KIRI BARFOOT

Kiri Barfoot has worked for the family firm, Barfoot & Thompson, in many different capacities over the years. She became a director nine years ago, working alongside her cousin Steven Barfoot and Peter Thompson to head the company.

How are you related to the Barfoot of Barfoot and Thompson?

Valentine Barfoot was my granddad. He was an English immigrant who came here in the 1920s. He was a qualified engineer but there weren’t many jobs going so he got a job at a real estate agency, where there was just him and another man. After a while he realised that it wasn’t really a real estate agency, it was an illegal betting shop. He was a man of great integrity and that didn’t sit well with him, so he bought the other guy out for £75 — a lot of money in those days — and set up a legitimate agency. Mr Thompson came along a bit later and the rest is history.

Was joining the family firm a foregone conclusion for you?

Not at all. Although my dad Garth was in the business — three of Valentine’s four sons went into real estate — we didn’t sit around the dinner table talking about [it]. My mum Judy was more of a role model to me. She was an anaesthetist who only worked part time, but she made more than Dad. When she wasn’t working she did the traditional things like cooking and washing and baking bran muffins, but if she wanted to go off and play golf, she would. She had an 8 handicap! I grew up thinking women could do anything because of her.

Despite Dad working in real estate, they’ve never bought or sold a house themselves. They bought a section in Birkdale when I was a baby, built a house [on it] and are still there.

When did you start working at Barfoot & Thompson?

My first job was in the summer holidays while I was at university doing a commerce degree. I took photos of houses for sale — only the outside, there were no interior shots in those days. Later I worked in the accounts department while I was at university.

What was your first proper job for the company?

My dad offered me a job in property management when I came back to New Zealand after living overseas for a couple of years. I’d worked on a kibbutz in Israel and in credit control in London and I came back because I really missed New Zealand. I had no money so I thought I would give the property management job a go. I did that for two years then I went into sales. It was the late 90s, and it was a tough time in real estate. I was in my 20s and the youngest person by about 10 years. I found it hard having to work weekends when my friends were all out partying.

Did the Barfoot name help your real estate career?

It has helped me to become a director of the company (although there is a process to go through to get that position — it doesn’t just get handed to you), but it didn’t help me when I was selling houses. The phone didn’t ring any more for me than it did for anyone else — I probably got one listing purely because of my name. The rest you have to work for like everyone else. I wasn’t one of those naturally gifted sales people who are persuasive and charming, I was shy and introverted. But I made it into the 20 per cent of top salespeople through working damn hard and following a plan.

Have you ever worked anywhere else?

Yes, I worked for a while for telecommunications companies to see what it was like working somewhere not owned by family. I mostly enjoyed it and made really good friends, but I got annoyed by things like although you might finish work at 5pm you couldn’t be seen to be leaving before 6. Nobody was doing any work, they were sitting there playing Space Invaders, but you couldn’t leave. After a while I went back to real estate. I found management suited me more than selling, although becoming a branch manager was no easier for me than anyone else. I had to prove myself and apply seven or eight times before I got the job. My father wanted to make sure that things weren’t just handed to me on a plate.

The first branch I managed was at Waiuku; my next branch was at Otahuhu. I found that people in South Auckland might not have a lot financially, but they had a lot of love and support from family and seemed to be happier than people with more material possessions.

As a company director, do you ever feel like a woman in a man’s world?

At this level, it can feel like that. Sometimes I am the only woman in meetings. In sales it is definitely 50/50 male and female so women are bringing half of the commissions, but when you get to management level it is male-dominated. I think it’s because women don’t apply for these jobs as much and a lot of it is to do with confidence. Men will apply for a job when their confidence level is at eight out of 10 whereas women will wait until it is 11 out of 10. I’d love to encourage more women to put their hands up for management roles, including within our company. We want to represent society and we are not doing that at management level.

Do you feel like you’re a role model?

I don’t wake up each day and think, ‘Oh, I’m a role model, I had better behave myself.’ I guess I am to some people, but I don’t really think about it, I try to do my best. I have a couple of kids — teenagers now— [and] it shows that you can do the mothering thing as well as being in management. Some women high up in business don’t have kids so it is good for other women to see that you can have a career and family. And as a mother you are basically a manager anyway. People want to be what they can see.

Do you get time to have hobbies out of work?

I’m really into fitness. I’ve recently started F45 — it’s a proper workout and you can’t pretend you are busy on the bike when you’re actually sitting there reading a magazine. I also cycle. I’m going to be doing the four-day Tour of Northland cycle ride [in March]. I’ve done a lot of racing although a year ago I had a serious crash — the guy ahead of me came off and I went over him and into the road. I ended up with a plate in my wrist and my mouth — my teeth ended up chipped and jagged.

Would you like your kids to go into the family business?

It is completely up to them. They need to do what they want. And if they do want to go into the business they should go out and experience life outside Barfoot & Thompson first. I’m glad I did that.

It also helps to work in different parts of the company, and even when you are a director, you need to spend time in the business seeing what the working environment is like.

We are still very much a family company although it can be harder to feel that way when you have 2400 people working for you. As directors, we try to be approachable. We’re happy for people to come and have a cup of coffee with us but people don’t ask because they’re scared. We’re not scary people, we’re just people who got lucky with our parents, and have the right surnames.

”I found that people in South Auckland might not have a lot financially, but they had a lot of love and support from family and seemed to be happier than people with more material possessions.”