Although I employed Jonathan before Covid-19 hit the country, I was relieved he already had a plan for me to follow to sort through the confusion of Covid Levels, the steps were always visible:

The main points of his plan: Strong connection to the business and me, genuine concern for the impact both personally and professionally, clear and thoughtful communication with our team, checking in with me regularly and listening and available when I phoned, practical and pragmatic advice at all times and sounding board

I cannot imagine how “isolated” I would have felt if I had not had Jonathan mentoring me through this time. I highly recommend Jonathan Sweeney because I know the plans we had before Covid-19 will come to fruition, no matter what.

During a very intense period in my life, Jonathan helped me step over my self-limiting belief. Through his close mentorship and guidance, he took me through a difficult heroes journey. Jonathan understands how emotions and business are intertwined. Personal and business work as a system not in isolation. I have recommended Jonathan to colleagues and friends and will continue to.

It's been great reconnecting with Jon, we worked together in the early 90's, in the UK, at Whitbread Beer Company; we'd lost touch but through the power of social media reconnected a couple of years ago. If you are considering using Jon's coaching services I just wanted to say, that from the other side of the world and over the phone, he's helped steer me through some difficult situations. He listens well and his powerful soul searching questions have helped me make some bold decisions.

In my experience, Jonathan is an enthusiastic supporter and guide. His commitment to focusing on our goals has been very productive for us. Because of his wide experience in business, Jonathan is able to both see the big picture and identify the small detail in a challenging goal. Jonanthan's style enables him to be both sensitive to situations and to tell it how it is. I am happy to recommend Jonathan as an excellent business coach and advisor.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your input over the past few months to my business. I found it impressive how quickly you were able to assess the current state of affairs for the business and start working on how our relationship could tangibly benefit the company. I presented a few objectives on how I hoped things would work and you delivered on all of those, as well as provided valuable ad-hoc advice. I appreciated how available you were to me and I didn’t once hesitate to pick up the phone to bounce an idea off you.

I enjoyed our candid conversations and I welcomed your direct and constructive feedback which I felt really propelled forward my confidence and business skills.

Jonathan took on the roll of setting up a Category Management team in Reckitt Benckiser NZ. Prior to this the organisation was struggling to execute any of its core strategies with retailers. Jonathan single-handedly sold in and executed our most important growth platform, launched numerous NPD's successfully and built a team of very competent Category Managers. He also took on a leadership role with the integration of Boots Consumer Products. Jonathan's contribution was key to the success of this organisation through this period and beyond.

I have had the pleasure of working with Jonathan during a particularly difficult period in my business lifecycle. I was stuck between rapid growth and stagnation. Fortunately for me, Jonathan provided me with that fresh pair of eyes and boundless enthusiasm that I needed at that particular time. His ability to focus on the potential gains allowed me to refocus my efforts, make educated decisions and overcome some of my long held trepidations, regarding success. Jonathan is now a valued “business partner” and integral part of my decision making process. His input is both respected and appreciated.

I engaged Jonathan to help me set a new path. I was in a unique position of performing well in a role yet wasn’t able to translate why I was performing well and what those skills meant to other potential employers. Add to this I was in the process of selling our house and moving out of Auckland, I came to Jonathan quite ‘frazzled’. Our journey started and finished with determining ‘who am I….and what does that mean’ and I chose to work with him based on a very quick and helpful social chat where I knew not only did I like him, I would enjoy working with him. I knew throughout this chat, that I needed to work with him as he could help breakdown the BS quickly, get to the core challenges and show me the roadmap in what I consider to be both a safe and fun environment. I asked for honest candour and to be challenged, and that was what I got. Why else did I chose him, and what did I like about working with him? He has outstanding credentials and experience in life and business, and is credible when he speaks. He understands, frames and listens well and pushes when required. I also admired the amount of prep and post prep work Jonathan does in order to aid the process to getting to the end goal. I was extremely pleased with the end results, was able to apply them and am proud to be able to offer this testimonial.

Jonathan has played a key role in the evolution of our business and we relate to him more as a partner than consultant. While we benefit from ongoing support and recommendation on various aspects of our business we find the work that he does around Category reviews, NPD pitches and Key event presentations to be highly valuable. Having had experience working with the major grocers in the UK we get the need to have succinct, robust and importantly success orientated material to present. Whether we are working with key customers both here, or Australia, I always feel a high level of confidence going into a meeting with work that Jonathan has played an integral role in helping us put together. It's rare indeed to have the benefit of experience from both sides of the commercial desk and he demonstrates time and time again this value - I highly recommend him as a coach and presentation expert.

I was fortunate to be introduced to Jonathan by a business acquaintance when I attended a presentation. I was struck by the genuine caring nature he portrayed during that talk and felt the empathy he had. I had been involved with business mentors before and found that the majority of the time was spent on “Metrix” or “Execution” and I started to feel the effects of paralysis from analysis where the emphasis was on the financial performance only. I have been fortunate to be in a career where it hasn’t felt like work for 24 years and I needed an exit strategy but had difficulty letting go. Jonathan was able to guide me through the business planning as well as the emotional barriers I was creating to make the process possible and I have been able to create the pictures and plans for the future and the next stage of my life. I highly recommend him to anyone who wishes to get more of what they want out of their life but need help moving this forward.

I have had the pleasure of working with Jonathan Sweeny for the past two years. Jonathan has assisted both staff and management through a very difficult time in our business. Jonathan was quick to understand the changing business environment that we were working in, and helped us to put in place strategies to address these changes.

He put plans in place for all individuals in our team to ensure that we were focused on what we needed to achieve as individuals to ensure the best result for our company. Jonathan provided our team with good clear leadership, coaching, and motivation and mentoring.

Jonathan assisted me to identify what was important for me to achieve in my role, and he made himself available whenever I needed his guidance or support. I appreciate the help that Jonathan has provided me personally and to our company. I enjoyed working with Jonathan and would have no hesitation in recommending him to anyone wishing to improve their company results.

I get challenged with this bit, I know the casual observer is not expecting to see anything damaging. For me, in some humble way, it’s a broad overview of how some people have related to me in the last 12 years.  In the NZ ‘village’, with 2 degrees of separation, you don’t need to go far to find the truth.

Companies go through many challenges on the road of continual improvement.
It is expedient that you have positive and knowledgeable support to make your goals succeed.

Jonathan Sweeney at “ICU BIG” comes with an inside understanding of FMCG and extensive business experience.

Whether it’s his passionate approach and understanding of social media to help advance your company or his extensive contacts from HR to data mining to enable you to be challenged and supported on various fronts, Jonathan is your “go to” guy.

Jonathan likes being part of a team and is not afraid of getting his hands dirty in the process of support.

His enjoyable sense of Welsh humour during times of challenge never goes astray.