Out of the Red

Why do a few businesses make wonderful success stories but most fail to make any real progress? Can you turn failure around and make it a success? This is something Richard Prebble needed to learn, and learn quickly when in 1987 he walked out of Prime Minister David Lange's office the biggest businessman in New Zealand's history.

As the new Minister of state owned enterprises (SOEs), Richard Prebble was responsible for twenty-one government businesses worth over 20 billion dollars (over 100 billion dollars in today's terms). All were losing money - a million dollars a day, tens of millions on a bad day - and the level of service was appalling. The transformation of SOEs into leading-edge organisations is one of the biggest business turnarounds ever, anywhere in the world. By using the principles of Human Synergistics, which encourage people to work as a team instead of as individuals, only three years later all twenty-one businesses were profitable and service standards had become first class.

Concluding with a section on testing your own organisation or business against those principles that pulled the twenty-one SOEs 'out of the red', this book offers an insiders view on what makes a success and what doesn't.

Honestly and engagingly written, full of personal anecdotes, Out of the Red provides a fascinating insight of political and economic life and the people both behind the scenes and in the spotlight during some of New Zealand's most tumultuous times. It will be enjoyed by both students of history and those who watched these events unfold.