Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce chief executive Wayne Walford. Photo / Duncan Brown
Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce chief executive Wayne Walford. Photo / Duncan Brown
He might have lost a pony-tail along the way - but after five years at the helm of regional business advocacy, Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce chief executive Wayne Walford is still challenging norms.
"When I test situations by challenging norms and long held beliefs, I do so because I see the value for Hawke's Bay of giving people permission to be successful.
"The best options lie outside of pre-existing norms. Our opportunity is to build courage and challenge long-held thinking."
Celebrating his fifth anniversary this week, Walford said he returned home to the region from Waikato to head the Hawke's Bay chamber, looking to help recreate a similar successful result.
"Knowing what we achieved there, I saw the prospect of leading the region with opportunities like water storage and oil and gas as massive alongside the draw of home."
Looking back over five years as lead for the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce, it was clear much had changed since he returned to Hawke's Bay.
"The opportunities at the time were water storage, oil and gas. Today, these are a long way down the priority list although I think water storage is taking a different tack at individual household level."
Wayne Walford, pictured in 2014. Photo / File
In the time Walford has been chief executive the number of "significant enterprises" - businesses with a GST turnover of at least $30,000 a year - in Hawke's Bay has risen from 17,913 to 18,621 (in 2017).
During that time, employee numbers at those businesses have been boosted by an extra 3800 people, Statistics NZ data shows.
"The region is performing really well in economic terms," Walford said.
"Over the past five years I have seen continual improvement in a wide range of industries and leadership. We still have skill shortages, we still have challenges with seasonal employment although the appreciation of initiatives like RSE workers is well recognised for primary industry productivity.
"Alongside this, the impact of technology and disruptive industries continue to challenge our perception of work. Like the internet and mobile phones, these have become accepted ways of doing business and tools for being more mobile.
"The best part about five years in this role is seeing the empowerment of people through creating connections and improving knowledge to enable strong sustainable businesses.
"What five years has enabled for me is to build relationships with many people. Although Hawke's Bay is my place of birth and education, I still see a reticence for new and differing views. The ability to have robust, non-emotional discussions is important for our diversity and future development."
That was under-pinned recently, after three chance conversations with industry leaders at a Hawke's Bay cafe, he said.
"They were short in length but very poignant. I believe these were enabled due to our existing relationships and shared trust."
