Steve Keil spent nearly forty years deciding what got bought, in Australia and New Zealand.

It started with a van in Adelaide, buying for his own jobs as a self-employed electrician. It finished with the nominated supplier agreements that two hundred and fifty businesses were contracted to buy from.

In between: branch manager, state manager twice, general manager of a national wholesaler's New Zealand business, and national group product manager, which is the job that writes the specification.

In all of that time, not one customer ever asked what had been standing where a product was made.

ABOUT STEVE.

In October 2003 Steve left the wholesaler to found Laser Plumbing & Electrical in Australia, which went to market the following January and became Laser Group.

He was its trans-Tasman managing director and then chief executive for fifteen years, and at the sale to Belron International in March 2018 the network carried two hundred and fifty Member businesses, more than three thousand employees and around five hundred million dollars of group turnover.

Steve spent nearly two years after that as managing director of the newly formed O'Brien Electrical & Plumbing division.

He is a non-executive director of Encore Retirement Villages and lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS.

Steve speaks to procurement teams, trade associations and franchise networks about what a company can actually read when people buy, and what a buyer can do with that.

Four talks, drawn from the book: the four questions a supplier cannot deflect; how to tell a clause that binds from a clause that decorates; the gap between what people say they will buy and what they buy; and the superannuation question, which moves more money than a lifetime of groceries.

He convened and keynoted the annual conference of the network he founded for fifteen consecutive years.

Fees and availability on request. steve@thebuyingside.com