Goals for a good year

The Herald asked some innovators and achievers to explain how they are bidding to make this year better than last. By ANGELA McCARTHY.


For some people, New Year resolutions are spur-of-the-moment drunken promises to be a better parent, partner, colleague, manager or boss. But for others, the change of year offers the opportunity for reflection and goal-setting, as some of the people featured in Career over the past 12 months reveal.

Mike Pero

Goal: To find balance and fun

Last year was extremely good for Mike Pero, managing director of Mike Pero Mortgages. As well as winning the Pacific Businessperson of the Year award, the 44-year-old changed plans to retire and bought back the half of his mortgage business he'd sold in 1996.

So Pero's first goal for this year is to step back from daily business operations and spend more time with family.

"At times I take on too much and put those around me under extreme pressure. I hope to improve and manage my time better."

Not just family time, either. This weekend Pero heads off on the four-month NZ V8 Touring Cars competition.

"It's great stuff and I hope to start learning to drive my 5L Commodore just a little bit faster. Racing around a track at over 200 kmh does remove office stress - really!"

One business goal for the year is to increase the number of loans by 15 to 20 per cent. "I estimate home loan rates increasing by around 1 per cent per annum but property sales will remain steady for some time yet."

Alistair Ferguson

Goal: To inspire and speak out

It is going to be a busy year for Alistair Ferguson, whose life changed dramatically when his young daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumour in May, 2001. The tumour was removed last year.

Ferguson's priorities and career aspirations changed. Last year he published a book on 15 successful New Zealanders, Stand Up and Shout, and is now exploring a career in inspirational speaking.

His long-term goal is to build up his public speaking persona and develop an inspirational product range.

Ferguson has several short-term goals for this year.

"I want to have two mentors in place by March, attend the American National Speakers Conference in July and complete three international speaking engagements by the end of the year."

While Ferguson doesn't buy into spur-of-the-moment New Year's Eve resolutions, he does believe in reviewing the year and setting goals for the next year. He always writes his down and puts them somewhere he can see them.

"They're no good stuck in a drawer. I tend to achieve my goals faster than I expect because I'm focused on them."

Rosanne Meo

Goal: Happily keeping on

Company director Rosanne Meo uses the end of the year to reflect on the previous 12 months and set goals for the year ahead.

"You're at risk if you don't assess, but you then have to be brave enough to make changes if required. Otherwise you become a captive of your own making."

Meo says she doesn't envisage major change this year because she is enjoying her work as chairwoman of Briscoe Group and the AMP New Zealand advisory board, deputy chair of debt collector Baycorp Advantage, and director of various companies.

She made important changes last year, taking a different approach to her voluntary work. "I decided it shouldn't be the same as my day job."

She now works on a project-by-project basis. "For example, I've been working with a low-decile school helping with sponsorship agreements for a theatre group. I find this more stimulating than being on a board."

Hugh Canard

Goal: Travel and marketing

Hugh Canard, outspoken chief executive officer of Youth Hostel Association (YHA) New Zealand, is looking forward to moving the YHA forward this year.

Canard ruffled feathers last year when he told the Herald that New Zealand backpacker beds were at bargain-basement prices and possibly needed to be increased.

Rest assured, price rises don't appear to be on his to-do list for the year, but he does have a strategic plan to consolidate. "A great deal of the plan is to do with integrating YHA's core values into the way we do business."

Canard also aims to visit the YHA's 25 hostels and 40 associate hostels by Easter.

"Our staff collectively know everything there is to know about our business and I need to harness that asset. I want to spend a few days each month visiting groups of hostels in each region to see how they relate to each other."

Connecting New Zealand more closely to the international Youth Hostel association and the youth travel industry is another goal. That will take him to Europe in March, Korea in July and Australia in between. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it!

Kerry Gleeson

Goal: To grow and grow

Setting goals and examining accomplishments is the single most important thing to do entering a new year, declares Kerry Gleeson, author of The Personal Efficiency Program (PEP) - How To Get More Work Done In Less Time. With more than a million book sales in 18 different languages, I'm prepared to believe him.

This year Gleeson wants to sell more than 100,000 copies of the book's new third edition, to increase his speaking expertise and grow his PEP franchise network. A new website is set to help meet those goals.

"I've set a target to increase the group revenue and profits 20 per cent. We have several long-term projects addressing the issues slowing our growth - our brand initiative, management of the business, global account management, increasing the value of the business."

Gleeson also has personal goals: visiting Europe with his 16-year-old twin daughters and learning how to edit and convert his home videos to digital to create a "more pleasant viewing of our family history".

Manoj Daji

Goal: Increasing business education in high schools

Last year Manoj Daji set up the first New Zealand high school business academy, at Onehunga High School, a low-decile school on the edge of south Auckland. Such innovation continues to be part of this year's goal-setting.

"A major goal is to get as many secondary school students as possible to learn that business can be fun and enjoyable and is an important part of our social landscape," says Daji.

He is pushing for business and enterprise education to become part of the national secondary curriculum, asking that a working party involving businesses and universities be set up to write a high school business studies curriculum.

Daji sets his goals by following the Smart (specific, measurable, achievable and realistic) goal-setting format. "Then I monitor and review as the year unfolds."

Sandra Goodwin

Goal: Work/life balance

Not everyone takes a structured approach to New Year goal-setting. Contract marketing executive Sandra Goodwin works hard to maintain a healthy work/life balance by doing contract work she enjoys, but also taking time out for other interests, such as art deco design and gardening.

While she seems happy with seven or eight months' work a year, she doesn't aim for a set number of contracts each year.

"I don't make New Year resolutions and I set pretty fuzzy career-related goals. My over-riding work-related goal for this year is the same as it has been for the last couple of years - to maintain a healthy work/life balance and do work I will enjoy."

She has told her contracting agency, OCG, she'll be unavailable until March. "It's really easy to be tempted to take an interesting marketing contract when it pops up, but a lot of the point of contracting is to enjoy summer.

"I also want to make the last few pottery tiles for our front path. I've been saying that for a year now. Maybe I should make it a New Year's resolution."