Latest / Best of Business / Nick Mowbray: rich-lister and Zuru co-founder on the secrets to his success

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Nick Mowbray: rich-lister and Zuru co-founder on the secrets to his success · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got the NBR Rich List, and once again,
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  Speaker 2: the Mowbray Brothers are at the top of the list.
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  Speaker 2: Reportedly worth twenty billion dollars, Rocket Labs Peter Beck is
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  Speaker 2: the country's newest billionaire. He's gone from worth about six
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  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty mil to eleven bill in a year.
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  Speaker 2: And Steven Adams is also in the rankings. He's got
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  Speaker 2: a net worth of two hundred million dollars. And with
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  Speaker 2: us now is Nick Mobray, founder of Zuru. Hey Nick, Hey, Ever, mate,
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  Speaker 2: how do you feel about us talking about your finances? Like,
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  Speaker 2: is it a bit gross?
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  Speaker 3: Is it?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Not not particularly comfortable, But I think at the end
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  Speaker 3: of the day, it's you know, for us, it's just
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  Speaker 3: a scorecard really for the engine that we're building, and
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  Speaker 3: what really matters to us is the execution that delivers
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  Speaker 3: on that number. And from our side, I guess that
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  Speaker 3: means competing on a global scale in our case with
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  Speaker 3: companies like Proper and Gamble, Kimboe Clark, Mattow Lego and
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  Speaker 3: competing with him on their home turf and winning, and
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  Speaker 3: that helps us win offshore revenue, bring that down home,
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  Speaker 3: put them into you know, high paying jobs, create pathways
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  Speaker 3: for talent talent as well, and really create a bit
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  Speaker 3: of an ecosystem. So I think it's just a reflection
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  Speaker 3: of all that.
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  Speaker 2: With money like that, you could live anywhere in the world.
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  Speaker 2: So why do you continue to live here?
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  Speaker 3: To two reasons, I moved back here for some health
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  Speaker 3: reasons and we set up an office back in New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand about seven years ago. I still spent a lot
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  Speaker 3: of my time, or at least half my time at
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  Speaker 3: US based that is our main market. But I think
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  Speaker 3: once you've built a really successful business, it sort of
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  Speaker 3: becomes a privilege to go and work on how you
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  Speaker 3: solve other problems. And I think private in private enterprise
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  Speaker 3: ultimately is a much better capital allocator than government. So
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  Speaker 3: for us, we're really trying to solve bigger problems with
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  Speaker 3: zero tech, how do we drive down the cost of housing?
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  Speaker 3: And so, yeah, that that's sort of ours. It's not
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  Speaker 3: really the number, it's more what you can do with that,
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  Speaker 3: what you can do with that to go and solve,
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  Speaker 3: as I said, bigger problems.
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  Speaker 2: How why are you going with the housing thing.
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  Speaker 3: By the way, great. Yeah, we have close to eight
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  Speaker 3: hundred software and hardware engineers working on it day and
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  Speaker 3: day out, and we're building test houses every week and
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  Speaker 3: then we're doing our first major development Hawaii and then
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  Speaker 3: in Malibu. But we're making a huge progress on it.
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  Speaker 2: Now, how do we get more people like you, Nick,
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  Speaker 2: more people like Peter Beck who has become successful and
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  Speaker 2: is now incredibly wealthy, yourself successful, incredibly wealthy. How do
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  Speaker 2: we encourage other kids in this country to get to
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  Speaker 2: that point?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? I think I think one is companies like Zou,
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  Speaker 3: like rocket Lab. We create these ecosystems and I see
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  Speaker 3: it now. We have a couple of thousand interns apply
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  Speaker 3: to work at Zoo each year and we show them
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  Speaker 3: how you can go out and compete on a global
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  Speaker 3: stage and actually win. And I think, you know, the
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  Speaker 3: only way for New Zealand to get out of the
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  Speaker 3: current economic ruther it's and is scaling more of multi
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  Speaker 3: billion dollar export machines and engines. And that means setting
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  Speaker 3: an example. And I think companies like Zoru, rocket Lab
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  Speaker 3: have set that exact ample. And if we're going to
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  Speaker 3: grow and deliver more prosperity and increase living standards for people.
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  Speaker 3: Then the way to do that is obviously to build
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  Speaker 3: bigger companies. I mean, ultimately, businesses are what creates living
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  Speaker 3: standards at the end of the day, and New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: needs to sort of not just rely on those traditional industries.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, I think we set that example. We create
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  Speaker 3: those pathways and we build ecosystems and road maps for
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  Speaker 3: people to do. I guess what we've done.
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  Speaker 2: But do we have a cultural problem around this? Like you, guys,
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  Speaker 2: the rich list comes out immediately the green starts saying, oh,
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  Speaker 2: we want to tax these people. It's a bit ecky
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  Speaker 2: to talk about it, whereas in other places like the States,
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  Speaker 2: they celebrate wealth like this.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think sometimes you have to take
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  Speaker 3: a step back and you have to look at context
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  Speaker 3: as well. I think, what does it One hundred and
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  Speaker 3: twenty billion people have ever lived, and if you look
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  Speaker 3: at the last two hundred thousand years of the human's existence,
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  Speaker 3: ninety percent of those people have lived in extreme poverty.
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  Speaker 3: So today, when you look at it in a relative sense,
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  Speaker 3: we live like king compared to most humans that have
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  Speaker 3: ever lived. And the advent of capitalism two hundred and
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  Speaker 3: fifty years ago has been what's really driven living standards
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  Speaker 3: for the whole world. I mean, I think in the
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  Speaker 3: late nineties extreme poverty was thirty six percent. Today it's
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  Speaker 3: below ten percent. And so you have to kind of
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  Speaker 3: get a little bit of context as well. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: one hundred years ago, people didn't have a hot shower,
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  Speaker 3: and so relatively speaking, capitalism has grown the pie, and
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  Speaker 3: it's compounded productivity and obviously then cinfrastructures of capitalism, profit, competition,
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  Speaker 3: investment have driven relentlessly, I guess, lower costs and prosperity
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  Speaker 3: and driven billions of people out of poverty. So I
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  Speaker 3: think ultimately I look at policies that you know that
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  Speaker 3: the Greens have, and reliance on the state and this
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  Speaker 3: fixation that the pie is set. All that does is
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  Speaker 3: drives our ambitious people, drives out capital, and effectively just
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  Speaker 3: shrinks the overall pie. And so I think, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's just it's creating a culture of ambition and knowing
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  Speaker 3: that we can go out on a world stage. And
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  Speaker 3: when I think Zoo proves that we continue to do
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  Speaker 3: it and multiple different verticals. Yes, we started in toys,
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  Speaker 3: but we continue to prove that we can do it
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  Speaker 3: across multiple industries, and it just takes a winning mindset,
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  Speaker 3: I think number one, a approach to continuous improvement number two,
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  Speaker 3: and also just a sense of belief that you can
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  Speaker 3: go out and win as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah too, right mate, well said, thank you, go and
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  Speaker 2: enjoy yourself. That's Nick mobrak Zuru, co founder and obviously
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  Speaker 2: the country's richest man.
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