Young Executive of the Year likes to get his hands dirty
In his dark,double-breasted suit and multi-coloured tie, 34 year-old Philip Routhan would not look out of place guzzling bottles of yuppie lager in some determinedly groovy watering hole off Lambton Quay or Queen Street.
But, as he picked up the Institute of Management sponsored Young Executive of the Year award, this Hokitika plumber was very much down to earth, speaking of the pleasures of plunging his hands into the repellently vile murk that lurks deep in the subterranean world of pipes.
The son of a plumber, he has been immersed in that world since infancy: “I went on my first plumbing job at the age of three,” he told NBR at the awards ceremony in Wellington.
“And that’s all I ever wanted to do.--High school or all school was something that I had to get out of the way so I could become a plumber.”
After starting an apprenticeship straight out of college, Mr Routhan took over his father’s business,
W H Shannon, four days short of his 19th birthday.
The opportunity arose so in I went and I thought I was bulletproof.--And that turned out not to be the case.--I struggled along for a couple of years.
“The company got into such difficulties I was advised to liquidate and seek bankruptcy but I took expert advice and turned it all around.”
Philip Routhan - found a turning point
Insisting he was not simply doing a PR job for the award’s sponsors, Mr Routhan said the turning point in his career was involvement with the Institute of Management.
“I guess I’m like a lot of people in business, you think you’re a manager.--It’s not until you become involved with the institute that you realise you’re away with the fairies, you’re dreaming.”
Now his business has four South Island branches, with another one being set up in Ashburton and a sixth scheduled for Te Anau early next year.
Annual turnover, snorkelling just under the magic $1 million mark, has grown 400% in the past five years and he employs eight staff.
The judges described Mr Routhan as an “ideal candidate” for the award, displaying “obvious entrepreneur-ship and customer orientation”.
He will represent New Zealand in the world final of the Worldcom Young Business Achiever Award in Northern Ireland next year.
Despite the growth in his business and his participation in the rarefied world of management awards, Mr Routhan said he word the same outfit as his staff and still got his hands in among “it”.
“It’s becoming less and less but I think in some ways that’s what keeps me sane.”
The runners up were Inland Revenue’s district commissioner in Napier, Lyndelle Wiig, and Auckland-based Russell Stanners, telecommunications and media industry manager for IBM New Zealand.
When appointed to her post two years ago aged 30, Ms Wiig was the youngest district commissioner in IRD’s history.--Last year, Mr Stanners won an IB Industry Excellence Award.