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A Singapore-based New Zealand entrepreneur, who cracked a business model that fast-tracks the growth of small to medium businesses and enables them to go global, is coming to Auckland to acquaint small-to-medium businesses with his unique platform.

Callum Laing is a businessman, author and partner in private equity company Unity Group, which already works with three Auckland companies – Rainmakers Media & Advertising, app & games supplier Marker Metro, and digital strategist Marker Studio (all operate under the umbrella of UK-based agency The Marketing Group).

Unity works to bring together like-minded businesses from around the world under one company umbrella to provide a platform for them to grow and scale to “the next level”.

He successfully applied the ‘agglomeration business model’ in his adopted home and is now bringing it back to New Zealand where he is confident it can be adopted by SMEs.

“With this model, SMEs in New Zealand can become more powerful, agile and appealing by collaborating with businesses within the same sector and can soon be on a growth trajectory. We work with debt-free and profitable SMEs to help scale their business by providing them access to the advantages of a large public listed company,” Laing said.


“Three New Zealand companies have already experienced success from ‘agglomeration’ as part of The Marketing Group, which boasts one of the best performing stocks on the European Nasdaq in 2016.


“The Marketing Group was formed with four initial companies and now has 19 agencies in 32 offices globally and is one of the fastest growing marketing companies in the world.

“This model allows the business owner to benefit from all of the shareholder value associated with a public listing, such as scalability and tendering for large business, yet still maintain full control over their business.”

He will be in Auckland at the end of this month to meet with potential SME businesses that are interested in adopting his business model. Laing says industries that have potential include childcare/education, health & fitness, technology, and property services.

The New Zealand economy is represented by close to 97% SMEs and while Laing says those best placed to benefit from agglomeration are businesses that have reached a reasonable level of profit but hit a growth ceiling.

“New Zealand is full of innovators and start-ups which is fantastic, but agglomeration will work for a well-established small-to-medium business that makes a profit in the region of $1 million to $4 million with a small team who want to see growth tenfold in the future.”

Laing will hold two seminars at the Deloitte Centre in Auckland – this Monday 31 October at 1.30pm and 5pm. Tickets cost $79.

About Callum Laing
Laing is a partner in the Private Equity firm, Unity-Group. He is also the co-founder and non-executive director of The Marketing Group PLC and is the director of the Key Person of Influence programme in Asia.

In the past 20 years he has started, built, bought and sold half a dozen businesses in a range of industries across two continents. He was recently awarded the Asia Best Employer Outstanding Leadership award and he is a mentor/advisor to DBS Business Class.

He’s the author of Little Wins and Quantum Leaps published in 2015, and Progressive Partnerships – The Future of Business, his new book launched earlier this year.


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