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First Response — Why the Best Business Decisions Are Made Long Before the Emergency

Decision-Making Before the Crisis: How operational discipline from counter-terrorism response translates into business decision routines that hold under pressure.

Service in a Counter-Terrorism First Response unit with the Australian Federal Police at 21, protecting two Prime Ministers, came before co-founding Harvey Norman's Business and Education Division and scaling it from zero to $200M in under two years. In that unit nobody improvises on the day; the decision is made in the drill, months earlier, so the body knows what to do when thinking stops. Most boardrooms do the opposite: they wait for the P&L to slip, the key people to walk, the bottleneck to bite, and then decide under the worst conditions a leader will ever face. This walks through the operating structures and decision routines a business should fix while things are calm, and which ones are worthless once the pressure is on. Listeners leave with the drills to run this quarter, not the ones they will wish they had run.

About Michele Mattiuzzi

Michele Mattiuzzi, podcast guest

Entrepreneur. Business Builder. Actor. Former Tactical Operations Officer

$200M Harvey Norman Business & Education Division built in under two yearsAFP Counter-terrorism officer protecting two Prime MinistersdigiDirect Commercial Director, national education and corporate expansionPorsche & Lotus Brand and growth strategy consultant

Michele Mattiuzzi has built a career that is anything but conventional.

At 21, he joined a specialist tactical operations and counter-terrorism environment within the Australian Federal Police, where he was involved in protecting Prime Ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd and became a weapons instructor. Just 2 years later, he made another extraordinary career move, into television.

For more than a decade, Michele was cast as Constable Neal Stevenson, a recurring character on Australia’s Home & Away, later working across other major productions. But while acting gave him a public profile, Michele's real passion was building businesses, often from behind the scenes.

He went on to help build a Harvey Norman IT business from the ground up to approximately $200 million in just two years, while working with major global technology brands including Lenovo, Microsoft and Intel. He has since worked across technology, automotive, luxury and consumer businesses, helping owners and organisations identify opportunities, solve problems and scale.

Michele's experience has given him a rare perspective on both the mechanics of business and the human factors that can make or break it.

His journey hasn't been defined by success alone. After experiencing extreme pressure, burnout and profound personal and professional setbacks, Michele was forced to rebuild his life from the ground up.

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