I was deeply saddened to hear of Sir Paul Callaghan’s passing today. While he made many contributions to New Zealand over the years, for me personally his lasting legacy will be the presentation he gave at StrategyNZ last year.
This talk resonates with many of us at Enspiral and was one of the inspirations that prompted Alex Gibson (with Graham Jenson) to create 100 Companies.
The vision of New Zealand as a place where ‘talent wants to live’ is bang on the money – I constantly meet (and usually try to recruit) very talented people who can live anywhere in the world and choose New Zealand because of the quality of life. Sure, you can usually make more money living somewhere else but you have to sacrifice much that is of more value. That’s what got me over here from Australia (shh, don’t tell anyone) in 2004, and that’s why I’m still here to this day. Because it’s simply better in New Zealand.
The challenge to create 100 world class companies is such a clear call to action and if one of our Enspiral companies could one day be part of that 100 then I’d consider it a job well done.
For me Paul Callaghan embodies what is great about this country, the straight up no bullshit approach to getting things done, humility balanced with great accomplishments, a commitment to leaving things better than when we arrived. Thank you for the vision and challenge Paul, we never met but your words will stay with me for a long time.
Well said JV.
I see a future where enspiral will launch some of those 100 Companies + help create a brighter future for NZ.
Thank you for sharing this video, I had not heard of Sir Paul Callaghan before and this is an absolutely amazing speech, a fitting epitaph. He stated my reason for being in New Zealand at the end. I work in technology as a fairly well known performance engineer in ColdFusion and Java and can live and work from anywhere, as 99% of my work is remote and worldwide. I currently live in New Zealand because of all the things he says more that anything else because it is a caring society. We have a great future here, we just have to believe that and stop leaving for Australia and we must not let mining and drilling ruin this place; if we do we are truly lost.
I saw Sir Paul Callaghan’s presentation a number of months ago and was truly inspired. It is sad that NZ has lost such a great man; if only we recognised our scientists and visionaries as we do our rugby players. NZ is a great country and can be all the things that Sir Paul envisioned. We have riches already with innovative and creative people; a beautiful environment and opportunity for a great lifestyle – let’s recognise & invest in that innovation, grow our riches so that ALL the people of NZ share in it and cherish our environment so it is not traded for short-term wealth. 100+ Companies – go for it!