Client Success Story:
Bridge It New Zealand
“Rob genuinely cares. It feels like he is 100% percent focused on us all the time and we are his number one priority.”
Kim Bevins
Business Manager
Bridge It
“I could talk all day, but in the end, what I appreciate most is his ability to really listen and understand what drives us, what makes us who we are and get everyone along for the ride.”
Kim Bevins
Business Manager
Bridge It
Kim Bevins
Business Manager
Results doubled and team cohesion
One of Rob’s earliest Scaling Up clients, Bridge It New Zealand, credit their growth and success to Rob’s coaching expertise, sound commercial advice and ability to get everyone on the same page.
Bridge It New Zealand is one of the country’s most unique small businesses, with niche expertise in the construction of small to medium size bridges (6m-50m) that help unlock the potential of the land.
Founded in 2009, Bridge It New Zealand works with farmers, forestry companies, councils, property developers, and private property owners right across New Zealand. With over 300 bridges built (and counting) Bridge It New Zealand offer turn-key solutions from start to finish and is proud of their straightforward ‘no surprises’ pricing policy.
Business Manager, Kim Bevins and Founder, Pat Seuren first contacted Rob with the desire to build a strong management team and improve growth strategically.
While Bridge It New Zealand’s relationship with Rob began on an ad hoc basis, the team quickly realised the value Rob was able to bring to the business and established an ongoing coaching relationship.
A new approach to pricing
“Rob’s advice on remodelled pricing and understanding and embracing risk has more than doubled our net results.”
Business Manager, Kim Bevins stated that Rob took the time to listen and really understand the way Bridge It New Zealand ran their business, and challenged ingrained processes and beliefs.
“Rob worked really closely with me around the way we price our bridges, and in particular, the risk we attached to more complex jobs.
“Some bridges, and even some customers, have a lot more risk associated with the job. When we first started working with Rob, we were simply applying the same principle to every single one.
“Rob really opened my eyes to understanding the risk factor with any job and applying a margin or cost. Since that conversation in mid 2022, there has been a rapid transformation and huge financial benefits; hundreds of thousands of dollars’ difference and net results. This change to pricing has completely transformed our business.”
Kim says that rather than try and reinvent company plans, Rob focuses on encouraging leaders and senior teams to streamline and make adjustments.
Lessons in Leadership
Kim says he has learned many valuable lessons from Rob in how to lead, delegate and involve others in decision making.
“I joined the business as project manager and within six months, I was business manager. I thought I had to solve all the problems myself, but Rob showed me that having more senior people involved – the right people in the right seats on the bus, as we like to say in Scaling Up – was going to help with strategic decision making and reap benefits.
“Now we have six people in our management team meetings, all with different perspectives, but all on the same page, thanks to Rob. Everyone understands what’s important for the company and why we’re doing it. This wouldn’t have happened without Rob.”
With Rob’s guidance, Kim says he has completely changed the way he approaches many situations.
“I’m pretty outgoing, pretty vocal, and we’ve had situations where I’ve said to Rob categorically, ‘I just don’t think you understand. We can’t do that.’ And Rob will just really clearly challenge that thought.
“Then you find yourself, maybe hours later or maybe a day or a month later, saying, why did I even think that? Rob has a really subtle and effective way of challenging your beliefs.”
Bolder goals, bigger outcomes
Kim says he can now clearly see how Rob gradually encouraged Bridge It New Zealand to think bigger and use the ‘flywheel’ concept for momentum.
“I love thinking back over the two years we’ve been using the Scaling Up methodology, such as setting quarterly ‘rocks’, and reviewing the level we were initially setting for our rocks.
“At first we were barely doing anything. Rob was just getting us moving, getting us thinking. Now, our rocks are quite significant in comparison. And perhaps in another two years, we will think those we set in 2023 weren’t hard to achieve!
Once you understand how the flywheel works, everyone sees and understands the most important things for the business. Now we know that every little thing we do is pushing us in the right direction.”
“Rob genuinely cares. It feels like he is 100% percent focused on us all the time and we are his number one priority. “I could talk all day, but in the end, what I appreciate most is his ability to really listen and understand what drives us, what makes us who we are and get everyone along for the ride.”
Explore Other Client Success Stories
Right now, multiple New Zealand companies are building enduring, great businesses with our help. Don’t just take it from us, read first hand accounts of what our’s clients have to say about the impact we’ve made on their businesses.
