Sir Colin Maiden. Photo / Richard Robinson
Is NZ a fortunate country? As he grieves the death of his wife after a car crash, one of our greatest business leaders poses the question in a new book, reports Shayne Currie.
Sir Colin Maiden points to a picture of his beloved wife Jenefor on a bookshelf, in the lounge of his Remuera apartment.
It adorns her funeral pamphlet.
“I miss her terribly,” says Sir Colin, now 90.
Lady Jenefor – his high-school sweetheart from their Auckland Grammar-Epsom Girls Grammar days – died from injuries after a car accident at the couple’s Remuera apartment block last year; their vehicle collided with a concrete column in the garage.
“We had 65 years of wonderful marriage, and we have a wonderful family. Although it was a tragedy, I have no regrets. We have no regrets. We couldn’t have had a happier marriage and we have a wonderful family.”
With four children, nine grandchildren and six, soon-to-be seven, great-grandchildren, Sir Colin – Rhodes Scholar, former US General Motors engineer and executive, former vice chancellor of Auckland University and former director of some 13 companies including Fisher & Paykel and Farmers during an illustrious business career – has spent the past year penning a new book, Is New Zealand a Fortunate Country?
He went into the project feeling somewhat pessimistic but emerged with new hope and a manifesto, of sorts, as to how he thinks the country can be turned around.
“I think basically we are a fortunate country. And I think, with the right government policies, we could become the most successful country in the world on income per head of population,” he told the Weekend Herald.
At one point in the book, he says: “I make no excuses that these are the opinions of an elderly white male because that is who I am, drawing on my experiences of … 90 years of life.”
But his recommendations span the political divide, and some people may be surprised by some of his positions. For example, he supports a moderate capital gains tax – “maybe about half the normal tax rate”; thinks the Super age should be raised; and says the Serious Fraud Office and judicial system “should be more severe in charging and sentencing white-collar criminals”.
He says poverty is a “disgrace” and crime and gangs are “out of control”. A social investment model, like one devised by Sir Bill English when he was Social Welfare Minister, should be introduced to identify families at risk of poverty, he says.
And he believes some of the “present practices of using Māori ways to help Māori in poverty looks promising and should be further investigated”.
Among other key recommendations:
But Sir Colin reserves some of his strongest recommendations for the sector he perhaps knows best, education.
For productivity gains, he says, emphasis should be given in schools to the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
“Also, the standards of basic English and literacy need to be improved so that different concepts can be articulated.”
And NCEA should be reviewed in its entirety, “with Government investigating more rigorous overseas assessment schemes to raise New Zealand’s school leavers’ educational attainments”.
Sir Colin told the Herald that one of his grandsons had been back living in New Zealand with his Slovenian wife and 8-year-old twins. “They got totally disillusioned with the standard of education,” he says.
Kiwi kids, according to his grandson, were “way behind” in maths and even English compared with their Slovenian counterparts of the same age.
That grandson, he says, is “rather pessimistic” about New Zealand’s direction and is now back living in Europe.
Sir Colin was appointed vice chancellor of Auckland University in 1971 – at 37, he was the youngest vice chancellor in the Commonwealth. He retired from the role in 1994, having become the longest-serving VC in the Commonwealth.
Sir Colin’s own tertiary education career started at Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar. He then had stints in Canada and back in New Zealand before securing a role at General Motors that, he believes, set his business career on a new trajectory.
“When I look back, it is clear that my employment by General Motors in the US in the 1960s was the defining event of my working life,” he told the Herald’s Tamsyn Parker in 2008.
He started out in the company’s defence system division in Santa Barbara, the Californian city planted between the Santa Ynez mountains and Pacific Ocean: One of the best places to live in the world, he says.
One day an executive visited, ostensibly to close the division down. When he heard about the work that Sir Colin was doing, the young Kiwi leader was told to take “all my group – 30 families – back to Michigan and I was to become head of the metal forming and die development for the whole of General Motors worldwide”.
“You know, I wasn’t even a citizen and the Americans pushed me as far as they could. They had no hesitation and I have terrific admiration [for them].”
He put his promotion and advancement down to being a Kiwi.
“We treat people well. I’d try and hire the best people and then I’d give them very loose boundaries and let them run. They’d come along and have a chat to me about something or other and at the end of it, we’d say, ‘yeah, let’s do that’, ‘let’s do this’.
“They all flourished under that form of leadership. I’m still very, very close to all those Americans who I worked with who are still alive.
“I got a letter from one the other day thanking me for the huge impact I’d had on his life.”
This carried over to his university career – he says he was “absolutely privileged” to be vice chancellor at Auckland University, where he strived to lift research to world-class standards. He takes a great deal of satisfaction at seeing the progress and achievements of university alumni.
“Universities are the most wonderful institutions in the world.”
Sir Colin thinks many corporates and public bodies are overusing consultants these days.
“Consultants have their place. If there’s some area of expertise that you need in the company and you haven’t got it, you’ve got to go to consultants …
“Or if you want to have a really good external review of how the company is doing, you get in a good consulting group.
“But I see too much today, consultants being brought in to do work, which I think should be done within the group and it’s expensive. I think it’s unnecessary and a very bad habit indeed.”
It also has the ripple effect, he says, of companies losing their expertise and IP to outsiders.
His career as a director started in 1972 – soon after his fulltime role as vice chancellor at Auckland University started – and he was knighted for his services to education and business management in 1992.
As well as Fisher & Paykel and Farmers, his other directorships at various times included DB Breweries, Mason Industries, Progressive Enterprises, ANZ Banking Group, Foodland Associated, New Zealand Steel, Winstone, Wilkins & Davies, National Insurance and Tower Corporation.
He was also chair of Independent Newspapers – which eventually became Fairfax and then Stuff – when it was part-owned by Rupert Murdoch.
He met Murdoch and son Lachlan on several occasions. In 1995, he and then INL managing director Mike Robson celebrated Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup victory in San Diego, alongside Murdoch on his superyacht Red Dragon.
“Trays of champagne were brought out ... it was as though Mike Robson and I had won the America’s Cup!” he says.
“I have a lot of memories of Rupert. I must admit with his views and Fox News and all the rest, I have become rather disillusioned in recent years. But we never saw that side of it. I don’t like what I see of that side ... Fox News.”
As well as Sir Colin’s name being recognised widely in business and education circles, it is also immortalised in the big park in east Auckland, home of the university rugby and cricket teams. It is also being touted as a likely future venue for test cricket.
He’s chuffed about that.
“I’m so proud of that park,” he says.
“When I came to leave the university, the chancellor said to me, we named a building after your predecessor. What building would you like named after you?
“And I said, well, the thing I put my heart and soul into more than anything else was the park.
“You know,” he says, “we planted 2000 pōhutukawa trees around it and you look at them now – they’re huge.”
Sir Colin says he’s at peace with the world. He’s been in good health, although lately he has been recovering from recent surgery, which has meant he’s been prevented from playing tennis, a sport he took up at the age of 8.
“There’s still hope, but for the first time ever, I’m beginning to think I might have to hang up my racket.
“I’ve had the most wonderful life, full of memories and, and I’m still going too. I’ve pushed myself to the limits all the way. I mean, I almost overdid it at times with all the directorships I had.
“But I’ve pushed myself to the limit – I’m pleased I’ve done that and come through it.”
As he reflects on the book, and his surroundings, he says: “I’m very happy here. As happy as I can be without Jenefor by my side.”
* This article has been updated to remove the comment that one of Sir Colin’s grandsons and his wife had spoken to their school principal about the standard of education for their children. The family has clarified that they had not spoken to the headmaster.
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