Talking heads: John Bishop III

Position: General manager

Company: Software Images

Staff: 150, spread between Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne


What makes your day at work?


Creatively putting deals together where all parties win. Win-win does exist if you are willing to think out of the square and have a passion for making it work. Using intellectual property to add value and dollar margin, rather than running products down to a commodity.

When did you first become a manager?


I don't know if I am one yet! I see myself more as a leader - I lead people and teams. Maybe it's time to re-title the role GL rather than GM.

What was the most important lesson you learned on your way up?


Don't wait for opportunity, make the opportunity and be looking for the next. Embrace change as if it was your friend.

What has been your best moment in business?


Joining up with Alan Morton (chief executive of Software Images) and being part of a team helping him take his vision from a small team of seven to 150 in less than five years. Also, having ideas benchmarked on a global scale, having things which were done here locally in Ponsonby and then actually taking it internationally.

How have you dealt with the pitfalls in your career?


I suppose [by] focusing on making the most of the next opportunity, rather than beating oneself up on what went wrong. Just learn from it and go on to the next opportunity as fast as you can.

What annoys you most?


Meetings that don't produce action plans.

If you were starting over again, what would you be?


That's a hard one - I'm pretty happy where I am. The only thing I can think of is to be an inventor in a toy factory, something where you don't have to grow up or you're not punished for growing up.

What management wisdom is most overrated?


The web strategy, in that I believe business needs to have clear business strategies, which the web is a major part of, but for the future we shouldn't be talking about a separate web strategy, it should be just one strategy.

What will be the big business issue of the next decade?


Being able to cope with the physical speed increases of information delivery, and the convergence of technology, and the new markets as they come together through growth and innovation. We're seeing it already with email and the web. Everyone wants it faster, everyone expects results faster. We'll adjust and evolve, we always have.

How do you relax?


I don't. If I was born today I would most probably have more than one lot of acronyms labelling my condition!

That doesn't mean I don't try. I like sports like surfing, water skiing, snow skiing and even reading. But is it normal to graph how many books you read and how fast you read them?