Tech entrepreneur Sir Ian Taylor remembers the day electricity came to his home

“I was seven when electricity turned up at our house in Raupunga," businessman Sir Ian Taylor recalls.

"I can still see the shirt I was wearing, because it was a huge change from candles and gas and coal fire range, suddenly, [it was] the flick of a switch."

Digital pioneer, Sir Ian, established Animation Research Limited in 1990. The company’s graphics are credited with bringing the America’s Cup to the casual sports fan. The technology has since been used in various other sports including cricket and golf.

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In 2020 he was knighted for services to broadcasting, business and the community.

The whakataukī Sir Ian shared with Nights this week was about how the past shapes our futures.

“Kō ngā tahu ā ō tapuwai inanahi, hei tauira mō āpōpō; The footsteps we lay down in our past, create the paving stones of where we stand today.

“In the Māori worldview, those footsteps are always in front of us.”

The small-town Sir Ian grew up in the 1950s was, late arrival of electricity notwithstanding, a thriving place, he recalls.

“Everybody had a job - everyone. We had a school there, the Raupunga Māori District High School, there were 380 students there and no truancy. Everybody went to school.

“So, we look at it and the jobs were really well paid. So, we look out there at the past in front of us and ask, what changed?”

The jobs gradually disappeared, he says.

“As I watched the footsteps, those jobs suddenly got shut down, the factories got shut down, or robots were bought into the factories.

“And now we look at Raupunga and start to go, oh, what's all these gang members there? Why don't they get out and work? Those are the footsteps.”

AI is now transforming white-collar industries as technology did more traditional working class jobs over the last few decades, he says. Not least the sector his company Animation Research Limited operates in.

“In our company, we know it's important, we know it's already making a big difference, but our whole role is that it's not going to replace any humans. It's going to help humans do the job better and faster. And that's what's important.”

Sir Ian is outspoken on CEOs and business leaders having a duty to society beyond narrow shareholder interest.

“Maybe I'm just being naïve or altruistic. But that was always the thing that I have never understood, why the people who do the work are less important than the shareholders.

“Electricity prices just went up, so we pay those. I mean, somebody can just say, I'm lifting the electricity [price]. So, we pay, but we look at the staff and go, hmm, we won't give you a pay rise this year.”

The salaries people receive are out of whack with their contributions to society, he says.

“When I had my first child, he started at school. Even then, I looked at the teachers and how important that was.

“And I then started to wonder, why is my lawyer and my accountant paid more money than my son's teacher?”

His whakataukī is one he often uses in speeches he gives, and it resonates widely, he says.

“The number of Pakeha who come up and say, ‘Could you just write that down for me again? I love it.’

“And there's not a lot to not love about it.”