New Zealand has some great business leaders who have had the vision, establishment skills and growth plans to drive the creation of outstanding New Zealand companies with a global focus.
The Deloitte Top 200 judges singled out three players from the last 30 years of New Zealand business — each of whose companies have featured in the Deloitte Top 200 awards.
In particular, Mark Waller — the force behind EBOS Group who came into the company as chief financial officer and went on to become chief executive. Waller, who was Executive of the Year in 2010, drove the company’s transformation from a small player in the healthcare market to the largest trans-Tasman healthcare and animal care operator with revenue of more than $6b before he stepped down as chairman in October.
EBOS listed under the name Early Bros Dental & Surgical Supplied Ltd in 1960. Its market capitalisation was $3.695b at the start of this business week.
John Ryder and Kevin Hickman founded Ryman Healthcare in 1984 with $10,000 each, and in 1999 listed it on the NZ stock exchange. It’s now New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator with operations here and Australia. Ryman Healthcare was Company of the Year in 2012 and is now under professional management with a market capitalisation of $7.55b.
John Ryder (Ryman) Company of the Year (2012)
In 1978, Bruce Plested founded Mainfreight, which went on to list in 1999 and these days has a market capitalisation of $4.20b. Plested was named Visionary Leader in 2014. The company has expanded into Australia, Europe, Asia and the Americas. It was Company of the Year in 2011 and again this year.
Bruce Plested, Visionary Leader (2014)
Other standout visionary leaders include The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall, who was named Visionary Leader in 2005 and the founder of infrastructure investor Infratil, the late Lloyd Morrison, who won the award in 2011.
Xero founder Rod Drury is another key visionary award winner (2017) along with Rajna Patel (2016) and Dame Suzie Moncrieff (2015) who founded Nirvana Health Group and the World of Wearable Arts awards respectively. Dr Marilyn Waring was the recipient of the award last year.
Xero's Rod Drury
The awards have been dominated by male winners. But in recent years women have been making their mark with Dame Alison Paterson Chairperson of the Year in 2010 and Joan Withers in 2015 and Jolie Hodson the first female CFO of the Year in 2016.
When the awards were launched in 1989 under the Deloitte/Management Magazine banner, Fletcher Challenge was the largest company with revenues of $11.51b. This year it was Fonterra with $20.11b revenue.
Some prime New Zealand companies — among them Fletcher Building and Fonterra — have faced difficulties in recent years. But like Air New Zealand, which went on to flourish after its 2001 recapitalisation, a period of adroit governance and management could see their performance step up again.
