Genesis of a franchisee
I woke up on Sunday morning and suddenly realised that we've reached November already. How the year has flown! It also dawned on me that it is now a year since I was retrenched from my last job. This got me to reflecting on how I have ended up as a business owner of a cost management consultancy. It is probably not where I imagined I'd be when I graduated from university, almost 30 years ago, as a mechanical engineer. My first job was working for an oil exploration company on oil rigs off the south and west coast of South Africa. I've always had a passion for heavy machinery, ships and the ocean, so I loved being out in the vast ocean on a large piece of highly sophisticated machinery. The knowledge and experienced I gained on oil rigs is what landed me my next job on the team in De Beers Marine, tasked with developing methods for mining diamonds from the seabed (100+ m water depth) off the coast of Namibia. It was here that my passion for heavy machinery, ships and the ocean, coupled with the opportunity for innovation, was really and truly fired up. Nobody had ever mined diamonds from the seabed at this depth before, so we had to find a way - and we did! But that is a whole story in itself It was during my time working on these fascinating projects that I also came to realise that as an engineer I lacked the business skills necessary to advance myself in the business world, skills that would enable me to become a well-rounded and effective manager and leader.
So I duly embarked on my management studies, choosing to do a Masters in Engineering, specialising in Operations Management. Well that really opened my eyes. Engineers tend to be hard thinkers, so a lot of the soft stuff really challenged my view of the business world. It was good for me and blew my blinkers right off. This ignited a passion I didn't even realise I had - a passion for systems and processes, something sadly lacking in many organisations, as I was to discover in my journey in the world of employment.
It was at this time that my family and I decided to immigrate to New Zealand. Believe me when I tell you that immigration is fairly stressful! It takes quite some time to adjust to a new environment and certainly it took quite some time to adjust to the working environment. I used the time to try and broaden my business skills and hence spent a number of years working in the international lift industry in supply and logistics, which is where I gained my skills in procurement - skills that are of great importance in my current ERA business. I moved on from there to work on product development in the renewable energy sector and later in gas detection and gas measurement. My last job prior to becoming self-employed was in operations in a manufacturing environment, affording me the opportunity to set up systems and processes with the added challenge of leading a reasonable sized manufacturing and operations team.
So what is my point in telling you all this? In my last blog, I mentioned the person who wants to always remain green - I agree. If you make your working life one where you take on new challenges and constantly learn, you will remain green, you will remain stimulated, your brain will remain sharp and above all you will become knowledgeable and very capable. You will be capable of taking on many different roles and adding value to your chosen organisation. That's probably how I've ended up as a business owner of a cost management consultancy. So where will you end up?
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