professional development and skills training courses to growing businesses in the Pacific region.

Credits:

Recorded, mixed & edited by Dave Rhodes of Dave Rhodes Productions.

Music credit: Alex Khaskin

Business Link Pacific is a private sector programme supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade and DT Global. The core team is based in Auckland, New Zealand and supported by in-country partners in Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Cook Islands.

For more information visit the Business Link Pacific Portal: https://businesslinkpacific.com

In the Pacific Islands women are pursuing entrepreneurship more than ever, however, statistics show that gender equality in the startup space is still far from balanced.
Women face significant discrimination, compounded by traditional value systems that create barriers to carry out simple things like gain access to startup finance, purchase land and open bank accounts.
yher Pacific is an accelerator programme designed by women specifically for Pacific-based female social impact entrepreneurs.

In this podcast, we talk to Audrey Jean-Baptiste, Regional Director for yher Pacific, about what yher Pacific does and how the initiative is helping to achieve gender equality in the start-up space.

yher Pacific is also a BLP partner and is working with us to connect aspiring female entrepreneurs in the Pacific Islands with BLP’s services.

Host: Emma Crawford-Falekaono

Emma has over 15 years’ experience in chartered accountancy and commercial environments globally. She started her career in accounting before taking time out to deploy as a Military Police Officer to Southern Afghanistan. In 2014, she made the move into the tech industry and is now a Business Consultant for Business Link Pacific, delivering professional development and skills training courses to growing businesses in the Pacific region.

Credits:

Recorded, mixed & edited by Dave Rhodes of Dave Rhodes Productions.

Music credit: Alex Khaskin

Business Link Pacific is a private sector programme supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade and DT Global. The core team is based in Auckland, New Zealand and supported by in-country partners in Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Cook Islands.

For more information visit the Business Link Pacific Portal: https://businesslinkpacific.com/