The pathway to the CEO’s desk
A small group of Kiwi chief executives are earning up to 80 times the average annual income in New Zealand. But who are they, what do they do? And are they worth it?
Chief executive: The term is redolent with the glamour, power and money that comes from having climbed your way to the top of the corporate ladder.
When those two magic words are added to your business card, you know you’ve made it.
But it’s a long and winding road to the pinnacle of corporate power in the country’s largest companies.
Unless, that is, you decide to launch your own business, and bestow the title on yourself.
Here are the stories of two men and one woman on their route to the title, and their tips on how to unleash the inner chief executive in all of us.
Mimi Gilmour-Buckley
Co-founder of restaurant chains Burger Burger and Mexico
Mimi Gilmour-Buckley was born into hospitality and always had a business acumen, having started her first business at 16, cooking for private dinners.
Her mother, Emerald Gilmour, ran a popular Auckland restaurant called Clichy in the 1970s.
Gilmour-Buckley, and her sister (owner of Auckland cafe Bird on a Wire) Sophie Gilmour, learnt how to cook from a very young age.
‘‘My parents were diligent about making Sophie and I understand the importance of a good work ethic,’’ Gilmour-Buckley said.
Her first manager role was as a manager of the famous Ponsonby restaurant Rocco, which closed in 2011. She then went on to start a number of businesses including Mexico, which she sold after growing it to six outlets in two years. She still manages Fish Fish and Burger Burger.
Gilmour-Buckley said her leadership style had evolved over her career. ‘‘When growing a business the chief executive’s role shifts from being hands-on to becoming strategic.’’
For Gilmour-Buckley, this was hard because she enjoyed the hands-on aspect of business.
In 2014 when she sold her Mexico shares, Gilmour-Buckley had sought advice from EY partner Jo Doolan, who told her she was good at the first parts of setting up a business – coming up with the idea, and making it work.
‘‘She said to me: ‘Let’s just face it – [after that] you get bored. The smartest thing you can do is walk away and hire someone that’s good at it.’ ’’
A good leader must be a listener, be reliable and have a lead-byexample work ethic, GilmourBuckley said.
‘‘If you want to be the best, you are going to have to work harder than everyone else.’’
Simon Moutter
Spark chief executive
The Spark boss has had a career spanning 35 years in various leadership roles.
An electrical engineering graduate, Simon Moutter worked in the energy industry for several years, starting his own company and scoring his first big management job as station manager of the New Plymouth Power Station.
In 1999 Moutter left the industry to join Telecom.
After nine years in various leadership roles there, he left the company to become the head honcho at Auckland Airport.
He returned to Telecom in 2012 as chief executive and led the organisation’s transition into Spark. Moutter said the transition was one of the biggest challenges in his career.
‘‘The hardest challenge, by far, the biggest and toughest decision was getting old Telecom to turn around and become the new, growing Spark. The complexity of Spark is beyond any business I’ve worked in prior.’’
Moutter said he was a demanding chief executive but this attitude got the job done.
‘‘You can’t let leadership turn into a soft, warm and fuzzy thing. You just won’t get results. It’s a fiercely competitive, volatile, ambiguous world,’’ Moutter said.
‘‘Everyone loves working in a successful company. It doesn’t matter how nice a company is to work for if it’s unsuccessful.’’
Spark reported a profit of $385 million after tax for the year to June 30, down 8 per cent from a year earlier.
Moutter said his advice to budding entrepreneurs was to say ‘‘yes’’ to new opportunities.
Matt Morrison
Karma Cola chief executive
Morrison’s life in the early 2000s was a complete contrast to what he does now.
Having served in the army in East Timor before switching careers to work at the Treasury, Morrison said he enjoyed doing different things.
‘‘To be able to work for yourself is a great feeling,’’ he said.
‘‘The great thing about small business is you don’t get bored. There’s so much diversity within the business, we’re constantly challenged by new things and it feels like you need to reinvent your business and yourself every couple of years.’’
Morrison began All Good Organics with his brother Chris and friend Simon Cowley in 2010.
All Good Organics began importing Fairtrade bananas into New Zealand, and then in 2012 they launched two Fairtrade organic soft-drinks – Karma Cola, made with cola nuts from Sierra Leone, and Gingerella ginger ale.
Morrison said every leader needed empathy and had to be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses.
‘‘Any chief executive in a small business needs empathy. The ability to put yourself in the shoes of others, your employees and customers and learn is vital.
‘‘In the end, solutions don’t come from the top, they come from the grassroots.’’
Like Gilmour-Buckley, Morrison said his leadership style had changed over time.
‘‘We’ve gone from un-boxing banana boxes at 4am to being able to employ people to do those things. We try now to work on the business rather than in the business. Step back and let smarter people run the business day to day.’’
Karma Cola is now an international operation ‘‘so you can never escape your phone and your emails’’.
‘‘People will have some really great ways of switching off but I just haven’t achieved that myself. But if you’re really into it and enjoying it, it doesn’t feel like work.’’