What Makes a Successful Business? People!

 

When people talk about building a successful business, the first things they often mention are strategy, capital, market conditions, or innovation. While all of these are important, the real engine behind sustainable growth is people.

People are what drive a business to success.

Whether you're running a startup or leading a large-scale operation, the strength of your team will make or break your long-term outcomes. It’s not just about hiring people it’s about hiring the right people. Skill sets matter. Attitude matters more. And aligning both with your company’s purpose and values is where the magic happens.

A business isn't just a collection of products, services, and systems it's a living, breathing organisation powered by human knowledge, behaviour, and relationships. When you bring together a team with complementary skills, shared values, and diverse experiences, you're building a workforce that can adapt, innovate, and solve problems.

But it doesn’t stop at hiring.

A successful team must be utilised based on their strengths. Too often, businesses overlook their own internal capabilities. Staff are siloed, talent is underutilised, and valuable knowledge sits untapped. Leaders need to empower their people, not micromanage them. Create space for their ideas. Let their experience shape the path forward.

Success doesn't happen overnight. It’s developed over time as people grow into their roles, learn from challenges, and gain momentum together. Culture plays a huge part in this. When people feel valued, heard, and supported, they do better work. They stay longer. They go the extra mile. That’s where performance and loyalty intersect.

So, what’s the real formula for business success?

✅ Hire the right people.
✅ Build trust and alignment.
✅ Let them lead in their areas of strength.
✅ Support their growth, and yours will follow.

We see this not only in business but also in sport.

Think about the NBA this year, teams packed with superstars didn’t always go the distance. Why? Because a group of individuals doesn’t automatically equal a team. The Oklahoma City Thunder, on the other hand, built a core from the ground up, focusing on development, trust, and cohesion. Their progress wasn’t instant but with time and investment in each other, they rose to become champions.

The same happens in business.

A flashy hire or an impressive CV doesn’t guarantee alignment. It’s the shared experience, the journey, and the growth together that forms a high-performing unit. A great team is forged, not bought. It’s about resilience, accountability, and having each other’s backs when things get tough.

Businesses that succeed long-term understand that people aren’t just resources they’re the heartbeat of the organisation.

This is the kind of people-first thinking we live and breathe at Josty. Whether you’re looking at leadership structure, talent strategy, or team engagement, we help businesses align people with purpose.

Want to know how your team can be your greatest asset?
Visit our website via the link in bio or head directly to https://www.josty.nz to explore how we can help.

Let’s put people at the centre of your success story.

Is your battery bank truly capable of providing the backup you need?

 It’s a simple question but one too many electrical professionals leave unanswered until it’s too late.

When did you last audit your DC battery system?

The battery bank is the last line of defence in any critical electrical system—whether it’s a substation, industrial control system, telecom site, hospital, or process plant. And yet, many are designed on assumptions rather than solid, real-world data. The result? Unreliable backup, accelerated degradation, and systems that may not hold up when you need them most.

Let’s ask some hard questions

• Was the battery sized correctly?
  Was a detailed load profile used, accounting for the actual connected loads and load drop-off logic? Or was it a best guess, recycled from a similar project?
  If your system wasn't built using real-time measured data or an accurate forecast of load demands, there’s a good chance it’s either undersized or overengineered in the wrong areas.

• Were the right design contingencies applied?
  You can’t just look at nominal capacity. Temperature corrections, expected aging over 10–15 years, float charging behaviour, and maximum expected ambient conditions must all be considered.
  Many failures occur not due to battery faults, but due to poor thermal planning or inadequate aging margin.

• Is the battery type fit for purpose?
  It’s not just about lead-acid vs. lithium. It’s about:

  • Maintenance access

  • Ventilation and gassing considerations

  • Frequency of cycling

  • Environment (indoor vs outdoor, hot vs cold, clean vs corrosive)

  • Expected lifespan and serviceability

Too often, battery decisions are based on budget constraints or rough sizing estimates. But the cheapest option upfront often becomes the most expensive mistake down the line especially when critical operations are disrupted due to battery failure or backup insufficiency.

The reality of DC system neglect

At Josty, we regularly conduct audits across a wide range of industries from utilities to infrastructure and industrial applications. One common pattern? The DC system is often overlooked once commissioned. It’s assumed to be “set and forget.” But that’s a dangerous assumption.

We’ve seen sites where:

• Battery banks were still operating years beyond their rated life

• Load profiles had changed dramatically since the original installation

• Autonomy requirements increased but weren’t reassessed

• Ventilation and room conditions had degraded over time

• There was no clear maintenance schedule or test data history

And when problems strike during an outage or load shed it’s always the battery that gets blamed. But the problem almost always starts earlier… in the design, selection, and maintenance of the system.

How Josty can help

We specialise in helping businesses audit and optimise their DC systems and battery backup. Our process includes:

• Reviewing the original design, spec, and as-built installation

• Verifying site conditions, environment, and current load behaviour

• Testing and inspecting the battery health and performance

• Identifying risks, gaps, and opportunities for lifecycle improvement

• Delivering clear, actionable recommendations for compliance and performance

You’ll receive a detailed report tailored to your site’s conditions and business needs whether that’s ensuring redundancy, extending service life, or planning for future load expansions.

Visit Backup Power Solutions for Business | Josty NZ to learn more about our engineering services and battery audits.

Ready to take the guesswork out of your critical backup systems?

👉 Book an audit of your battery bank and DC system today via Contact Josty | Business Consulting NZ or send us a message directly.

How Team Mental Health Drives Business Performance

Team mental health is no longer a soft issue; it's a critical component of business success, directly impacting productivity, retention, morale, and the customer experience. Businesses that proactively invest in consistent, inclusive employee well-being initiatives can prevent burnout, boost staff engagement, and minimise costly errors that damage reputation and profitability.

The Business Case for Mental Health

When employees feel supported, they are more motivated, engaged, and resilient. This leads to higher performance, better decision-making, and improved service delivery. Conversely, neglecting mental health issues can quietly drag down productivity and collaboration. Poor morale often leads to high turnover, increased errors, and slower decision-making, while a supportive culture fosters loyalty and improved performance.

Burnout, in particular, is a significant financial drain, causing absenteeism, presenteeism, and disengagement. While some businesses may push for greater productivity during tough economic times, this often creates a false economy. The short-term gains are outweighed by the long-term costs of reduced resilience and high employee turnover. Prevention through a consistent mental health policy is far more cost-effective than dealing with the aftermath of staff burnout.

Furthermore, client relationships can suffer when a team is under mental strain. Missed deadlines, poor communication, and broken promises are often a symptom of overwhelmed staff. Customer-facing roles are especially vulnerable; when employees are running on empty, their patience and attention to detail drop, leading to service errors and reputational damage. This is a predictable result of systemic neglect, not a personal failing.

Common Challenges and Proactive Solutions

Many businesses struggle to support mental health effectively. Inconsistent leadership direction such as shifting priorities can cause anxiety and confusion. Non-inclusive support systems, where aid is offered selectively, can breed resentment. The lack of regular check-ins means early signs of distress are often missed.

Building a culture that supports mental health requires a strategic approach:

• Consistent and Equitable Wellness Practices: Ensure that support systems and policies are inclusive and apply equally to everyone, regardless of tenure or role.

• Encourage Flexible Work: Offer options like remote days and flexible hours. Flexibility is a performance enabler, reducing daily stressors and accommodating personal responsibilities.

• Create Routine Check-ins: Implement regular one-on-one and group catch-ups to uncover issues and build trust before stress escalates.

• Instill Psychological Safety: Foster a culture where employees feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes, and ask for help without fear of retribution.

Ultimately, mental health is a business imperative, not just an HR checklist. Organisations that adopt consistent, inclusive mental health approaches build stronger cultures and brands. They retain talent, deliver better results, and more reliably meet client expectations. Your investment in your team's well-being is an investment in your company's long-term resilience and success.

Head over to the Josty Blog to read the full article: Team Mental Health Drives Business Performance

How do you finish the week with your team?

 

For many workplaces, the Friday after-work drinks are a distant memory. With hybrid teams, remote setups, and shifting priorities, those informal wind-downs have faded but that doesn’t mean we should lose the opportunity to end the week well.

When I was a Sales Manager, I made sure we finished the week together online, every Friday afternoon.

It was our weekly roundup.

Everyone had to share:

• The worst or funniest thing that happened that week

• Their personal highlight

• And what they were planning for the weekend

The purpose?

✅ To stop the team carrying frustrations into the weekend

✅ To celebrate wins, big and small

✅ And most importantly, to shift our mindset from work to life

It didn’t take long, but it made a huge difference.

• It built trust.
• It lightened the mood.
• And it reminded us that behind every role, there’s a person with a life outside of work.

We laughed. We vented. We connected. And we left the call lighter more human.

We often underestimate the power of small rituals in business. A 15-minute catch-up might not seem like much on paper but in practice, it helps your team disconnect from work with purpose, rather than dragging the week’s stress into the weekend.

These weekly roundups often revealed things I wouldn’t have known otherwise. A team member who had a tough week with a client. Someone dealing with something challenging at home. Or a surprising win that hadn’t made it into the CRM yet. By creating space for both honesty and humour, we became more than just colleagues we became a team that had each other’s backs.

And here's the thing: you don’t need a title like Sales Manager to introduce something like this. Anyone can take the lead. Anyone can decide to create connection. Whether you're running a business or contributing to one, fostering a rhythm of reflection and recognition helps everyone feel more grounded and more motivated.

In today’s work environment, where messaging never sleeps and emails roll in on Sundays, it’s easy to feel like there’s no real off switch. But if we don’t create clear transitions between work and personal time, burnout creeps in and culture starts to fray.

Ending the week with intention is a small investment with a big return.

It doesn’t have to be drinks, or even a formal Zoom. It could be a group chat voice note, a quick check-in thread, or a shared GIF of the week. It’s about building habits that remind us we’re more than our KPIs and deadlines.

So, how do you wrap up the week with your team?
What little traditions help your people feel seen, heard, and ready to recharge?

👇 I’d love to hear your ideas. Let’s learn from each other. Leave a comment below or head over to our contact us page for other ways to connect. 

Driving Business Growth Through Digital Transformation and App Integration

 

Unlocking Growth with Digital Transformation & App Integration

In today's hyper-connected world, digital transformation is no longer optional; it's a strategic imperative for sustainable business growth. For New Zealand businesses aiming to compete locally and globally, leveraging technology for operational efficiency and expansion is crucial. While the process may seem daunting for many SMEs, it's a continuous cycle of review, learning, and refinement, not a one-time project. Without this ongoing commitment, even established businesses risk being outpaced by more agile competitors.

At the heart of this transformation lies app integration. Thoughtfully connected applications can significantly improve productivity, reduce manual tasks, and enable better, data-driven decisions through real-time insights. From CRMs to financial software, the digital ecosystem offers powerful tools, but only when aligned with a clear business strategy. This approach focuses on achieving tangible business outcomes, strategic execution, and long-term ROI.

What Is Digital Transformation? A Strategic Shift

Digital transformation is more than just a tech upgrade; it's a fundamental change in how a business operates and delivers value, achieved by integrating digital technology into every area. This involves leveraging cloud computing, automation, and data analytics to drive efficiency, scalability, and innovation. It also necessitates organizational change, including staff digital adoption, robust change management processes, and fostering cross-functional collaboration. Abandoning legacy systems for modernization often requires investment in both infrastructure and cultural shifts. The common goals include improved customer experience, faster service delivery, reduced operational costs, data-driven decision-making, and increased agility.

Why App Integration Matters

App integration is vital for several reasons:

• Avoiding Data Silos: Disconnected systems create data silos, hindering a complete view of operations or customer behavior. Integration ensures seamless data flow, enhancing insights and efficiency.

• Streamlining Processes: Integration enables the automation of repetitive tasks, freeing up staff for higher-value work through workflow optimization and business process automation (BPA).

• Real-Time Decision Making: Integrated systems provide up-to-the-minute analytics, empowering leaders with timely data for quicker and more informed decisions in dynamic environments.

Strategic Steps to Digital Transformation and Integration

To implement a successful digital transformation strategy:

1. Audit Your Current Digital Ecosystem: Map existing systems, identify gaps, inefficiencies, and critical tools that need to be maintained or replaced.

2. Define Clear Objectives: Clearly articulate what you aim to achieve, whether it's increased efficiency, cost reduction, or better collaboration, to drive measurable ROI.

3. Select the Right Apps and Platforms: Choose enterprise software, including SaaS or low-code/no-code tools, prioritizing compatibility and scalability to align with your objectives.

4. Focus on Integration: Build a cohesive digital ecosystem where applications communicate via APIs or integration platforms (iPaaS) rather than relying on one-off solutions.

5. Train and Support Your Team: Ensure staff are trained and supported through a digital adoption strategy, as technology alone won't deliver results.

6. Measure, Iterate, Improve: Continuously track performance with analytics, monitor security, and adjust based on evolving business needs.

Common challenges like legacy systems, budget constraints, and resistance to change can be overcome with a phased approach, focusing on high-impact wins, and robust change management strategies.

Evolving for the Future

Digital transformation is the future of business, and every New Zealand business must integrate digital capability into its growth strategy. App integration is central to this, transforming disconnected tools into a cohesive digital ecosystem that drives efficient workflows, transparency, real-time insights, enhanced customer experience, and long-term scalability. Continuous improvement with auditing systems, evaluating performance, training staff, and staying updated with trends is key to maintaining adaptability, your greatest asset in a world of constant change.

Read the full blog post on our website, Josty.nz

What Are You Really Selling? Understand Your Product’s True Value

 

Discover What You’re Really Selling: Unlock Customer Value

Businesses often misunderstand what they're truly selling. It's not just a product or service; it's an outcome, a feeling, or a solution to a customer's problem. This concept is the core of solution selling, a vital mindset shift for any business in today's competitive landscape. People don't buy features; they buy transformations and solutions to their needs.

Consider a café: it sells coffee, but customers are really buying a moment of peace, an energy boost, a comforting ritual, or a social experience. Understanding your product's real value from the customer's viewpoint makes your sales message far more persuasive and relevant.

Solution selling is a consultative approach that prioritizes diagnosing customer problems before presenting your offering as a tailored solution. Instead of starting with "Here's what we do," you begin with "What are you trying to solve?" This shifts the seller's role from a vendor to a strategic partner, building trust and fostering long-term engagement. The context is key; the same product can offer vastly different solutions depending on the customer's unique environment, goals, and pain points. Moving beyond simply listing features, solution selling focuses on what a feature enables, why it matters to the client, and how it improves their world, transforming the sales conversation from functional to emotional and personalized.

To identify what you're truly selling, interview your customers to understand their motivations and the impact your product has had. Map your value to different stages of their journey and audit your messaging to ensure it emphasizes outcomes, not just features. Crucially, align your sales and delivery teams to consistently echo the solution being sold, and train for empathy and active listening among your team.

Ultimately, your product is only part of the equation; customers pay for the outcome it creates. Businesses that grasp what they're truly selling outperform competitors, not just in numbers, but in reputation, loyalty, and long-term success. Selling transformation makes you irreplaceable, fostering deeper connections with your market. Take time to assess the experience you provide and what your customers truly gain, then consistently position your messaging and operations to match that value. This is the essence of solution selling, and it's essential for future-proofing your business.

Read the full post here or contact us to discuss further. 

What’s Driving You and Your Team?

 

In every business I’ve worked with across industries, sizes, and stages there’s a common thread that determines whether a company performs at its peak or just ticks along: what drives the people inside it.

Is your team just clocking in and out each day, collecting their paycheque, doing what’s expected and nothing more?
Or are they driven by something bigger growth, purpose, challenge, pride in the work, or a shared vision for success?

The difference between these two is massive. I’ve seen teams where salary isn’t even in the top three motivators. These are the companies that consistently exceed targets, foster strong internal culture, and attract top talent without throwing money around. In those environments, pay increases come as a result of success not as the only reason to show up.

But on the flip side, I’ve also seen teams, sometimes including senior leadership, where money is the primary or sole motivator. And in those cases, you’ll usually find something else:

• Siloed departments

• Low collaboration

• Mediocre output

• High turnover

• Blame culture

• Resistance to change

When pay is the main driver, people tend to do the minimum required. Their focus narrows. Team spirit disappears. Innovation stalls. That’s because there’s no shared goal just personal gain. And when personal gain becomes the only thing people care about, businesses lose their edge.

So, ask yourself honestly:
What’s driving your team?
What’s driving you?
Are you cultivating a culture of curiosity, shared achievement, pride, and purpose? Or are people just counting the hours till payday?

True performance comes when people care when they feel connected to something larger than themselves. That might be:

• Building a product or service that genuinely helps people

• Achieving growth that opens up new opportunities for the team

• Seeing customer success as their own success

• Learning and improving every week

• Being part of a team where everyone has each other’s back

These are intrinsic motivators that create resilience, loyalty, and passion. They build organisations where people stay longer, contribute more, and help drive transformation from the inside out.

As a business owner or manager, one of your most important jobs is to build and protect that kind of culture. To ensure people know where the business is heading, how their role contributes to it, and why it all matters. That starts with leadership being driven by the right things too.

Because if you’re only in it for the money, you’ll never get the best from your team. And if your team is only in it for the money, your business won’t perform at its potential.

There’s always a bigger purpose if you’re willing to define it and back it up with the right behaviours, recognition, and strategy.

If you’re unsure whether your business has that purpose baked in, or how to identify the right drivers for long-term performance, culture, and growth, we can help.

Head over to Josty.nz to explore how we support business owners and leadership teams to embed meaningful drivers, improve team alignment, and achieve sustainable success.