Larry Mitchell

benchmark (dictionary definition) VERB benchmarking (present participle) 1. evaluate (something) by comparison with a standard. “we are benchmarking our performance against external criteria”     The term Benchmarking has had a long and sometimes rocky history. To cut a long and tedious story short, commercial consultancies of the nineties attempted (most of them unsuccessfully) to peddle financial benchmarking where best practice criteria (benchmark data), drawn from firms with “assumed” – […]

“The concepts of our cprlifesaver application have arisen from many years of active involvement with the NZ Local Government sector … and along the way, deriving an understanding of … what makes them tick.” Concepts … the use of “Comparatives” We are often asked to explain the basis of our cprlifesaver analysis and reporting. Happy to do so … as we are confident that this “explanation” will also go a […]

A Council’s budget dilemma Any organisation must set a sound and defensible budget. This must be founded upon a prescription comprising a set of assumptions, the integrity of which, depends upon their rationale and the supporting evidence. In a New Zealand Council context, TLA’s long-term financial plans rarely fit this prescription. Year after year, cost plus, status quo or status quo + budget assumptions survive with very little debate. Recently […]

Council engineers usually set the ball rolling when a new water supply project is planned. They are the first to react to operational pressures of customer service delivery. Their initial plans will develop based on demand assessments, design considerations, location options, technology and quality standards. Often, late in the piece, the financial and policy boundaries for the project development only come to light when a draft proposal for the development […]

“A think piece covering the dilemmas of excessive Council debt, leading to discussion of  alternative means of New Zealand Local Government funding …for is the question of Council Debt not central to all LTP process? Why Debt? Introduction The prominence within Council debt management processes … ranking first of all financial management matters,* suggests that the fullest appreciation, scrutiny and understanding of a Council’s debt position is the most important […]

The NZ Council “CPR Consultants site” a web-based resource and a “Lifesaver for busy Council analysts” Recent marketing emails and hand delivered flyers have heralded the launch of a start-up special purpose, subscription-based “CPR” website designed for “busy Council financial, economic and performance improvement Analysts.” The essence of this new website initiative is its provision of the most cost-effective, entry level access to both ubiquitous and ground-breaking policy analytical support […]

Abstract: Key point …  suggested use of the existing GST system to charge a tourism-related bed tax … then having the GST system as it is presently constructed to facilitate a rebate to accommodation providers, those providers charged with the bed tax …  thus spreading its cost over all members of the community … all of whom also benefit from local tourism-related activities. A fair bed tax: Queenstown Lakes District […]

From modest beginnings: The website at www.development.kauriglen.co.nz unashamedly is an early days start up …a gem in the rough … a  work in progress. From its current development status, (with just our initial teaser sample contents on the development site) CPR has been set up initially to give subscribers a taste of things to come. There is of course much more … to come. We will cover in this I’ve […]

Subscribers to the CPR website, particularly within its Blog’s space will now have the opportunity to “tell it like it is”, in other words to freely express their own specialist-professional views. Within the bounds of accepted norms of polite and respectful dialogue and debate, our Blog will be encouraging and supportive of full and frank expressions of honestly, held professionally credible and unfettered viewpoints. It would be unnecessary to make […]