I just had a wonderful evening with CEOs from some of New Zealand's best companies. The group was brought together by Better By Design to visit some of the USA's best Design-led and Innovative companies. It's going to be an amazing week, challenging I am sure, but an interesting thing happened tonight: if you like, a small distinction became clear to me. There I was talking to Diego Rodriguez a partner at Ideo, a brilliant design company, and Perry Klebahn a consulting associate professor at Stanford Design School, two great people who were truly gracious in the knowledge they shared. To be honest, To View More >>

Don’t just sit there! Do something! Over the years I’ve been and done many things. Everyone has. In my case, I’ve been a Xerox salesman, a volunteer firefighter, and a successful entrepreneur. Believe it or not, all these seemingly unrelated personas had at least one thing in common, what I’m going to talk about today, and that is: A bias toward action. What do I mean by this? I mean, if there’s a choice between sitting in a conference room planning what I’m going to do, and getting out there and doing it, I hope that I choose action. This is not to knock planning, To View More >>

WHY YOU NEED TO MANAGE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND Something that’s been on my mind lately is the desire to help people succeed in business online. No, I know I don’t have all the answers. But over the years, our two global companies have discovered some answers that work for us, and perhaps they’ll work for your company as well. As always, take what you like and leave the rest! Why you need to manage your personal brand Something that’s been on my mind lately is the desire to help people succeed in business online. No, I know I don’t have all the answers. But over the years, To View More >>

I was listening to a commentator today on National Radio talking about how the manufacturing sector, and especially exporters in New Zealand were in a really bad way. That doesn't apply to us, but he did help me remember three things about why I came back from Australia to help grow Queensberry. It's her 40th birthday next month, and while she has changed beyond belief these past 10 years she grows up next month. I returned for ... Passion I came back to be part of some thing much bigger than myself. I have been passionate about this industry since I was a child and love photography, love weddings To View More >>

In my last blog entry I mentioned our ambition to be a "legendary" company. This may sound shallow to some, especially those skeptical of company "vision statements" and empty promises from the board as to how "life is going to be different now" For us however we hold this desire very close to our heart, and although growth is important to us, growth without quality and a focus on sound profitability becomes just an issue of ego. We are a family based company, and some of our focus comes from a division of responsibility, but really it comes from a desire to be exceptional in all aspects of our To View More >>