''Disruption is coming on like a freight train.
''You're either on the train or on the tracks.''
Mr Hart, who is New Zealand's richest man, was commenting in an address to more than 310 commerce and law graduates, in a graduation ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall.
Already an Otago MBA graduate, he yesterday received an honorary doctorate of commerce from the university.
Mr Hart had recently been thinking about the challenges posed by technological disruptions, which took many forms, including artificial intelligence and developments such as Airbnb.
Irrespective of their individual career paths, graduates would be unable to escape the challenges posed by such disruption, and he urged them to research the subject, and to make the best of such challenges, instead of simply trying to avoid them.
Such ''disruptive forces'' were exciting but were also ''opaque'', and some implications were still unclear.
He told graduates that when he considered their futures, he visualised it in graphic terms, imaging a large staircase, with a happy face at the top of it.
The happy face represented individual graduates, after a working career of about 40 years, he said. Graduates were at the bottom, and he urged them to carefully consider options, to be passionate, to look for opportunities as they arose, and to be bold in seizing them.
He reflected on his own business career, and said that on the way there had been ''a very, very tough time'', and the ''frightening'' prospect of potential banking collapses in the United States.
As many businesses faced potential ''meltdown'' some further business opportunities became available and he had been able to take some of them because of credibility built up through business dealings.
He urged graduates to carefully guard their reputations and to build their credibility by undertaking their business dealings honestly and delivering.
He was optimistic about their success and told graduates: '' I wish you every success''.
