Wayne Manu Shennen, Managing Director, Rangitoto Tokyo Craft Sake and New Zealand Wine
I was raised in New Zealand, but I've been lucky enough to have lived in Australia, Brazil, Japan, and England. I was working in Sydney as a young Reporting Analyst, feeling pretty good about where my career was taking me when out of the blue, a workplace injury made it effectively impossible to work with computers. The only thing that I could think of that seemed to fit was Hospitality. So in 2002, I took a position working as a bartender in Manly and from there never looked back.
Career highlights would include:
Winning a trip to Guatemala through a rum competition.
Being the first New Zealander (and second person in the Southern Hemisphere) to achieve the Advanced Level of Certified Sake Professionals.
Getting to the point where I felt comfortable enough to write a book about Japanese sake.
I became a Certified Sommelier from the Court of Master Sommeliers, and in 2017 I came second in the New Zealand Sommelier of the Year competition. In the same year, I was also selected by Wine Australia to attend the '50 Sommeliers of the World' programme, and in 2018 was one of only nine applicants in Australasia to be accepted to the Inaugural Family of XII Wine Tutorial.
In the beginning, Chardonnay was my go-to when customers asked for white wine (it was the only variety I could remember), but somewhere between then and now, I guess I've become a bit of an expert. I can't help thinking that injury back in Sydney was the best thing that could have happened to me. I love martial arts outside of Hospitality and have been training in a traditional Japanese style for more than two decades.
This is what brought me to Japan, where I am singing the gospel of kiwi wine and premium sake to all and everyone. I'm also a bit of a fan of random walks, and one day decided to tackle the Shikoku Eighty-Eight Temple Pilgrimage. It took forty days to cover the twelve hundred or so kilometres, and though I still can't recall why this seemed such a good idea at the time, I highly recommend it to everyone. I also recommend good shoes. And obviously Chardonnay.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
I'd have to say Clubhouse. For the most part, it seems to lack the spite anonymity often brings out in some of the text-only platforms, which I find quite refreshing. Through the app, I've connected with some truly fascinating people from all over the globe, from all walks of life.
Sometimes it's like a university lecture, sometimes closer to an all-in bar brawl; either way, there is some real quality there. To ensure some kind of sanity... room cultivation is pretty critical. It's all a bit wild-west, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
The first step of setting up a venue in Japan (Rangitoto Tokyo New Zealand Wine Bar), creating a physical site where guests can actually taste for themselves, has been completed. This frees us up to concentrate on raising the profile of New Zealand wine in Japan, which is painfully under-represented considering the quality of product and how well educated the average consumer is in this country.
There are roughly thirty-six million people in greater Tokyo, and our goal is to get the wine-drinking sector to associate kiwi products with quality and value for money. There is massive upside here once we can manage to get our message out.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
Outside the pleasure of meeting so many interesting guests, representing our wine-producing friends is very rewarding. I feel my value-add lies in being able to act something like an art curator, bridging the gap between the artist and the art lover. And wine is such a fascinating art form, tying in so many aspects of nature and the effects of human interference that there is always something new to learn.
It is literally ever-evolving, and I find that fascinating. Now, taking into account that everyone perceives wine differently, mood and environment influence that perception, the psychology of service multiplies the factors of what exists in the bottle. When it can all come together, there is a huge amount of job satisfaction. Trying to upscale from a single venue to a larger group and maintain the correct feeling is the challenge we are tackling now.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
My teacher, who unfortunately passed away two years ago, gave me many things to ponder, but one, in particular, rang true as soon as he said it to me. I'd asked how hard I should do something (I can't imagine why I thought this was a good question to waste his time with), and his answer was, "don't do it too much, and don't do it not enough". Despite the original context, I feel the gist flows through to basically everything in life, whether it's business or personal life, how much salt to add, how much lime juice in a mojito, it goes on. Balance is key.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
While researching my book, I worked in three different sake breweries, and in one, the day started at 4 am and finished at 11 pm. Those hours were not unusual in the industry, by the way. The team had maybe one or two days off over the three months of brewing, but the production of sake basically took over their entire lives. The business end of wine production is just as gruelling. These people are sacrificing so much to make what we are offering, and I really do feel a weight of responsibility to represent them to the best of my ability.
Rangitoto Tokyo deals with high-end products, and the final consumer needs to understand the background so they can assign an appropriate value. My job is to facilitate, to learn the stories so that guests realise they are paying for much more than just a way to get intoxicated when they order products made by our suppliers. And often our suppliers really do need help to tell their stories. No surprise, really. Who can think of great marketing strategies when you've just smashed out another nineteen-hour day?
What are you proud of in your life so far?
That's a hard question for me, to be honest. Because I don't really feel proud as opposed to lucky. Maybe my actions have put me in positions where I was able to experience some really cool things, but mostly I feel happy to have had the chance. Probably the closest, and this might sound a bit stupid, so apologies in advance, but maybe I'm a little proud that in the last class that I had with my teacher before he passed away, he got angry with me. He knew that time was running out, and I figure if I didn't register as having the potential to be better in his eyes, he wouldn't have bothered.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
Definitely face to face, whether it is at tradeshows or over a bar. You can learn so much about someone from a brief chat in person that emails and video calls just can't convey.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Having had a career working with database development and logic flows has given me a more structured approach to dealing with the problems that arise in Hospitality. There is a systematic view that I have that doesn't seem so common. I believe that once everyone knows their roles in the system, realise what they are responsible for and what they aren't responsible for, if something goes wrong, it's time to refine the system.
A lot of people outside of the industry don't necessarily appreciate the chaos swirling between a difficult customer, a trainee waiter, and an overworked chef, but falling back on logic helps keep emotion out of my responses. Having said that, I left the world of cold hard logic early enough that I feel I can still relate on an emotional level where it isn't just about numbers and units shifted. Because of a fortuitous injury, I think I'm lucky enough to have the best of both worlds.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
Psychology is such a massive part of the industry, and I wish I'd worked that out at the very beginning. A good waiter can make average food taste better, and good service can actually manipulate a guest's perception of time. If there is a problem, it's more important how people feel than what actually happened. Knowing this now, it is much easy to keep expectations in line with what we are offering.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
I highly admire a gentleman called Peter Cooper, who is a kiwi businessman who was a regular guest when I was working in Auckland. Coming from small-town New Zealand, he has been highly successful on a global scale and has given so much back to the country. From protecting heritage buildings, conservation efforts, and huge support of sports and the arts, there is much to admire and a lot to emulate. On top of all that, Peter is also a really nice and generous guy.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
Obviously, martial arts have played an important role in my life. I can confidently say the study has made me a nicer person, and the lessons have crossed over to every aspect of life. In a time when connectivity can make the business a twenty-four-hour commitment, I believe it is critical to have a circuit breaker. Especially one that gets the blood flow going and where being humbled is a regular occurrence. Getting tied up in knots by a person half your size and twice your age is great for keeping the ego in check!
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
It's been difficult, clearly, being in a customer-facing industry like Hospitality. In hindsight, it was somewhat foolish not to build a pandemic into the business plan. We were starting to get going before Covid really started to impact, and now sales are off 80-90%.
The extra downtime means I've brought forward the plans for our online distribution plans, so I'm choosing to see this as an opportunity. I've had time to ramp up our marketing, refine menus and train staff so that when things improve, we can hit the ground running. Sooner rather than later, one hopes.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
Yes. With so many part-time staff, Hospitality can be a rolling series of mentorships with little or no structure, but when you find someone who shares the passion, it's almost impossible not to try and give something back. A couple of months ago, I was honoured to see that two people back in New Zealand who I have guided were up for the same service award.
One of them mentioned how he's in management; there have been situations when he has asked himself, 'What would Wayne do?' It was very flattering. It's a great feeling to know that I'm still having a positive impact on people who have worked with me and that the processes I implemented have outlived my time there.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
There are the obvious ones, like treat your staff well and so on. Maybe less obvious is that if you are going to be working with a quality boutique product, make sure that you pay enough respect to understand that product. You don't need to be an expert, but do some courses and get your head around the fundamentals at the very least. It really is a sign of respect to the producers, and they will appreciate it.
More importantly, I'd have to say, is understand the reasons why they do what they do. For many, money is not at the top of the list when it comes to motivations, and they may not even sell to you if they don't feel right. If you can manage to get them on board so that they trust you, the relationships are invaluable.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Not taking enough time to stop and assess what is happening when something goes wrong or starts to wobble suggesting a problem is imminent and often not changing anything when something doesn't go the way they expected. If you're in it too deep emotionally, you run the risks of missing the lessons and repeating them, lessons that are often obvious when you take a step back.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
"Attack the biggest problem until it is no longer the biggest problem. Then move on to the new biggest problem. Eventually, the biggest problem will be pretty insignificant."
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Craft brewing in New Zealand is really nailing it, which is clear from the astronomical growth of the sector, and I think our friends at Behemoth Brewing are at the front of the pack. Their branding has been consistently on-point from the very beginning, with a humour that is quintessentially kiwi and has successfully resonated with consumers. Puns are par for the course when it comes to craft beer labels, but Andrew Childs' wordplay is some of the best in the game.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
When I was younger, maybe I wanted to be the star of the show, but now I'd rather be in more of a producer-type role. My plan is to guide staff to the point that they can do what I do to the best of their ability, freeing me up to move on to the next challenge. It's important to remember that as leaders, we have the ability to accidentally crush people who are looking up to us, especially in an industry with so many young people that may not have the confidence imbued by higher education.
A person who has left the schooling system early can have vulnerabilities, and though its true pressure creates diamonds, it also creates cracks. I think it is critical not to get caught up in my own dramas that I carelessly leave a trail of collateral damage behind me. And I've had enough poor staff develop into superstars to recognise the immense value in encouraging words. With that in mind, I define success as running a business that is high intensity, ethical, and commercially successful, and the staff still cross the street to talk to you when they see you. That, at least, is my goal.