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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business Interview. I'm suan Aylmer.

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Speaker 1: Depending on who you ask. Rugby Union in Australia has

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Speaker 1: been in decline since the two thousand and three World Cup.

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Speaker 1: Financial ways and dwindling broadcast audiences have dented the sports

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Speaker 1: reputation and while it may have turned a corner, it

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Speaker 1: might still be a bold decision for a business to

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Speaker 1: go all in on the code becoming the naming right

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Speaker 1: sponsor for the Super Rugby Pacific Men's and Women's competitions.

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Speaker 1: And it's even more unusual when the business is B

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Speaker 1: to B rather than B to C. Vincent Nair is

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Speaker 1: the executive director and CEO of Smart Tech Business Systems.

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Speaker 1: He joins me in the studio, Vincent, Welcome to Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed.

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Speaker 2: Hey Shah, good to be here.

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Speaker 1: Okay, smart Tech, tell me about what is it? First?

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Speaker 2: We are a child partner. One of the biggest sin

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Speaker 2: is you Pacific. We represent very large manufacturers and with

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Speaker 2: service over ten thousand B to B customers in Australia

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Speaker 2: from Parcelaka Technology either word to being the largest print

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Speaker 2: technology distributor in Australia and Asia Pacific.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So print technology distributor. Just explain what that means.

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Speaker 2: So we're eachbe's largest mid range large format printer solutions

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Speaker 2: provider to B to B customers that those guys in

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Speaker 2: EACHB have. So if you want to buy a four

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars solution, you go to EAHB. They'll say,

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Speaker 2: talk to smart Tech. They are the experts in installation

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Speaker 2: in terms of sales and service and all that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, great. As a B to B company, you have

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Speaker 1: gone it all in on sponsoring rugby. Why did you

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Speaker 1: choose a sport like rugby?

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Speaker 2: So it's a global game. It manifestures with us really well,

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Speaker 2: we're a global company, and we feel that there is

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Speaker 2: an opportunity with the British lines coming through once in

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Speaker 2: twelve years, the British.

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Speaker 1: Country, So those who aren't rugby fans the British lines.

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Speaker 1: So it's England, Scotland, Wales and Island, which is quite

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Speaker 1: unusual in rugby that those four get to. So they're

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Speaker 1: touring Australia as of about now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I looked at the opportunity that it

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Speaker 2: presented itself. And I'm always off the view that if

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Speaker 2: things are bad, you can only go north from there,

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Speaker 2: and you're quite a way shot. I mean, Rugby Australia

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Speaker 2: has had its moments some years back, but it is

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Speaker 2: now on the organization led by Dan he Buddhist chair

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Speaker 2: new Board Field Wall as the CEO, and I feel

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Speaker 2: that these guys made a lot of sense when I

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Speaker 2: was talking to them about the future and their vision,

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Speaker 2: and it kind of resonated well with me. So I

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Speaker 2: liked it with the product of, you know, the British

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Speaker 2: lines coming through, and they've got some good test matches

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Speaker 2: and the most important test message that I think is

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Speaker 2: going to be very good for me is the one

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Speaker 2: against Fiji on July sixth. A little bit of personal

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Speaker 2: bias there, but I like what they think in and

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Speaker 2: where they've come from, and I think so far our

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Speaker 2: experience has been great with them.

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Speaker 1: So when you mean off air, I mentioned my boys

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Speaker 1: play rugby, my daughter plays AFL. I grew up soccer

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Speaker 1: in a rugby league town, right, so I've kind of

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Speaker 1: got the whole gamut. Is there something about rugby that

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Speaker 1: you think, I mean, apart from the fact that it's

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Speaker 1: value when you got in was relatively low, is there

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Speaker 1: something about rugby that you like over the others.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I mean rugby is such an elegant game.

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Speaker 2: If you think about it, it's a there's a paradox here.

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Speaker 2: It's physical, it is associated with gentlemen playing rugby, rich history,

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Speaker 2: and I think if you look at it as a

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Speaker 2: comparison to other sport, it is truly global. It's pleading

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Speaker 2: countries that basically you're born in rugby and you get

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Speaker 2: out and you basically either as spray to play for

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Speaker 2: your country or whatever else. Now, I don't think that

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Speaker 2: sort of nurturing occurs in soccer. Okay, as an example

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Speaker 2: from my personal experience, you get lost in the crowd.

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Speaker 2: But a rugby you've got to focus the structure in

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Speaker 2: the teams, in the schools that you grew up with,

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Speaker 2: and I think there's a bit of prey there. There's

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Speaker 2: a little bit different to NURL.

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Speaker 1: I think stay with me. Vincent will be back in

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Speaker 1: a minute. My guest this morning is Vincent Nair from

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Speaker 1: Smart Tech Business Systems. I know we've had the break.

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Speaker 1: We're talking about why rugby your B to B? Is

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Speaker 1: that normal for a B to B to take such

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Speaker 1: a big sponsorship of a major sport.

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Speaker 2: It is normal, So you have this situation where we're

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Speaker 2: in the business of people as well. And when you

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Speaker 2: look at our clients, whether they're Deutche Bank, whether they're

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Speaker 2: Standing to Charter, we deal with people on the other shade.

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Speaker 2: So the concept of B to B and B two

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Speaker 2: C is clearly about people as well. So it's kind

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Speaker 2: of nice to have our clients and our partners in

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Speaker 2: business kind of get to see something that they don't

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Speaker 2: necessarily get an opportunity to see, and that is the

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Speaker 2: smart tech Super Rugby competition right up front. Get to

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Speaker 2: meet the players, get to actually feel and see what

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Speaker 2: the dressing rooms are like, and talk to the coaches

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Speaker 2: and all that stuff. So I think from that perspective,

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Speaker 2: it's an experience that our customers and our business partners

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Speaker 2: enjoy clearly, So there's a lot of return in that

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Speaker 2: for ourselves. It could be the same with B two C.

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Speaker 2: I think it gets a little bit diluted if you

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Speaker 2: kind of try and apply that to a B two

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Speaker 2: C situation. You may have thousands of customers, but which

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Speaker 2: one do you actually bring in to do and experience

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Speaker 2: all those things. Yeah, so I think there's an advantage.

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Speaker 1: For us in the B to B space I also

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Speaker 1: read some of utah met fatigue around stadiums clutted with

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Speaker 1: logos in sponsorships. Now I suppose that's the benefit of

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Speaker 1: rugby to some extent, but even Rugby has a bunch

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Speaker 1: of sponsors as well. Had you cut through that.

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Speaker 2: That's why we became the naming rate sponsor. We thought, well,

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Speaker 2: if we had invest we just get the major sponsorship

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Speaker 2: with these guys. It cost us a bit of money.

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Speaker 2: Good investment, good returns. Everything in our business is about

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Speaker 2: business kissing and also community improvement and contributional We saw

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Speaker 2: that there were returns everywhere for this, and in the

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Speaker 2: last two and half three months with the Rugby Australia

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Speaker 2: and the Super Rugby competition, I think we've seen a

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Speaker 2: lot of intangibles coming through and greed experiences for our

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Speaker 2: businesses and our business clients.

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Speaker 1: Apart from the fact that the Brumbies didn't win.

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Speaker 2: My team disappointing read disappointing. Now you know the Wartas

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Speaker 2: actually first four or five games they were undefeated.

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Speaker 1: That probably the most disappointing team.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Look, well I've got you to talk about leadership. You

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Speaker 1: spent more than thirty years working in Fortune one hundred,

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Speaker 1: Fortune five hundred and ASEX companies and global roles. You've

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Speaker 1: been publicly awarded for your work as a CEO. You've

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Speaker 1: spoken about rugby and steading values, discipline, respect, community. Are

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Speaker 1: there parallels, I suppose between that rugby world and good CEOs?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? I think so. I find that you got two

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Speaker 2: types of CEOs. One that has started their careers from

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Speaker 2: the bottom of their food chain and they work themselves

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Speaker 2: to the top, granted away, and then there's others that

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Speaker 2: have been handed the opportunity on a silver plea. There's

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Speaker 2: nothing wrong with either one of those. But I think

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Speaker 2: folks like myself have worked ourselves to the top. We

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Speaker 2: find that there is another set of values. We appreciate

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Speaker 2: the people that are coming through the ranks, and we

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Speaker 2: understand people, and we are always in a base where

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Speaker 2: we want to make sure that there are others in

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Speaker 2: a similar pathway as we have come through. So we

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Speaker 2: won the Employer of Choice and twenty three in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four. And how folks, our employees got us there.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't our strategy or anything like that. They said,

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Speaker 2: you know, we have one of the best places to

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Speaker 2: work in the world. So we kind of like that,

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Speaker 2: and it's all about just listening and supporting them and

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Speaker 2: going home with them when they clock off at five

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Speaker 2: or six o'clock in the afternoon, and being there for

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Speaker 2: them on the weekends as well. So we're not there

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Speaker 2: just as an employer and they're not just doing a job,

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Speaker 2: but they're with us because they want to be with us.

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Speaker 1: What makes the smart take Then we're.

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Speaker 2: In an acquisition growth mode right now, in the middle

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Speaker 2: of an acquisition. Our intention is to definitely double our

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Speaker 2: footprint in Australia and New Zealand. We're not done yet.

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Speaker 2: We are on a growth trajectory. We've had a very

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Speaker 2: very significant drive that has created over ten thousand B

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Speaker 2: to P. Customers will be satisfied if we become a

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Speaker 2: three to four million dollar company in Australia alone, so

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Speaker 2: we are aiming to do that in the next three years.

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Speaker 1: Good luck with it. Vincent, thank you for talking to

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: That's Vincent Nair, executive chair and CEO of Smart Tech

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Speaker 1: Business Systems. This is the Fear and Greed Business Interview.

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Speaker 1: Join us every morning for the full episode of Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed Business News. You can use. I'm sure I

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Speaker 1: all money. Enjoy your day,