teresa gattung

Theresa Gattung talks confidently. Occasionally she gasps for air mid sentence. One suspects she has become so enthused about what she is saying she has actually forgotten to breathe. Gattung admits she has always liked talking (she took part in a debating team at high school). She has always seen herself as “an impassioned leader of causes.”

As CEO of Telecom, Gattung, 43, is in charge of a company that posted revenue of $5,759 million for the last financial year and had reported net earnings of $916 million. She was recently ranked by Fortune Magazine as the 29th most powerful woman in international business in 2005. She is paid a base salary of $1.1 million (plus bonuses) and has pipped the trend for women to be generally underpaid. Gattung is a high profile figure and many people recognise her blonde bob and smiley face. “I went shopping with my sister recently and she said ‘everyone’s staring at you.’ And I think ‘why? I’m just Theresa going about my life’,” Gattung says giving a hearty laugh.

Gattung must have been a bit of an oddity in her university days as well. Walking around campus she dressed in suits in stark contrast to the rest of the scruffy casually dressed students.

“I didn’t wear suits all the time but I suppose I’ve always felt like an outsider. At university I was one of only six women [studying] management and fewer than this number again who were capitalists in the women’s studies classes. I probably did [get strange looks] but I didn’t notice. I always think you have to envisage yourself in the role before you get it. Look like the CEO before you become the CEO. I don’t always wear suits now, I’ve got slightly more relaxed in my dress.”

Gattung has a law degree from Victoria University and completed a bachelor of management studies at the University of Waikato. It was towards the end of her first year of her management degree that she decided she wanted to be a CEO:

“I thought this is really cool, I think I’ll run a big company. I used to watch a programme on TV called The Foundation where a woman wore sharp suits and bossed men around and that appealed to me,” she laughs.

Gattung suspects business was in her DNA. Her grandparents owned a grocery store and her mother made and sold souvenirs in Rotorua where Gattung grew up.

“Business wasn’t foreign to me. It felt familiar. At university I realised I enjoyed the people management and the marketing. It allowed my bossy gene to come out.”

At the time women in business was a rarity but that didn’t put Gattung off although she was surprised at how long it took for women to take positions of power in business. Gattung puts her determination down to her upbringing. She had three sisters and her father was encouraging that girls could do anything. Going to a single sexed Catholic school she saw the nuns in positions of leadership. It was only when she got out into the bigger world that Gattung says she found things different.

“I kept a clippings file of successful women in business to inspire me. I thought if they could succeed in business so could I. In my mid twenties I wanted to get into merchant banking. I tried getting several jobs and got turned down flat. Finally a guy said to me I wasn’t getting hired because he didn’t think a woman fitted in that environment. That was the first time I experienced overt gender discrimination and I was quite shocked by it.”

Gattung says her motto is that “if a door closes find a window.” She joined TVNZ and held executive positions with this company then National Mutual, BNZ and finally Telecom, which she joined in 1994 as head of marketing. She progressed to head of New Zealand business then CEO at the age of 37.

“I get scared of things but I do them anyway. If you want something and you don’t have it you may as well go for it. You’re not going to be any worse off are you?”

So after taking nearly twenty years to realise her dream how did her first day on the job feel?

“Terrible because everyone expects you to be a fully formed CEO immediately. Some issues came up to do with something I wasn’t familiar with and everyone expected me to have the answers so it was quite uncomfortable. That first week was certainly fairly wobbly.”

Gattung says the first year was very challenging. It was the height of the dot com area and within months share prices came tumbling down. Gattung coped by focusing on getting her own management team in place and establishing clear goals.

“There’s all different styles of leadership and I think character is more important than personality. It’s important to do it your way, be true to yourself and not try to imitate someone else’s style.”

Gattung describes herself as extroverted, resilient and a high achiever.

“I believe life is a marathon not a sprint so I can be resilient dealing with things over a period of time. I believe a team will always come to better conclusions than a single person will and this is my management style. You get the right people in the right place, ones that can take a wider view of the organisation and coach and lead them. I try to keep my own ego in check. I have a strong ego – I think you have to have because at the end of the day the buck stops with you – but I don’t think I have a big ego. You have to be able to keep going knowing that not everybody is going to agree with your decisions. At the same time you have to be open to other people’s input. It’s a funny mixture of strength and humility.” One of the biggest challenges with her job is the unrelenting pace of technology: “It never slows down which brings both opportunities and threats. It’s multi million dollar decisions, which last a long time. It’s balancing the day to day with moving forward strategically with the business.”

She points out that business and life are inextricably linked when it comes to telecommunications:

“For example texting started off with teenagers and now it is being used as a business tool. And email started out for personal use and is now a critical business tool whereas mobile phones started out in business and now New Zealand is 90% penetrated so nearly everyone has a mobile phone. The key thing is that telecommunications has merged the barriers between work and home.”

So how does she cope with the pressures of such a high profile job? Gattung says she starts every day with a swim. One can only wonder what other swimmers must think seeing Telecom’s CEO in her togs: “Photographers are always wanting to get pictures of me in my togs. Please don’t encourage them,” she chortles. “Swimming is both exercise and meditative. I learnt to swim as a young child so I am very comfortable in the water. It’s a lovely gentle exercise.”

Some have pegged her as aggressive and heartless but Gattung says the worst part of her job is having to deal with people issues such as telling someone they haven’t got the job they wanted.

“You develop bonds to people and everyone is a human being at the end of the day. Those things are always the hardest. But you have to make the right decision for the organisation and sometimes that means individual people’s feelings are going to get hurt.”

She thinks the factor that prevents many women from succeeding in business is that often business doesn’t have much heart.

“Most women, but not all, want to live life in an integrated way. Typically corporate business doesn’t allow that. I have found that before I was CEO, now I can control more of my own destiny.”

One thing that concerns Gattung is the next generation of women:

“Older women know it used to be harder for their mothers whereas woman in their twenties have seen their mothers work and have an education. History is a cycle not a linear path and what you don’t value can be lost. You only have to look around the world and the rise of fundamental religions and none of that bodes well for women. I want to encourage women to understand that unless they take advantage of the opportunities that are there then those opportunities can go away.”

So after six years as Telecom CEO what keeps her motivated?

“I always thought that on my tombstone I would like ‘she led a self-determined life. Do what you want to do, take what you get for doing it and don’t complain.’ It’s important to me to do something that makes me joyful and accept that there will be rough and smooth together. I am happy with myself and the choices I’ve made. I think you regret the things in life you didn’t do, not the things you did do. My job at Telecom is intellectually challenging. Sometimes your brain hurts. I like that.”