Graeme Hart: 'You can do what I have done'

Tuesday, 23 August 2022

New Zealand’s richest man says there’s no reason why young people today couldn’t do what he has done – and there may be factors that make it easier now.

Graeme Hart, whom it has been estimated is worth about $12 billion, was this year inducted into the Young Enterprise Business Hall of Fame.

He was one of seven being inducted, alongside Bruce McLaren, Pania Tyson-Nathan, Ulo Aiono, Greg Tomlinson, Les, Jackie and Phillip Mills and Charles and Jessie Begg.

Businessman Sir Eion Edgar, who died last year, was chair of the selection panel and this year’s gala dinner event also included a tribute to him.

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Hart said young people today should be able to do what he had done and succeed.

Hart left school with no tertiary education but has had a successful business career spanning 50 years.

His first venture was a trucking business, which he bought with a $500 loan from his father and a $2000 bank loan, which he said he suspected his father had guaranteed.

Over his career, Hart built Whitcoulls Group into the largest company in its field in Australasia and the fifth-largest in the world.

He grew Goodman Fielder into the largest food group in Australasia with Mauri Foods becoming the world’s largest yeast group. And he expanded global packaging and consumer products group Reynolds to reach revenue of more than $20 billion, with 40,000 employees across about 400 facilities in 50 countries – all owned and controlled from Auckland.

“You can do what I have done,” he said.

He said there were many more opportunities for would-be businesspeople today than when he started. “The world is growing, capital markets are way more sophisticated.”

People who wanted to borrow money for a venture now could potentially tap into billions of dollars of global capital “chasing a home”, he said. “There was no money chasing me when I was 17 years old.”

Young businesspeople could also access a global market from anywhere in the world, whereas Hart said he had been restricted to a very local one when he began. “My market was Auckland, New Zealand but today anyone, particularly starting in tech, the world is your oyster.”

He said while he did not have capital, a formal education or experience, he had a burning desire to succeed.

“This is just a blessing from Mum and Dad, I guess. I had an absolute passion for business, a very strong commercial acumen. For me, business is what I love.”

He was also willing to take risk, which he said was vital.

“I had a preparedness and an appetite for risk. That’s really important.

“That appetite for risk – the courage, the conviction to take the opportunities as they present themselves to you. That’s what makes the difference. There’s plenty of smart guys, plenty of money around but if you don’t have the ability to take the opportunity - and it will often be uncertain to you and often as scary as all hell - that’s important.”

Terry Shubkin, chief executive of Young Enterprise, said the Hall of Fame was driven by nominations and sought people who were either well-known leaders whose stories already inspired others or those “gems” who intentionally or unintentionally has flown under the radar. “We want those selected for induction to be role models for others to inspire the next generation of business leaders.”

Once people were nominated, a selection panel would assess them. Those who were considered worthy but not selected one year could be inducted the next.

“Given this is a Hall of Fame celebrating a lifetime of achievement, if you were worthy this year but just weren’t picked, you should still be worthy next year. Sometimes people are selected the first year they are nominated. Sometimes, it might be several years later or even up to a decade later.”

She said nominations opened again after each year’s induction ceremony.

“In the nomination form, we ask for a summary of the person’s business achievements as well as their community achievements. While these are business awards, we believe the Laureates are being put up as role models and you cannot be a role model without being a great community leader. If any of the nominations are lacking in depth of detail, we get our researcher at the time to provide additional information.”

She said the diversity of the inductees this year was notable.

“They were across industries, geographies, time, ethnicities, and gender. Their stories were all different, but there was a common theme amongst them all about hard work, seizing opportunities and surrounding yourself with good people both personally as well as in business. I loved Graeme Hart’s quote of ‘good people will make you and bad people will break you’.

“I also loved the cultural acknowledgement made by the audience for Ulu Aiono, Pania Tyson-Nathan and the late Sir Eion Edgar.”

She said Edgar, who was chair of Forsyth Barr for 20 years, had been the “heart and soul” of the awards.

“His contribution goes well beyond the last 15 years. In the final days and weeks of his life, Sir Eion worked tirelessly to establish the Young Enterprise Foundation and raise funds for it, to ensure the longevity of the NZ Business Hall of Fame long into the future.”