Simply Management: Effective Methods to Plan, Manage, and Improve Businesses

Author, Warwick J Thompson, lives in New Zealand. He gained his management experience initially in newspapers, then manufacturing, before joining the New Zealand subsidiary of a N.Y.-based diversified U.S. Multinational Corporate.

For 17 years with that company he held a succession of management and senior-management roles with increasing diversity and geographic responsibility. As V.P. Asia-Pacific he managed a region from Japan/Korea to India and Australia which included manufacturing plants, marketing centers, joint-ventures, licensees, distributors, and the Boards of associated companies. He also served on internal corporate committees and worked frequently in the U.S., Canada, and Central/South America.

He retired from the strenuous demands of managing international business in 1981 and on returning to New Zealand was appointed CEO/MD of a large wine company. After a rare illness forced him from the wine industry in 1984, he founded a management consultancy, held Directorships in diverse businesses from women's underfashions to cheesemaking, was consultant/advisor to the N.Z. Government Dept. of Trade & Industry, and managed the merger of professional-services firms.

Early 1991 he was persuaded to return to international management again as Marketing & Sales Director, Europe-Middle East for a division of B.P. Chemicals, working from a U.K. base. When later the division was sold to a French conglomerate he elected to return to N.Z. and founded a business in agricultural electronics which in part continues to this day.

Currently he is an analyst, advisor and mentor to business, undertakes special projects, is an entrepreneur and a published author. He lives in southern New Zealand, has three sons, two of whom have businesses of their own and the third is a marketing manager for a U.S. international beverage company.