Chief executive focuses on reducing his customer base

Murray Upton

Chief executive, National Foundation for the Deaf.

Age: 48 years.

Description of Organisation: Non-profit.

Number of employees: 50.

Time with organisation: One year.

What makes your day at work?

There are an estimated 450,000 hearing impaired or deaf people in New Zealand. Attending to their needs can make life interesting.

For example, my team and I discovered that the average age that a hearing impairment is detected in kids in this country is about 25 months, [whereas] in the United States they have a programme called neo-natal screening, which means hearing impairment can be detected at just two months.

What that means to me is that in New Zealand we are content with those horrible statistics that could prevent children from learning at [that] vital age. Our approach is that we are going to rattle some cages to make that problem go away.

How did you get where you are today?

I started my career as an apprentice electrician. At that time, my aspiration was to be a supervisor by the time I was 30. As it happens, I became managing director of a multi-million dollar multinational - Otis Elevators - when I was 31.

What's the most important lesson you learnt on your way up?

One of my staff is profoundly deaf, and when I first came here I thought "there's a deaf person, I'll be nice" - but I found that she was treated much the same by everybody and as a result she became very isolated.

People can get to the point where they assume deaf people are stupid - but they certainly are not.

The staff member I'm talking about is a very bright person - very courageous and determined - but on first glance you wouldn't notice that.

Communication is the key. Last year the whole team started sign language classes - and it has been the best team-building device I've ever utilised.

What pitfalls have you come across in your career?

Again, it really is a matter of communication.

I spent two years with the Auckland Regional Council and we restructured that beast - and I found that a lot of people there were very entrenched in their beliefs and rightfully so. I came in with different beliefs and I found I did not bridge the communication gap as well as I could have done.

What advice would you give to a young person starting out in business?

Choose a career path that you believe will give you the skills to be successful and, more importantly, that you can become passionate about.

Without the passion, you are unlikely to be successful, unless you are very lucky.

If you are that lucky, just buy Lotto tickets and wait.

What's the biggest challenge for your organisation in the present economy?

We traditionally have stood on a street corner with a tin cup and rattled it - but there are some 36,000 charitable organisations in this country with whom we "compete" for the donor dollar.

What I've thought, and had reasonable success with is, let's hit the corporates, because if I can influence the 450,000 hearing impaired people to buy one brand or the other, that's a huge customer base.

If there was one thing in life you could have done differently, what would it have been?

In many ways, I was a late developer. I did not gain my MBA degree until I was 30. An MBA not only gives you a great skill set but opens doors and provides confidence.

Given my time again, I would have liked to have that experience a little earlier in my career.

What ambitions do you have?

I came into my current role because I believed I could make a difference - and so far, so good.

Most chief executives would like to increase their customer base. Due to the nature of the business I'm in, my ambition is to reduce my customer base. Now that's different!

How do you relax?

What's that? I'm not one to lie on the beach all day reading a book, but I do like the outdoor life and my music.

* Murray Upton spoke with Dita De Boni.