On the Record

Not Thought Leadership. Thought Partner. Useful Leadership.
A collection of articles, perspectives and collaborative thinking designed to help you lead in action, adapt in motion and your business thrive.

The Unfiltered State of NZ CEOs

The Unfiltered State of NZ CEOs captures what emerges from Flux’s closed-door CEO Tables, held under Chatham House Rule.

These conversations go beyond strategy and surface how New Zealand CEOs are really thinking about leadership, bandwidth, decision-making, and change as they step into 2026.

The posts and reports in this section reflect those shared insights and the patterns that appear when experiences from across the country are viewed together.

THE CEO TABLE INSIGHTS 2025 • PART 1

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Insights

Blog
Beyond Advice: Why Businesses Need More. And Why Adaptive Strategy and Actionable Leadership is the key.
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
Beyond Advice: Why Businesses Need More. And Why Adaptive Strategy and Actionable Leadership is the key.
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce

In today’s climate, most businesses aren’t lacking advice.  They’re drowning in it.

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Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
Teamship: The Leadership Muscle Most Businesses Haven’t Built Yet
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
Teamship: The Leadership Muscle Most Businesses Haven’t Built Yet
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce

We’re used to talking about teams;  functional teams, project teams, executive teams. But what most businesses are missing isn’t more teams. It’s ‘Teamship’.

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Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
Strategy in Motion: Why Context Is the Only Constant
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
Strategy in Motion: Why Context Is the Only Constant
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce

Most strategy fails not because it’s wrong but because it’s rigid. Built in isolation. Delivered in a vacuum.  Disconnected from what’s really happening.

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Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
Building Collective Intelligence: Why Smart Alone Won’t Scale
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
Building Collective Intelligence: Why Smart Alone Won’t Scale
Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce

Always start with context — not assumptions. A strategy needs to instantly connect and align towards one coherent direction. Be understood by all and energise all. And most importantly, it must spark ideas and action that are undeniably aligned.

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Insights
Gisela Montello-Bruce
From Chaos to Clarity: What Some Top Minds Shared About Adaptive Strategy.
Insights
Michael Friedberg
From Chaos to Clarity: What Some Top Minds Shared About Adaptive Strategy.
Insights
Michael Friedberg

The pace of change isn't slowing down,  so why are so many strategies stuck?

That was the question we put on the table at our recent panel event, hosted in partnership with The Icehouse and joined by some of Aotearoa’s sharpest strategic minds. 

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Insights
Michael Friedberg

In Motion

Blog
Rethinking the Growth Engine: Why It’s Time to Build a Market Team
In Motion
Michael Friedberg
Rethinking the Growth Engine: Why It’s Time to Build a Market Team
In Motion
Michael Friedberg

Growth isn’t slowing because teams aren’t trying hard enough. It’s slowing because most B2B firms still run fragmented growth models. In industrial tech and advanced professional services, complexity amplifies this problem.

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In Motion
Michael Friedberg

The CEO Table

Blog
Enduring Smarter: Inside the Christchurch CEO Table.  Surviving, and Leading, Through Shallow Waters.
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg
Enduring Smarter: Inside the Christchurch CEO Table.  Surviving, and Leading, Through Shallow Waters.
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg

Let’s call it what it is: the Christchurch market feels different.

At our latest CEO Table, hosted by Flux in late August, a cross-industry group of leaders came together to talk about what it takes to lead, sell, and grow in a market that’s not only quiet, but hollowing out.

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The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg
Winning Work in a Distracted Market: What 8 CEOs Told Us at The CEO Table
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg
Winning Work in a Distracted Market: What 8 CEOs Told Us at The CEO Table
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg

Hosted by Flux, this invitation-only breakfast brought together leaders from healthtech, SaaS, manufacturing, and professional services… all scaling through complexity.

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The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg
How Capability, Culture, Cadence and Outside-In Thinking is the Real Strategy.
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg
How Capability, Culture, Cadence and Outside-In Thinking is the Real Strategy.
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg

Auckland closed the year’s final CEO Tables with two unique conversations: one with a returning cohort who’ve shared a long strategy journey together, and another with a fresh group of CEOs stepping into the room for the first time.

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The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg
Enduring Smarter in Christchurch: Leadership, Reading Future Signals and Human Execution in Shallow Waters
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg
Enduring Smarter in Christchurch: Leadership, Reading Future Signals and Human Execution in Shallow Waters
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg

Auckland closed the year’s final CEO Tables with two unique conversations: one with a returning cohort who’ve shared a long strategy journey together, and another with a fresh group of CEOs stepping into the room for the first time.

Read More →
The CEO Table
Michael Friedberg