Sharing a few thoughts

Blog author: Sean McDonald (Former ICONZ CEO)

Some time ago I was approached by the very inspirational Peter Anich of Motivation Men. Now if you have not heard of this Company, spend a few minutes checking out their website, it’s really great stuff and in good old kiwi tradition, just good honest slices of information with lashings of humour. 

Peter has been working across the length and breadth of New Zealand with his new venture, LeadersReview.co.nz and somewhere in his travels Peter got wind of the great things that ICONZ were doing in the Cloud Hosting arena and advised that he should speak to their CEO, that would be me!

Peter’s new series is focused on the IT sector and as such, he was looking for ‘Top Industry Leaders’ to comment on the year that was 2009 and modestly appraise the short term future and international opportunities against the backdrop of initiatives across New Zealand.

Flattery gets you everywhere, I think!

Now of course I was flattered to be even considered in the same class of leaders that had been nominated for the series but really, nobody likes a show off Pete!

Don’t be silly said Pete. “This series is all about real kiwi business leaders of the IT sector talking about the ups, downs and sideway shifts of business, how we had steered our ships through the storm of 2009 and what we saw for the future of New Zealand” “All you have to do is talk for an hour on camera and I’ll take care of the rest, easy!”

But this is blatant self promotion Pete!

Now I consider myself a fairly typical kiwi bloke that just so happens to work with fantastic people and head a group of innovative IT companies in ICONZ, Freeparking, WebFarm and 2Day.com but really, getting on camera and presenting myself as an icon of industry and leadership did not really float my boat. ... Before I could get my next thought out, I was sitting in the chair, the camera was rolling and Pete was firing questions at me left right and centre.......

So what’s it all about?

Leaders Review is an initiative where business leaders nominated by industry association or peers are invited to step forward and talk about how they focus through times of challenge and opportunity, their passions and personal drivers. They are also asked to identify the opportunities they see for their own industries right now.

The videos are gritty, progressive and certainly not ‘Polyanna’in style. Pete’s objective for the series across this multi-industry collective was to dispense with the usual ‘governance speak’ and share with others a real industry ‘state-of-play’ along with where they are concentrating their gaze.  I think he did a pretty good job and I hope you will agree.

If you have any comment, good bad or indifferent, I would love to hear from you.