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Ten questions in ten minutes
With Rob MacLean
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Rob MacLean is the director of Outward Bound School, a leading organisation for showing people their full potential through outdoor challenge and adventure.
Rob MacLean.
Business to Business
- What made you decide to get into the outdoors education industry and how did you get into it?
Rob MacLean
- When I left high school I wasn’t even aware that an outdoors ‘industry’ even existed. I knew that I wanted to work in the outdoors and that I wanted to use my brain. I also knew that I wanted to work with people. I started my career training in forestry, switched to Environmental Science but discovered I didn’t really like working by myself in a laboratory. At that time, I was studying at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The people that inspired me there weren’t necessarily the academics but the outdoors instructors and wilderness guides who lived in the community. It was an easy step from Environmental Science into Outdoors Education. I applied for a place on an instructors’ selection course with the US National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and have never looked back.
BtoB
- What inspired you to help start up a National Outdoor Leadership School in the South Island?
RM
- I loved working for NOLS but wanted to return to New Zealand so I worked on persuading NOLS to let me take my job home. At the same time, I also genuinely wanted to create jobs and contribute to the range of work options available to Kiwis like me who love to work with people in the outdoors. At NOLS NZ we brought US students over to New Zealand to take part in our courses – thus tapping into a market that no one else in the country had access to.
BtoB
- What made you decide to make the move to Outward Bound and take on a substantial leadership role?
RM
- I was with NOLS for 11 years and felt that I had accomplished a great deal and needed a new challenge. I also wanted to work directly with Kiwi students and contribute to an organisation that had similar values and mission to NOLS - Outward Bound was an obvious choice.
BtoB
- Who has influenced you the most professionally?
RM
- I can’t identify any one person as having influenced me more than anyone else. Any professional interaction that I have with a person teaches me something. However, the more honest, thoughtful and genuine the feedback I receive from a person, the more I learn from them.
BtoB
- How would you describe yourself as a businessman?
RM
- I think of myself as more of an Outdoor Educator than as a businessman. I am very passionate about what we do at Outward Bound am really focused on our mission of inspiring personal and social development through experiential learning in an outdoor environment. As a style of working, I tend toward believing in the ‘win-win’ scenario rather than taking a hard line – I guess that means I’m not a very good ‘positional negotiator’.
BtoB
- What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
RM
- I am quite proud of my involvement in helping to establish NOLS NZ.
BtoB
- In hindsight, what is the one thing you would do differently?
RM
- If I could have done an Outward Bound course when I was a younger man, I think I would have figured out more quickly what was important to me in life.
BtoB
- Who do you find inspirational and why?
RM
- My mum. She has suffered three major debilitating diseases in the last 30 years plus the death of my father yet she still keeps trucking on.
BtoB
- What is the most inspirational book you have read recently?
RM
– ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’ by Thomas Friedman. While quite focused on the USA perspective, definitely gives us some ideas on how to reconcile the constant pressures of economic globalisation with the need to protect the planet.
BtoB
- What is your favourite website and why?
RM
- www.ted.com - one of the instructors at Outward Bound switched me on to this. It includes details of inspirational speakers on all manner of topics.
BtoB
- What is the first thing you would do if you became Prime Minister?
RM
- Increase the investment in parenting education and support for young or solo parents.
BtoB
- What is the best thing about being in business?
RM
- The interactions I have with people and the sense that I can really make a difference in people’s lives.
