If you look after your people, you will look after your bottom line

Auckland-based business Interwaste has evolved from a small, transactional waste disposal company into a leading, solutions-driven partner, trusted by major organisations like MPI, NZ Police, and Customs, as well as ports and healthcare providers navigating complex compliance.

For the past five years, the business has been in high growth mode, more than doubling staff numbers and revenue. With a team now topping 110, Interwaste manage the biosecurity waste from international arrivals – flights and ships. They dispose the waste from your medical procedure and manage not only the removal of medical gases and tanks but also the supply of that equipment.

Ozae Cantu da Silva is the Chief Executive Officer of Interwaste. It’s a role he has grown into, starting as a branch manager in 2015. Brazilian born Ozae was a trained lawyer and almost became a diplomat before meeting his kiwi wife in Europe and moving to New Zealand ten years ago.

Ozae had the foresight to see the growth being driven by the Interwaste founders and recognise he needed organisational support, not only for himself but also his team.

He spoke to Kate de Lautour about a role that excites him, in an industry that might sound boring but turns out is anything but.

How did you get into the waste business?

It was completely by chance. After returning to Brazil from an OE in Europe I was working for a gas business, managing therapeutic oxygen and they did a merger with a waste business. I ended up leading the waste division and found myself forging a path for waste to energy in Brazil.

When we started having children, it felt like a no-brainer to head to New Zealand. I contacted the founder of Interwaste Lincoln and introduced myself. Eventually the manager’s role came up and the rest is history.

The growth of the business has been rapid. Has there been growing pains?

It’s much like the Icehouse will see every day – you’re a small business where everyone is doing a bit of everything. Someone might do some sales and cross over into operations for example but then as the business grows this model is not sustainable. We needed to grow the capability of the team and encourage a culture of ownership and accountability. By developing leaders and specialists we could create a scalable platform.

You started working with an Icehouse Business Coach, why did you feel the need to do that?

I needed someone on a regular basis to guide me through the complexity of growth we were experiencing and I found a great connection with coach Derek Young. There’s got to be good alignment with an advisor for it to work and we have that. You have to be willing to share your weaknesses to move forward – it’s quite raw. I’m very fortunate to have that trust relationship with Derek.

When did you come to the realisation that you needed to share this sort of learning with the team?

When you are in a growth business and new ways of working and thinking are being encouraged, trust is essential. When discussing with Derek I knew I wanted to build a high trust environment with deep expertise and shared goals, but I needed support on understanding how I could develop these capabilities within the team. That’s why a customised plan with the Icehouse was so essential for us. The development plan needed to be layered with building leadership capability, while enhancing trust and teamwork.

How did you identify who would take part in the training?

We included all the senior and middle management teams together with some of the rising supervisors in the business. After the training we did experience some attrition because a few people realised that modern leadership was not for them and while that sounds negative, it was actually a positive because it created integrated trust within the team. We had started to see some signs of a fragmented culture before the training and afterwards this was replaced with inclusivity. We are moving from a medium sized business to a large business and there is no room for people working in silos.

It’s an absolute fact that when you’ve got the people element right, you’re setting the platform for a good business.

What’s your advice to other people managers in growth businesses?

If you look after your people, you will look after your bottom line.

There are managers in the old brigade who will say that’s the soft stuff, but there’s so much power in soft stuff - If you can create an environment that produces a positive culture where there is a high level of trust, your people will believe in your business outcomes and with that comes discretionary effort.

You own your culture; you are the custodian of that culture and you need to pay attention to that if you want to create a high-performance environment.

There’s nothing worse than a talented person being idle, they become toxic.

Talented people want their minds to be stimulated, to be learning, to have responsibility and goals. If you don’t give them something to achieve, they will become problematic.

You want to retain talented people and channel their energy in the right way.