Waikato Business News | November 1, 2023

NOVEMBER 2023
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS 7
How Company-X grew during the pandemic
BUSINESS SHOWCASE
It was the worst of times.
Company-X co-founders Jeremy
Hughes and David Hallett called
a companywide meeting as New
Zealand responded to the global
pandemic with its first lockdown.
Hallett and Hughes were prepared for
the worst and hoped for the best.
More than 50 people joined the call
from home offices, bedrooms, dining
rooms and lounges around New Zealand
to hear the co-founders promise that
they would take Company-X to a fourday
week rather than lose anyone in a
pandemic-propelled downturn.
The Company-X team took a
collective sigh of relief.
Three years on and Company-X
has retained and grown its team while
avoiding going to a four-day week.
“We immediately expected a
downturn and a struggle to retain our
team,” Hughes reflected.
“Our goal was to keep everyone
together and leave no one behind,”
Hallett added.
Hughes and Hallett had spent
eight years building a team of around
50 highly skilled, tightly knit, selfmanaging,
and co-located team
of analysts, architects, designers,
developers, testers, and project
managers.
Company-X’s team had earned a
reputation creating tools and systems
that help their clients make evidencebased
decisions.
The software specialist is renowned
for creating solutions that consolidate
“We hired a bunch
of people who are
prepared to take
initiative. That is
one of the things
that really made a
difference.”
asset, financial and other statistical
information from a range of sources to
provide insights into performance.
Company-X supports clients to
improve the quality of business-critical
data for effective decision making.
The team also has deep expertise in
simulation and virtual reality.
“We firmly believed we had a
fantastic team that we wanted to
retain,” Hughes said.
“Looking back, we are so pleased,
grateful and thankful that we came
through the last few years growing as
a company and retaining the team,”
Hallett said.
“We hired a bunch of people who are
prepared to take initiative. That is one of
the things that really made a difference,”
Hallett said.
Company-X had implemented
strategies that supported team
members mental, physical, and
emotional health during the pandemic.
“The vision was to help the team
‘stay the course’,” Hallett said.
“During the pandemic it was
not unusual for team members to
receive a phone call from a wellbeing
representative asking how they were
going.”
Company-X sent care packages to
team members who tested positive for
COVID-19.
“We are proud of what we
have accomplished during the
pandemic,” Hallett said.
“We have shown that we
are a resilient company that
is able to adapt to change,”
Hughes concluded.
Above: Company-X retained and grew
its team during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Below: Company-X co-founders Jeremy
Hughes, left, and David Hallett.
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