Hardy Boys MD on why he returned home
Negativity, political mumblings and spiralling crime statistics have been cited by too many South Africans for emigration. Nicola Jenvey spoke with Hardy Boys Managing Director Gavin Krenski who made the decision to return.
Krenski’s culmination of nearly 20 years working for Unilever and Robertsons Spices (both before and after it was merged into the global multinational) was a three-year secondment to Milan to head up the oral care innovation centre.
In his words, the time spent in the Italian city was “a brilliant experience” filled with international travel, stimulation and rewards. Universally, consumer brand companies recognise the growth opportunities are within the developing and emerging world – Africa, South East Asia, south America and China being the most obvious.
Developments
“I loved the work and the time disappeared almost before it had begun, but that did not mean we were not keeping abreast of developments in South Africa,” Krenski says.
When that secondment finished last year, the time had arrived for choices. Unilever wanted him to accept another secondment, this time in London, while Krenski had reached the stage in his career where questions needed honest answering.
Did he want to spend the rest of his working career with Unilever? Did he rather believe he should make a contribution to business outside the corporate environment? Neither question had a right nor wrong answer – only the introspection on what Krenski wanted to observe when the day eventually came that he would hang up his gloves for the more sedate life of retirement.