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From the Editor
The MSI ANZ Group came together on Friday 14th September in Brisbane for a successful bi-annual meeting of the member firms. The majority of firms were represented and it was timely that this meeting should be hosted by Brisbane accounting firm member, MSI Taylor: they were joined for the first time by newly enrolled Brisbane law firm member, Tucker & Cowen.
While we do now hold a series of telephone conferences throughout the year enabling members of our teams to keep abreast of matters MSI, there is no doubt that the face-to-face meeting provides a forum unlike any other. Pertinent issues are discussed, regional differences defined and stronger connections are formed.
Prior to the meeting members had spent considerable time contributing to our regional Australia / New Zealand Vision for MSI, together with setting out a range of market focussed activities for the next 3-5 years. Plans were discussed and agreed and it was very pleasing to see such a consensus around the table.
We were also delighted to have present at the meeting James Mendelssohn, MSI’s London-based CEO. James presented a very clear picture to us of MSI growing sensibly in all parts of the world. His message was also clear – that we are in an era that favours strong groupings of independent firms such as MSI both from a regulatory and client perspective.
In October we conducted another of our quarterly surveys, this time exploring internet behaviour and related attitudes in workplaces across Australia and New Zealand . For me, the most interesting point coming out of the survey was related to junk email –or spam. Most respondents said that levels of spam received continue to increase which is not that surprising if personal experience is any gauge. One wonders what those who are responsible for policing under both Australia’s and New Zealand ’s anti-spam laws will do next. No doubt this will all come to the fore once again but presently there seems to be no way of slowing the influx of unwanted messages.
While there have been one or two reports of companies and individuals being fined, one of the biggest problems is that neither country’s legislation carries weight overseas so spam coming in from foreign corporations to both countries is almost unstoppable.
Jim Smith
MSI Ragg Weir
October, 2007
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