Earlier this month our communications team sat with Mark Green to discuss Volanteus’ recent 5 year anniversary and the reflections he has on such a milestone.

Despite your success with your previous company, did you have any doubts about starting a new venture such as Volanteus ?

Well, firstly, how success is measured is as important as the success itself, there are many successes with Volanteus that have outweighed any other achievements I’ve had in business, particularly during extremely challenging times. Naturally there are sleepless nights when you are a business owner, or as you are planning to take the leap of faith as a business owner, having ‘some success’ previously, doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. I knew that I had the passion and desire to ‘give it my all’, then it was about applying my work ethic, knuckling down and working hard.

How important was building the team to the growth of Volanteus?

Building a team is like a mixologist making a cocktail. Adding one wrong ingredient, even if it’s a good one, can change the cocktail completely and make it unpalatable; each time we have added to the team, we ensure that it complements what we already have. We have no noticeable hierarchy here, everyone works hard for everyone. It’s sheer narcissism as a business owner to think you’re the most important at the company.

Who do you admire from a business perspective?

Well, not on a strict business level, but running a government is similar to a business these days. I am in awe of how Jacinda Ardern handled the pandemic, she is consistently compassionate and yet steely when she needed to be. Her philosophies of leadership are an example to us all, it’s not about the one, it’s about the all, it’s not about “I’ it’s about “we”.

Apart from the Pandemic, what has been your biggest challenge?

Providing enough support and resource for the workload when its busy. One of the major challenges of any growing organisation is the balance of employing enough talent to maintain high standards, but ensuring the team isn’t underutilised or bored when the market is seasonally quiet. We try to make a concerted effort to only bring in top-people who can handle vast workloads capably, but can be dynamic enough to move with the ever changing landscape, morphing into business development roles when there are the inevitable quieter times.

What do you predict to be the biggest challenge facing business owners in the next 12 months?

Keeping up-to-date with the aforementioned “ever changing landscape”. Over the past few years we have been extremely fortunate to find opportunities in niche markets and areas, even during COVID. Undoubtedly there will be many other fantastic opportunities that will be there waiting to be found as we exit this pandemic, the challenge is finding them, maintaining them and delivering on them

If you could give advice to anyone starting a business today what would it be?

Understand your weaknesses and stay humble. I’ve seen some business owners suffer the Dunning-Kruger Effect after a little success, remember where you came from, remember why you’re doing it and remember that people know money can make a good person better and a bad person worse.

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