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Ten questions in ten minutes Headlines
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Ten questions in ten minutes
With Neil McKellar
Thursday, 04 February 2010
Neil McKellar is the CEO of Dispute Resolution Services Limited, a specialist dispute resolution company that provides services and systems to solve disputes between organisations and the people they come into contact with.
Neil McKellar.
Business to Business
- What inspired you to work in the dispute resolution business?
Neil McKellar
- Most of my earlier working life as a consultant was spent facilitating and helping people in organisations achieve goals and solve problems, so I have just extended that into managing an extraordinary organisation helping people in dispute overcome obstacles and move forward. It is a very satisfying fit with my “peacemaker” personality.
BtoB
- Who has influenced you the most professionally?
NM
- My managers and mentors as a young consultant – Bill Grieve and Vic Huddleston at PA Consulting. They were consummate and admirable professionals beyond anybody I have known.
BtoB
- How would you describe yourself as a businessman?
NM
- Collaborative, reflective, egalitarian, demanding of excellence.
BtoB
- What do you consider your greatest achievement?
NM
- I’m very proud of the people and DRSL and what collectively we have achieved so far, even though it is very much still a work-in-progress.
BtoB
- With hindsight, what is the one thing you would do differently?
NM
- Outside work, I wish I’d spent more time with my family. At work I wish I’d been more objective oriented and disciplined. Less cautious and more overt. We could easily be where we are now in half the time it has actually taken.
BtoB
- Who do you find inspirational and why?
NM
- I was a student of the quality revolution and focus on customers in the broadest sense, so Edward Deming and Tom Peters were inspirational for me. Tom is still a very inspirational figure for me. He is brilliant and his advice second to none. I’d like to be like him.
BtoB
- What is the most inspirational book you have read recently?
NM
- I really struggle to complete books. I buy with the best of intentions. I’m easily distracted so the best I’ve done recently is a fishing magazine.
BtoB
- What is your favourite website and why?
NM
- Google for me. Information at my fingertips for anything. Google maps is just amazing, and you can see a glimpse of how incredible the future is going to be.
BtoB
-What is the first thing you would do if you became Prime Minister?
NM
- Stick a satellite above New Zealand so that the entire country has telecommunications coverage at blistering speed. Get the country moving – especially transport. Build road, rail corridors, bikeways and walkways at every bottleneck at least twice the size as what we need now. Be bold and brave – totally reform the tax system to get rid of all the distortions and avoidance mechanisms. Invest heavily in aquaculture and tourism development. The fishing industry must be just like farming is now – totally domesticated. And the hunter/gatherer mode can then be totally recreational.
BtoB
- What is the best thing about being in business?
NM
- Working with very talented people and helping them become extraordinary beyond their imagination.
