Dave Wade Managing Consultant - AUS/NZ
Likes
- Motorcycling around the North Island of NZ
- A great crime drama
- Walking barefoot on a deserted beach
- Clean sheets
- Warm summer days in my pool with a beer
Dislikes
- Arrogant and rude people
- Facial tattoos unless culturally significant
- Racism, sexism and bigotry
- When the clocks go forward
- Cold, wet and gloomy UK weather
Summary of relevant experience:
Dave is a professional business leader with over 35 years’ extensive experience, working in diverse organisational environments and across all business disciplines.
He started his career in supplier quality assurance, working for seven years for Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors. He joined Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd (NMUK) in 1988 in a supplier quality assurance role before joining the newly formed and pioneering Supplier Development Team, the first team of its type outside of Japan.
As a founder member of the team, Dave trained extensively in Japan and was responsible for the introduction of Genba Kanri (Workshop Management) philosophy into Nissan’s local supplier group.
He left NMUK to help form the Kaizen Institute in the UK, where he worked in some of the world’s most renowned companies. He started his own consultancy in 1996 and continued to deliver lean practice across a wide range of industry sectors until 2006 when he moved to New Zealand.
He has since been in Operations Management roles for one of the largest dairy companies in the world introducing new business practices to local leaders throughout New Zealand.
He holds an Advanced Diploma in Enterprise Management from the University of Durham, a Diploma in Mechanical and Production Engineering, and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
On joining the business it became clear that a new long term strategy was required to steer the business through a turbulent political and economic environment.
We worked with Davie on developing a strategy that both pointed the business on a route that navigated those challenges but also addressed the wider initiatives of our owning group.
We recognised the need for solid building blocks in areas to improve but with a vision flexible enough to take us through a changing environment.
I’m really pleased to say that our business plan is now routed firmly in c2c and supported by our stakeholders as a step change in the operation of the business.
Davies manner is warm and personable, using his vast corporate experience to draw parallels and help focus the planning sessions.