A CEO working around the clock

Gareth Berry is living the most rewarding time of his life

By Vera Alves, Auckland | Monday, 26 September 2011
When Gareth Berry was 11 years old, his dad purchased an IBM 286 [remember those?] and he has been “fixated on computers and connectivity ever since”.

“I wrote my first code in BASIC back then but I quickly found I was more interested in the application of the software than coding of it,” he recalls. “It wasn’t that common back then handing in homework done on a computer. Now, I sit in a living room with three notebook computers, two iPhones, an iPad and a TV that is connected to the internet too.”

The kid who was fascinated by his dad’s IBM 286 grew up to be an entrepreneur and founded Unleashed Software, a company based in Albany, Auckland, with 10 staff in their small office, but a network of over a hundred partners worldwide.

In the last year, the company has grown from being a small developer of inventory management software to a multinational business with customers across the globe.

Berry says he spent 10 years building relationships with professional services companies and helping businesses through the implementation and application of software, before he founded Black Dog Solutions at the end of 2009, which later became Unleashed.

Having customers all over the world means that Berry and his staff know the “tyranny of distance” that so many New Zealand businesses have to deal with. He says he cannot employ people looking for a nine to five type of job and Berry himself cannot live that kind of life. The CEO’s day starts at 6am when he picks up his iPhone to read all of the new sales and support queries that come through while he is asleep. “[Having] more sales than support queries usually puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day,” he says.

He leaves the office at 4:30 in the afternoon to enjoy time with his daughter and logs back in at 8:30pm, when the UK partners and customers are starting their day. That marks the start of Berry’s night shift. “I’ll usually work from 8:30 through to 12am every night, answering emails, helping clients and prospects and building strategy,” he says. “I’m lucky to have a great team around me that all have the same work ethic which makes evening work just as productive as business hours.”

Having a good team is one of the secrets to the company’s success, according to Berry. “Build a great team of people around you that are brilliant at what they do,” he says, when asked what advice he would give to others starting in a similar business. “It’s the collective contributions from these people that will put the company on the roadmap.”

For the CEO, it is imperative that he stays on top of the latest developments in his area, especially in such a fast-paced environment as IT. “I think the whole face of the IT industry changes every three to six months. There’s always something new and game-changing being developed and commercialised,” he says. “But what I like most about the IT industry is it gives New Zealand companies the ability to play and compete on a global scale without the geographical and logistical restrictions that most industries face.”

Berry says one of his good habits is to practice and frequently run scenarios and models “to ensure the odds of success are in my favour”. “I embrace everything about the company. It is just like marriage. And I am always there whenever and for whatever my staff need,” he says.

So what sort of impact does such a heavy schedule have on personal life? For this CEO, it is all a matter of keeping things seperated. “I spend all my weekends with family, but midweek is all about business,” he explains. “Right now, I’ve never worked so long and hard in my life, but it’s also the most rewarding time of my life.”