Welcome to the Economic Literacy Programme
The Economic Literacy Programme is an educational programme designed to help business people and investors make more informed and profitable decisions. This will be achieved by a series of educational workshops and quarterly business briefings. It fills a void not being satisfied by either educational institutions or the likes of the bank economists.
Workshops
As a starting point, the following workshops are available.
- How to survive recessions and how to profit from economic recoveries and periods of sustained economic growth, and how to assess which is coming next. Click here for information on these workshops.
- What drives housing market and residential building booms and busts, and how to assess which is coming next. Click here for information on these workshops.
- What drives the cycles in the NZD/USD and how to assess when the next major cycle will arrive. Click here for information on these workshops.
The strength of the workshops will be the use of real world examples, plain English and our unique insights into what drives economic, housing market and exchange rate cycles. The workshops will offer the opportunity for rapid and quality learning. They will short-circuit and supplement the normal trial-and-error learning that can take years and can be painful and expensive.
Partnership and sponsorship options are available
We have major plans for the Economic Literacy Programme. However, it will reach and help more people if we have partners and sponsors. If you can see half the potential value to your firm and/or to your clients offered by the Economic Literacy Programme that we see, you will want to be a part of it.
Contact Rodney for information on the partnership and sponsorship opportunities (rodney@sra.co.nz, 09 426 4122 or 027 2882209)). This will include options for you to host workshops for your staff and/or clients and options for you to sponsor some of the workshops we will be running.
Why we are running the Economic Literacy Programme
There are several things motivating our decision to develop and launch the Economic Literary Programme, including the following.
- There is a void of quality analysis of what drives economic, housing market, interest rate and exchange rate cycles (i.e. analysis of sufficient reliability that firms and investors can input it into their strategic, operational and/or investment decisions with a reasonable degree of confidence).
- We have a genuine desire to help people understand how the economy and various industries and markets work.
- We are uniquely qualified to run the Economic Literacy Programme (see below).
- To build a legacy (i.e. achieve something more than just making money).
- To make more firms and individuals aware of our invaluable and competitively-priced reports and services (i.e. we already have a Whos Who of clients, but the more the merrier).
Why we are qualified to run the Economic Literacy Programme
The workshops have been designed by our Managing Director, Rodney Dickens, who is uniquely qualified to run them.
Since setting up Strategic Risk Analysis Limited in 2006 Rodney has proven that he can deliver the sort of analysis firms and investors need to make quality business and/or investment decisions. As one client recently observed, “your reports have saved my customers many thousands over the 12 months (through the decisions I have taken).” This fits with our objectives of being part of a client’s business risk management team and helping educate them about how the economy works.
Prior to founding Strategic Risk Analysis Rodney had 26 years experience as an economist, researcher and market strategist in various roles. He was employed as an economist at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for seven years, during which time he had 19 months on secondment at the Bank of England in London researching international interest rate behaviour. When Rodney left the Reserve Bank in 1987 he was a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee and had worked in all of the Bank’s then policy divisions. This was followed by a two year stint at NZI Bank, where he set up an economics department and became Chief Economist for NZI Corporation. He then had twelve years as an economist and strategist in the investment banking/share broking industry, during which time Rodney worked closely with company analysts and researched the interaction between the economy and many industries. This period included stints as New Zealand Head of Research at two international investment banks (ABN AMRO and ANZ McCaughan). This was followed by five years at ASB, including as Group Strategist and Head of Research.
This blend of experience combined with Rodney’s insatiable curiosity provided a learning experience probably second to none in New Zealand and has armed him with a unique understanding of how the economy and many industries and markets work. Driven by a passion for economics he has developed a unique analytical framework. This framework is based on leading indicators, a hands-on or coal-face understanding of how the economy, industries and markets work, and sound judgement about the human behaviour that drives cycles. This analytical framework gives Rodney a unique advantage in providing definitive analysis and forecasts for the likes of the housing market, residential building, consumer spending, interest rates and exchange rates.
Rodney’s tertiary qualifications are a Bachelor of Social Science degree, majoring in economics and a Bachelor of Social Science Honours (First Class Honours) degree also majoring in economics, both from Waikato University.