Business Club with Michael Mayell July Tuesday 14th 2005
“Set yourself ‘a big hairy audacious goal” – this was the message that the Business Club’s guest presenter Michael Mayell, founder of Cookie Time, expelled to guests at the Business Club Solutions Seminar held at Invercargill Workingmen’s Club.
The Solutions Seminar, run by Grant Sidaway promoted the latest whiz-bangs and widgets from Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Telecom. It’s all about working anytime anywhere with nary a cable in sight.
The future is here now and it’s all about doing business better and smarter. Grant strongly advised updating virus protection software regularly. He suggested software shouldn’t be more than three releases old and he said not to be frightened of new technologies - embrace them like you would a new toy.
Michael Mayell’s story is one that most businesses can relate to. He had a dream of starting his own business and wanted to be a millionaire by thirty (a big hairy audacious goal) but wasn’t sure what he would do. His first attempt – Christchurch Nightlife Tours, failed miserably. In the 1980s – nightlife in Christchurch wasn’t exactly humming. A trip to the USA highlighted the popularity of big American style cookies. On his return, Michael, then just 21 years old and sporting the fashionable American perm, introduced the big cookie to New Zealand. The Original Chocolate Chip cookie is still the most popular cookie in New Zealand twenty years later. Cookie Time have 45 franchised distributors visiting stores throughout New Zealand. At the factory and headquarters in Christchurch there are 75 full-time staff, with an extra 30 staff and over 70 students adding to the team in the period leading up to Christmas. The Christmas period, in the beginning, was the worst time for the company. At this time of the year sales dropped dramatically. They couldn’t understand why at first but upon investigation they found their customers (mainly school children and blue collar workers) were on holiday. “Out of every crisis comes an opportunity” Michael reflects. This crisis created the market for the red bucket of ‘Christmas Cookies’. Now this period is their busiest time of the year.
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