I asked a few friends, colleagues and my family a weird question, which was ... What do you think I am an "expert in"? What I was curious about was, how do people perceive me? What did they think I was an expert in, and where do I add value? I've long been the 'go to guy' when you have an IT problem you can't beat. My knowledge is both deep and wide and when you combine that with my ability to quickly research, while looking at the big picture and delving into the detail there aren't mainly small to medium size IT issues I can't resolve. Not trying to big note, but it has always been my To View More >>

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 >>

The New Zealand Herald ran a story this morning about Kevin Roberts joining the board of New Zealand's Telecom. Some stories honestly just make me go, OMG, what? Here is one of my business heroes joining the board of a company (Telecom) that "I hate to love". I continue to support them despite myself, and despite the way they present themselves to their clients. But I would love to love them. In the interests of full disclosure, our company are pretty big telecommunication users. We are heavily dependent on Telecom for our international telephone presence, and we're big users of high speed internet. To View More >>

Well I am sitting at the airport in Melbourne, waiting for a plane home to New Zealand after an amazing week at an event more like a rock concert than your usual financial course. This morning I feel a weird mix of tired but buzzy from attending another Tony Robbins event, this one called Wealth Mastery. What an incredible week. It's always nice to escape for a while with your wife, but to attend a life changing event like this with her was pure magic. We signed up a few years ago to Tony's Mastery University, and this week graduated having completed the three events "Life Mastery", "Date with To View More >>

There is a saying "Get in Line, Stay in Line", basically it means if your start something keep at it until the end. Some people however give up just before the finish line. Below I share what we can learn from Kids when it comes to persistence in negotiation, once you start don't stop. Does No really mean no? Some children left to their own free will, can out last an adult in a verbal argument or negotiation. Kids are built with the extraordinary ability to stay focused on the goal and be so much more persistent than we can be bothered being. This hyper negotiation can happen angrily during a To View More >>