“An event series presenting ten years of findings into how Australian and New Zealand businesses unintentionally give margin away & how disciplined leaders take it back.”

"Paul helped us add enormous value back to the bottom line while taking our team on the journey to understand why." Jo McCauley, CEO, MAS

Margin isn't lost. It's taught.

In 2017, Paul Allen founded Margin Partners. Across the decade since, through more than seventy documented client engagements, sixty-five workshops with Vistage and the CEO Institute, and over a thousand written voices from business leaders, he gathered the evidence behind a single finding.

Most Australian and New Zealand businesses are not losing margin. They are giving it away. Through contracts that don't protect them, work delivered beyond scope, value never priced, and profitability never measured. Not a strategic failure. A behavioural one.

A Decade of Findings is the briefing series that documents that finding, names the four behavioural disciplines that drive it, and shows leaders the path home. The brand promise, in spoken form. Too Generous to Thrive becomes Too Generous. No More.

The pattern, in one sentence.

EBITDA in Australian and New Zealand businesses is moving in one of two directions every day. It is either leaking, or it is being protected and grown. The direction is decided by the presence or absence of four behavioural disciplines: Contracting, Over-Servicing, Up-Selling, and Measuring.

Where the margin actually goes.

Inside the engagement data, Contracting is absent or weak in 87 percent of businesses. Measuring is weak in 61 percent. Outside, in the voice of the market, Over-Servicing is the visible symptom in 66 percent of leader responses. The two views are causally linked. Buyer pressure surfaces as Over-Servicing. The defence that should have prevented it, Contracting, is missing. The team running too hard for too little reward is the visible symptom. The contract that never said no is the root cause.

The evidence base.

More than 70 documented client engagements. 65 workshops with more than 750 Australian and New Zealand CEOs and Managing Directors. Over 1,000 written voices in total. 95 percent statistical confidence, ±3.1 percent margin of error. The same standard used in national opinion research. More than $30 million in recoverable margin identified across the engagement record. Median single-engagement finding between $400,000 and $900,000. Largest single finding to date: $13.6 million at a major New Zealand multi-site allied health provider.

The format.

A thirty-minute briefing from Paul Allen. One open Q&A hosted in each city by a local CEO who has lived the work. One room. Founders, CEOs, MDs and senior leaders of Australian and New Zealand businesses, every revenue band, every sector, every size.

The 2026 series.

Perth. Wednesday 10 June. Q&A hosted by Jimmy McGregor, CEO, Westref.

Adelaide. Friday 3 July. Q&A hosted by Eleanor Clausen, CEO, The International Spine Centre.

Auckland. Friday 31 July. Q&A hosted by Jo McCauley, CEO, MAS (Medical Adssurance Society)

Melbourne. Friday 14 August. Q&A hosted by Marty Matassoni, CEO, Beechworth Bakery.

Sydney. Friday 28 August. Q&A hosted by Keith Wootton, CEO, AV1.

Brisbane. Thursday 1 October. Q&A hosted by Steve Tassone, GM, Oztix.

The contribution.

Each seat carries a $85 contribution. All net proceeds, after direct event costs, are donated. Australian cities to the Snowdome Foundation, accelerating new treatments for blood cancers in Australia. Auckland to Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand, supporting Kiwis affected by blood cancer.

About Paul Allen.

Founder, Margin Partners. Margin Recovery Specialist. Twenty-four years of senior commercial roles at Lion, TABCORP, Patties Foods and O-I Glass before founding Margin Partners in 2017. Author of Take Back Your Margin and the forthcoming Too Generous to Thrive. Why Good Businesses Give Margin Away. And How Owners Take It Back!

“Good businesses do not usually fail because they lack effort. Many simply become too generous to thrive.”