CARRYING THE BATON
IT WAS maybe five or six years ago. Nah, probably more. Then again, perhaps not.
Whatever, it’s hard to keep track, especially when trying to recall a particular Isuzu drive event. There have been so many over so many years and let’s face it, a few hours at the wheel of a white Japanese truck rarely lends itself to the creation of a rock carving in the cranial cavern. Occasionally, but not often.
So let’s just say that once upon a time at one of these events somewhere, a memorable conversation at least took place. I had the wheel; Phil Taylor had his feet up.
For those who never had the pleasure, Taylor was a relentlessly fierce force in maintaining Isuzu’s Herculean domination of the Australian truck market before retiring early last year as director and chief executive officer of Isuzu Australia Ltd.
Over a lot of years and in spite of a few indelible, sharply debated differences on some issues, we had become quite good and trusted friends, on and off the record. Something to do, I think, with being a pair of headstrong hard-arses of the same vintage, intensely competitive natures and similarly basic upbringings.
Anyway, there we were rambling along in just another little white truck, probably reminiscing about Louisvilles and the like, when out of nowhere the subject of succession planning came up. Right then and there, a decidedly adamant Phil Taylor blurted that he’d already identified the likely heir to his executive mantle. Andrew Harbison!
It was all highly confidential, of course, and there was certainly no rush for a changing of the guard. Taylor was still some years away from retirement and there was much to be done in the interim, not least to ensure that Isuzu notched 30 consecutive years at the top of the Australian truck market while he was still at the operational helm. It would, too, take time to carefully tailor (no pun intended) a transition process without discord or danger to the continuation of Isuzu’s remarkable success.
Initially, the seemingly
