Business Leader of the Year Award: Mark Adamson and Naomi Ballantyne
As it appeared in 
This week we are celebrating excellence in leadership as we publish the nominees for the 2015 Business Leader of the Year. The winner will be revealed on Saturday in the Weekend Herald.
It takes some guts to make the tough decisions, like downsizing the company.
So straight-talking, confident Fletcher Building chief executive Mark Adamson has some nerve.
In his tenure heading the big-spending company since 2012, he hasn’t spent a single cent.
In fact, he’s been busy flicking off businesses left, right and centre.
“In the years before I took over, Fletcher Building had invested billions of dollars expanding into new geographies and business sectors. I felt we needed a pause to get our arms around a business that was three times bigger than when it emerged from Fletcher Challenge in 2001 and yet had the same systems, processes and management skills. There is no point in being big for the sake of being big. You have to be confident that you can bring something to an asset that the current owner can’t before embarking on an acquisition,” said Adamson, originally from Britain but who has worked in France and the United States.
The candidate for the Herald’s Business Leader of the Year emphasised the sold assets were not duds.
“If we do decide to sell a business it’s no reflection on the quality of that business – it’s because it doesn’t fit with our strategy or because the business is worth more to a strategic owner. A great many hours of analysis, research and negotiation are involved in this process and during those conversations we are always considering what is right for Fletcher Building and what is right for our shareholders,” explained Adamson who turned 50 this year.
Adamson told about 400 shareholders at this year’s AGM that he had been dealing with the difficult legacy of selling businesses which were either underperforming or not up to expectations.
“In my time in the job, we have not made one single acquisition,” Adamson admitted.
He deserves praise for biting the unpalatable bullet.