The SME Stream

Mike and Scott unpack the strategic foundations most businesses skip - purpose, vision, values, CVP and goals - and why skipping them means growing by accident instead of on purpose. They trace real examples from Lion Brewery's purpose statement to Point16's own vision, plus a listener Q&A on when to bring in a consultant.

Drinking beer from: Canyon Brewery - Monsoon Hoon Bright IPA (6%)
Eating a pie from: One Tree Bakery - Thai Chilli Beef

You'll learn:
-The difference between purpose (your internal why), vision (how you want to be described in future) and values (how you deliver on both), tied together through Simon Sinek's Golden Circle;
-Why an unwritten goal lives in one person's head and keeps shifting, while a written one becomes something a team can actually serve;
-How to build a Customer Value Proposition around who your customer is, what problem you solve, and what value they'd place on that;
-Why giving a consultant your own purpose, vision and goals up front gets better advice than asking them "what do you think I should do";
-and why judgment, not speed or output, is the thing a human advisor gives you that AI still can't.

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With the election campaign in full swing, it’s a pleasure to host Finance Minister and Deputy Leader of the National Party, Nicola Willis, for Episode 72 of Leaders Getting Coffee.
When former Finance Minister Steven Joyce resigned from Parliament in the aftermath of the 2017 election, his departure created an opportunity for a relative unknown to enter Parliament from the not-so-lofty position of 48 on the National Party list.
Her name was Nicola Willis. She had just lost the Wellington Central electorate contest to another future Finance Minister, Grant Robertson.
At the time, she was largely unknown to most New Zealanders. But she’d already completed a political apprenticeship that most new MPs could only dream of, working first as a policy adviser to Bill English and subsequently as a senior adviser to Prime Minister John Key.
For the next five years, she had to bide her time in Opposition. It was a period that gave her the opportunity to learn the parliamentary ropes, take on a wide range of portfolios and establish herself as one of National’s emerging leaders.
Then came 2023. National was able to form a government alongside ACT and NZ First, and Nicola Willis was appointed Minister of Finance.
On this episode of Leaders Getting Coffee, Nicola talks to Bruce Cotterill about being at the centre of the coalition negotiations that led to the formation of the current government. She also discusses the state of the government’s finances they inherited, and the rapid-fire decisions required during those early days in office.
There’s plenty of discussion about the performance of the government she’s been part of: the difficult decisions, what they got right, and what they might have done differently.
And then there’s the current election campaign.
Nicola and Bruce agree to disagree on National’s policy for the supermarket sector. And she is refreshingly open when asked about the possibility of National winning electorate seats at the expense of her own position on the party list.
This is a wide-ranging conversation with the Minister who has held the government’s purse strings for the past three years. It provides an informed look behind the scenes of government, coalition politics and economic management — as well as some insight into the person behind the portfolio.
Nicola Willis is bright, articulate and ambitious for the country. She also speaks candidly about the very real personal sacrifices that come with pursuing those ambitions in public life.
It’s well worth a listen.
Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 72 with Bruce Cotterill and Hon Nicola Willis, Minister of Finance
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What happens when someone with deep operational experience steps into the Chief People Officer role?⁣
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In this episode of HR Unlocked, Lisa Oakley sits down with Nicki Mackay, Chief People Officer at FMG, to explore leadership, trust, resilience, culture, and the future of People & Culture.⁣
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After 17 years at FMG across operational and leadership roles, Nicki brings a practical understanding of the business. She shares how moving between roles has challenged her assumptions, strengthened her commercial understanding, and shaped her approach to executive leadership.⁣
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A central theme is perspective. Nicki explains why technical expertise builds credibility while leadership builds influence, and why People & Culture must help people thrive while keeping the business moving.⁣
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She also explores trust, self-awareness, and constructive challenge, reflecting on the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Experiencing a year's worth of claims in just two weeks taught her valuable lessons about staying calm, supporting teams, and leading through uncertainty.⁣
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Nicki discusses decision-making under pressure, why perfect information rarely arrives on time, and how leaders must combine data, judgement, and instinct while remaining ready to adapt.⁣
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The conversation also covers career agility, performance, motivation, generational diversity, mutuality, and Nicki's leadership philosophy: be your story, own it, live it, love it.⁣
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𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧⁣
• How operational experience strengthens People & Culture leadership and commercial understanding⁣
• Why changing roles challenges assumptions and broadens perspective⁣
• Why technical expertise builds credibility while leadership builds influence⁣
• How People & Culture can maintain organisational momentum⁣
• What CEOs and executive peers need from a Chief People Officer⁣
• Why relationships and respectful challenge strengthen executive teams⁣
• How self-awareness and active listening improve leadership ⁣
• What Cyclone Gabrielle taught Nicki about trust, resilience, and crisis leadership⁣
• Why leaders must make decisions with incomplete information⁣
• How career agility creates opportunities beyond rigid career plans⁣
• Why performance issues may reflect role fit, strengths, or motivation⁣
• How beliefs, values, and individual drivers influence behaviour⁣
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𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬⁣
• Perspective matters. Moving across an organisation builds context and improves judgement.⁣
• People & Culture should enable progress. Early involvement, commercial understanding, and strong relationships help businesses move forward.⁣
• Trust is built before a crisis. Everyday relationships provide the foundation for extraordinary moments.⁣
• Resilience means moving forward. Crisis leadership requires calm, awareness, judgement, and support for others.⁣
• Decisions can't always wait. Leaders must act with incomplete information and adapt as circumstances change.⁣
• Careers aren't concrete. Flexibility creates opportunities that rigid plans may miss.⁣
• Performance depends on context. Strengths, motivation, role fit, and individual circumstances all matter.⁣
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𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐲⁣
Nicki Mackay is Chief People Officer at FMG. With more than 15 years at the organisation, she has held operational and leadership roles across area management, agribusiness, claims, recovery, and executive leadership.⁣
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Nicki joined FMG's executive leadership team as Chief People Officer in 2023, bringing extensive operational experience to the People & Culture function.⁣
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Her leadership approach centres on trust, curiosity, connection, practical judgement, and creating conditions for people to perform at their best. She is passionate about leadership, culture, resilience, organisational agility, and helping people navigate change while staying connected to their strengths and values.⁣
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𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬⁣
People & Culture leaders need more than HR expertise. They need commercial understanding, operational awareness, strong relationships, sound judgement, and the ability to influence across an organisation.⁣
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Nicki's career demonstrates how operational experience can shape executive leadership, culture, crisis response, and the People & Culture function.⁣
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As organisations face accelerating change and uncertainty, leaders will rarely have perfect answers. They'll need to trust their judgement, understand their people, act with integrity, and move forward when waiting is no longer useful.⁣
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For HR professionals, executives, people leaders, business owners, and anyone navigating leadership or career change, this conversation offers practical insights into trust, agility, resilience, and keeping people and business moving.⁣
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𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 & 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬⁣
• FMG: https://www.fmg.co.nz/⁣
• Connect with Nicki Mackay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicki-mackay-b8501158/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The people building the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence systems promise extraordinary gains. They also warn those systems could escape our control.
That is the ethical fault line running through this week’s episode of The Business of Tech.
My guest, New Zealander Peter Barnett, works at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, California. The University of Otago physics graduate develops governance plans aimed at preventing catastrophic outcomes from advanced AI. He previously worked on technical AI alignment, the difficult job of making powerful systems act in line with human intentions.
This conversation is a topical one.
OpenAI is facing fresh turmoil over its approach to safety. Three recently fired safety and alignment researchers claim they were punished for challenging the company and working with outside evaluators. OpenAI rejects that account, saying they mishandled sensitive information and breached its trust.
David Robinson, one of OpenAI’s senior safety figures, has also resigned. The former author of safety reports accompanying major model launches says the company’s culture is “broken” and the industry is not being nearly careful enough. He just sat down for a podcast interview with Ezra Klein of the New York Times, which makes for fascinating viewing.
These departures expose the moral dilemma at the centre of the AI boom.
Worrying emergent traits in AI
The companies racing towards more capable models say the technology could cure disease, lift productivity and create enormous wealth. But they face fierce competition, huge investor expectations and a geopolitical contest framed around beating China.
Every incentive rewards speed. Caution risks handing the advantage to a rival.
So who decides when the danger is too great?
Barnett argues it cannot be the companies themselves. He says frontier AI developers are effectively writing their own rules and can loosen them when safety commitments obstruct progress. Independent audits, government oversight and limits on training more powerful models may all be needed.
His concern is not simply that people will misuse AI. It is that increasingly autonomous systems could learn to game evaluations, work around safeguards and pursue goals their creators did not intend. Safety researchers still cannot reliably predict everything a frontier model will be capable of before it is trained.
Barnett believes New Zealand can play a role. We do not build frontier models, but our nuclear-free history shows a small country can challenge powerful nations on an issue carrying global risk.
When insiders abandon lucrative careers to raise the alarm, maybe it's worth listening to them.
Listen to the full conversation with Peter Barnett on The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify or your podcast app of choice.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand keeps announcing infrastructure projects, putting them on hold and paying more when they finally move ahead.
A new industry survey shows overwhelming support for cross-party agreement, with 44 percent of responding organisations cutting staff in the past year.
Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett joins Katie Bradford to explain the cost of political stop-starts, why funding matters more than promises, and what the next government needs to do to get projects moving.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee
Host: Katie Bradford
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.