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On Friday May 7th business owners from as far south as Timaru, converged on North Harbour Stadium for the E2theMax Masterclass to begin their journey in the E2theMax Business Challenge – a 12-week business boosting makeover that culminates in a special Reveal Event where two businesses are selected as overall winners, or “most significantly boosted”. But before we meet those two winners, it’s worth reflecting on the process that took place – and understanding that for every business owner, this was an incredibly positive experience that will impact on their businesses for months, indeed years to come. This was made obvious at the Reveal.
I asked E2theMax MD Jacqui Jones to sum up the stand-out moments from this year’s Challenge. Achieving her goal of going nationwide was the first.
“Most of the businesses we’ve worked with over three Challenge years either operate nationwide or plan to – so connecting like minds around the country was a key success factor.”
Having bka interactive confirm a $10K online solution that businesses could pitch for was another highlight.
“This gave a real focus to the Masterclass pitching session and was won with unanimous support by School of Rock. They now have an incredible e-commerce site that’s gone live. With House of Chocolate and Vision Living also being awarded brochure sites, bka delivered at least five times their original contribution offer and have made a major difference to these businesses, which is, of course, the primary success factor.”
Jones was impressed how quickly the owners grasped key concepts and ran with them, and says the group’s camaraderie was in evidence right from the start.
“Of course, the Reveal was a standout occasion. This Challenge involved around 80 other businesses with some 200 actions taking place in ten projects over 12 weeks. While I knew some very significant progress had again been made, it’s not until the Reveal that we see how successful this all is, and it was fabulous.
“Hearing fully engaged owners say their businesses have progressed three to five years in the space of just 12 weeks, that’s priceless.”
Jones says this year’s Challenge was unique in that not just the two winners, but all selected participants, were boosted by expertise, products and services – in fact, just on $500K’s worth. “To keep with tradition, and add a little extra element of stretch, we further recognised the two businesses deemed most significantly boosted,” she says. These two businesses were School of Rock and mbar Limited.
“They used their own initiative and took on board all that was available to be learnt and experienced,” says Jones. They took the opportunity to discover, evaluate, implement, collaborate and practice with our support around them and are now at a point where they, as owners, their team, their business and ideally their community are able to experience enduring benefit from having stepped up to the Challenge.”
Common threads
All ten business owners who completed the Challenge believed in their potential to thrive. “Each owner was ready for help,” says Jones. “Some came into the Challenge of their own free will, some were prompted or pulled by others, but in every case, paying an application fee and taking the leap of faith into such a different experience gained these owners my admiration from the outset.
“Catherine Murray of HR & Dispute Solutions made an excellent comment post-Reveal. As an expert in the Masterclass back in May she’d not seen many of the owners until the Reveal Event mid-September. She said ‘It was incredible to see the actual change in the people since May. When we first met them, many were tired or dazed by the thoughts of what was ahead of them; but yesterday every one of them seemed to be so much brighter about what lay ahead of them – it really was inspirational!’”
Boosted! From good to great
Mbar Limited www.mbar.co.nz
Paul and Debbie Vickers of mbar in Te Awamutu saw the E2theMax Challenge as a chance to improve the profitability of their small engineering business which specialises in the overhaul of blowers and vacuum pumps.
“Working with experts since the May Masterclass opened our eyes to the changes we needed to make, so the business could leap from good to great,” says Paul. “The Challenge exceeded our expectations because we learnt to see ourselves differently, and how we could improve as managers. This became more important as we realised profitability is the result of good management.
“Just before the Masterclass one of our employees said he felt Paul had stopped being the ‘All Black captain’ and that work was way more fun when Paul set out to win. At the Masterclass we realised that to achieve a culture change, first we had to change!
“We arrived back at work pumped up and shared our experience with our nine staff – and that day we became the Black Pumps, the winning team!
“Our employees really stepped up to the Challenge,” says Debbie. “So much so, that we are struggling to keep up with them!
“Learning to listen and understand staff perceptions became important.Then we could gain buy-in to our processes as we learnt to communicate how our processes benefit our staff.”
Paul and Debbie with the help of Resco, Longveld Engineering and 3Design, created an enduring physical symbol of their Challenge journey. A silver fern sculpture now has pride of place in their garden.
“This embodies everything we love about mbar,” explains Paul. “It’s Kiwi, it’s solid and it involves community. It also solved a problem – we had a tree missing in our garden!”
After being shown how to develop a compelling pitch at the Masterclass, the sculpture became an instant focus for the couple and ignited their enthusiasm for the process of collaboration. “The thing about collaboration the way Jacqui presented it, is that it’s been very easy to pick up and pass on. Collaboration has become a key part of everything we do.
“We’ve also focused on lean manufacturing, leadership training, our internal documentation and sales processes. We’ve experienced increased productivity and profitability and our employees say we’ve made a quantum leap,” says Debbie.
mbar’s new-found collaborative approach has also been extended to its suppliers. “In the Masterclass it dawned on us that if it’s better for us it’s better for them,” says Paul.
“Over the past 12 weeks we have been increasing our suppliers’ knowledge of our business and sharing our excitement and vision with them. The results have been fantastic. One of our suppliers has increased referrals by 400 percent and these referrals are nationwide businesses that hadn’t previously landed on our radar.”
Going forward, Paul and Debbie believe that the Challenge has improved their relationship with staff and suppliers, which in turn benefits customers and the bottom line.
Above all, adds Paul, it has allowed them to visualize what is possible.
“I liken it to when you first start maths as a child – you are amazed by how just adding up numbers works, but with more learning you see what you can achieve with algebra.
“My vision was always to be the best in the world at overhauling pumps but I had no real way of seeing how this could be possible. Now I can see it is a very real possibility, but it will take time to achieve most of the steps and I need to be patient and work towards it.
“The longest journey begins with the first step!”
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Boosted! On so many levels
School of Rock
For Gareth Moore, who co-owns the School of Rock with wife Julie, the 2010 E2theMax Challenge was an opportunity to find some true focus and clarity for the business and become more customer driven.
So did the Challenge meet expectations?
“In business it seems that every time the phone rings it’s someone pitching the latest product, their services as a coach, or what have you, so after a while you become a bit jaded. I had to be sure that this Challenge would meet MY parameters – which were to keep me focused on the end goal and develop the product ‘funnel’ to give real choice to our customers,” says Moore.
“Jacqui was extremely good at keeping me aligned with my goals, even through the multitude of emails and ‘extras’ every week over the 12 weeks. At the end of it we have a brand new multi-level product funnel of lessons for all manner of Kiwis being launched in 2011.
“Our own ‘Rock Van’ is also a reality, bringing original music to schools all over Auckland. We have an awesome new website as a portal for our students and bands at www.schoolofrock.co.nz.
“We are also transitioning Wellington School of Rock into our systems and developing a nationwide tour circuit to help young musicians and bands gain exposure in the music industry. So yes, in a nutshell the Challenge exceeded our expectations in every way.”
Applying the planning methodologies taught during the Challenge, Gareth has been able to “get organised”, and hot on the heels of the Reveal was repackaging the successful “Weekend Warriors” programme, which works by bringing workplaces together through rock music. “We provide a mentor, practice space, and teach a group of employees how to play a full set over eight weeks and then they have a celebration gig at the end of it for all the team and their families. It’s really cool because the band might have the CEO on bass guitar, the receptionist on keyboard, mailroom guy as lead singer and the floor manager on drums! I’m really excited to be working with adults, or ‘big kids’ again, as well as the 12 to 22 year olds that are our traditional market.”
Gareth says the biggest personal benefit from the Challenge was learning to use his time more efficiently so he doesn’t have to work Sundays. “I can now prioritise what actually has to be done over all the distraction.
“People love music and I love talking to them about it, so now I have to be careful not to be an opportunity seeker and automatically say ‘yes’ to everything that people propose – which was my natural way until the Challenge.”
Stand-out moments? “Being able to network with other SMEs who are all at a really exciting stage and talking about similar issues we were facing along the way. And finally seeing the Rock Van drive up after four years of development and planning – it exists!”
Gareth says he now has a 21st century music school that uses technology to great effect, thanks largely to the $10K-plus of e-commerce website development from bka interactive. And he’s proud to be in the business of growing music leaders.
“It’s great to look around my school and see all the 18 to 20 year olds whom I’ve worked with since they were seven or eight and realise what amazing musicians they have become, and how they’ve developed as individuals in terms of focus, concentration, confidence, teamwork, leadership, and so on.
“Not many business owners get the chance to select their incoming staff from candidates they have known and trained over the ten most exciting years of their lives!”
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