Personal File:Timothy Hemingway

Full name: Timothy Darryl Hemingway.

Birth: November 9, 1963, in New Zealand.

Occupation: Country manager, Cisco Systems.

Residence: Parnell, Auckland.

Qualifications: Bachelor of engineering, electrical and electronic. Post-graduate strategic management courses with MacQuarie Graduate School of Management, Australia.

Family situation: Engaged to Karen Iremonger with a cat, Pinot, as a trial run for children.

How did you get to where you are today? I took an early interest in the internet in New Zealand and was involved in transitioning the Waikato Internet Gateway to a commercial model while I was working at Netway Communications.

The days I spent trying to convince Telecom execs that we would one day need more internet bandwidth out of New Zealand than toll bandwidth were real highlights.

Fortunately, there were some forward thinkers in Telecom and we have more capacity now. How do you describe your personality? I think I'm a reasonably controlled person and can bring a great deal of calm during a storm. I found that out when I did Outward Bound and had to manage a boat full of panicking sailors. I'm also an optimist. This means I always expect lots out of my team and I have to remember to praise them more often when they are doing a great job.

What are your top five values?

Open communication, honesty, integrity, trust and fun.

What is the single most important lesson you have learned in business? People make a business tick. From which mistake did you learn the most? Not asking for what I wanted from my manager.

It took me two years to make the change from being a back-room engineer to a front-line sales engineer, and that was possibly two years wasted. If you could change one aspect of NZ business, what would it be? I'd really like to give New Zealand business an external perspective of what we are like as a business community. I've gained a lot by spending time in the US and looking at business from their perspective and also how their business models operate.

I don't think we understand our key strengths, our uniqueness and the way we could leverage experience from overseas, rather than having to do everything ourselves.

How have you dealt with pitfalls in your career? There is no doubt that mistakes are to be learned from. The best thing is that they don't even need to be your own mistakes. I've made some myself and the best thing I have learned to do is to accept them and acknowledge them to customers, staff and peers. It is sometimes incredibly hard to do that.

What are your rules for hiring people? Always try to hire staff that are better than you. Cultural fit is hugely important: skills can be taught, but it is really hard to change values and people skills.

Had you not been a CEO, what would you like to have been? An architect. I have a huge interest in design and love minimalist bold homes and commercial buildings. I spent time working in a drawing office after leaving school. I really enjoyed it, but decided to get my BE.

What's your greatest personal indulgence? Helping build and design houses for myself and my partner.

Where would you like to be five years from now? I'd still like to be part of Cisco.

I also think globally we'll move to a work model where we aren't tied by location to the job we do. Queenstown is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I'd like to spend a lot more time there.

What's the best piece of advice you can give others wanting to follow in your footsteps? Becoming a CEO is as much about people skills as it is about spreadsheets and business knowledge. It is important to learn early on what makes people work best, and that it takes many different ways to motivate different people.

You need to be deeply passionate about wanting to be a manager as unless that is a part of your makeup, then it would be difficult, if not impossible, to do a good job.