GETTING TO KNOW YOU
in setting up your business?
Trying to get a new business up
and running takes a huge amount
of work. Perhaps the most exciting
and yet the most challenging thing,
at the same time, is that you have to
develop a broad range of skills and
take on a broad range of roles to get
things done on limited resources.
The hardest thing is the long hours
you need to put in just to stay
afloat. In our latest book we talk
about the dangers of bureaucracy
building as the organisation grows,
and the problem of ending up
“doing business with yourself”. We
have also faced the more unique
challenges of keeping up the
impression that we could service
our clients internationally when we
were still in a growth phase, and
before everything was properly
established. But you eventually get
there in the end!
Tell us about some of the
expectations that you had.
Have they been met?
Because we didn’t set out with any
set expectations things have grown
beyond our wildest dreams. We
never expected to be running an
international company before we
started, and once we had started
we never expected that we could
keep this going for more than 20
years. Sometimes it can be better
not to have set expectations, just to
continue pursuing excellence and
focusing on the purpose and the
passion, and the outcomes can be
astounding.
What types of services do you
offer?
We offer a wide range of services so
that we can take our clients through
the full transformation journey. At
28 ModernBusiness
September 2016
the front end we provide unique
experiential learning exercises
that help individuals and teams to
discover issues and challenges and
have those ‘aha’ moments so they
are ready to dig deeper and to learn
more. At the next level we provide
in depth seminars, workshops and
keynotes that provide case studies
and practical tools and strategies
for making deep high impact
changes. And finally, we provide
coaching and mentoring services
(including the use of assessments
to provide guidance where helpful)
to ensure learning is sustained over
the long term
Do you provide services
nationally?
Yes!
Do you have any plans for
overseas expansion?
Done! We are taking on some new
licensing partnerships, but only
slowly and strategically as the right
opportunities arise.
What would you say to
someone looking for a
business consultant and what
advice would you give them?
Look at the background and
experience, the client list and
the proven results. Talk to the
consultants that you feel match
this criteria, and make sure they
listen carefully to your needs and
you feel comfortable with how their
approach can help to meet those
needs. Decide before you start the
process whether your focus will be
on outcomes or budget – and be
prepared to shift the budget if you
find a good consultant who is able
to reach your outcomes! Play for
win/win not win/lose. It should be a
partnership, not a competition. Give
the consultant what they need to
best help you.
Have you written a book? If so,
please tell us a bit about what
business owners can get out
of it.
We have written a number of
books – 7 in total (through Random
House, Transworld and Wiley as
well as others). The two that are
most recent and that are targeted
to businesses are our latest release
The Innovation Race: How to change
a culture to change the game
(Wiley, Aug 2016) and Who Killed
Creativity?... And How Can We Get
it Back: 7 essential strategies for
making yourself, your team and
your organisation more innovative
(Wiley, 2012). Who Killed Creativity?
focused on identifying the factors
that can block creative thinking at
the individual psychological level,
such as pressure, fear and apathy. It
revealed the importance of creative
thinking as a work and life skill,
and provided practical tools for
how to address these challenges
and develop further – using a fun
detective approach to investigate
the issues.
The Innovation Race has built
on that book by now looking at
what can block innovation at the
organisational level. This book is
a lively global adventure with a
tongue-in-cheek reality ‘Amazing
Race’ theme, in which we travel to
different countries around the world
to find principles that can be used
to create a better environment and
culture to support purpose-driven
innovation.