High-tech leader has eye firmly on future

By PAULA OLIVER

It's hard to believe that moments of self-doubt still hit Mike Ridgway.

After arriving in New Zealand in 1986 with a dream of spending every day at the beach, he got sidetracked and instead built a successful technology company that is about to be listed on the Nasdaq.

Add to that the fact that he was one of the intuitive investors behind the America's Cup water taxis, and you could be forgiven for thinking he has nothing to worry about.

But the Brocker Technology chief executive's focus has already moved on to the future, and he has started planning how he can make the most out of the Nasdaq listing.

"Now we're there, we have no excuses for not growing the business or not performing," he says. "My focus has already moved on, and that's critically important if you want to grow a business."

Brocker Technology, based in Beach Haven in North Shore City, specialises in developing and selling products to improve business-to-business communication. One of its best-known products is the Bloodhound phone system, which gives users one telephone number for home, work, fax and mobile.

The technology was picked up through a smart acquisition, and Mr Ridgway says more acquisitions will be the result of Brocker's continuing to move towards its goal of becoming a global business.

It's a far cry from Mr Ridgway's early business days, as an English import who touched down in 1986. Within a year, and just a week before the sharemarket crash, Mr Ridgway had launched Sealcorp, a computer distribution business, with himself as the only staff member. Sealcorp is now a subsidiary of Brocker.

"The resellers used to laugh that Mike was bringing his barrow around again," he says. "But I was motivated and enthusiastic, and I owe a lot to them for saying, 'Let's give Mike a go'."

It was a bumpy beginning for the business, with the sharemarket plummeting just days after Sealcorp opened. Mr Ridgway says his business was falling apart around him, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

"It taught me how to tighten the belt and run a business properly," he says. "If things are easy then you're probably not learning what you need to learn, so I took heart through the tough time."

Mr Ridgway says Sealcorp emerged intact because he managed to build strong relationships with people who believed in him.

He argues that one of the most essential qualities for a budding entrepreneur is the ability to engage people around him, and get their support.

Now in the position of looking for entrepreneurs to invest in, Mr Ridgway says he looks for one thing.

"What makes one more enduring than the other? An absolute passion and belief in what they are doing," he says. "I have some days where I doubt myself, but you must not allow yourself to see the glass as half empty."

Mr Ridgway's passion engendered enough support among his clients and with his credit agency that Sealcorp was able to take on more staff, many of whom are still with him at Brocker.

By 1992, he says, he realised that Sealcorp had something special. An exciting culture existed within the talented group, and the computer distribution business was rocketing along.

A meeting with Canadian investor Casey O'Byrne led to Mr Ridgway's forming Brocker Technology in 1994, with Sealcorp as a subsidiary, and him as chief executive.

"We looked at the most cost-effective way to get the company listed, and the New Zealand capital market was quite unsophisticated at the time," he says. "There was no opportunity at the mezzanine level, and if you wanted to borrow money you went to a bank."

So Mr Ridgway and Mr O'Byrne decided to list Brocker on the Canadian new capital market, and the result was success. The company was adopted by Canadian institutions, and the business began to grow.

Mr Ridgway says he knew it could not continue on the tack it had been on since 1987, because times were changing, and it was important the business changed with them.

"Part of running a business is identifying opportunities, and adapting to them," he said.

"If we did what we did 10 years ago we wouldn't be here, and that's where a lot of companies fail."

As mobile phones became popular, the company began to distribute them. Increasingly aware that telecommunications and computers were converging, Mr Ridgway searched for a way to take advantage of the trend. "It came down to leveraging the relationships we had," he says. "We started looking around for someone who needed our distribution infrastructure, and we in turn looked to develop our intellectual capital."

Mr Ridgway says the acquisition of Powercall, which was developing the Bloodhound phone system, was a fantastic example of the relationship-leveraging strategy working.

Similar relationships have been formed around the world, and Brocker is now the owner of 18 applications.

Employing 350 people, Brocker is enjoying a period of tremendous growth.

It is now listed on the Toronto stock exchange, where it will remain, and expects to list on Nasdaq soon.

Mr Ridgway says managing the growth has been a struggle at times, but being surrounded by long-serving staff whom he can completely trust is crucial.

"There is tremendous value in having such trust in people," he says. "The average time in a dot.com job in the US is something like six months, but how can you create a culture, or something that's valuable to the community, in that kind of a way?"

Eternally positive, Mr Ridgway says Brocker is now looking forward to the most exciting future it has ever faced.

His next challenge, or hobby as he puts it, is with the Yes Group - a partnership he shares with fellow entrepreneurs Gary McNabb and Tim Manning. The group is negotiating to buy the troubled Auckland Warriors rugby league club.

"It's an opportunity," he says, "to bring a disparate group of people together and succeed."