BOOST Business Coaching

I was lucky enough to be visiting the Biz expo in Wellington last Friday between appointments and happened upon Philip Borkin from the National Bank. Philip was talking about the Global recession, the impact on the economy and what we can do about it.

The National Bank economist gave a surprisingly clear account of the causes of the recession and what this means for not only businesses but everyone in New Zealand. He confirmed and supported Economists like Gareth Morgan who speak about an economy having a long protracted recovery as opposed to a quick swift uplift.

One thing that Philip talked about was the reluctance of New Zealand businesses to take on board external (to their businesses) Advisers. The Ministry of Economic Development in New Zealand and the Department of Commerce in the USA have done studies that shows the relationship of business success to external advice received and sure enough those that seek out assistance tops the charts.

We are a nation of hard workers who would rather just hunker down sweat out the tough times and treat our business like one big session of ‘trial and error’. I have just completed four years as the CEO at the Northland Chamber of Commerce and I have seen time and time again the impact that having an expert can do in peoples businesses. It doesn’t matter whether that expertise is financial, marketing, operations or an expert business coach who is in the ‘business of business’ I have seen businesses surmount surprisingly difficult challenges. It’s not to say that without the advice they won’t surmount the challenges it’s just that they can take a very valuable and profitable shortcut.

One of my last acts as a Chamber CEO was to carry out a series of seminars throughout Northland. We travelled to 13 towns to spread the’ 6s for success’ message. This was a short sharp seminar about really drilling down to the basics of ANY business and concentrating on these to ensure that your business would not only survive the recession BUT in fact thrive through the bad times. A couple of surprising things I observed about these sessions.

1. The attendees were generally well regarded business people in their community. We assumed that the attendees would be 100% of those who were on their last legs but most of the audiences were in fact well seasoned, been through tough times before types. What could they possibly get out of this type of Business basics seminar? We asked them – We just needed to be reminded what we were doing was the right thing and to pick up a few new tactics was the over whelming reply. These business people were the people who sought out others advice and opinions , digested everything they picked up and then used the most relevant information for their business.

2. In the hundreds of Businesses we presented to throughout the North invariably in each town we would talk to two similar businesses, in the same type of industries who recounted very different Recession experiences. One was usually holding their own and thriving whilst the other was having a tough time. My co-presenters and I could only put the differing stories down to the ‘attitude of the business owner’ to adapt, change course and try new tactics as the course of their business was buffeted by the Recession.

I love business. I love the fact that there are a few people in New Zealand who are willing to risk capital, employ others, in the pursuit of creating a wealth and healthy communities. In fact I reckon business people should be held in much higher regard than what they are. Let’s face it private enterprise is the PRODUCTIVE sector of our economy which enables everything else including our Education system, health system, welfare society and yes even the employment of tens of thousands of public Servants to deliver these and other services. It simply wouldn’t happen without the business tax base.