Waikato Business News | November 1, 2023
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NOVEMBER <strong>2023</strong><br />
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS 7<br />
How Company-X grew during the pandemic<br />
BUSINESS SHOWCASE<br />
It was the worst of times.<br />
Company-X co-founders Jeremy<br />
Hughes and David Hallett called<br />
a companywide meeting as New<br />
Zealand responded to the global<br />
pandemic with its first lockdown.<br />
Hallett and Hughes were prepared for<br />
the worst and hoped for the best.<br />
More than 50 people joined the call<br />
from home offices, bedrooms, dining<br />
rooms and lounges around New Zealand<br />
to hear the co-founders promise that<br />
they would take Company-X to a fourday<br />
week rather than lose anyone in a<br />
pandemic-propelled downturn.<br />
The Company-X team took a<br />
collective sigh of relief.<br />
Three years on and Company-X<br />
has retained and grown its team while<br />
avoiding going to a four-day week.<br />
“We immediately expected a<br />
downturn and a struggle to retain our<br />
team,” Hughes reflected.<br />
“Our goal was to keep everyone<br />
together and leave no one behind,”<br />
Hallett added.<br />
Hughes and Hallett had spent<br />
eight years building a team of around<br />
50 highly skilled, tightly knit, selfmanaging,<br />
and co-located team<br />
of analysts, architects, designers,<br />
developers, testers, and project<br />
managers.<br />
Company-X’s team had earned a<br />
reputation creating tools and systems<br />
that help their clients make evidencebased<br />
decisions.<br />
The software specialist is renowned<br />
for creating solutions that consolidate<br />
“We hired a bunch<br />
of people who are<br />
prepared to take<br />
initiative. That is<br />
one of the things<br />
that really made a<br />
difference.”<br />
asset, financial and other statistical<br />
information from a range of sources to<br />
provide insights into performance.<br />
Company-X supports clients to<br />
improve the quality of business-critical<br />
data for effective decision making.<br />
The team also has deep expertise in<br />
simulation and virtual reality.<br />
“We firmly believed we had a<br />
fantastic team that we wanted to<br />
retain,” Hughes said.<br />
“Looking back, we are so pleased,<br />
grateful and thankful that we came<br />
through the last few years growing as<br />
a company and retaining the team,”<br />
Hallett said.<br />
“We hired a bunch of people who are<br />
prepared to take initiative. That is one of<br />
the things that really made a difference,”<br />
Hallett said.<br />
Company-X had implemented<br />
strategies that supported team<br />
members mental, physical, and<br />
emotional health during the pandemic.<br />
“The vision was to help the team<br />
‘stay the course’,” Hallett said.<br />
“During the pandemic it was<br />
not unusual for team members to<br />
receive a phone call from a wellbeing<br />
representative asking how they were<br />
going.”<br />
Company-X sent care packages to<br />
team members who tested positive for<br />
COVID-19.<br />
“We are proud of what we<br />
have accomplished during the<br />
pandemic,” Hallett said.<br />
“We have shown that we<br />
are a resilient company that<br />
is able to adapt to change,”<br />
Hughes concluded.<br />
Above: Company-X retained and grew<br />
its team during the COVID-19 pandemic.<br />
Below: Company-X co-founders Jeremy<br />
Hughes, left, and David Hallett.<br />
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