Business Changing

I unhesitatingly recommend Zac – he has given shrewd & sensible advice over the course of several years (as a Director and now Chairman), & I am privileged to have worked with him, & consider him to be a great asset & complement to our team.

“Zac de Silva regularly delivers six different webinars for NZICA, where he has uncovered ‘the 7 secrets to being successful in business’, ‘how to create the best workplace’, ‘how to offer the best customer service and stand out from the crowd’, “what does todays digital age mean for your business’, ‘how to be a more effective leader’ and ‘accountants, how to blow the socks off your clients and your boss with what you deliver’. His ability to deliver a clear message, offer thought provoking examples and excellent tips attributed to continuing EXCEPTIONAL FEEDBACK from participants (EXCEPTIONAL!). Zac is our most used trainer at NZICA in delivering these 6 different courses and I look forward to working with Zac in the future as we create more training courses.”

Zac spoke at our JRA Best Workplaces Seminar Series in March 2010 & was very well received. Equipped with real leadership insights, Zac is VERY INSPIRING, honest and genuine. He takes a practical approach & is full of great ideas about communicating with staff & rewarding them for their efforts, as well as making work exciting.

I am the managing director of one of the largest travel companies in New Zealand. It has been my privilege to have worked with Zac over several years within two separate companies and found him to be a fantastic mentor. He contributed significantly to building my own commercial knowledge over that time & has a unique ability to blend both commercial expertise with commonsense business logic. I continue to value his input on a wide range of topics & would have no hesitation in recommending him to other business leaders.

Zac is great to work with. He has SO MANY NEW IDEAS, a clear strategy, & is full of energy.

Zac presented at our company conference in February 2011 and did a fantastic job. Topic was how to create a best workplace and how to be a more effective leader… He was engaging and insightful and provided a great deal of ‘food for thought’. He facilitated break out groups and resultant presentations back to the entire company. As a result our company has implemented a number of changes which we hope will make a meaningful difference to our business. We look forward to working with Zac again in the future.

Originally introduced through a mutual friend, my working relationship with Zac began in 2001 when he was CFO at Flight Centre and I recruited a 2ic for him. His confidence, passion and energy left a lasting impression on me and it was evident he would go places. I have continued to recruit for Zac over the years and have also been involved with him more recently through CPA Australia. Last year at our AGM Zac delivered an inspirational presentation as our guest speaker. Commercially astute, he is truly a “people person” who somehow manages to fit 25 hours into the day.

Match is involved in some of the property acquisitions for Barkers, including during the time Zac was Barkers’ Managing Director. It was encouraging to see the new lease of life Zac injected into a strong iconic NZ brand. Barkers’ team was strengthened and grew the business during Zac’s time at the helm. This was recognised by way of the awards Barkers’ received from Westfield for overall excellence at 3 of their Centres during this period. Zac has a passion for business and we wish him every success in the establishment of Business Changing.

Zac worked for me for 2.5 years in the executive team. He added great value to House of Travel with new commercial ideas and really aided our knowledge in the transparency of our business. He did a fantastic job running a large subsidiary as a project also and helped bring the team, customers and business model together onto the same page. Zac now assists on some of my business interests with Business Changing – it is invaluable to have Zac (and also Carlee) available to take us forward!  I would recommend Zac as someone who can help improve your business and profitability.

We invited Zac de Silva to present at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce’s Rugby World Cup 2011 Speaker Series on customer service. He was a natural choice given his knowledge of the topic and ability to transform and motivate businesses and their staff at all levels. His passion for business came across in his unassuming manner and humourous delivery which engaged, entertained and inspired our audience. It was a pleasure to have him at the event and we would be delighted to work with Zac again should the opportunity arise.

Zac’s advice has been crucial to us as a start-up company with big goals and tight budgets! A new business can be such a mine field so having someone with the Zac’s vast experience to call on and ask some of the tough questions has been essential. His retail experience has been key to ensuring we make good decisions regarding marketing, growth and strategy.

Thanks for all your good advice in the set up of our business. It was great to see you and clearly your passion and enthusiasm show me that you are truly doing what you love. I look forward to our next catch up and all the ideas that will flow

Recently I employed Zac to come and visit my business to get ideas on how to improve things. When I met him at the airport I was a bit nervous but soon felt at ease as he was just lovely. After spending a whole day with him, he gave me so many ideas and advice. He then followed it up promptly with an email to summarise everything. I feel it was really worthwhile. In particular one piece of advice has straight away saved us $5,000! I WOULD RECOMMEND ALL BUSINESSES TO USE HIM! It was the most productive and value adding day I have ever had!

We were really inspired by your presentation at the JRA Best Workplaces seminar, especially relating to the way you approached motivating your team to achieve the business goals, & had hoped you’d be able to share some of your nuggets with our managers.

Zac set some ambitious goals for Barkers: sales and brand growth, to dress the All Blacks (and other prominent sports teams like the All Whites, Kiwi League team, NZ Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams), and to be recognised as one of New Zealand’s Best Workplaces. To that end, Zac put into motion a series of workplace changes to motivate and energise staff, improve performance and reinforce pride in the Barkers brand. In 2008 Barkers first participated in the JRA Best Workplaces Survey, and against strong competition immediately ranked as the third best medium-large workplace. In 2009, Barkers followed up this achievement by winning the medium-large workplace category on the back of strong improvements in employee engagement levels – strong enough in fact for Barkers to be the most improved organisation in the medium-large workplace category. With an innate ability to connect with a range of people on a personal level, Zac’s leadership through this transformation has been key to its growing success.

Many thanks for sharing your valuable experience and time to be amongst our MBA students. The feedback of your presentation was excellent!

Fabulous webinar thank you. Really appreciated it! And THANKS FOR GOING THE EXTRA MILE WITH YOUR SERVICE, so much more than just a webinar!

“Thanks for your good insights for our partners and management group. They were relevant and timely and have given us lots of great ideas.”

Oh Zac, You have no idea how grateful I am for your help today!!!

We asked Zac to review our current website and marketing strategies. Zac came up with recommendations on how to make it make our website more sales focussed and world-class looking and offered us many great ideas on look, content and functionality together with ideas on our sales collateral. We are planning to use Zac again in the new year to do further work for us around maximising sales opportunities available to Kudos. I would recommend Zac on similar projects with no hesitation.