The Backbone of the Country – is it you?

Small business and farming was the backbone of the country but do they get the kudos deserved?  Do we understand what they gave us to build upon?

The culture of New Zealand has been formed by single minded entrepreneurs – building a life, a community and a country.  Our winning culture is not a product of tribal inheritance, European values or Asian work ethic.  Nor is it a political party dominated by power, or a nation of large companies focused to corporate profit at the expense of all else.  We are not purely a nation of sporting achievers, although we surely are a nation of over achievers.

Culture is a social contract, an environment created by all of the above, but most of all – culture is how we treat each other because of the principles and values instilled through family and community.

Businesses and business leaders are now far more focused to the ‘soft skills’ needed to grow their enterprises.  How inclusive and aligned is the vision and leadership of the company with the people pushing the computer keys, interacting with suppliers and customers or putting their shoulders to the wheel?

For 20 years FoxPlan has been attempting to spread the word with regard employee/employer responsibilities.  New Zealand’s growing financial and social issues are no accident of time but more an accumulation over time of changing values and peer pressures created by technological advances and communication.  We are infected by the principles and values of the global village, whether we like it or not, and we all need to adapt to ensure the isolation which has framed us is not breached by digital invasion.

For businesses, farms, communities to flourish a strategy without culture is powerless.  For communities, businesses, farms, sporting teams and countries a culture without strategy is directionless.  In other words, we need vision and purpose plus cultural values, not only to adapt to our changing environment but to thrive and prosper.  ‘A purposeful life with meaning and wellness’.

Rutherford, Hillary, Kirk (N), Te Kanawa, McCaw, Tindall and many other New Zealand icons were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth.  Nor did they inherit a fortune – but they made us proud, each of them in a different way, but each of them in our way.  Humble, caring and contributing.

There is much tribal, religious, political and ethnic conflagration in these times, in many parts of the world but we are not exempt.  Nor are we exempt from financial, relationship and personal issues of health and wellness – it’s time to reflect on what we need to do to take responsibility and to deliver the values we have been lucky enough to inherit and enhance them for our kids and grandkids.

We are no longer an isolated backwater reliant on our farmers or our business leaders to grow our food and our country – as individuals we can accept our role to enhance the energy and environment in which we live now, how we want to leave it or we can sit back and take whatever is delivered.

What’s your succession plan and can we help you achieve it?

That’s what we do – ‘to smooth the road’.