Greg Allnutt and Kendall Langston know how to execute a strategy with military precision. They served in the New Zealand Army for a combined 54 years, and between them have had leadership roles in Angola, Bosnia, Bougainville, Kuwait, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Plenty of situations have shaped Mr Allnut and Mr Langston, including stepping in to protect children in Africa, keeping a tenuous peace between warring factions, fighting the militia crossing the border in East Timor and dodging Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq.

“When I was a battalion commander, three of the people in my unit were the kids of colleagues or friends I served with,” says Mr Langston. “I look back and realise the real weight of getting it right, because what we did was pretty dangerous and had its risk.”

Stepping away from the military was a big step for them both, which posed an even bigger question – what next? What they didn’t realise at the time was that their experience on the battlefield was desperately needed in business. Today, the pair are taking their unique, straight-talking approach into boardrooms around the country, advising business leaders and boards through their strategy and implementation firm Pivot & Pace.

“The biggest mistake we see is people don’t have a strategy or, if they do, it isn’t formulated in a way that they can articulate it,” says Mr Allnut. “Research we’ve done in the business space with over 1,500 business leaders, shows that over 60% of them don’t have a plan.”

Mr Allnut knows what he is talking about – his work in strategy execution and leadership for the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in Afghanistan saw him appointed to the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006.

“I was working with the Afghan police and the Afghan internal security department. Whilst there were significant challenges, they had a genuine desire to be better. I designed and implemented strategies with each agency to help them achieve success, build capacity, and be prepared to support the elections.”

Mr Langston’s time serving taught him strong ethics and values, to stand up for what’s right, and instilled in him a large dose of moral courage. “It was also the physical courage to go into harm’s way and to send people into harm’s way which required a huge amount of judgement – something I’m always coaching now. It’s this depth of knowledge where you can look at something, analyse it, and work out the best approach.”

The business partners say they often see companies failing to plan, not making decisions, or struggling to navigate uncertainty. “You don’t have to have a clever plan, you just have to have one,” says Mr Langston. “We learned that in the army – a pretty average plan ruthlessly executed by well led, highly motivated, engaged people will win every day of the week, and it’s the same in business. When you’re under fire, most people think it’s like Hollywood in the military, where you just have all the answers and you yell orders – trust me, it’s not like that. It’s very collaborative when your life’s on the line.”

Mr Allnut says too many people either hold off making a decision or, once they’ve made a decision, they don’t know how to start enacting it. “We had it drummed into us in the military, always make a decision. Make the best decision with the best information at the time. Then, if it’s not working, iterate it. Our clients are used to hearing all sorts of military stories, but they get it, and it’s an analogy that has a whole lot of parallels to the business world that are pertinent for a competitive market.”

The business journey began for Mr Langston in 2004. He came out of the army and into the construction world and learnt some tough lessons in the global financial crisis. At the time, he was a client of Pivot & Pace, which was formerly called The Results Group, before joining the team to help other business leaders. It wasn’t long before he was their top billing consultant, then Chief Executive Officer, and then part owner – which is when Mr Allnut came on board in 2014.

“Greg and I have known each other since we were in the third form at school,” says Mr Langston. “We grew up together, flatted together, and did our officer training together. We’re a little bit chalk and cheese – I’m a bit bigger picture stuff, he’s the guy that has lots of ideas – but our minds meet in our military training, background and values.”

In 2018, the pair purchased the Christchurch practice of the business, wanting to take it in a different direction, and rebranded to ‘Pivot & Pace’ in 2020. They now work predominantly with privately-held SMEs. Mr Langston puts their core business aim quite frankly: “it’s around strategy implementation and how to lead people to get sh*t done”.

Pivot & Pace now operates across New Zealand and Australia, as well as having a strategic partnership in the US with business influencer John Spence.