Steve Swann

Current

Specialist Hospitality Business Broker for Cafes, Restaurants, Country Pubs, and Taverns at Tourism Properties
Director at Informedia (NZ) Ltd

Past

Process Improvement, Reporting and Analytics at Unisys
Restauranteur / Business Owner and Operator at Private Companies (Self-employed)
Graphic Artist at H & J Smiths

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Education

Southland Boys High School

Recommended

5 people have recommended Steve

Connections

174 connections

Industry

Hospitality

Websites

Steve Swann’s Summary

As a specialist Hospitality Broker I’m travelling regularly through the Lower North Island of New Zealand talking with business owners every week. I have a lot of respect for business Owners, I know how hard you work. For 19 years I worked in the Hospitality sector and for 7 of those I owned and operated my own restaurants. So I’ve done just about every hospitality job, rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in.

For 10 years I worked for a US Information Technology company. I held roles in workforce planning, with business performance responsibilities across Asia Pacific. My assignments included roles in global teams implementing business systems and processes. In these roles my hospitality experience served me well; focus on the customer; get it right first time, and deliver exceptional service.

I am a strong communicator, able to present and influence at all levels. I believe in building strong relationships and bring a high degree of integrity to all interactions.

I have a strong belief in the power of creative thinking. I believe that the innovative power of organisations and individuals are unrecognised and untapped. My aim is to open channels into this under-utilized resource (see my blog for more information).

Steve Swann’s Experience

Specialist Hospitality Business Broker for Cafes, Restaurants, Country Pubs, and Taverns

Tourism Properties

(Privately Held; Real Estate industry)

July 2009 — Present (5 months)

Business Broker for Cafes, Restaurants, Country Pubs, and Taverns covering the Lower North Island of New Zealand.
Director

Informedia (NZ) Ltd

(Management Consulting industry)

January 2009 — Present (11 months)

Informedia is a privately held consulting company investigating business opportunities to support small and medium sized enterprises.

Current projects include a half day Creative Thinking and Innovation Workshop for Small Business.

The proposed workshop is seeded on the premise that businesses need to be creative and innovative to survive. This is truer today than at any other time.

Most organisations struggle with creativity and innovation and there are two reasons for this. Firstly, organisations don’t know how to put the function in a “box”. This means they can’t control it, can’t give it headcount, and they can’t measure whether it works or not. However – they know they need it.

Secondly, individuals in business often think that they are not creative. However, we believe that everyone has the capacity to be creative, people simply don’t know how to go about it.

The workshop looks to tackle these problems by providing a flexible repeatable process that enables individuals, groups and organizations to be more creative.
Process Improvement, Reporting and Analytics

Unisys

(Public Company; UIS; Information Technology and Services industry)

November 1998 — January 2009 (10 years 3 months)

Workforce Deployment and Optimization.

Over the course of 10 years I have held a number of roles at Unisys within Workforce Planning and Resource Management. My final role was applying Process Improvement to a modified Workforce model, supporting this with Management Reporting and Analytics.

I believe the key to my progression while at Unisys had been an ability to apply organisational strategy while gaining consensus from the parties with whom I work. As such I was well respected and my opinions were often sought by the wider Unisys community both locally and internationally, and by my peers.

In 2006, as a result of strong relationships with the Corporate project team, I was engaged as a subject matter expert and Asia Pacific Implementation Lead for a global roll-out of a Professional Services Automation application. This was a significant change management program. My key contributions were in End User advocacy where I contributed to User adoption, diversifying training delivery options, and stakeholder communications.

In 2007 I was asked to become a Facilitator for Unisys’ internal business development programmes; Client Business Planning(TM) and Targeted Account Selling(TM). In this role I was able to directly contribute to business growth by guiding Sales and Account teams to robust commercial decisions.

Through my wide personal network, and process and system experience I also contributed to these supplementary assignments:
• Global Demand Planning Taskforce.
• Unisys (New Zealand) Graduate Recruitment Program.
• Webtime* User Board.
*Webtime is the Unisys internal time recording and reporting system.
Restauranteur / Business Owner and Operator
Private Companies (Self-employed)

(Self-Employed; Insurance industry)

1984 — 1992 (8 years )
Graphic Artist

H & J Smiths

(Retail industry)

1979 — 1982 (3 years )

Graphic Artist and Display Artist for an “old time” Department store. Created advertisements for publication from concept to print-ready. Created and built window displays from concept to installation.

Steve Swann’s Education

Southland Boys High School

1975 — 1980

Additional Information

Steve Swann’s Websites:

Steve Swann’s Interests:

Innovation & Creativity, Power of a Shared Idea.

Steve Swann’s Groups:

Unisys - Ever Worked - Employees and Contractors
Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Group
Innovation People Expert Innovators Creative Network
Foodies
Guerrilla Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
Creativity Champions
Innovation Management Group
Hospitality Group
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Slow Food
Kiwi Scrum
Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators
Killer Innovations
Hospitality Recruiting Network { 2000++ Hospitality Recruiters}
Strategic Workforce Planning
Restaurant Network
New Zealand Business and Professional Network
Hotel Industry Professionals Worldwide
Real Estate Open Networkers - eRealEstate.com
Unisys Reconnected
Organizational Change Network
CPSI - Creative Problem Solving Institute - Creative Education Foundation
Wellington, NZ
Restaurant & Hospitality Experts
International Business Brokers Association
Hospitality Career Network
Expat Focus
The High Powered Food & Beverage Forum - Foodservice & Retail Executive Management Networking
Financial Analysts & Modelers
Kiwis Returning Home - An Employers Pipeline of Candidates
Made From New Zealand
Model Audit Network
Smile & Move™
The Global Crowdsourcing Network
Sweat Equity Group
Innovate the Future
Research Methods
New Zealand Small Business Talk and Blogs
Building New Real Estate Connections
►Moving to New Zealand
Expat Web
Business Broker Talk
HOSPITALITY SUPERSTARS (Employers, Recruiters & Hospitality Superstars) - www.hsuperstars.com
New Zealand South Africa Network
Fruitbowl