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In the period of just a couple of minutes, I noted that he queried interrogated a subordinate quite aggressively over as to the source and size of revenues that this new internet service was going to generate.

Quite frankly, I would have been impressed if I were a Telecom investor -- but as a mere bystander, I was not at all enamoured of his attitude to staff or ability to visualise beyond the bean-counter level of understanding.

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One thing's for sure, Rod is a hard-nosed businessman who appears to be very focused on an organisation's bottom line. As such, he's probably a good guy to have around at the top of any large company with market dominance or a virtual-monopoly -- and he has been at the top of quite a few "big names" on the sharemarket.

However, I could tell, even from my brief encounter, that Rod isn't the kind of guy you want driving an business which involves thinking outside the box or having a great deal of vision and flexibility.

For this reason, it's probably a good thing that he's stepping down from his role as Chairman of Telecom. With him at the helm, I strongly doubt whether Theresa could implement the very significant attitude-change that she's promised recently.

I certainly hope that Deane's successor, Wayne Boyd, will have the breadth of vision and ability to look far enough ahead to tolerate the many and significant changes that will have to take place within Telecom if they're to adapt to the totally foreign concept of "real competition" in their major markets.

The abject failure of Telecom's Australian ventures shows that they need a whole lot of practice and perhaps more than a few new skills onboard if they're really to restore the company's value in years to come. The bloodied nose received in Australia from what is a truly competitive environment must have come as an awful shock to a company so used to having things their own way back here in NZ.

Whether Gattung can pull off her claimed reformation of Telecom remains to be seen -- but I think that when it comes to the Net, they'd be well advised to bring some new faces onboard who can liaise more effectively with their wholesale customers -- who are also their competitors. This role will be absolutely critical if the next phase of the government's threatened changes (breaking the company up) is to be avoided.

Beancounters they have enough of -- people with vision, insight and the ability to truly barter a fair but profitable deal they could do with plenty more of.

And while on the subject of "people I've met", I see that Alan Gibbs has launched another crazy vehicle of dubious merit.

Alan is a nice guy who obviously has a lot of money and can therefore indulge in ventures that no beancounter like Deane would ever sanction. First there was the Aquada, a vehicle that can be viewed as a decidedly average boat that was also an almost-average sports-car -- or vice-versa. Now there's the Quadski.

Looking at this vehicle on TV last night, it strikes me that once again he's built something that might be fun to use for a day but would be very hard to sell to anyone other than another rich-guy like Gibbs himself.

As a quad-bike it's way too big, has too much overhang at front and rear and is probably way too heavy to even consider using on anything other than nice flat ground. As a Jet-ski it's large, possibly lacking maneuverability and more like a small boat than a sprightly personal watercraft. In short -- the worst of both worlds.

Good on ya Alan for indulging your interests - but seriously, do you actually expect anyone other than the occasional celebrity and a few oil-rich Arabs to buy this thing?

So I guess today I've highlighted the alternate extremes of Kiwi business figureheads. Those who are solely focused on the nuts and bolts of beancounting and those who say "to hell with the beans, let's have some fun."

Ultimately, although both approaches have their benefits and may provide a degree of success in under a limited range of market conditions, I think what's needed is a more flexible attitude if you want to make money in the long-term while operating in an open and competitive marketplace.

What famous Kiwi entrepreneurs or figureheads have you met and how do you rate them?

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