Bendon

"One such opportunity had arisen with Bendon, the board of which he’d joined in 1978. Gibbs calculated that Bendon was New Zealand’s most profitable manufacturing business on sales. It had almost a complete monopoly on women’s underwear, protected by import licences, and it made steady earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 15–20 per cent on sales. Bendon remained privately held and, not unusually for private companies, the biggest problem it faced was a fight between the major shareholders. An Australian public company, Berlei Hestia, which enjoyed a similar dominance in the Australian lingerie market, owned 40 per cent of Bendon, together with 50 per cent of the voting rights. Tension developed because the New Zealanders at Bendon wanted to expand into Australia, and since Australia didn’t have any import licensing there was nothing to stop them. As Bendon made promising inroads into Australian department stores, it made less and less sense that their Australian rivals should have an equal say around the board table."

"The nature of Gibbs’ involvement in Forestry Corp was similar to that of his role at Atlas, Freightways and Bendon. His style was markedly different to John Fernyhough’s, for example, who as chairman of Electricorp spent most of his working week in Wellington and operated as an executive chairman. Gibbs gave Kirkland clear direction and then limited his role to challenging, provoking and guiding — and then stepping back to allow the chief executive to do his job. After an initial burst in February and March 1986, he spent no more than two or three days a month on the task. Gibbs says he’s always been ‘very cunning at avoiding the time-consuming business of managing people or of getting sucked into detail’. As a result he was able to cover an extraordinary amount of ground in business and public service, while still retaining enough freedom to travel for as much as three months a year and to think of new schemes. When most of Gibbs’ counterparts could tell him what meeting they’d be attending in a year’s time, Gibbs worked hard to avoid commitments that denied him spontaneity. Wherever he was, in New York or Harare, Gibbs kept on top of his half-dozen work streams with a steady flow of handwritten fax messages, channelled through Jacquie Turner at the West Plaza office."