Final reflections from CEO Peter Guerin
RDC chief executive Peter Guerin's Council Talk column in today's Daily Post.
Nei ra te mihi o te ngākau ki a koutou katoa i mahitahi ai tātau mo te painga o te hāpori me te painga mo ngā uri whakatipu o te rohe whānui o Rotorua. He waahi nui I tutuki I a tātau - he mahi tonu kei mua I te aroaro hei kōkiri ano mā koutou. Mā te mahitahi ano ka tutuki.
As my time with Rotorua District Council comes to an end after 11 years as CEO, I'm pleased to have the opportunity to share some final reflections.
The period of partnership between Mayor Kevin Winters and I is marked by a substantial list of achievements for our community. There have been some spectacular high points including the Energy Events Centre, international airport development, museum extension, wastewater schemes to improve lakes water quality, major roading projects, ground breaking community partnerships and an effective culture of teamwork with staff and elected members. Less satisfying have been the limited success to date of our trans-Tasman air service aspirations and recent criticism of our iwi consultation, although I would add that most of the time our relationships with iwi are extremely cordial.
Among the achievements I'm most proud of are:
- Our Rotorua Partners' Programme with foundation partners like Pukeroa Oruawhata Trust, Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust and many corporate and philanthropic organisations whose support has allowed us to complete major projects that would otherwise have been out of our reach. The Energy Events Centre for example makes a substantial on-going contribution to the Rotorua economy.
- An enviable partnership between Council and the Rotorua Trust. The trust has contributed over $90m to the community and has worked collaboratively with us to achieve impressive outcomes.
- Reshaping our organisation to support the vision Rotorua - living the dream; world-class in every way,' and developing the Rotorua Sustainable Economic Growth Strategy. RDC now has a very clear focus on its contribution for growing the Rotorua economy, and we are making real progress.
- Adoption of an innovative continuous improvement business model with a fanatical focus on customer service, stripping out waste and reducing costs. Lean Thinking' is making a serious change to the way we work and has been widely acknowledged, with many in our business community urging us to stay on this journey.
I'd like to conclude by listing a few qualities, identified from recent reading and from my own experience, that epitomise great team work. I hope you'll find them useful:
- everyone within the team trusts one another;
- team members engage in unfettered discussion of ideas;
- everyone accepts decisions and commits to action;
- everyone is accountable for delivering on agreed plans; and
- there is absolute focus on results.
I wish our business community every success in the future. Rotorua is a fantastic place to live, work, play and invest. But our economy can and must do better so that employment is boosted, incomes move up, property values increase, investment grows and the wealth of our district improves. Rotorua is very special and deserves great things.