EO Interview with Liquid Director Stephan Goodhue.

Having been a fan of the water forever, Stephan Goodhue has built a career around helping people have the best experiences out on the water. Having started Liquid Automation with his business partner, he’s since grown it into New Zealand’s most highly awarded automation company. 

So how did they do it? And more importantly, what did Stephan and Liquid Automation do when the boating industry turned upside down?

Finding a space for automation

Stephan was quite the globetrotter in his early years. Having left New Zealand at 14 to live in Rarotonga, he studied in Perth before beginning a 10-year career working on superyachts across the world. From the Caribbean to the States to the Mediterranean, Stephan engineered and skippered some of the world’s biggest boats. 

Upon returning to New Zealand, Stephan felt at a bit of a loose end. He hadn’t been in the country in a long time and was a bit unsure about where he belonged and where he could out his skills to use. His brother’s friend ended up needing some help at a marine electronics company, and Stephan got a position helping with entertainment packages for new build yachts in New Zealand. 

After a few years working at the marine electronics company, Stephan decided it was time to do it for himself and asked if his brother’s friend wanted to join him. That was Bruce Cox, and they’ve been business partners ever since.

Thing was, they left wanting to get away from the marine scene but quickly found that was where their true talent lay. Soon, they were asked by New Zealand’s leading superyacht builder Alloy Yachts to do their entertainment systems. 

“We’re pretty ideal business partners, him being more the systems and processes guy and me being behind the designing, engineering and sales,” say Stephan. “I create the storm, and he tends to clean up after me!”

From sea to land

Liquid Automation was born. Since then, it’s become New Zealand’s most internationally awarded smart automation company. These days, the team specialise in the documentation, equipment, installation, and user interfaces of automation in boats, homes, and commercial buildings. In other words, no job is too big. 

But that wasn’t always the case. When Stephan and Bruce first started Liquid Automation, they kept their focus mainly on residential work as subcontractors. Once engaged back into the marine industry, their focus quickly changed back to marine.

This progressed from controlling just entertainment, to helping to control and install everything a user would touch on a boat besides the machinery. That included the selection and/or control of electricals, environmental systems, navigation, internal communications and lighting.  

But when the NZ $ hit a record high, all the New Zealand boat companies collapsed. So what do you do when there are no more boats being built and your business relies on the marine industry?

“We saw all the boat yards closing right in front of us over three years or so,” says Stephan. “It was a huge learning curve for us in resilience and figuring out what we could do differently to pick up business.”

Luckily, they learnt to transfer their marine skills to land pretty quickly. They found that owners of yachts wanted to bring the same sophisticated automation from their boats to their holiday homes, and soon working on houses became a decent portion of their business. The team also realised their expertise could be applied to larger commercial sites as well. Now, they look after SkyCity, have worked on cinemas and complexes, and bring their automation to subdivisions by working with fibre and distribution. 

“Now, our work is quite diverse which means we’ve become experts across a range of industries.”

Coping through COVID

Like many fellow Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (EO) members, COVID-19 forced Stephan to pivot Liquid Automation and make some pretty big decisions. Beforehand, they’d done jobs all over the world, building everything in their Auckland space before sending the equipment and a dedicated installation team over to the site for an extended period of time. When the borders closed, you can imagine they ran into a few issues!

Stephan and the team decided to still produce the equipment in New Zealand and send it over to meet a sub-contracted local company who would do the installation on behalf of Liquid Automation. They can use their new technology and cameras to monitor how the installation was going, giving feedback and advice to ensure the installation is done to the Liquid Automation standard. 

“It was a massive adjustment having to let go of some of that control,” says Stephan. “But at the same time, with the technology and communication abilities we have nowadays, we are able to talk to teams on the other side of the world to see the work in real time.”

Border closures also allowed the Liquid Automation team to look inwards and focus on the domestic market. In the past couple of years, they’ve been inundated with internationals wanting to build on New Zealand soil. Since lockdown, some of the world’s biggest boats have also arrived in New Zealand for refit work. Jumping on every opportunity, Liquid Automation have managed to come out of COVID stronger. In hindsight, Stephan sees the pandemic as a pretty good thing for the business’s resilience. 

Finding camaraderie with EO

Stephan joined EO 13 years ago, after being introduced through a few friends who were also members. Before he joined, Stephan had no sounding board or support group to bounce business ideas off, which he was keenly after. After finding that with his forum, he hasn’t looked back. 

“You feel a sense of camaraderie being around these incredible entrepreneurs,” says Stephan. “Everyone speaks from experience and is willing to help one another, and there are a lot of intelligent ideas being bounced around.”

Over the years, Stephan has been left inspired and motivated through different accelerator courses and EO events – as well as having opened up doors with some incredible people. From chatting with Michael Hill, to an event with the director of the CIA, Stephan has enjoyed learning from a wealth of different people and their journeys. Not to mention Stephan has managed some incredible international adventures with fellow EOers!

“When my work required a lot of travel before the pandemic, I’d reach out to the local EO admin of wherever I was and there’d always be someone keen to have dinner,” he says. “From there, I’ve been invited on some epic holidays and trips with EOers all across the world!

“All in all, EO has been a game changer.”

Looking forward 

As travel across the Tasman becomes more of a possibility again, Stephan and Liquid Automation is looking towards more work across the ditch. He’s hoping to work towards a combination of their pre-COVID style with the new remote working methods that they are championing in the industry. 

“People still tend to think of us as boat people, but I’m excited to diversify and continue bringing our expertise to new areas,” he says. “Over the years, we’ve learnt so much about resilience and perseverance, and I’m excited to keep doing what we love for years to come.”

Tag