The untold story of dynamic Australian businessman Harry Triguboff
How many people can change their thought process and mood with the intake of a single breath?
Harry does it all the time. He can be in the office juggling numerous conversations on numerous different subjects and offer a resolution to all of them within minutes. He may have started out yelling, but once he realizes that there are no actual monumental issues, he relaxes and finishes with a laugh and a joke.
Harry’s demeanor goes beyond unpredictability; it is quite unnerving, frightening even, until you acclimatize to the speed. The pace at which Harry’s mind works is just not natural.
There would be no other company anywhere in the world that would operate quite like Meriton. When you walk through the doors, you slip into another dimension. Orna explains it best when she says, "It’s organized chaos in the best possible, most efficient way."
Even being with Harry discussing his book, the exit directives take a little getting used to. You turn up expecting to get some time, but he’s not always in the mood. After no time at all, Harry is done.
"I’ve had enough," he says. "I’m bored talking about this."
This is Harry’s life. It just so happens that this day it takes a back seat to more pressing matters in the business. He doesn’t have the time to sit and chat about his book today. On other days he will sit, deep in thought and talk in-depth about his life. On those days he laughs at the memories and is relaxed, charming and funny. Those are the good days.
Until you’re sitting in front of him, you never know which Harry you’re going to get. If he tells you to get out after five minutes, you leave and you don’t send so much as a pout in his general direction. But in true Harry style, he’s already read the room, and without even lifting his head, he yells, "And take that sour look on your face with you!"
At other times, Harry is the quiet assassin – he says nothing at all. You get the message that he’s moved on from you when he picks up the phone to summon other people to his office, or he just starts talking to someone else in the room about a totally different subject, or he starts doing prayers with the rabbi.
Harry isn’t going to focus on one thing when he is in his element barking orders to all corners of the room.
Nobody is immune to that treatment. Not his directors, not his family, not his wife. Harry speaks to everybody the same way, and nobody takes offense.
Still, you might think you’re getting with the program until you’re not. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve known Harry, you can’t ever make the mistake of thinking you have him pegged. Don’t ever get comfortable.
That’s when you’re at your most vulnerable. Generally though, you can forget about undivided attention if the room is full of people. Harry isn’t going to focus on one thing when he is in his element barking orders to all corners of the room.
If it happens to be just Harry and Orna, time is a little less limited. If Harry gestures to the couch and there are no other people in the room, time is on your side. There will still be interruptions, but that is when you sit opposite the relaxed storyteller, and what you hear is priceless. Because of how Harry’s mind works, always be prepared to expect the unexpected!
With nearly every decision that’s made in the company, the buck stops with Harry. It doesn’t mean other senior managers or family members don’t make decisions or don’t have the authority to make decisions, but Harry just wants to know about it, so he’s always prepared for what change might come with it.
"It’s common sense to work that way," he says. "The property market is volatile and unpredictable, and it can change overnight.
"Sometimes we change the usage of a building at the last minute to meet market demand. We won’t sell any more but change it to a build-to-rent because the market is demanding more rental stock.
"We can spin a redesign on a sixpence because of the way the business operates. If I have all the up-to-date information I need, we can get on to it straight away. I don’t have to wait for anybody."
With nearly every decision that’s made in the company, the buck stops with Harry.
Harry loves nothing more than people asking him about his goals and his long-term plans.
"I’ve never had a single goal in my life, and, as for long-term business plans, they can never work in the ever-changing property market that is Meriton’s home," he says.
"It’s bad enough I have an agonizing wait on approvals without bringing that culture into my business.
"I almost ruined my business once by going public. I lost control. I spent my life waiting on decisions, and it was almost the death of Meriton.
"When you’re not the decision-maker, and you have to run everything past a board of people – that is the worst. I hated it when my company went public because I had to suffer through the dreaded meetings where I had people who knew nothing about property trying to tell me how to run my business.
Harry has always backed himself and trusted his instincts. Those instincts have never let him down.
"Worse still, you have the meeting, and you’re forced to follow an agenda that dictates what will be discussed and in what order. The meeting will then go totally off the rails because nobody thinks like me.
"A week later, the minutes are distributed. The only purpose the minutes serve is to repeat, in writing, the agony of the meeting the week before. Nothing from that meeting is any longer relevant to me. I’ve moved on. A week is a long time at Meriton, particularly for me.
"The only minutes that matter are the ones right now. That’s why I bought my company back from the shareholders at an inflated price. It was worth every cent to have the buck stop with me in regard to all the decisions."
Harry still calls meetings the same way he did when he first started his business 60 years ago. A loudspeaker system was installed in his business from day one, and it exists to this day. If Harry wants a meeting, he calls either Julia or Brittany on reception and asks them to send the relevant people to his office immediately. Seconds later, there’s an announcement over the loudspeaker system instructing the required people to, "Please report to Mr Triguboff’s office."
When you know Harry is in the office, and mostly you know because you can hear him, your ears are pricked in case you’re called.
No matter what you’re doing, even if you’re in a meeting with external people, you drop it and go straight to Harry’s office. Everyone is used to Harry operating that way because most of them have worked for him for decades, and it’s now second nature to them.
Harry is a huge believer that knowledge is power.
When you arrive in the inner sanctum, there are already people there and a lot of them. You have to wait your turn. Harry will triage you as to whether you join the queue or jump it.
As mentioned, Harry has an open-door policy. His executive assistant, Loreto, has long given up trying to control the flow because Harry is constantly asking Julia and Brittany to send people to him.
Harry doesn’t care if you hear what’s going on in any other areas of Meriton either. He is huge on transparency and sees it as providing knowledge to you about other areas of the business so you can learn. He never pigeonholes anyone.
So, if you go into Harry’s office to talk about accounts and you sit in on a meeting about design, you’re learning about what happens in the business elsewhere. Harry is a huge believer that knowledge is power.
Another reason Harry does this is because sometimes he thinks that some people would be better suited to other areas of the business. As quick as he can make decisions, he can read people. There are people at Meriton no longer in the job they had when they started.
Harry decided they were better suited to something else. Something that didn’t even match their skill set, yet he knew it would be a better fit, even if they didn’t know it themselves.
"Sometimes they fight it," Harry says. "Like I did when I was in South Africa working in textiles, and the boss told me I was of more value to him in accounts, not on the floor.
"I didn’t study textiles for four years to handle the money, but it was the best thing that happened to me. I was really good with figures, and the boss saw that in me before I did. I had a real knack for business."
Even Rhonda started off in bookkeeping when she first started at Meriton, but Harry picked up that she had a real talent for interior design. That’s where she was revered for her creative designs – bespoke, sophisticated elegance. Buyers loved her interiors.
Harry doesn’t like to talk a long game – he never has. He trusts his gut in the moment – he always has.
Harry doesn’t like to talk a long game – he never has. He trusts his gut in the moment – he always has.
He wanted no part in the drudgery of mapping out a 10-year business plan when one of his early partners suggested it. It was to be a plan that would outline the tasks and milestones that needed to be accomplished to meet agreed goals over the next decade.
"Problem is, I don’t set goals," Harry states matter-of-factly.
"The further you look into the distance, the more the view becomes blurred, and you lose clarity.
"To stay ahead of the game, you must be in the moment. That requires versatility, flexibility and the general ability to adapt and adjust quickly.
"That is why Meriton is so great. Considering the size of the business, we can change things in an instant to meet the market. There is no other company in the world our size that can do that," he says.
Harry’s company was in its infancy when he decided there would be no more partners. After floating the company, only to privatize it again a short time later, he decided no more shareholders either.
There was no place in Harry’s life for the risk averse. He intended to take many risks, not that he saw them as such, but the ability to make decisions quickly without referring to others was imperative.
"It’s no news to anyone that the property market is unpredictable," Harry says. "I’m pretty good at being ahead of the game, but you must be ready for the unexpected. That might mean a complete about-face."
Harry, instead of selling, will retain apartments to create more rental opportunities. He might take apartments originally planned for sale and change them to serviced apartments. He might even completely change the layout of apartments with regard to the number of bedrooms.
"It doesn’t matter what the market needs at any particular time, I can give it to them quickly. That’s why I’ve never regretted going it alone," Harry says.
"Partners and shareholders just get in the way and slow things down. What others perceive as a risk, I see as a necessity and act accordingly. I’ve been advocating for apartment living for 60 years, and, finally, common sense has prevailed, and almost everyone seems to be on board the high-rise train. We just need the councils to speed things up, and then it will be full steam ahead.
"Verticality is now the Great Australian Dream. Up, not out," he says.
Harry has always backed himself and trusted his instincts. Those instincts have never let him down.
"I’m sharp, healthy, and I have no mobility issues," Harry says. "I fully intend to remain in the business for at least another 10 years. Call it my 10-year business plan, if you like."
He smiles.