Alto

Because New Zealanders are innovators in their hearts, and we make great small business owners. We are for the most part socially progressive and highly adaptable. We are frequently found to be exploring other elements of excellence in business. For most New Zealanders - quality of life trumps financial performance.

Alto has focussed on great design communication as its core business - but its excellence didn't stop there. We developed some social innovation around employment - creating a truly excellent thriving environment for our staff - called Good Friday. http://alto.net.nz/good/

At Alto, every Friday is Good Friday. Good Friday is an opportunity for each person to reconnect with what really matters to them.

In 2005, we allocated our Fridays to ‘Becoming’. We give ourselves permission to prioritise our own needs and focus on our own development. Sometimes we need to relax and take stock, other times we work furiously on creative pro-bono projects no monetary value but mean something to us. Over 2000 hours of billable time (which equates to $250000) has been invested in Good Friday, and some great projects, outputs and connections have come from it - including the thriving Intersect network, which Alto has invested a great deal of time and money into as a way to ensure that its sustainability and values and ideas around cultural innovation get to be shared and contributed to by a young passionate group of New Zealanders. Intersect too, is made from New Zealand; demonstrating our ability to connect around things we are passionate about, without boundaries and barriers of politics, ideologies, race or gender. Not bad going for a company of 5 employees or less!