My day job is Managing Director of Queensberry, but about 3 years ago I joined the New Zealand Fire Service as a Volunteer Firefighter. Not long after joining I extended my role to include Medical First Response and I now hold the rank of Senior Fire Fighter. This has offered me an amazing array of experiences and learning opportunities. I hadn't expected it, but there are some incredible parallels between handling emergency situations and running high growth organizations like ours. I use this learning daily and have found the stories of jobs I have attended to be powerful metaphors for what To View More >>

Is it possible there is something to be learned from the Fire Service when it comes to handling customer complaints? I strongly believe so and share that learning here. Scenario: Imagine a car accident on a busy highway, multiple serious injuries and heavy traffic. You know there will be lots of screaming and emotion, and this really is a life and death situation for the people involved. The Question is ... What would you do? The amateur care giver rushes in looking for the sickest person, gets caught up in the emotion and most likely gets themselves injured or killed in the process. Not good To View More >>

Recently I wrote about mates being awesome, and the best thing about joining the Fire Service is the camaraderie that comes with it. Honestly, I have never been involved in anything that has such a strong sense of community, and that holds the value of "having each other's back" so highly. It is an incredible organization for that reason. Our company, Queensberry, also has an amazing culture that fosters the feeling of one family and of looking after each other. We are very proud of the fact that, in all the past entries we've had in the "Best Places to Work Awards" we have been in the TOP 10, To View More >>

I love my wife: she is brilliant, a beautiful and most incredible person ... She is however a moving freak ... Where some guys might drink beer, watch sports or play video games for fun she likes to rearrange the house. That isn't me in the photo but it's how I feel when any sentence starts with "This weekend I want to ..." because I know the next word will be "rearrange". If she really wants to do something, and I am resisting, that just adds to the challenge, and she recruits her partners in crime, Brenda and the kids. It got so bad that one day when she went away I rearranged the house just To View More >>

With great sadness we have said goodbye to two family members over the past few weeks. The first farewell was to to my Auntie Rita, who passed away after a long but brave battle with cancer. She is actually my Mum's Auntie, but always felt like a Grandmother to me. A beautiful woman that everyone loved from the moment they met her. My first memory of Rita is when, as kids, we visited her family in Wellington. She made us "Spiders", a messy mix of Coke and Vanilla ice cream ... and instantly became my hero. My last memory of Rita is of a woman, her body failing her, surrounded by a family loving To View More >>