Changing Gears

After taking a hard, honest look at your business, what keeps you awake at night?
Aimed at those who own and manage their business in New Zealand, the question is posed by four New Zealand business experts in Changing Gears. 
Sharing their SME (small and medium sized enterprise) business experience, David Irving, Darl Kolb, Deborah Shepherd and Christine Woods draw on their own careers, international research and involvement in the successful ICEHOUSE (ICE stands for International Centre for Entrepreneurship) business growth centre and say, “This is one book we hope helps you sleep”.   
Considering New Zealand has one of the highest proportions of its workforce in small business (one to 19 employees) and the lowest proportion of companies employing more than 100 staff, Irving describes owner-managers as the understated heroes of the New Zealand business landscape. 
Changing Gears shares some of the learning of the ICEHOUSE owner-manager programme, which was Irving’s response for New Zealand’s SMEs, following a Stanford University Business School’s senior executive programme he attended as a corporate manager.  
Described as a working guide, the book shares lessons learned from listening to owner-managers in New Zealand. Seven chapters span business growth from start-up/entrepreneur, adolescent/fast growth with frequent changes of direction, middle age/organisation to rejuvenation/refreshed ownership or management.  
There are exercises to complete, key lessons, company profiles as examples, suggested reading and explanatory diagrams.   
Chapter one looks at the two very different start-up stories of Brett Henderson, founder of Holdfast, and former Entrepreneur of the Year, Bill Day of Seaworks.  
Chapters two to seven look at what it takes for owner-managers to become more successful leaders and managers of their business while at the same time enjoying a better life.  
With a warning that as an entrepreneurial owner-manager who has started and/or grown a business, you are likely to be the single biggest limitation to further business growth unless you develop your leadership capacity, you can find out what you can do to improve the leadership in your firm.
Changing Gears has suggestions for managing your time and the people who work for you to avoid the horrors of stress and the death spiral of confusion, disengagement, withdrawal, vulnerability, distress and depression. 
How to avoid hyper-connectivity, the result of floods of emails, too much information, too many phone calls and meaningless meetings and find a daily practice that works for you, is also covered. That’s got to be worth looking at.  
A sound blend of theory and practical advice makes this a very useful, supportive book for SME owners.
Usefulness: 8.5/10
Linda Donald is an Auckland-based freelance writer and reviewer. Email

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