The SME Stream

Mike and Scott get into the metric every business owner loves to hate: KPIs. They break down why most businesses pick the wrong ones, and introduce the traffic-light system that replaces pass/fail pressure with a simple "who needs help" culture.

Drinking beer from: Panhead - Port Road Pilsner (5.2%)
Eating a pie from: The Receptionist - Steak and Cheese

You'll learn:
-The difference between lead measures (what you can directly influence) and lag measures (the results you actually want), and why most owners fixate on the wrong one;
-Why a KPI only means something when it connects upward to your business's true north, not just a random industry benchmark;
-How the Red-Amber-Green (RAG) system reframes performance as "who needs help" instead of pass or fail;
-What a healthy RAG spread actually looks like, and why staying green for six cycles straight is a sign to raise the bar, not celebrate;
-and a simple AI prompting trick: ask your own AI agent to review your past prompts and tell you how to prompt it better.

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The farming sector is in a cyclical boomtime at the moment and we’re all hoping it will continue forever. But we’re not hearing a lot from our farmers as the election date nears. So who better to talk to about that than the host of the most popular farming programme on New Zealand radio.
Jamie MacKay is the host of The Country. He’s a quintessential Kiwi bloke. He grew up farming in northern Southland, is a mad keen rugby man and managed to make a living from farming – firstly as a farmer in his own right for over a decade and subsequently with his own radio show which enables him to talk about farming all day.
He talks openly about the tough times, and how Rogernomics forced farmers out of business in the 1980’s and 1990’s, including his own brushes with financial uncertainty.
MacKay’s career has also given him a decent shot at the business of business. His entry into broadcasting came when he purchased a radio station from Radio New Zealand in the 1990’s. He turned 4ZG into Hokonui Gold and added a farming segment which started off at five minutes duration and over time grew to the hour long programme we know today.
He later sold out of the business, and The Farming Show moved on to Radio Sport and ultimately Newstalk ZB where is remains to this day, rebranded as The Country.
On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast MacKay speaks to Bruce Cotterill about a wide range of topics, from the original inspiration for the radio programme to the current performance of the farming sector and the positive outlook ahead.
There’s also plenty of talk about what the farmers are saying at election time, their desire for a farmer friendly government to continue, improvements in farm technology, and how we can maximise the future opportunities and grow the economy in the process.
This is a fun conversation with a good bloke, a natural story teller and a man who is positive about the future of New Zealand.
Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 73 with Bruce Cotterill and Jamie MacKay – Host of The Country on ZB
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Two days into the job, Roman Reyhani was confronting a $231 million question: how does New Zealand turn clever science into businesses that deliver lasting value here?
The founding chief executive of the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology joins this week’s episode of The Business of Tech to explain his approach.
The institute represents a pivot towards high-tech research and commercialisation. But its funding has largely been redirected from other parts of the science system, rather than added to the pot.
That increases the pressure to deliver. Can a stronger commercial focus succeed without weakening the research pipeline feeding it?
From genocide prosecutions to Silicon Valley startups
Reyhani’s route to the role is unusually varied. Raised in Auckland, he began in international law, including an internship with the prosecution team at the United Nations tribunal investigating Rwanda’s genocide.
California offered a different way to make an impact. He established a legal practice and worked with technology startups, gradually moving beyond legal advice into strategy and business development.
Six years at Boston Consulting Group’s venture-building arm, now BCG X, followed. His teams helped major companies create products and businesses, recruiting people and taking technology to market rather than leaving clients with presentation slides.
Now back in New Zealand after more than two decades overseas, he wants the institute to bring an investor’s discipline to research funding.
“It’s not just here’s a chunk of money and a handshake and good luck to you,” he says.
Instead, funding would follow “stage gates” milestones with money shifted away from projects that aren’t progressing.
The institute’s territory sits between promising laboratory research and technologies mature enough to attract private investment. Bringing companies and investors alongside earlier could help bridge that expensive gap.
Applied AI is a big opportunity.
Then there’s the question of who benefits. Reyhani wants New Zealand to retain more value when taxpayer-backed technologies succeed, whether through financial returns, research facilities, skilled people or new businesses.
On artificial intelligence, he sees opportunities in applying existing models to New Zealand datasets, including agriculture and health, rather than competing head-on with the world’s biggest model developers.
It’s an ambitious brief for a modest budget by international standards. The challenge is choosing where New Zealand has a genuine edge, then backing it without confusing commercial discipline with impatience.
Listen to the full episode of The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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HR professionals spend their careers helping other people develop, prepare for opportunities and navigate change. But how good are they at doing the same for themselves?
In this episode of HR Unlocked, Lisa Oakley speaks with Sandy Gibbs from Tribe about preparing for career opportunities, creating stronger CVs, interviewing effectively and understanding what organisations increasingly expect from senior People & Culture leaders.
Sandy sees a changing HR market, with growing businesses recognising the need for dedicated People & Culture capability while larger organisations reconsider how their HR operating models need to evolve. She also believes professionals need to become better prepared for their own career moves rather than waiting until an opportunity appears.
The conversation gets practical quickly.
Sandy explains why a CV needs more than responsibilities, why achievements should demonstrate commercial outcomes, and why AI can help with wording but should never remove the individual's voice and evidence from their CV.
Lisa and Sandy also unpack interview preparation, nerves, over-talking, researching the people interviewing you, choosing strong career examples and answering seemingly simple questions such as, “Tell me about yourself.”
The discussion then moves beyond getting the job and into what makes HR leadership genuinely effective.
From enterprise thinking and learning agility to organisational fit, career development and building accountability into the wider business, Sandy shares what she sees distinguishing technically capable HR professionals from those who become trusted senior leaders.
For Sandy, great HR leadership is not about HR holding responsibility for everything. The strongest practitioners equip leaders to own the people responsibilities within their own teams, giving HR the space to guide, influence and operate more strategically.
What You’ll Learn
What Sandy is currently seeing in the New Zealand HR and People & Culture market

Why HR professionals need to prepare for career opportunities before they need their next role

How to make a CV sound like you rather than something generated entirely by AI

Why CV achievements need evidence, context and commercial outcomes

How to demonstrate the why behind your work

Why strong interview preparation helps reduce over-talking

How to keep interview answers concise while still giving enough evidence

Why a small number of strong career examples can answer many different interview questions

Whether older career examples are still relevant in interviews

How to answer “Tell me about yourself”

How to approach questions about weaknesses and development areas

Why researching your interviewers can be as valuable as researching the organisation

What questions candidates should ask at the end of an interview

Why HR professionals need to demonstrate thinking beyond their functional lane

How learning agility and curiosity show up in senior leadership

Why chemistry and organisational fit matter alongside capability

Why HR professionals often neglect their own career and development planning

What separates good HR leadership from great HR leadership

Why great HR leaders build accountability in others rather than holding everything themselves

How listening and asking better questions can increase your influence

Key Takeaways
Preparation starts before the interview. Career achievements, evidence and impact should be captured continuously rather than reconstructed when you suddenly need a CV.

AI can help wordsmith a CV, but it shouldn’t write your career story for you. The facts, achievements and evidence still need to belong specifically to you.

Commercial outcomes matter. Senior HR professionals need to demonstrate how their work contributed to organisational results, rather than only describing HR activities.

The “why” matters. Explaining the rationale behind a decision helps move an example from transactional delivery towards strategic and commercial thinking.

Interview technique is an art. Strong candidates know when to stop talking and give interviewers the opportunity to ask for more detail.

Fit goes both ways. Capability alone cannot guarantee that a person, leader and organisation will work well together.

Thought leadership is demonstrated, not declared. Curiosity, learning agility and the quality of the questions you ask can show how you think without needing to tell people you are strategic.

Great HR leaders create accountability outside HR. They help business leaders become capable people leaders instead of positioning HR as the owner of every people decision.

HR professionals need to practise what they preach. Career planning, feedback and development should apply to HR teams just as much as the rest of the organisation.

You don’t always need to have the answer. Listening well and asking the right question can sometimes create more value than immediately providing advice.

About Sandy Gibbs
Sandy Gibbs brings 25 years of recruitment experience and leads Tribe’s HR consulting capability while also working across executive search in HR and People & Culture.
Her extensive experience working with both employers and candidates gives her a practical view of what organisations are looking for, what helps professionals stand out and the common mistakes people make when navigating their own careers.
Why This Episode Matters
HR professionals are often very good at helping everyone else with performance, development, succession and career planning.
Their own careers can be a different story.
This episode offers a practical look at how HR professionals can better articulate their impact, prepare for opportunities, navigate interviews and think about the kind of organisation and leadership environment where they will actually thrive.
It also challenges HR leaders to think beyond technical expertise. As organisations expect more commercial and enterprise-wide contribution from People & Culture, curiosity, learning agility, accountability and the ability to influence outside the HR function are becoming increasingly important.
Resources & Links
Tribe: https://www.tribegroup.com/
Connect with Sandy Gibbs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandygibbs-peopleandculture/
HR Unlocked: https://linktr.ee/hrunlocked
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What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't your circumstances, your experience or your resources, but the way you think?
Your mindset influences everything from the opportunities you notice to the decisions you make and the actions you take. And the scary part? Most of us don't even realise how much our own thoughts are working against us.
In this episode of Make It Happen, I'm breaking down the psychology behind mindset, why our brains are wired to reinforce what we already believe, and how you can start changing those thought patterns to work in your favour.
I'll also share a surprisingly simple exercise you can start today to become more intentional about what you focus on, and why asking yourself "What if it works out?" might be one of the most powerful mindset shifts you can make.
Whether you're thinking about starting a business, struggling with self-doubt or ready to take your next big step, this episode will help you stop letting your thoughts hold you back and start building a mindset that supports your success.
Ready to take your business further?
🔗 Book a free strategy call: https://www.makeithappen.org.nz/
🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on business, marketing, strategy and scaling.
🌐 Learn more: http://makeithappen.org.nz/
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