The Latest News from PlanA

As I type it is the Monday after the 2023 elections in Aotearoa New Zealand. There is still 500,000 Special Votes to count, but as we know it will be a National / Act coalition, possibly with NZ First as the third coalition partner.

Now I don’t know about you, but towards the end of the campaign I really started to turn off. Everyone seemed to be promising everything, blamed everyone else and the noise became a bit too much.

In the world of business, clarity is the cornerstone of sound decision-making. Whether you're a board of directors, business owner, or a general manager, your choices greatly impact your organisation's success. To get good clarity though, you need to test assumptions. In this blog I’m going to give you three simple things to think about when it comes to getting clarity around your business direction and decisions.

I recently read the book American Icon by Bryce Hoffman. Although it is about the Ford Motor Company, it is really about the remarkable journey of Alan Mulally, the former Ford CEO and the folks he worked with, who turned the company around.

While we can't control election outcomes or external factors, we can control our reactions and commitment to excellence. In the words of Mulally, ‘The most important thing is to keep moving forward and to focus on delivering results’. By following these principles your business cannot only weather the storms of change but also emerge stronger and more resilient, regardless of what government is in power.

I initially thought I’d write some commentary about the recent New Zealand election and what that might mean for business. But the more I thought about it, the less inclined I became to go down that path. First of all, until a government is formed, who knows what things may look like and secondly, I’d just become another talking head, making guesses and assumptions (although by the time you read this the election will be over, and who knows if a government will have even been formed!)