The Passing of a Rental Industry Giant

I was shocked and saddened to learn yesterday about the passing of someone I consider to be a Queensland Equipment Rental Industry legend, Mr Wayne Harding.

Wayne was one of the most interesting, talented, pragmatic and knowledgeable men in the industry and a damn nice person to boot. The reason Wayne's passing, in my view is so significant, is that he truly personifies the period of the rental industry that I believe were the glory days.

When I started in rental, I was a naive teenager who didn't know a Porta Power from a Quick Cut Saw (quite literally). But to me, from the get go, it was exciting. I always thought of the Equipment Rental game as Star Wars. I worked for Wreckair, so naturally in my head, we were the Rebels and the Jedi and Coates were the evil empire.

I came through the system with Jedi masters like Richard Greenwood, Mark Rich, Mike Finniss, Chris Holmes and Robbie Branch. These guys were amazing and knowledgeable to me and taught me what would go on to be the foundation for my belief in what made a good leader, a good business and even a good person. I loved Wreckair and in my young naivety, genuinely believed we were the good guys and Coates weren't.

Of course, for every Rebel there has to be a villain. The ultimate villain in this analogy is obviously Darth Vader. In my early days, Wayne Harding was my Darth Vader. Even before I'd met him, I'd felt his influence, understood his abilities and I don't mind saying felt initimdated by his reputation. To quote Braveheart, before I met Wayne, I would have sworn he was seven foot tall and could shoot flames out his backside.

The years went by and I ended up working for myself. Coates had suddenly gone from a fierce competitor to a potential very large customer. I travelled the country, talking to the various decision makers, and doing quite well in terms of receiving orders if I do say so myself. Then one day, I received calls from several Coates state level decision makers cancelling the various orders I had received. After some investigating, I found out that sure enough, it was Darth Vader himself that had scuttled my burgeoning success as a supplier to Coates.

I rang Wayne and asked for a meeting. To my surprise he did not hesitate to both take my call and take the meeting. I went and sat with him and expressed my disappointment at what had happened. Wayne looked me square in the eye and said "Gary, maybe these other guys don't know who you are, where you're from or where you're going, but I do." "As long as my arse points to the ground I won't let this company build a competitor with your potential so we can get kicked up the arse with our own foot."

What could I say? He shook my hand and placed his other hand on my shoulder and wished me all the best. In a way I was disappointed . I wanted him to be Darth Vader but in reality, he was just a tall Yoda. Honest, straight forward, respectful, pragmatic, and dare I say it, nice. Needless to say it still makes it in my top 5 memorable meetings list of my entire career.

Fast forward ten years and suddenly, and in my mind amazingly, we both end up at the same company, in the same office. My desk was literally 3 or 4 metres from his. I spoke to him almost every day about professional and personal stuff and quickly gained a solid understanding of why he occupied so much space in the industry. His experience was unparalleled. He was firm but fair. He could take constructive feedback. He was funny (sometimes accidentally), but most of all he had a global view of our industry. He could see it for what it was. He didn't overcomplicate it. He really, really got it. He made me understand why Coates had in fact been such a worthy and challenging competitor.

So, my journey with Wayne Harding from fierce (and I'll be honest), feared competitor, to potential customer, to eventual treasured team mate is proudly one of the most defining experiences of my career.

I have a lot of people I consider close friends who I know feel exactly the same way. People like Scott MacDonald and Jason Kellermeyer. Both guys that came through in my generation of trainees in the industry. This reinforces to me that Wayne's enduring legacy in the industry is that he loved it and he loved to teach people (especially younger people) about it.

I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my heart felt condolences to Wayne's family. I can't imagine the scale of a gap a guy like him must leave in a family.

I hope you can take some solace in the fact that I'm sure I'm only one of many rental industry tragics that shed some tears last night over the passing of a man that touched a lot of people, and made an entire industry a better place to work.

I miss you Wayne and thank you so much for many of the lessons you probably didn't even know you taught me that ended up becoming fundamental tenements of what I think it means to be a person who cares about adding value to the industry they are a part of. The industry is a better place because of you, and that's about the biggest professional achievement one can hope for.