Profile: Rodney Grunseit
By Lucinda Schmidt | theage.com.au | 16 April
When Rodney Grunseit wanted to join his mother's sunglasses business 15 years ago, she did her best to dissuade him.
Her company, Sunshades Eyewear, was not doing well, she explained, after two customers returned $2 million worth of stock and other customers had begun importing sunglasses directly from Asia. "I thought, that sounds exciting," Grunseit says.
Now 38, he has been managing director of Sunshades Eyewear for the past decade. The company, based in Sydney, sells about 2.5 million frames a year in Australia and New Zealand, generating an annual turnover of about $25 million.
The story of the company's origins in 1969 is a refreshing contrast to the slick corporate launches of many new businesses. Grunseit's mother, Betty Lasse, owned a pharmacy in North Bondi. When, after multiple attempts to conceive, she was finally successful, the doctor ordered her to spend nine months at home lying on her back.
She organised the pharmacy from her bedside, where drug reps visited her to spruik the products of various companies. Their mobility, popping in and out of dozens of pharmacies on their beat, played a pivotal role in Lasse's conversion to sunglasses entrepreneur.
When a cousin who worked in the protective clothing business asked Lasse if she could sell 10,000 pairs of sunglasses his company was about to destroy, she offered the drug reps a deal: if they could sell them to the pharmacies they visited, she would split the profits 50-50 with them.
Even though sunglasses had never before been sold in pharmacies, her unlikely sales force offloaded the lot in less than three months. "My mother decided this sunglasses thing is really big and got rid of the pharmacy," Grunseit says.
He grew up spending school holidays in his mother's office and travelling with her on trips to Taiwan - but joining the business was not an automatic choice. After six years studying in Melbourne and backpacking overseas, he phoned her from Paris to discuss his future.
That's when she told him how badly the company was doing. When that gloomy news didn't put him off, Lasse packed her son off to the warehouse for 12 months.
It wasn't until the general manager left - feeling threatened, Grunseit believes, by his arrival - that he got his chance in management. "It actually threw me into a position my mother wouldn't have given me so early," he says.
His key to improving the company's fortunes was to get market share and work out how to make money later. "It wasn't about the money, it was about holding your head up high," he says.
Grunseit's computer degree meant he was a very early adopter of today's basic business tools, such as searching the telephone directories online and preparing online pitches using digital photographs. As for fashion trends in sunglasses, Grunseit says a rounded shape is coming back in a mid-range size, with frames made of plastic and metal combinations.
His mother, who died of food poisoning while travelling the world at 72, clearly had an enormous influence on Grunseit's approach to business - including his commitment to finish work each day by 5pm to spend time with his three children (aged eight, four and one).
She also drilled into him the importance of treating staff and customers fairly.
"My mother really had this thing about not being greedy," he says. "Say yes more often than no, be fair and work hard. We're not one of those companies that tightens the screw and squeezes out every cent."
The big questions
Biggest break My mum making me work in the warehouse. It taught me you have to roll up your sleeves and work your guts out.
Biggest achievement Taking staff numbers [at Sunshades Eyewear] from five to 106. Having a big team and a happy culture - that's where my mum [who died in 2006] would have had a big smile on her face.
Biggest regret That my mum passed away. It was so much fun working with her; she was full of energy, light, colour and movement.
Best investment Building a big customer service team. Customer service was overlooked in eyewear for a long time.
Worst investment Distributing international brands that we didn't design and manufacture. It wasn't our competency and we couldn't control the quality.
Attitude to money I don't really like money but only because I've always been comfortable, so it's never been an object of desire. I'm not driven by it.
Personal philosophy There's always a perfect solution.
Best advice received My mum made me promise to leave work at 5pm and have a good family-work balance. It would be too easy to become a workaholic.
First published by TheAge.com.au on April 16 2008
Visit theage.com.au for the latest news updated throughout the day
