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BLUNT's founder Greig Brebner was travelling in London when he stumbled on the idea that would go on to occupy the next quarter-century of his working life. Walking through the city’s heaving streets one typically rainy afternoon, the Kiwi inventor was struck by the sea of poor-quality products all around him. “I saw umbrellas and thought, ‘this is a product that really needs some work’,” he recalled in the latest episode of Common Grounds, an NZME podcast in partnership with Nespresso Professional that steps inside Aotearoa’s most loved small and medium businesses. “It felt like everyone was putting up with this product and they didn’t need to. I felt if I could design a better product, and actually get it in people’s hands, they would pay good money for it.” Brebner was right – they would. This content was published in partnership with Nespresso Professional 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dkKgqGWh

At the start, few would have envisaged what Sills and Co would become. The brainchild of Caroline Sills, a registered nurse from Devonport on Auckland’s North Shore, the boutique knitwear label was conceived “over a coffee, and probably a wine” with a friend in the early 1980s. Knowing what Sills and Co has turned into now – a beloved knitwear retailer comprising 60 staff, 8 stores and more than 30 stockists across New Zealand and Australia – it’s easy to overlook the scale of risk she took more than four decades ago. Toni and sister Christina, who is also involved in the business as its head of retail, recounted the story of Sills and Co’s unlikely rise for Common Grounds – a new NZME podcast series hosted by Wilhelmina O'Keeffe in partnership with Nespresso Professional. This content was published in partnership with Nespresso Professional 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g-AfbTSt

It all began with a redundancy. When Josh Taylor was let go from his steady job in 2011, he and wife Nicola Taylor were in a precarious position. With two kids under five and a third on the way, finances were tight and careers on hold as the Auckland couple went through the process of assessing their options. “That was actually quite a painful process,” Nicola recalled in an interview with Common Grounds, a new NZME podcast series in partnership with Nespresso Professional that takes listeners inside some of Aotearoa’s most loved small - and medium-sized businesses. Refusing to be cowed by the situation, though, the Auckland couple sensed an opportunity to combine their skillsets – Nicola’s entrepreneurial spirit and lawyer background with Josh’s innate understanding of the tax system – to start a new business together. So, the following year, they took a “leap of faith” and launched Tax Traders – a financial technology company helping businesses manage their tax bills more effectively. This content was published in partnership with Nespresso Professional 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dtBMnw8J

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New Zealand is lagging in effective AI adoption – but if local businesses work together to catch up, it could give national productivity a much-needed boost, says a leading AI expert. Justin Gray, AI transformation lead at PwC New Zealand, believes Aotearoa has all the right ingredients to drive economic growth with AI, but says we first need to do a better job of integrating it into our businesses. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ddYerJ7J