Guy Ryan on leading with authenticity and respect

Hélène Malandin (0:14)

Hello, and welcome to Ethical Leadership, Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand, a podcast series commissioned by the Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership, Arita He, at Victoria University of Wellington, and produced by advisory firm Pocketknife. This podcast series aims to demystify ethics and make ethical leadership a concept we all will become more fluent in, and a skill we all become more nimble with. My name is Hélène Malandin, Director of Pocketknife, and it is my pleasure to host you for this episode of the podcast series. Today, I'm excited to be joined by Bruce Picot, better known as Pic. Bruce Picot is the founder and driving force behind Pic's Peanut Butter, a beloved New Zealand brand that has grown from humble beginnings into an international success story. In 2007, at the age of 55, Pic began making peanut butter in his Nelson garage, motivated by a desire to create a healthier, tastier alternative to the overly sweet commercial options available. Welcome, Pic, to our podcast. Today, I'd like to discuss with you the idea of being a moral person, not something we talk about on a daily basis, but what is this idea of being a moral person and a moral leader, and what this may look like through the lens of your personal story of growing Pic's Peanut Butter into a widely successful business that also cares for people and the planet. So I'd love to start with an anecdote that you shared with me previously when we connected ahead of this interview. You said to me that one year on World Car Free Day, you sat, and tell me if I'm getting this wrong, but you sat by the entrance of your Café Scarapark in Nelson and explained to approaching staff and customers that they wouldn't be able to park their cars here on that day for obvious reasons that I'm sure you would have explained to them. And I thought that is such a great metaphor for your leadership style. Would you want to tell us a bit more about why you did this and maybe what responses you got and what impact you think that may have had on people that day?

Bruce Picot (2:27)

Right. Well, my major concern these days is for our planet and the urgency of getting stuck in and trying to hold the heating of the planet and climatic catastrophes, which are just such a violent and unescapable effect that we're causing through our actions.

And a couple of years ago, one of our workers in charge of planet matters came to me and said, next month is World Car Free Day. And I think we should give everybody who comes by bicycle or by bus a free cup of coffee. And I said, well, that's a great idea. Let's do that. But let's close the car park. And I thought this was going to cause awful ruptures because we've got a great big car park demanded by the council if you're going to have a cafe. You need to have, you know, 4,000, well, not 4,000, but 40 odd car parks out the front. And so they were very popular. We have got a tenant that runs the cafe. And so I burst in on the guiding team's morning meeting and said, I've got a plan. I want to close the car park for World Car Free Day. And the guiding team looked suitably stunned and came up with all the reasons why it couldn't possibly be done, largely because there wasn't enough time and there wasn't enough staff to do it. And so I said, well, I'll do it myself. So we got a couple of planter boxes and put them across the entrance to the car park. And I got myself a plastic chair and sat at the entrance for the day.

And any cars that pulled in to come and park, I explained to them that it was World Car Free Day and we're closing the car park today. And if they wish to park, they can go and park on the street. There's parking on the street. And I said, I'm doing this to prevent myself having to super glue myself to the highway, which would cause you immense annoyance. And just about everybody liked the idea and they understood. And they went away and parked on the street. And then they came in. Our cafe owner was really concerned that she wouldn't get any business that day. And so I offered to pay her staff costs if nobody turned up. In the event, I don't think it had any effect on her business. Yeah, I was expecting it. World Car Free Day is not something that I've even noticed in the press at all. And so it comes up every year. I'm not sure of the date this year, but it's something that has never appeared on national news or anything. Hopefully, this will help to develop that. And I think that business has an opportunity to take a lead in climate matters, where politicians are unable to do this. But if you're a business owner, I think we can do this. We can accept the risks to our business, that so-called perceived risks to the business of what needs to be done. So I've felt very passionate about the opportunities that business offers to make a difference.