Sparkling clean counter passport to Canada

Emma Hill with her parents Michael and Christine. Picture / Martin Sykes

Emma Hill's first job at Michael Hill Jeweller was less glamorous than might be expected for the daughter of one of New Zealand's wealthier businessmen.

She had to clean the counters. It was a solid start in the family business for the then seven-year-old - and a sign of things to come as she made her way up the chain in the family business.

"Michael made us carve our own path through the business if we chose to take it," says Hill, at 34, now head of the fast-growing Canadian operation.

Far from having a career path handed to her, Hill says she had to work harder than most to progress, because she was Michael Hill's daughter. "Everything I've ever done in this organisation I've had to fight really hard for."

She started working in jewellery sales at 14, working through the holidays and becoming a proficient sales person.

After university, she approached Michael Hill International chief executive Mike Parsell for a role, joining the company as a manager-in-training. But it took another couple of years before she was promoted.

"I was in training so long and I'd see these people appointed ahead of me. I'd ring Mike and say: I'm so ready to do this. I can run an incredible store for you. He'd say: Emma, I can't just have you ready. I have to be absolutely sure you won't fail."

Hill's patience was eventually rewarded with another four years as a store manager. "I spent a long time on the shop floor, which is really Michael's grounding as well. He spent 14 years working for his uncle.

"Our business is based on such sensible fundamentals that the only way to learn them really is just to spend a lot of time learning the art of how to orchestrate a store team effectively."

Apart from time out to do an MBA and a year working for a marketing company in Sydney, Hill's entire working career has been focused on the jewellery business. "It's my absolute passion - I couldn't imagine doing anything else," says Hill. It's also the foundation of her relationship with her father.

"When I wasn't working for the organisation, when I was doing my MBA, I kind of felt I didn't have the same connection with my Dad as I do when I'm discussing business with him.

"We talk about once a week and we certainly talk about business. It's a unique situation. I've got to be very respectful of the relationship with Mike too, and making sure I do not overstep the boundaries of someone I actually report to."

She strives hard to prove she has earned her stripes.

"I'm sure some people in the organisation think I'm here because of my surname, but at the end of the day as long as I know I'm doing a great job and doing it to the best of my ability, that's what's important."

But Hill believes she has earned the respect of most. Since taking on the job as retail general manager in Canada, the company has expanded to 10 stores in British Columbia, and sales have begun to gain traction. The long-term vision is to have 125 stores across the country, taking it region by region in order to get momentum for the brand in each market.

"It was an interesting experience coming to Canada from New Zealand and Australia. You believe when you're so successful in the home market that you've got the ultimate formula. But you hit a foreign marketplace and you've quickly got to reassess whether or not every part of the formula you've got is right for the market you're in."

In Canada, that has meant some adjustments. "There's been a great result in our sales performance, hence we're charging ahead."

Canada is the ultimate learning ground for Hill - to find out everything she needs to know to run the organisation later on. "If my father chooses to have me as the chairman," she says.

That's a role she'd love, though working for the family business definitely has its minuses as well as its pluses.

"Every store I open I've got my father's name over the top of. That's a big thing to live up to. I feel the responsibility probably more than most to prove myself to be as good as my father and that stays with me every day."

The seed for her ambition was planted early. Hill says her father used to describe her as "the one with the business brain" as a child. "I guess I've always wanted to live up to his expectations."

Some bullying at school in small town Whangarei may have also played a part. Despite the company's having just a handful of stores, even Michael Hill's early success was enough to spark envy. "Would you like your Dad on TV blowing bubbles out of an aqualung?" says Hill, calling them those "ludicrous" commercials. "Kids used to shout: gold, gold ... silver, silver ... chain, chain ... sale, sale ... to me out of the bus window."

But Hill says she was never pushed into the business. Her brother, Mark Hill, is a sculptor.

While Hill remains committed to Michael Hill International, she feels she shares the same entrepreneurial spirit as her father. Were she not working for the family business, she would be running her own.

Even the teasing has had an upside, leaving Hill eager to prove it wasn't all easy and she wasn't just handed her success. "I guess it makes you all the more resolved to prove yourself as an individual, prove yourself as being as successful as your father."