3 minute read
Board games
DIRECTORSHIP SKILLS
Nick Paris, who works with his wife Sarah on Plumbing Today in Auckland, is completing the 11-month Sirdar Group’s Applied Directorship Programme.
Business smarts
Using board room simulations and gamification, plumber Nick Paris is learning the ins and outs of board directorship on Sirdar Group’s Applied Directorship Programme. Nick talks to NZ Plumber about the programme and how he plans to put it to good use in his business.
It’s not often you come across a plumber with a Master’s in business. But that’s not the only unusual path Nick Paris has taken in a career that revolves around constant learning.
Nick is the owner of Plumbing Today in Auckland, and winner of a Master Plumbers prize draw to take part in Sirdar Group’s Applied Directorship Programme, an 11-month course all about governance skills.
“I’m a great believer in continual professional development,” he says. “Being part of the Applied Directorship Programme is a fantastic opportunity and privilege. The skills I’ll develop on this course can be applied to my own business, or as a future director on an industry board.”
Marketing & business experience
Nick worked for his dad’s plumbing company for 10 years until he was 28. By then, he’d taken over the business and changed its name to Plumbing Today.
“It’s fair to say I did start to feel quite isolated as a sole trader, and I really wanted to challenge myself and enter the corporate sector. I knew I needed to do some sort of extracurricular study to get a foot in and be successful.”
He put plumbing on ice, and what followed was a successful 18 years working in sales and marketing for the likes of Marley, Tegel Foods and Caroma. He studied marketing and business management outside work hours, and while at Tegel Foods, led a team that beat other big guns like Telecom and Fonterra to win the supreme marketing prize at the TVNZ Marketing Magazine Awards.
“It was an exciting 18 years, and I was exposed to how large corporates work. I gained experience in the manufacturing of products, distribution channels, demand forecasting, product development and sales and marketing.”
Nick re-set up Plumbing Today in 2009 and threw himself back into another learning curve. Already a Certifying Plumber, he went about gaining his gas and drainage certifying licences.
More than a decade on Plumbing Today has a strong reputation working on mid- to high-end architectural homes across Auckland. Nick’s wife, Sarah, has also joined the business after a successful corporate career of her own, and manages customer service and planning. Typically, they have at least one high-end project on the books at any time that can take years to complete.
“It’s on the more challenging side of residential plumbing and gasfitting,” Nick
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says. “Every house is bespoke, and it requires good project planning and teamwork.”
Strategic decision making
Still, Nick’s learning doesn’t stop there. He’s working through all the prep work before each monthly Sirdar Applied Directorship session, as well as the homework that comes afterwards. There are books to read, podcasts to listen to, and group scenarios to complete.
“The exciting thing about this course is that it’s an applied programme, so I get to experience the process of running a board and making strategic decisions. We’re broken into groups of six to form a board of a fictitious company.
“We make a huge number of commercial decisions based on the board pack we’re given about how the company is going. It’s done on a business game platform, and the net result is a competition where the winner is the one with the best business outcome.”
It takes a fair bit to quench Nick’s thirst for knowledge, and the Sirdar course is certainly not for the fainthearted. But with his appetite for learning, you wouldn’t bet against him finding yet another challenge after this one’s finished.
The Sirdar Applied Directorship Programme is delivered by Skills Consulting Group. Find out more at https://skillsconsultinggroup.com/what-we-do/organisational-development/governancedevelopment/sirdar-applied-directorship-programme
