When your business needs turning around
As an interim or fractional operator, or for a defined turnaround — I stabilise, simplify and rebuild operations, supply chain, margin and team, then hand you back a business that runs.
Thirty years turning businesses around across three continents. Deep in food and FMCG, and just as at home wherever operations, supply chain or people are the problem. Northland-based, internationally seasoned, calm under pressure.
“The power was always yours.”
It rarely needs a strategy deck. It needs someone who’s done it.
Most founders who reach out aren’t entirely sure what they need — they just know something isn’t working, or could work better. That’s exactly the right place to start.
As an interim or fractional operator, or for a defined turnaround — I stabilise, simplify and rebuild operations, supply chain, margin and team, then hand you back a business that runs.
From production and procurement to day-to-day process. I know what good looks like across food, manufacturing and beyond — and how to close the gap.
Sales, margin, positioning, new opportunities. I help you see both the numbers and the story behind them — and act on them.
From small initiatives to large capital builds — including a $15M production line delivered on time and on budget. Concept to commissioning, people side managed as carefully as the technical.
Teams in transition, cultures that have drifted, change that isn’t landing. Often the hardest work — and where the biggest gains are.
Sometimes what you need isn’t a plan — it’s someone experienced to sit across from you, ask the right questions, and help you think clearly.
Every programme here is built on one principle: you should be able to run it without me afterwards. I don’t generally embed as an ongoing advisor — I transfer the capability into your people, then step back. The measure of success is simple: what your team can do once I’ve gone.
For owners and leadership teams who keep outsourcing their thinking. You learn a repeatable method for setting direction, testing it against reality, and refreshing it yourself each year — for the whole business or a single function.
After the training, your team can: run their own strategy cycle, translate direction into functional plans, and pressure-test decisions without external help.
Half-day to two-day workshop · leadership team or 1:1.
For businesses whose operations depend too heavily on one or two people. I train your managers and staff to run day-to-day operations, health & safety, and compliance (including food-control plans) as a self-sufficient team.
After the training, your team can: manage their own operational rhythm, maintain audit and compliance standards independently, and onboard and lift new staff themselves.
Structured programme over weeks · on-site, hands-on.
Leadership over management, built on listening. I coach leaders and emerging leaders to set clearer goals, run honest feedback loops, and integrate cultural and generational difference into how the team works.
After the training, your leaders can: coach their own people, hold difficult conversations, and lead change without a consultant in the room.
One-hour session to two-day programme · 1:1 or team.
For teams taking a new product, channel or market to the next stage. I teach the method — research, testing, resourcing, production planning and dealing with retail customers — grounded in having done it: I have operated in, and taken products to market in, multiple countries.
After the training, your team can: run their own market research and testing, plan production and resourcing, take products to market, and manage retail relationships directly.
Paced to your development stage · 1:1 or small group.
Delivered under NZQA unit-standard delivery rights through First Training. Available combined or as separate modules, and delivered extensively for New Zealand businesses.
After the training, your team holds: current, recognised First Aid certification and practical health & safety competence.
Standard certified course · on-site or scheduled.
Leonard Mead — MBA (Australian Institute of Business), Bachelor of Economics (Stellenbosch). Thirty years leading and turning around businesses across three continents, leading teams from two people to 120+. I’ve trained managers to run plants, floor teams to hold audit standards, and leaders to coach their own people. I’m an early, deliberate adopter of AI in training, and integrate it to whatever degree your team is comfortable with.
A focused look at where the business actually is — margin, operations, team, the real bottleneck — and a clear, practical set of next moves. You get something useful whether or not we work together after. Defined scope, defined fee, no open-ended commitment.
Ask about a diagnosticI have spent years working at the intersection of business, life, and the self — not as three separate things, but as one.
My belief is subtle and quietly radical: when people are truly heard, they already know what to do. My role is not simply to fix or direct. It is to help create the conditions where the right answers can surface and everything flows as it should.
The still point before the wave breaks. Real momentum comes not from force, but from stillness.
“When I have been listened to and when I have been heard, I am able to re-perceive my world in a new way and to go on. It is astonishing how elements which seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens.” — Carl Rogers
Founder · Operator · Turnaround leader · Trainer
I have spent the better part of three decades building, leading, and turning around businesses — from founding organic food brands in South Africa to running operations across New Zealand, Europe and beyond. Today I’m based in Northland and work with businesses across New Zealand and Australia.
I have sat in the founder’s chair, the CEO’s chair, and the consultant’s chair. I have led teams of two and teams of 120, built factories from the ground up, managed crises at 2am as an ambulance EMT and in the water with Surf Lifesaving, and pulled off capital raises when the odds were long.
What I bring to The Still Wave is not a framework or a formula. It is the lived understanding that behind every business challenge is a human one — and that when people are truly heard, they already know what to do. Whether it’s untangling a complex operational problem, steadying a team through change, or helping a business breathe again, my approach is the same: calm, precise, and deeply practical.
The most valuable thing I can offer first is an honest look at where you actually are. You’ll walk away with something useful — whether we work together or not.