FROM THE EDITOR

Inside the November Quarterly: Celebrating business success and resilience in the face of Covid-19.

Buy November issue here

Success born out of resilience

As I write this (and hopefully as you read it) Auckland is considered back to ‘normal’, having slipped quietly out of Alert Level 2.5 to join the rest of the country at Level 1. 

The overall mood of the nation has certainly picked up since we published our August edition of the magazine.

This latest quarter, culminating with the general election, has seen New Zealand migrate out of pandemic crisis mode into ‘let’s learn to live with it’ mode – and with it has emerged some remarkable business success stories. Tales of true resilience and initiative.

This is why success and resilience make up the central theme of this November Quarterly issue – it needs to be acknowledged and celebrated.

Success is everywhere you look on these pages – from the four examples of resilience in our lead article, to our inspiration profiles, the two graduates featured in our 2021 MBA guide and the fascinating story of entrepreneur Greg Kushnir and his start-up Emrod – the company spearheading a breakthrough wireless power transmission technology as the alternative to copper-based power lines.

Many of these success stories have not been featured in mainstream media – but they represent vast numbers of smaller Kiwi businesses that have been quietly transforming themselves over recent months in the face of one of the devastating crises the world has ever witnessed.

Covid-19 has forced many business owners to make tough decisions – to go out on a limb and try new tactics. To think outside the box. Collectively, this is what will get us through this mess.

Most important of all, we must stay positive and flexible, no matter what the pandemic throws at us. 

I liked how Auckland Business Chamber CEO Michael Barnett summed up the way forward: “The business sector cannot afford to have a doomsday outlook, but must rise up and do what it does best – assessing and taking calculated risks to deliver economic development and growth, with government working in step to seize new opportunities that harness our resources and talents, and applying the lessons and new ways of working adopted through the lockdowns.” 

Kia kaha Aotearoa!

Glenn H Baker

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