The original PC Direct neon sign
I’ve been going to a few reunions lately – maybe it’s my age. First came the school reunions, which were notable for their lack of participants; then came a couple of business reunions which were a totally different story and a lot more fun.
Last Saturday night I dropped in to La Zeppa in Auckland to catch up with about 50 of my former colleagues from PC Direct. The reunion was instigated and organised by a number of the former staff, including Jennifer Stott, Eduard Johansen, Trevor Fowler and Cheryl Tinholt.
PC Direct is a New Zealand success story that started with its founders Maurice Bryham and Sharon Hunter in 1989 and grew to dominate the local personal computer market for most of the 1990’s, with a team of up to 120 staff. At times its share of the New Zealand PC market was larger than the global players such as IBM, Compaq and HP. Over 100,000 PC Direct computers were built and sold in to a market population of only 4 million people. Not bad market penetration!
Accordingly, PC Direct was known as the “Mouse that Roared”.
A well attended company reunion is the reflection of a great company and a great culture. Everyone was proud of being a part of it. PC Direct’s culture was electric. Its staff were young, motivated, enthusiastic and talented. We all worked hard and had fun. The business was winning on all fronts, including the marketplace, the industry awards and the minds of the computer-buying New Zealand public.
The people of PC Direct are now spread throughout the New Zealand IT industry and beyond (around the world in fact). I think many of us learnt a lot from that very positive experience. I certainly did.
I’m now looking forward to the 25th PC Direct anniversary reunion in a couple of years time (2014). I expect even more of the old team will attend that.
Mark Loveys 