If I go out for dinner and people ask me what I do, and I say, "We make photo albums", I swear their eyes glaze over and you see them searching for the door. After a little conversation, however, people are often fascinated. Ours is a successful comany in an exciting industry ... we see people on the happiest day of their life ... see what spending $100k on a wedding is like ... see guests at weddings like Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker ... make albums for princes and princesses, sheiks and other famous people. We work with incredibly talented and creative people. I think mine is a To View More >>

It's been a while since I shared a music video, so yesterday  spent a little time on YouTube and found: How Soon Is Now? by t.A.T.u from their album 200 km/hr In The Wrong Lane It got my attention because a couple of days ago I wrote a post "Be mischievous, Get Noticed", and you can definitely put these singers in that category. Lena & Yulya (aka Lena & Julia) are affectionately open about their relationship, which is great, but I am sure it also helps with publicity. This from their official website ... Brazenly, after promising not to kiss on the Tonight Show, they engaged in a long, To View More >>

As I sat down to write this I wondered about my title, I tossed between "Don't forget your belt" and "Drinking $200 bottles of wine". "Don't forget your belt, was a travel tip for men. If you are going to go away with your wife for the weekend, heed my advice and pack early, if not you will be like me rushing out of the house late, forgetting your belt and will spend all weekend pulling up your jeans. :) Anyway, I'm sitting here buzzing after a weekend away with Sonya where we spent two amazing days exploring a jewel in our own back yard, Waiheke Island. As many people know I am passionate about To View More >>

Bob Marley to me is one of the greatest singers ever ... I love the sound, I love the words ... I love the feeling. Good friends we have, good friends we've lost along the way In this great future, you can't forget your past ... So dry your tears I say No woman. No Cry! I think that says it all.... Life is a journey, enjoy it as it shows up, don't make it complicated, just know that ... "Everythings, going to be all right." To View More >>

  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 >>

On Wednesday night we had a fantastic night out with Johannes and Jo and a few other friends which included seeing The Eastern play at the Wonder Bar in Lyttleton, Christchurch. They were pure magic. Anyway long story short The Eastern and some of their friends from Oregan played a John Prine song called "In Spite of Ourselves". I really do love this song. It' funny, it's a great piece of music but most importantly I love the underlying message. "In-spite of ourselves, we'll end up sitting on a rainbow , against all odds honey, we're the big door prize" Isn't that so true, that the best relationships To View More >>

I'm very proud tonight of my daughter Alex and her friend Elisha who have just finished a short film for a school project. Alex is 11, and they have made the whole movie below themselves. The challenge was to do an "Olympic Bid" on behalf of their chosen city Japan, and as part of that they did a news item. Unfortunately this movie doesn't do them justice. They were working with a poor green screen (for a start it was blue), poor lighting, and of course all the iterations of change to file format from opiginal capture with Videocue Pro, to iMovie and then moving to youtube means they have lost 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>