A sense of team spirit

By ASHLEY CAMPBELL

Geoff Vazey doesn't look much the CEO. In his dark-green polo-neck jumper, olive-green trousers and slightly scuffed black shoes, he looks like he belongs in some Cambridge pub discussing bloodlines over a cold beer.

But although Vazey, 55, breeds thoroughbreds as something of a hobby ("It's a dreamer's game - there's no logic to it"), during the day he runs the country's biggest port. It's not a job for the faint-hearted.

Between unions with a reputation for militancy, local and national politicians, business lobby groups, yachties, iwi and, well, all of Auckland really, Ports of Auckland aren't exactly short of stakeholders. And all of them have something to say.

With characteristic matter-of-factness, Vazey accepts that he has many opinions and interest groups to consider.

"We occupy such a beautiful geographical site on the doorstep of the CBD on a beautiful harbour ... People will have a lot of ideas about that. That's fine. It's just something you have to manage."

How? "By dealing with people on a non-confrontational basis ... by being approachable.

"I think I'm a pretty straight shooter. When people have discussions with me I'll cut to the chase pretty quickly. They know where I stand and shouldn't be confused about what I mean."

His smile holds a hint of irony. "I'm not famous for writing long reports."

But Vazey is, it seems, famous for being many of the things he describes himself as: pragmatic, approachable, a team player, straight-talking, easy to deal with. And a shrewd operator with an effective management style.

In fact, it's hard to find anyone who has a bad word to say about him.

Asking around among journalists and industry insiders, the only hint of criticism came when relating to Denis Carlisle of the Waterfront Workers' Union a claim made for Vazey: that he'd never been angry in his life.

"I can't comment on his life," the union's Auckland branch president deadpans, "but he's been a bit terse on occasions."

There's a more than grudging admiration here. "He and I have had a few toe-to-toe jobs, threats and counter threats. But it doesn't linger. I think it gets to the point where he plays the hard man and I play the hard man."

And who usually wins, I ask. "Fifty-fifty," comes back the answer.

But that was all prompted. Unprompted, Carlisle positively oozes admiration.

"He inspires loyalty from the people who report to him. He's usually quite approachable and, overall, very much a down-to-earth bloke."

Wait a minute - just two years ago the port and union were involved in a protracted and unpleasant dispute. How did that drag on so long if he's such a good boss to deal with?

"The problem is that he's only involved in the negotiations at the very last gasp," says Carlisle. "Quite often when he gets involved we get some quick decisions and we can conclude things.

"We have a reasonable rapport and he's endeavoured to build a relationship between the union and the company."

High praise indeed, when you consider that Vazey's first task upon joining the company in 1988 was to get involved in pretty tough industrial negotiations involving large-scale redundancies. Within five years the workforce dropped from from 1600 to 440.

And even though everyone knew it had to happen, it was hard on all involved, Vazey says.

"You get some who say, 'Here's a bag of money, I'm off'. You get others who don't want to go. You've got to feel for them - that can be difficult."

But Vazey says he's never recoiled from cutting jobs, not least because "continuing with fictitious jobs is going to break down one day.

"You get your human comfort from the fact that you are making some very good jobs for the people who remain."

A sense of team spirit comes through strongly as Vazey talks about not only this role, but his career before it.

An engineering graduate, he was involved in some of the country's largest engineering and construction projects - the words Kawerau, Kapuni, Maui and Huntly roll off his tongue - before joining Ports of Auckland.

"The sort of companies I was involved with ... you don't achieve anything by yourself. It's teamwork, and it's the whole of the team."

That applies equally well in a port, he says. "We are selling something today you can't see tomorrow. We are only as good as the people delivering that service - every one of them."

As a recent survey of executive behaviour in New Zealand showed, many business leaders voice such sentiments but fall short when it comes to action. Carlisle's comments suggest Vazey actually walks the talk.

"He actively promoted in the last negotiations a profit-sharing scheme for the workers, linked to productivity," says Carlisle. "That had never been mentioned before.

"It's not working properly, but at least it's setting out in the right direction."

The son of an engineer and a milliner, Vazey credits his Onehunga upbringing, mixing with rich and poor, unconcerned by who had what, with making him as comfortable with his employees as he is with business leaders.

"If you and I went for a walk around the port now," he says, "I would be saying hi to people and they would be saying hi to me.

"They treat me like a human being and I treat them like human beings."

And family is, for him, an important part of being a human being. The father of 11- and 15-year-old sons, he tries to keep weekends free to spend with them, aware many of his staff don't have that option.

"We are selfish," he says. "We take a person on our staff away from their family so often ...

"We once put a job ad [in the paper] and said: 'great job, great team, lousy hours'."

In these days of work-life balance, Vazey is aware the company must give something back in return, and enthusiastically describes a new scheme that does just that.

Staff can nominate their children's classes for a free cruise around the waterfront. Ports of Auckland will send a bus to the school to pick the kids up, deliver them to the boat, and send the parent on the boat to explain what they're seeing.

"Here's an opportunity to give our staff some self-esteem about what a great job they're doing."

And it was Vazey's suggestion, at a management meeting, that the company should provide moral support to Team New Zealand as it faced its opponents in the America's Cup.

He recalls telling his colleagues, "I've figured out what we should do - we're all going to do the haka", and meeting stony silence as they thought, "He's gone mad".

But he ran with his idea, sought help from Ngati Whatua, and took part as confidence grew with each haka practice.

Then he describes the feeling as, with a turnout of about 500, they performed for real on Princes Wharf on the first day.

"That was just a really great life experience," he says. "It felt good doing it - [it meant] a great deal to our people. It was just exhilarating."

He jokes that just thinking about it is bringing tears to his eyes and I'm about to see a hard man cry.

Somehow, I don't think so.

Ports of Auckland