Company-X founders and directors David Hallett (left) and Jeremy Hughes. Photo / Stephen Barker
Company-X founders and directors David Hallett (left) and Jeremy Hughes. Photo / Stephen Barker
Waikato software specialist Company-X celebrates its first decade in business as co-founders Jeremy Hughes and David Hallett look back on the last 10 years.
The company provides software solutions, including apps and Virtual Reality (VR) technology, for national and international clients, and has written software for organisations including the New Zealand Police, Waka Kotahi and pharmaceutical company Bayer.
Hallett and Hughes founded Company-X in 2012 after they both ran their own IT businesses. Hallett was the director of Pulsar Computer Solutions, founded in 1998, while Hughes was managing director of Ignition Software, founded in 2001.
Hughes was inspired to form Company-X after a presentation by Orcon Internet founder Seeby Woodhouse.
“Seeby was talking about this little internet business that he was running. He figured that there were very slim margins because Telecom had changed everything and he said, ‘I must change something for this to work’,” Hughes recalls.
“That observation about change was the key for me ... for the formation of Company-X. It was to take the business that I already had and recreate it in a new form.”
Company-X provides software solutions, including Virtual Reality (VR) technology for national and international clients. Photo / Stephen Barker
Hughes and Hallett knew each other from networking events for about four years before becoming business partners and turned out to be the perfect match after completing so-called DISC profiles which are focused on the personality traits of Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness.
Company-X was initially just a placeholder name but the pair soon came to like it.
“From a sales perspective, it’s brilliant, because people ask me ‘what is Company-X?’ and I answer ‘well, let me tell you’,” Hallett explains.
“It’s a cool concept that you can play on and do many things with. You can talk about the software company with the X-factor, X marks the spot for software savvy, the Company-X men and women, all sorts of stuff. It’s a fun kind of brand for us.”
Especially their team of software X-men and women are Hallett and Hughes’ priority.
Hallett says: “To deliver on a promise of something brilliant, you need brilliant people.”
Company-X directors David Hallett (top), and Jeremy Hughes. Photo / Stephen Barker
The business has now grown to around 50 employees with the majority based in the Waikato and further staff spread across the country and even overseas.
The company uses multiple special tools to profile its staff according to their individual strengths.
“We have this seats on the bus concept, and you use people in the areas of their strength and don’t abuse them for their weaknesses. We started out with this raw concept that that’s how we want to work and build our team,” Hughes says.
Company-X leadership and team coach Tracey Olivier says Hughes and Hallett understand the power of each individual understanding their own strengths.
Company-X has won numerous awards, including the service award at the Westpac Waikato Business Awards in 2018. Photo / Supplied
“When we understand how we and other team members are wired we can leverage our strengths and fill the gaps with other people’s strengths.”
Of the profiling tools, Hallett says he finds them “very fascinating”.
“Especially the alternative ways that they enable one to view self and others. For as Socrates supposedly uttered, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’.”
Hughes adds: “It’s become a pervasive philosophy in the company.”
