McConnell Group's News


Retired Steelpipe CEO, Ken Mander, loves working with wood and has crafted, to perfection, three westminster chiming clocks.		Ken Mander, Mark Scott, Steelpipe Manager Strategic Growth and Daniel Brown, Steelpipe Project Support love their steely two wheel machines. Ken’s bike is a 2005 Harley Davidson Anniversary Fatboy Limited Edition 95 cu inch (1550cc). Mark’s is a Ducati ST2 with a 944cc twin growler and Daniel is riding a Kawasaki Ninja 250cc with an after-market carbon fibre exhaust.

Making steel pipe is not rocket science. It's pretty raw - using blacksmith technology - using heat and hammers but the trick is manufacturing to toolmakers' tolerances, every time!

On 13 August 2010, exactly 17 years 'to the day' CEO Ken Mander retired from Steelpipe.

He has handed over to Peter Alexander, but he is not walking away, he still feels very much part of the family and is there for advice or even those 'special projects' which might be on the cards.

Ken's management experience is very much 'hands on'. He left New Zealand in '73 and for the next 20 years, as an aircraft engineer (and manager) travelled the world - an inveterate gypsy - working in Zambia, Kenya, Singapore, and the Middle East.

"I worked with many people and cultures - so many different value sets - the very rich and very poor. And one thing I learnt from my working travels is that whatever industry you are in - it's all about people. I think I learnt to read people pretty well, and even though those close to me know that I am rather anti-social by nature, this life experience has given me an empathy for all people," says Ken.

"One of my key strengths is my value set. I don't push 'self'. Steelpipe was never about me but about what a group of enthusiastic, committed, passionate people have achieved together and that has been my reward - this is what success feels like for me.

"I was never very career orientated. When I came back to NEW ZEALAND I sat down and examined my strengths and weaknesses and considered that with my solid network of contacts in Asia, and the Middle East finding a small company that was looking to develop an export market might be the goer. After two interviews with an agency they told me that the company was keen - called 'Spiral Welded Pipes' and owned by Humes Industries.

"I said 'Excuse me, whhhaaatt? Having worked in the clinical, regulated, pristine environments of aviation I was totally shocked - dirty, rusty old pipes - you've got to be kidding! But curiosity got the better of me and I decided to have a look.

"So for the first three weeks I was confused. I was used to working in a glamour industry, not in a decrepit heavy engineering factory in downtown Onehunga but I persevered. After about five months we had a visit from Tony Blanch, one of the directors of our owner Adelaide Brighton Cement. The business had not made a profit for five years, there were inordinate steel stocks etc and he asked me what I thought.

"Thinking that I wouldn't be around too much longer I told him straight. He turned up again a couple of weeks later and asked me if I thought I could do it better and replied 'Yeh sure! He asked me to come with him into the GMs office where upon he told the GM to pack his bags and overnight I became the new GM. So now it was up to me to put to right the gross inadequacies in terms of the organisation, primarily they were to do with functionality and communication - it's all about people."

The organisation had become completely separated - a small operating division of a large organisation that got no attention in terms of strategy and directional growth. Organisationally it had its head office in one location managing accounts, sales and pricing and the factory production team in Neilson Street.

"No one knew what was going on - there was no production planning and those in head office never visited the factory. We also had an Australian office which wasn't selling much was struggling.

"Lance Thompson was the manager of the Aussie office. We had never met but I well remember ringing him up and asking him how long it would take to pack up his office and move back to New Zealand - the message being that we were shutting up shop in Australia.

"Then I relocated all parts of the business to Nielsen Street, no more air conditioned offices - we all became part of one factory team...Lance, me and Warren Third. Together we developed a plan to change things."

The prior strategy had focused on 70% export and 30% local.

"In fact what this had achieved was the loss of many areas of the domestic market - we were losing our client base and had made it easy for our competitors by just stepping aside.

"With the addition of Mark Scott we determined that we had to turn this around and achieve a 70% local 30% export market balance. So this was our direction from '95."

At the beginning of '97 Adelaide Brighton decided to return to their core business, cement making, and divest their other interests - Humes Industries (Humes Concrete, Hurricane Wire Products and Steelpipe) was on the market as a single package. There was only one expression of interest - from Fletchers Building. Humes presented, and then it was Steelpipe's turn but no one turned up!

"Detesting public speaking as I do, it might have been a relief but at the same time it was very sad. The broker was talking about leveraging up price for Humes and throwing Steelpipe in as a bonus. It was very demoralising for the team after we had got the business well and truly into the black. But Fletchers just wasn't interested - they wouldn't even come for a visit.

"So Lance, Warren and I commiserated - did we sit back and take whatever happened or become proactive? We tried a management buyout but that didn't fly. Warren had a brother who was connected in Wellington and he had a quiet chat with Prebble...there's a good deal here, you may want to look at it. Anyway I got a ring from David McConnell who suggested that we had a chat and even though we were bound by the rules of due diligence we talked in code.

"I got across that we were cash rich, owned the Nielsen St property outright, and had the Waikato River Water pipe project coming up...and that it was going cheap. Eight conversations later (through the McConnell Group board) they bought us.

"And that was the start of the next 13 years - all back to being put on the spot in '93 when I committed to 'doing it better'. I didn't want to fail - I wanted to be able to put a notch on my belt and say - I told you so - never about pay or power, but about achieving what I said we could achieve.

"And maybe that is why I got on so well with David, John, Mike and the directors. I remember saying to David one day - Don't take this the wrong way but you have got nothing that I want. I am here because I want to achieve a result - and I always had their support because I don't play games, I don't have baggage. I have always shared the good, the bad and the ugly.

"Lance, Mark and I always consider ourselves not as employees. We know that we don't own the business in money terms and that we get paid salaries - but we look at ourselves as three stakeholders who have the emotional ownership and commitment, not employees."

"I would like to be remembered by Steelpipe people as a leader who cared for their wellbeing. We played the game as a team sport. We won or lost as a team. My role was as a coach and coordinator. We celebrated the wins, regretted the losses. We were roped together and if we were to go over the cliff we'd have done it together. That's why I lasted 17 years in a pipe factory because of the people, the team, the comradeship. It took a long time to build this team especially across the factory floor."

Milestones

Turning the business around in the early years
Finding a suitable owner in 1997 to take us into the future - McConnell Group has given Steelpipe a high level of support, achieved a high level of communication and understanding of the business, and given management the autonomy to get on with it. Years ago I worked for a family company and swore that I would never do so again, particularly if a family member was running it! My experience with McConnell Group has completely reversed that. I feel lucky, privileged to have worked with David and John McConnell, Mike Wardle, John Wadams and Arthur Young - and at the same time to be given the autonomy, responsibility and trust to manage the investment - it has meant a hell of a lot - to be part of this whole team."
Winning and delivering the Waikato River contract - this 28 km, 1200mm diameter pipeline provided 2-3 years revenue in one project and we won it because we are good at what we do.
Looking at the longer term strategic direction with Mark Scott and Lance Thompson's support - directionally and structurally. We could have managed as a twilight business in New Zealand but we went beyond that - setting up in Australia and achieving enormous success immediately - not done by many New Zealand companies. While Australia is going through a downturn I am confident that things will turn around."

The future

Steelpipe in New Zealand is well placed for producing pipe for the 33km Hunua watermain which will provide greater Auckland with sufficient network capacity to cater for population growth over the next 50 years.

Passions

Woodworking - I have made three Westminster clocks complete with chimes but I couldn't ever sell my wares - just wouldn't be viable. I spend far too many hours on each item - In my workshop I just get so much enjoyment out of being alone, being able to sand to perfection, I love the smell - no grime and dirt solitude and the smell of wood

Always been a bikie and a bit of a flier - learnt to fly when I was 17 but couldn't afford a car, was an apprentice aircraft engineer at Ardmore and didn't get my first car until I was 28! Used to do a lot of flying - test flying and deliveries in New Zealand and Africa but haven't flown for 17 years. But I do own a Harley Davidson - all patched out.

What’s ahead for Ken and Wife Sondra

We are going to take a year out and just do things - travel through New Zealand, rent out the Auckland property, just see what we like doing and where the year takes us - a year of exploration.

Sondra and I complement each other - I am the eternal optimist; she keeps a reality check on me. I always share my outlandish ideas and she says I am a bit of a dreamer or would be if she let me!

What would you say to aspiring leaders?

"It's all about dealing with people understanding and motivating and achieving results through people. Whether you have one player in the team or hundreds the principles are the same. It is about understanding individuals, what their buttons are and then pushing these buttons to get the best.

"I went to a business development course years ago, led by an industrial psychologist Phillip L. Hunsaker, the author of ‘The Art of Managing People’. He started talking about leadership as 'the artful manipulation of people'. And he asked each one of us - if this is the case what is the key motivator or driver? Most answered to treat people as you would like to be treated do unto others as you would yourself. He said 'I am a masochist so do I treat everyone like this?' No! The artful manipulation of people is about finding out how each person wants to be treated and then progressing accordingly, moulding them into a team'. Everyone needs to be considered individually."