People: Terry Millett
Meet a passionate Australian scientist who ia now at the helm of a major NZ financial services group.
Sunday, February 21st 1999, 12:00AM
He describes himself as a ‘data-rational decisionmaker’, to relax he reads the Economist and Harvard Business Review and he’s a bit worried he’s starting to look like the family pet, a British bulldog.
But BNZ’s Financial Services Group chief manager Terry Millett, 38, has a grab-bag of experience and some strong principles that should make his turn at the helm anything but dull.
Millett first joined the bank in May 1996, recruited by then chief manager David Jones. He’s now responsible for more than $1.5 billion in client funds at the only bank still in the business of direct asset management.
"David (Jones) was a very interesting character, a font of ideas, a gushing man of ideas," Millett says.
"I come from a scientific background, of data-rational decision making. David used to find it amusing - he was like the painter doing broad brushstrokes and then I’d fill it all in! It was a good combination."
Given such different styles, will there be any changes under his leadership?
"Not really: I don’t think our strategic goal has changed. And how you behave as a person is quite situational. I have a natural bent to be a strategic thinker and now I’ve moved more of my headspace to where we’re going."
He originally started out with a science degree majoring in biochemistry and zoology, and then changed to agricultural science. From there it was a career switch to computing (and back to university for a graduate diploma), then on to National Mutual where he spent a decade, mostly in marketing roles, but also completing an MBA.
Although he calls himself a ‘passionate Australian’, Millett professes to find New Zealand an idyllic place to live and extremely outward-looking.
"In the financial sector, that’s really important as you need to do a lot of learning around the globe and then bring it back here."
While he has been to a rugby game (New Zealand versus Australia), it’s Aussie rules and cricket that really fire his blood. Millett’s name went down at birth on the MCG waiting list (there’s a 20 year wait) and he’s now a life member.
Millett says the move to the BNZ came when he was looking to put his MBA expertise into practice: "if you’re going to invest heavily in yourself, you must drive a return out of it".
"I have now had the wonderful opportunity in life to build a strong platform across different bits of business."
His goal for the Financial Services Group is simple: to be the best there is.
"We don’t think of ourselves as a bank but as a full financial services provider meeting protection, lending, savings and investment and transactional needs. It’s a conceptual thing which drives a lot of our activities."
Millett believes that whether an institution sets out to be a product or service specialist, to service all of its customers’ financial needs or do half and half, "who wins in the end is the person who has the most consistent strategy all the time".
"It all happens where the rubber hits the road, out with the customer."
A view which begs the question whether continuing to be in the business of asset management should be part of BNZ’s long-term strategy.
"If you actually focus on customers and on adding value for them, you’re not going to say you’ll do it all yourself or you’ll outsource everything," Millett says.
"We line up the service elements we want to provide for our customers and ask are we going to make it or buy it? It depends solely on can we be the best of the bunch."
By that reckoning, BNZ has continued to find in favour of itself. Why?
"With our funds management, we have some fundamentally really strong things: the asset allocation process, our management of our multisector funds is a clear strength and all reviews of these products over the past three to five years have shown them to be market leaders.
"However, we use external managers for international funds: we’re pretty ruthless on ourselves.
"We have a set of customers and it’s our job to deliver incremental value to them all the time, to meet their needs for their whole life cycle."
The next challenge is the delivery of financial products and services to those customers.
"Distribution has become like a science. If the customer chooses to deal with you through a salesperson, that’s wonderful. If it’s through the Internet: excellent. Through telephones, independent financial planners... no problem: they’re all valid.
"You build around the distribution preferences of the customers you wish to serve. It’s like a footy game: you keep your eye on the ball and don’t worry about the others squawking around, otherwise it’s just exercise and sweat."
To second-guess those customer preferences, it’s largely a case of looking across
the markets the bank sees as indicator markets for New Zealand: USA, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Millett sees the next big area for development in distribution as the delivery of information and advice, especially via channels such as the Internet.
"The next step is trying to capture the intellectual capital that goes into financial advice and deliver it to people via the 'net," Millett says.
"In business, there may be no huge advantage in being the first to have an idea. The most important thing is to be the best implementer and have the reach across the market."
Millett has some clear views on Government provision of superannuation after watching the effects of reforms in Australia through the 1980s and 1990s.
"The issue is to agree the goal, then work out how to get there. What you’re aiming for is the private provision of retirement income, with a safety net. Compulsion is a start, but it’s only a start.
"While the Australian system is not ideal, the changes that started in the early 1980s took absolute courage. People believed that the pension system was a God-given right: that was taken on and disavowed in one foul swoop. They started with a process of incentivism, then went through a process of putting in compulsion and now there’s a mixture of the two.
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