Mike Mason has always been passionate and driven about running any business while having a clear objective. Mike has been creating the right environment and surrounding himself with industry specialists who share this passion, giving him the opportunity to learn and enhance himself. With nearly four decades of experience within the ICT industry, Mike has held senior leadership and non-executive positions in both public and privately held companies. But this comes naturally to Mike. He has been a successful entrepreneur with a track record of business transformation, accelerated growth, and ahead-of-schedule execution of exit strategies. “Through extensive corporate experience, I have enabled start-ups, midsized and high growth companies to realize their potential and maximise shareholder value,” he says.

Despite achieving so much, Mike thanks the teams he has been associated with over the years. “It’s only when people come together that innovation happens. When you bring a group of people together with varying skill sets, specialties and perspectives, you create the potential for new thought and innovation,” Mike, now the CEO of NetPMD, explains. “The leadership at NetPMD is about ensuring everyone has a productive and safe environment in which to express themselves and constantly drive to an aligned vision. At NetPMD we are and always will be very focused on being the best at what we do and staying true to these values.”

For Mike, it is all about teamwork. “My colleagues and I always discuss how we understand the whole picture to truly solve our customers’ biggest business challenges, and that’s what we focus on at NetPMD. We are invested in the desired outcome of our customers, who have developed trusted relationships with us,” he says. “On top of that, I love that we are helping to close the digital divide by designing and integrating fiber cities across the globe.”

Influencing Everyone Positively

For the steadfast leader, surrounding himself with people he respects is essential. “Someone gave me some good advice early in my career, which was, “Are you better today than you were yesterday?” Success comes from sometimes seemingly small moments of improvement and progression, but these matter immensely,” elucidates Mike. “It is really about people and taking the time to appreciate the process and journey. Never forgetting where you started and who helped you, so do your best to stay in touch with the people you meet along the way – your relationships matter more than you will ever realise.”

Being a successful leader, Mike truly believes that everyone should learn from their failures; trying to encourage smart risk-taking and realising quickly when one needs to stop or change course. “I truly believe that if you want to be a good leader, you first have to lead yourself in all aspects of your life and well-being: relationships, health, community, as well as work,” he adds. “Having the desire and passion to try and inspire and motivate employees to work to a well-considered common goal is key. I believe it’s my responsibility to create an environment that facilitates my team’s success.”

For Mike, success is a journey and rarely a single moment in business. The environments in which one operates can be so dynamic and competitive, but everyone has to constantly strive and not be complacent about what success they have had. Being fortunate to work with several inspiring people over many years has given Mike a perspective and the confidence to work out what success looks like to him personally. “Being resilient and always trying to be myself helps me to be the best I can be. I never forget the basics: I work hard to understand my industry, my competition and how I can differentiate,” he states. “That way, I find I’m in the best place to align my solutions to solve my customer business challenges and objectives. I’m also prepared to walk away from things that don’t feel right or appropriate, that could end up holding the company back or damaging its brand.”

Building A Brand

Mike has been taking the company to new heights with this mindset. NetPMD designs and integrates fiber-based networks into homes and businesses globally. “We’re doing great things here at this critical time, designing the fiber networks of tomorrow to support the digital minds and capabilities of the future. The company can only do this successfully with the assistance of its strong team focused on growth, quality, and customer experience.“

According to Mike, the world is in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, which is really multiple revolutions happening simultaneously. People are seeing massive socioeconomic and geopolitical changes while simultaneously going through a digital and technological revolution. However, finding the right technologies and partnerships is always key. No one company trying to be “all things to all people” is realistic.

NetPMD is a design and integration business, with an international sales team that is focused on all appropriate markets that are in growth and need assistance. The company supports service providers to enable them to break ground faster in their deployments of new fiber-based networks.

Their services include:

• Initial concept, feasibility, simulations, and due diligence reviews
• Address and GIS Data preparation, including pole analysis
• High and low-level fiber network design
• Integration services including active equipment supply
• Full project life-cycle services
• Engineering design
• Construction drawings

NetPMD has an extensive client base, and their solutions have provided futureproofed scalable platforms where homes and businesses within a town or city can be enhanced by faster broadband. The pace of technological advancement starts in the home, so bridging the digital divide in helping communities prosper and be more connected is so rewarding. Currently, NetPMD is designing and integrating networks of more than 1.5M homes per annum, and this number continues to rise. 

NetPMD is focused on growth and moving forwards. Like any business, Mike leads the team to adapt and learn, and not fall foul of things that don’t feel right. “We’re an experienced group of people and I would like to believe we know what good looks like. We’re achieving great business performance through effective delegation, but this is only made real by all working closely and supporting each other,” he asserts. “NetPMD is in its next phase of growth, and we are aggressively putting in plans now to accelerate our business to the next level. We have important existing clients who, in order that we grow this business wisely, will continue to receive our highest levels of service, and we have areas already targeted where we will expand our services portfolio.”