Irked by options for Kiwi of the year

AS I write this, there are 137 comments responding to the NZ Herald’s question Who is your New Zealander of the Year? Of course we should expect many and varied responses to such a question, because different people inspire and impress us for different reasons.

But the Herald’s suggestions this year irked me more than usual.

Their opening paragraph suggested artists and sportspeople who have achieved success this year. I suspect few would disagree with someone like Kimbra or Lisa Carrington winning the accolade, given that they put themselves, and New Zealand by association, on the map this year.

But to suggest Kim Dotcom as New Zealander of the Year is surely belittling to so many other Kiwis who have done great things in the past 12 months?

As for limiting the two business suggestions to Fonterra’s Henry van der Heyden and entrepreneur Geoff Ross on the basis they ‘‘have been successful in the business world’’? Well, it is obvious that the writer did not bother checking the business archives to see who had done what during the year.

And more importantly, they did not bother looking back beyond 12 months, which is important, because like success in the arts or in sport, it takes a lot longer than one year to be successful in business.

Indeed, if you achieve business success in a very short timeframe, there’s a good chance it won’t last, or you’ve taken shortcuts to get there.

And what does it mean to be ‘‘successful in the business world’’ anyway?

Is it being good at selfpromotion? Kim Dotcom should certainly win a prize if that’s the main criterion. Is it being good at raising money from the public? Then yes, Henry van der Heyden and Geoff Ross have been successful this year with the Fonterra Shareholders Fund and Moa Beer respectively.

But then, Ross Asset Management (not related to Geoff Ross) raised money from the public this year and is as far from being successful as you can get (my sympathies to those involved).

A journalist who was diligent in finding worthy business candidates would have identified people like Rod Drury (Xero doubled its revenue and created 130 new jobs this year) and Simon Challies (Ryman Healthcare this year celebrated a milestone of 10 consecutive years of record, +20 per cent on average, profit results).

And what about Michael Hill or Dean Bracewell (Freightways) or Jim Delegat (Delegat’s) who steered their businesses through sluggish and competitive conditions to achieve profit growth? Not to mention Mark Cairns from Port of Tauranga, with another record profit result which translated into total shareholder returns of 26 per cent for the year. The share-price performance of each of these companies materially lifted the wealth of New Zealand investors.

In fact the New Zealand sharemarket, a star performer this year, is a worthy contender, leaving other larger, and supposedly more important markets looking quite insipid.

It is easy to focus on the squeaky wheels but givenNew Zealanders are humble and hardworking people, it’s the quiet achievers we should be lauding. Carmel Fisher is managing director of Fisher Funds, an investment manager and KiwiSaver provider.