Inspiring Leaders

engage your people - manage millennials - GENERATE customer LOYALTY
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About Bruce

About Bruce

As a five time CEO and current Company Chairman and Director, Bruce is a proven transformation leader with extensive experience across a range of industries including real estate, media, financial services, technology and retail. He is a passionate leader of change, and he believes that better leadership is critical to improving business performance through people.

His various achievements include:

  • Led real estate giant Colliers out of the 1990’s property recession;
  • In six months took a single product from losing $600,000 per year to a $2.2 million profit;
  • Also led Kerry Packer’s ACP Media, and iconic NZ company Canterbury International;
  • Oversaw the largest debt restructure in NZ corporate history – $1.8 billion at Yellow Pages Group;
  • Has made over 2,000 speeches and presentations in NZ, Australia, Asia, UK and USA.

Bruce is now a professional director with a portfolio comprising six boards, is a highly regarded advisor to business leaders, and is one of Australasia’s leading conference keynote speakers.

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    keynote, conference And public speaking

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    The best leaders don’t shout

    How to engage your people, manage millennials and get things done.

    In The Best Leaders Don’t Shout five time CEO Bruce Cotterill shares the lessons he learned fixing broken businesses and rebuilding shattered teams. In this jargon free book and enlightened pathway to improving business performance, Bruce tells memorable stories and shares simple tools, lists and templates, summaries and questions that will help everyone from CEOs to team leaders to build better workplaces, more engaged teams, and happier customers.

    Once you read this book, you’ll want a copy for each and every person on your leadership team. Your people will thank you, and so will your customers, and bank manager.

    This is a very powerful book filled with laser-focused insights on how to lead an organisation to great success. It is one of the few business books I would consider a must read.

    John Spence – USA Top 100 Business Thought Leader

    OveR 5000 copies sold IN NEW ZEALAND.

    Do you aspire to be a better leader?  purchase your copy today.

    Brilliant Masterclass. The most engaging and tangible 2 day course I have attended. Bruce has given me some useful ideas and processes which all make sense without complexity. This will absolutely help me connect the dots to lead a successful team. If you want to achieve what you want to achieve, Bruce will make it happen!

    Michael Edmonds, Regional Manager Business Banking ANZ Bank
    Michael Edmonds, Regional Manager Business Banking

    Your session was very well received and rated very highly receiving an ‘Excellent’ from the majority.

    Kimberly Poutler, Event Manager &, Chief Customer Officer  BT Financial Group
    Kimberly Poutler, Event Manager &, Chief Customer Officer

    Lisa delivered her Adapter Factor workshop to a select group of 2degrees change agents. The 1 day course received rave reviews with comments like “it was awesome I was engaged beginning to end”. The process also generated insightful change ideas that could be game changers for our business. I would highly recommend Lisa to your business if you’re serious about building innovation.

    Sarah Friis

    Had the hardest spot of the conference and lifted everyone. He is a true pro – ability to read the audience and adapt accordingly. Scored amazingly high on feedback forms. Would HIGHLY recommend. Loved him. Our delegates rated him 10 out of 10, which doesn’t happen very often!

    Melanie Middleditch, Events and Sponsorship Manager Professionals Real Estate Group
    Melanie Middleditch, Events and Sponsorship Manager

    Working with Lisa helped us identify opportunities, and things our team were willing and able to develop and contribute to the business. Without her contribution we would have no idea these opportunities existed. As an added bonus even the most sceptical of the staff valued and enjoyed the process. Her process and outcome suggestions also helped dissolve hierarchies so management could be honest that they don’t have all the answers, that the staff input is vital and appreciated, and that collaboratively the business can achieve so much more.

    Phillippa Duffy, General Manager University Bookshop - Otago
    Phillippa Duffy, General Manager

    At Telstra, I engaged Bruce to lead for me a critical review of an operating division within the Telstra Media portfolio, targeted at improving overall business performance through a refinement of the strategy and including customer value proposition, go-to-market execution and post sale customer care.  The output of the review was a number of recommendations, many of which were implemented, resulting in improved product performance, profitability and customer satisfaction scores. Bruce engaged very effectively with incumbent leaders, building trust and collaboration. I would recommend Bruce as a consultant to lead any business improvement project.

    Rick Ellis, Group Executive Telstra Media
    Rick Ellis, Group Executive

    I know for sure – if I can use all of Bruce’s advice I will have a team that strives every day, loves working for our company, has job satisfaction, understood what they need to do, were the culture they wanted to be, knew that I cared, and had a boss that was not afraid to break the mould for them!

    Tracey Wilson, Regional Manager Business Banking ANZ Bank
    Tracey Wilson, Regional Manager Business Banking

    Bruce is a talented, experienced man with a lot of interesting and engaging stories putting ‘theory’ into real life examples and experience. The sessions were relevant, simple, interactive and useful for every day leadership and leaders of all experiences

    Jenna Hyland, Senior Wealth Specialist ANZ Bank
    Jenna Hyland, Senior Wealth Specialist

    As a business owner sometimes you need to step back and look at how far you have come, where you are now and plan on how far you want to go. In Bruce’s presentation he took us on that journey. He not only inspired with his own stories of business transformation but also shared resources and tools that could be used in any business. Add to that him being an entertaining presenter made it an hour well spent.

    Jane Slack-Smith, Director Investors Choice Mortgages
    Jane Slack-Smith, Director

    IN MY OPINION…

    Leaders should not react to a chaotic moment.

    Leaders should not react to a chaotic moment.

    I’m not a politician – and that will become apparent. But perhaps business people should handle this situation anyway. It’s time for cool heads and a measured response.

    I refer to the crisis in the Middle East and now Europe. For a long time we have talked about the crisis in the Middle East. Well, now, because they can’t solve their own problems (which has been apparent for some time), and the UN and the rest of the world have failed to offer a solution for them, the people are making their problems Europe’s problem.

    Control freak? Definitely sometimes!

    Control freak? Definitely sometimes!

    Earlier this month, I was asked to get involved in a sales transaction that was at risk of falling over. By the time I arrived it had fallen over. We’re trying to resurrect it. It’s a decent sized deal – over $50 million.

    How to get the Right People doing the Right Things, Right

    How to get the Right People doing the Right Things, Right

    “Your assets go out the door at 5:00pm” the old cliché goes! With the ever-increasing focus on service-orientated businesses, the phrase becomes more and more real every day.
    Sadly the importance of those assets is not always recognised. Managers don’t seem to understand how much there is to be gained by understanding the needs of your people and treating them well.

    How to Grow Your Business and Stay in Control.

    How to Grow Your Business and Stay in Control.

    Last week I had an interesting discussion with one of my consultancy clients. He’s a terrific guy, highly entrepreneurial, and very successful. Like a lot of entrepreneurs he has lots of big ideas. He was discussing his latest one when I pulled him up and said,...

    Lead Like Everyone’s Watching …Because if they’re not, they will be soon

    Lead Like Everyone’s Watching …Because if they’re not, they will be soon

    Last week it happened again. I continue to be amazed by how little is understood about the importance of leadership in the management of businesses.

    During the last 20 years I have walked into more than 200 companies as an executive, consultant, advisor, client or potential director. Despite the amount of money spent on training and development (not to mention the recent and dubious pastime of hiring inexperienced freelancers as “business coaches”) the same old challenges remain.