Reining in the Dinosaur | Book Review

“The first indication that things were going to change from the old Post Office regime was around 1983 and our then Director-General, Pat McInerney, was looking to change the shape and structure of the old post Office, which effectively hadn’t had any change for 150 years, to give it a sharper business focus.” (p. 28)

Called out as an exceptional example of crossing The Knowing-Doing Gap, Vivienne Smith’s captures in remarkable historical detail the unique circumstances leading to The New Zealand Post’s remarkable turnaround several decades ago. Conditions in 1984:

• Government spending accounted for over 40 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP and 31 per cent of people working were employed by the State (p. 31).

• The postal side was looked upon as the inferior service, a largely manual operation where practices had not essentially changed in 100 years and were regarded as unlikely to change for the next century (p. 14).

• The neglect, he believes, was because the organisation was totally dominated by the telecommunications engineers, who were only interested in the technical aspects of the operation, not the business side (p. 45).

• It was not a creative environment (p. 26). A very lazy working environment (p. 27).

Transparency and continuous knowledge-sharing pervade Smith’s story, beginning with long-overdue commercially-centric business audits and propelled by superb application of what we may call chief executive Harvey Parker’s Leadership Philosophy. Directly threading quotes by Parker and others in the turnaround team yields guiding principles for improving the accountability of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) via the Statement of Corporate Intent (p. 61).

New Zealand Post Leadership Philosophy

 We’re going to be the best postal operation in the world. We’re going to achieve to a level where the shareholders get a decent return for their money. We are always going to make a profit (p. 174). [We shall] establish the pre-eminence of commercial objectives over social or political considerations (p. 98). If we don’t move forward, we’ll get passed by the competition, and the repercussions of that will be serious for us all (p. 140). [Our] Post Office [is] often the first link which distant communities in New Zealand had with the body politic” (p. 13). Management and staff cannot afford to slacken the pace of change (p. 111).

 “My style (Harvey Parker) is one where I gather a group of very good people around me and act as the team leader of that group” (p. 63). Your energy needed to be concentrated (p. 74). All staff would have a place in one or another of the new businesses on day one (p. 59).

 “The greatest factor” in New Zealand Post’s success [will be] the provision that allows access to funds to invest in [our] own development – something [our] parent organization never had (p. 12). [Let’s] put a lot of effort into developing our managers (p. 122). Open and inclusive management style (p. 69), not about bricks and mortar – [we’re] about services (p. 91). [Using] a spoke and hub mail processing system (p. 115), costs are determined by the way letters are handled, not by how much they weighed or what their contents [are] (p. 114). Greater emphasis [shall] be placed on relocation, redeployment and early retirement, rather than severance (p. 139).

I expect all managers to co-operate in building a tight corporate team committed to achieving the goals specified by the board of New Zealand Post. Expressions of opinion and debate should occur in the formation of policies and goals, but once these policies and goals have been endorsed by the board, I expect all managers to support them fully (p. 65). Staff are given the novel authority to make decisions (p. 75). The speed of decision-making changes. You decide. You only have to be right 51 percent of the time (p. 75). Under New Zealand Post, you [are] the manager, you [are] responsible for those people out there… (p. 158). All mail will be first class, there won’t be any deferred processing on the grounds that it’s sealed or unsealed, or that it’s a letter or a publication (p. 112).

The company [won’t] bulldoze ahead on something just to spite the union, even on something as major as the introduction of the culler-facer-canceller and automatic address reading machines which replaced hundreds of workers (p. 125). You can either come with us and be part of that, or perhaps there’s not a future for you in the company (p. 73). [Our] principal concentration [will be] be on getting [our] core business in good shape (p. 134).

If you put the right target for that part of the business in front of the person that’s involved, and it’s properly signalled in terms of a productivity measurement and fed back to them – it’s at last involving then in their part of the business. (pp. 141-142).

Summary

A historical story well worth sharing. 

“My major worry was the people rather
than the business case.” (p. 50) 

Thank you Hard To Find Books, Dunedin, NZ for carrying Vivienne’s story.