Geoff Hipkins, the chief executivesent packing in mid-Marchby New Zealand exporter Turners & Growers (T&G), appears to have overlooked a golden rule of both business and rugby: don’t hit out. A month or so after his reported bust-up at a company bash in Berlin, and not even a year on from his appointment, the erstwhile director of the Auckland Rugby Football Union was shown the red card, leavingT&G’s Munich-based majority shareholder BayWa to kick him into touch and seek a new captain. The full detail of that fateful brawl in the German capital remains unpublished, but it is clear as day that, in an industry built on the bedrock of interpersonal relations, a temperamental schoolboy error shook the Kiwi firm to its foundations.
This time last year,T&Gwas on a surer footing. Its chairman, BayWa chief executive Klaus Josef Lutz, had flown to New Zealand in search of a star player to stir a squad that, according to most commentators, had lost its shape. Advice came from various sources. Rob Campbell, an independent director and Lutz’s predecessor as chairman, was no doubt aware of Hipkins’ four-year tenure as CEO of elderly care provider Oceania, being himself chairman of rival operator Summerset. One former boss of kiwifruit exporter Zespri is also understood to have provided a reference. Whoever put Hipkins forward turns out to have delivered a hospital pass.
A combative leader was, in some respects, just whatT&Grequired. An extensive and unpopular restructuring called for someone with clout who would stand up to the old guard at subsidiaries like Enza and Delica. “Mr Hipkins brings a depth of experience from growth and restructuring roles,” Lutz wrote at the time. Plenty questioned Hipkins’ appointment; behind the scenes, some even hinted at accusations of previous impropriety. Yet with the backing ofLutz’s blitz defence– reported by Eurofruit in December – he ploughed on, delivering his bosses a detailed report on what needed fixing and how it ought to be done. He fired almost an entire rugby team of senior managers, at which point the rumour mill went into overdrive. As Hipkins himself pointed out, dropped players rarely sing a manager’s praises.
In the media scrum on the opening day of Fruit Logistica 2013, I was on the Enza stand to interviewT&G’s full back,number eightand prop forward – Lutz, Hipkins and Tony Fisette, managing director of European arm Enzafruit. I asked Hipkins about the criticism he received following the clearout and suggested the old adage about having to break a few eggs in order to make an omelette might be apt. “Using that analogy, we probably had to make a larger omelette and quicker than we thought,” he countered. ““We’ve replaced a lot of dead wood with some really, really strong talent.”
Like rugby, business might also be described as “a beastly game played by gentle people”, a sport that requires toughness and tact in equal measure. For BayWa, Hipkins’ unfortunate ruck represented a startling betrayal of trust. The big question now is just how badly this manhandling error has churned up the freshly laid turf below T&G’s feet. The biggest challenge for the company in the coming months will be to repair those divots and kick on.
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