KEY POINTS:
John Buchanan often stands in front of hundreds of University of Auckland Business School students and talks about mergers and acquisitions.
In 33 years at the upper echelons of oil company BP, the Kiwi professional director saw some big deals, including the fusion of the company with Amoco in 1998 the world's biggest industrial merger at the time.
"You do some things wrong, you do some things less well and with that association and experience you get a sense of what works and what does not - and that is potentially quite valuable to other people," he says of his role as a lecturer.
As well as inspiring Auckland's budding business people, Buchanan's experience now adds value to some of Britain's largest listed companies mining company BHP Billiton, medical devices company Smith & Nephew, Vodafone and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
He was also appointed British chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce in May.
Last month he was named a Fellow of the University of Auckland, and he feels he is now able to turn around and thank the university for the value it added to his own successful career.
"I think as one matures in life, one looks back at their career and the foundations of the career and sees university as a huge advantage to that."
But, alongside the university doctorates, Buchanan believes his state schooling and holiday job as a packer in the Otara freezing works are part of the reason he is as comfortable sitting on the board of FTSE companies.
New Zealand gave him a "can-do" attitude, sparked competitiveness and taught him not to act superior to others, he says.
"[The freezing works] was my finishing school. One of the reasons New Zealanders can do well is the way they don't see these social barriers in the way the locals do. They don't feel entrapped by background.
"You see it in some of the stunning people you get to meet over in Europe New Zealanders who have done extraordinary things."
Buchanan was an organic chemist who did not study business until his company paid him to. His own career has been far from ordinary.
Forty years ago he and new wife Rosemary moved to Britain so Buchanan could carry out his post-doctoral research at Oxford.
The "great OE" was a little more of a commitment in those days it took them 4 weeks to arrive by boat so they decided to give Britain another year, and Buchanan looked for a job.
BP had just discovered hydrocarbons in the North Sea, and Buchanan says he liked the people working there.
"I thought 'a couple of years here can't do me any harm' and I retired from BP 33 years later, as chief financial officer."
By the time he stepped down Buchanan was highly regarded as a number cruncher, and there were no shortage of offers from financial institutions. But he says he was less interested in banking and did not like the look of the derivatives markets.
"I decided I didn't want to go that way, and am quite pleased about that given the subsequent events - not that I saw it coming, I just wanted to do something I was more interested in."
His passion is really in technology, science and resources and it's also a good place to be during a recession.
"All my companies are big cash generators with relatively low debt, so that's a good place to be. That does not mean we are immune. But so far we are okay."
At the Chamber of Commerce Buchanan helps promote free trade, encouraging companies to identify what they are a good at and to make best use of what other businesses do better.
"When going through difficult times, many companies decide to put up the barriers and that does not do anybody any good. It is about using competitive advantage. If we have to do what we are good at we should buy from people who are good at it rather than trying to do everything ourselves."
New Zealand should follow the same strategy.
As well as his homes in Surrey and Westminster, Buchanan has an apartment in St Heliers, Auckland, which he tries to get to four times a year. He loves coming "home", but one of the things he finds disappointing when he returns is that more and more businesses have disappeared overseas.
Buchanan says New Zealand needs to use its isolation and unique geography to its advantage and look at ways of doing business that do not require physical relocation.
"It's about identifying the real strengths, playing those and educating our people so we can turn our ideas into business."
That is the challenge for a school like the business faculty of the University of Auckland, and for New Zealand businesses.
"It's about employment, bringing back some of our ever-mobile graduates and giving them something to expand on."
But the winning streak is not there without a good dose of competitiveness something Buchanan learned at Auckland Grammar when he found that to top biology you had to work at it.
"That's a great lesson in life: it's not what you're born with, it's how you apply what you've got."
JOHN BUCHANAN
Age: 65.
Family: Wife Rosemary, two children - daughter in UK, son in US - three grandchildren.
Born: Auckland, grew up in Papatoetoe.
Lives: Mostly in Oxtend, Surrey, also Westminster, and has an apartment in St Heliers.
Educated: Papatoetoe West, Otara Intermediate, Auckland Grammar School, University of Auckland (PhD in organic chemistry), Oxford (post-doctoral research) and Harvard Business School (management development).
Career: BP (1970-2002) where he held management appointments in Switzerland and New Zealand, manager responsible for Group Oil Acquisition and Trading, chemicals chief operating officer, general manager of group corporate planning, chief financial officer.
Current positions: Chairman of Smith & Nephew, deputy chairman of Vodafone, senior independent director for BHP Billiton, non-executive director chairman of the audit committee at AstraZeneca, UK chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.
