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Mike's Minute: Greg Foran is back where he belongs · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
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  Speaker 2: Greg Forwan back where I suspect he belongs and he
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  Speaker 2: likes the former in New Zealand Boss, if you've missed
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  Speaker 2: the news this week is after Kroger's, which is America's
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  Speaker 2: second biggest grosses behind Walmart. I have never met a
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  Speaker 2: New Zealander who has worked in America that belongs in
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  Speaker 2: America more. It was evident from the very first time
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  Speaker 2: I met him he was American. You can spot them
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  Speaker 2: in their shirts and ties. They're conservative and yet impeccably pressed.
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  Speaker 2: He looked like he'd starched himself getting out of bed
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  Speaker 2: every morning. The last time he was in here his
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  Speaker 2: farewell interview, we talked off here about where now now.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't say specifically, but I knew it was America.
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  Speaker 2: The bitter he never explained, probably because he either couldn't
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  Speaker 2: for commercial reasons or couldn't because he hadn't quite worked
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  Speaker 2: it out, was what the hell he was ever doing
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  Speaker 2: back in New Zealand. I asked him any number of times,
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  Speaker 2: in a sort of nondirect way, what on earth was
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  Speaker 2: it about a small airline at the bottom of the
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  Speaker 2: world that would drag you out of Walmart to and
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  Speaker 2: run it. Possibly given he wasn't running Walmart, it was
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  Speaker 2: a job in which he was running something. So as
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  Speaker 2: CV would eventually show a Kroger's in years to come,
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  Speaker 2: he was ready to be the boss at Walmart. He
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  Speaker 2: lived in Arkansaw and flew in private jets in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: He kept having to explain why the Wellington to Taupo
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  Speaker 2: never took off. The COVID thing must have been the
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  Speaker 2: nightmare from hell, and it wasn't his fault, obviously, But
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  Speaker 2: even without it and the myriad of problems he faced,
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  Speaker 2: including the inexplicable cluster around the engines that no airline
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  Speaker 2: anywhere seems to have encountered. The way are in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 2: has you always got the impression he was either here
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  Speaker 2: for a short time or it had been all a
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  Speaker 2: sort of a patriotic mistake driven by a laudable desire
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  Speaker 2: to return home and make some sort of contribution. But
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  Speaker 2: I can tell you this, of all the Air New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand CEOs I've known, Ralph Norris, business legend, rob five
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  Speaker 2: for marketing genius, Christopher Luxen a Prime Minister, and Greg Furan.
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  Speaker 2: No one looked less at home and more bewildered than Greg.
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  Speaker 2: Some people loved him because he was often at the
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  Speaker 2: airport checking in their bags. I mean, the work ethic
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  Speaker 2: was never an issue. The issue was Air New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: wasn't American And I bet you now he has never
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  Speaker 2: been happier or more relieved.
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