Ben Kepes

Don’t try and scale.. unless you’re ready to

March 11, 2019

Business

The other day I was tasked by son #1 to purchase some running gear for him (because, after all, a father’s role is to be a perpetual bank account for his son, right?) Anyway, I went to my favorite…

Read more
Race report – The Old Ghost Ultra (2019 edition)

February 27, 2019

Business

I’ve been racing the Old Ghost Ultra since its inception back in 2016 (see my previous race reports, 2016, 2017, 2018). The Old Ghost is my favourite run bar none. From a purely scenic and terrain perspective, it abounds.…

Read more
Quick bites – On human frailty

February 20, 2019

Business

I’ve been thinking lately about our expectations on CEOs and leaders generally. Having a variety of different roles, as an investor, director and consultant, I’ve had the privilege of observing leadership dynamics over a long period of time. I…

Read more
Quick bites – execution, execution, execution

February 10, 2019

Business

I’m lucky enough to spend time with entrepreneurs and leaders from a raft of different organizations, and recently I’ve been thinking about which patterns are the ones that indicate potential. Of course, it’s not black and white and every…

Read more
Quick bite – What’s wrong with our investment ecosystem

February 6, 2019

Business

Over on Idealog, New Zealand’s best startup lawyer (in my opinion) Andrew Simmonds from Simmonds Stewart, wrote an opinion piece on the local (local to New Zealand) capital scene and the gaps that exist. It’s a great post and…

Read more
Quick bites – Doing battle with the department of no

January 27, 2019

Business

A friend recently began a new role with an organization and was busy beavering away sorting out her induction process. As she did so, it came time to set up her shiny new corporate email account. Being a consultant…

Read more
Quick bites – Your word is your bond (and your professional brand)

January 21, 2019

Business

I was talking to a friend the other day who told me about someone who had just signed on as an executive at his business. The business was excited to have this person come in and take things to…

Read more
Quick bites – on social media self-gratification and #FakeNews

January 14, 2019

Business

Time for a grumpy thought from me… Today a friend on Facebook shared the fact that he’d just been ranked highly on a “Top 100 Social Media Influencers” list. Now I’m sure many of you will have seen these…

Read more
Quick bites – About authenticity and karma in business

January 10, 2019

Business

As I do less public writing, and more behind the scenes consulting and governance, I’m starting to experiment a little bit with different forms of content creation. Inspired by someone I’ve spent a bunch of time in boardroom discussion…

Read more
2018 – My running year

December 31, 2018

Business

The next thrilling instalment in my semi-annual series looking back at the running year that was. For previous reviews of my year in running, see 2017’s here, 2015’s here and 2014’s here. High-level stats Total distance: 6,003kms Total time:…

Read more