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How Awhi is Changing Government Relations

+long cafe stands out for the wrong reason

Author

Rhys Jeffery
March 1st, 2023

The Productised Service Disrupting Government Lobbying

Inspired by the Gig economy, where platforms like Fiverr turned a tidal wave of pay-by-the-hour services into unit deliveries.

New technology is making it remarkably easier to automate package service delivery, so those unit deliveries now need far less human touch and are delivered like an assembly line.

The benefits for the customer and operator alike are many x fold better.

The customer knows exactly what they're getting upfront, how much it'll cost, and their likely ROI.

And the operator, with their budgets, thanks to the reliability of software now solidified, can confidently predict margins, make guaranteed profits per delivery and do what used to be nigh-on impossible for service providers - scale.

We're now firmly in the era of productised services, and slowly, slowly, Kiwi operators are getting on board.

​Awhi, the lobbyists that simplify government engagement are the most peculiar use case we've seen. Packaging what used to be a loosely guided and ambiguous service offering into a pay x, get y result.

​Holly Bennett (Founder and Kaitūhono Ariki of kaupapa Māori firm Awhi) said it herself when we reached out "It is a service that is notoriously well known for having, well, no price point at all." "[we] knew there had to be a better way to get government relations strategies in the hands of time-poor, cash-conscious businesses."

That's where their Awhi Spectrum Sweep comes in. It is a personalised, pick-up-and-go plan that helps organisations understand and execute a government engagement strategy in four weeks.

Having sold two of the $11,500 plans in the past seven days through word of mouth alone, Awhi is onto something here.

​Code Avengers, COO Ray Allen, a test dummy for the plan, said the Spectrum Sweep was well received by their kaimahi - It gave them an exact idea of where to go and allowed them to hit the ground running.

Who would have thought government lobbying services could come anything close to resembling a product...

Out Take:

Productising a service, in Awhi's case, removes a lot of risks for potential customers. Making something daunting and ambiguous far more accessible.

We expect this trend to continue and affect all industries, especially as AGI becomes mainstream adoptable.

Service providers can expect to see more and more people expect close to guaranteed outcomes for transparent prices. Going over budget is becoming a thing of the past.

Local Café Stands Out For The Wrong Reason

Wanaka was buzzing this past weekend; the waterfront was packed with people bathing, swimming, eating and aimlessly wandering the streets - as people seem to love to do in Wanaka. With one exception, Alchemy cafe.

I used to frequent this place and often struggled to get a seat. But this weekend, there were more spare seats in that one cafe than the rest of the lakefront establishments combined.

Which suits my personal preference of no humans within a 3-metre radius at all times perfectly. So that's where I ended up.

They had 8 staff on the floor and kitchen, and if I'm being generous, 7 customers in total at their 40-something-seat cafe.

When everywhere else is packed, and your place is dead, you'd have to ask yourself what's wrong.

For a minute, I wondered what was going on. Their staff were super nice, the coffee was decent, and the setting - a gram-worthy Lake Wanaka view is what people travel thousands of kilometres to see.

The answer, as I learned, was obvious.

In the time it took me to drink my coffee and get a good fix of people-watching, I overheard the same conversation three times.

"They don't do breakfast".

Our Take:

Perhaps they can't find people who want to get paid to cook eggs on toasted Turkish bread and 20 other variations. Or the North Island flooding has affected their supply chains.

Maybe it's an inside job by their head chef who has plans to take over once they go bust, and so designed a menu that doesn't even interest tired of walking, desperate for a respite from the sun elderly folk.

Who knows...

They say you can tell how much skill is involved (compared to luck) in a given activity, not just by how well you can do on purpose, but also how poorly.

Ex. Ask your average (successful track record flaunting) stock broker to pick for you a losing portfolio. Most of the time, they won't be able to do worse than their winning one.

This past weekend Alchemy café was as good a proof as I've seen that not all business success can be written off as luck.

The folks at that fine establishment need to learn how to read the room.

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