: About Me

I'm a wandering Kiwi, a New Zealander who has spent most of the last fourteen years living overseas. I love words in any language, and I understand them in English, French, German, Swedish and Italian; I can't think of anything more fun than speaking foreign languages, unless it's writing in my native language.

I worked for many years as a management consultant for a global strategy consultancy with clients in the media, government and pharmaceutical sectors in Europe and North America.

You can visit me on the web at www.strategynut.com. That's my professional blog, where I regularly post articles on business strategy and management.

My passion is ...

Words - in any of the five languages I speak

I know too much about ...

Old English lyric poetry

My childhood ambition ...

To be a fighter pilot - in a World War I Sopwith Camel!

My favorite memory ...

Involves an afternoon swimming in the pool beneath a waterfall

Why I write ...

As Blake said: "My fingers emit sparks of fire with the expectation of my future labours"

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Alles ber die Welt, by German star author Klaus Ungerer

My first job ...

Oh, dear! Was as an Avon Lady, at the grand old age of 14!

My best moment ...

They're all good

My inspiration ...

When my neurons misfire in their usual crazy patterns, I know it's time to write.

Sciences > Sciences (Other) Why scientists are more entrepreneurial in California than in New Zealand

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"It's not like California here," the New Zealand venture capitalist told me. "New Zealand science students aren't entrepreneurial they don't have that drive to spin their own ideas out and start their own businesses." The International Finance Corporation ranks New Zealand as the easiest place to start a business, five places ahead of the sixth-ranking United States. If budding New Zealand scientists aren't entrepreneurial, it isn't because red tape is holding them back. It's clear that there are fewer partnerships between universities and the private sector in New Zealand than there are i...

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