| Written by Angela Lampl
My guest today is Paul. Say hi!
Angi: Hello and welcome Paul. Thanks for joining me today to talk about you and your experience with Identec Solutions I hope you are doing good!
Paul: Hi Angi, thank you I’m ready and curious about your questions!
Angi: Then let’s dive in! Can you tell our readers where do you live and how this place looks like?
Paul: Sure, I live in an inner-suburban home, packed in with my wife and two children. We love the area, close to the city of Melbourne where we often spend our weekends, while easy access to the peninsulas as well as the rural areas where my wife grew up. We’re moving house in a few weeks to something larger, around 500 meters away. When we can, we like to spend our weekends in a coastal town an hour away, called Somers. Here along with swimming and bush trails, we can visit the local wineries and markets, our favourite being Point Leo Estate.
Angi: Sounds very lovely– hope you have a smooth move!
Paul: Yeah, I hope so too!
Angi: Now how about some interesting aspects of your career?
Paul: During my university days I worked as a foreman in an ice cream factory, that came with great perks. I also did the typical Australian thing of working at a pub in England, over in Weston-Super-Mare, it gave me an education in beer just as the craft brew craze kicked off on my return to Australia. My career in the industry began at P&O Ports IT and I was there for the DPW takeover. I loved working both in the office and the yard, 6am calls to the gates to troubleshoot issues as trucks were backing up, and midnight calls to check on TOS problems. It cemented my longstanding love/hate relationship with the mobile phone.
Angi: Wow you did learn a lot about life or more a lot about different industries. What is the craziest Ice cream flavour you did ever taste?
Paul: Not too many crazy ice cream flavours! Although my favourite was Tiramisu…in a milkshake with added coffee. It was the easiest to take on while working.
Angi: Uhh I never had Tiramisu as an Ice cream flavour – maybe I need to try it. But how did you handle to sleep again after some midnight calls, or have you been sleeping early in the evening then? That sounds very hard especially for your sleep rhythm.
Paul: I was pretty good at it, I can wake quickly and answer a phone in a respectable manner before my brain ticks into gear, and I get back to sleep quickly. Otherwise really the work isn’t right for you. It becomes difficult when you have a family and sleeping in isn’t an option.
Angi: Now to your time here at Identec Solutions. What do you do and when did you start?
Paul: I’m VP of Sales Marine & Ports, handling the APAC region along with Joshua Chan. I began in the sales role around 5 years ago, prior to this I managed the Melbourne Professional Services Team. I began at Identec in 2011, I’m here for a long time and a good time.
Angi: And what do you like the most about your job?
Paul: The travel is a great perk, although really its consulting with new and existing customers to find resolutions to their problems. Seeing how our solutions can fit and learning more about industry problems in general.
Angi: How many countries have you travelled to and is there a place where you haven’t been and want to travel to?
Paul: How many countries? Plenty…there are too many countries that I’ve visited for only a number of days, I know little more about them then the airport and the Container Terminal. There are even more I want to get to. I’ve never been to Africa, so would love to travel there when the kids are older.
Angi: That sounds like a plan. I think seeing different cultures and parts of nature is exciting. Next question is: Do you have a guiding principle at work?
Paul: I’m a big believer of teamwork and working outside your role when required to get things done. With customers, this may involve assisting in finding solutions to problems outside Identec’ s focus, and internally this could be filling gaps when others are not available, or the timing demands it.
Angi: That means being creative and thinking outside the box is your personal guideline. Here at Identec Solutions, we have 5 core company values – Visionary, Open. Responsible, Leading and Global. Which one is for you the most significant and how do you live it?
Paul: Well, they’re all fairly significant values which I’m glad Identec puts forward, although the one that crosses over most for me in my personal and professional life is Open. I ensure I’m approachable to both the customer and co-worker, I endeavour to be a source of truth and advice for the client while also providing critical feedback where required. Our solution offerings make this easy, our claims are genuine, and we get straight to the heart (and point) of what our clients need.
Angi: Do you have some advice how to be more open minded?
Paul: It begins with listening, being present to listen and giving our customers the opportunity to divulge their concerns. This provides the opportunity to feed back information if and where it may suit, we deal daily with a puzzle of information, part of the struggle is finding out who would benefit from the information we hold. Showing we can reliably provide information of greater use presents us as a reliable resource...
Angi: Thank you for your advice! Now what is the most rewarding part of your job?
Paul: It has to be happy customers, doesn’t it? I feel greater reward comes when team efforts during a difficult sale or installation are appreciated and acknowledged, and we create a supporter out of a good customer. Greater the risk, the greater the reward. Quick sales are nice too though….
Angi: And what do you do in your free time – any hobbies or passions?
Paul: Token family comment, which of course I’m passionate about. Other than that, love my outdoor activities especially running and ocean swimming. I did train for a marathon which took place early July, it was my third. I am glad that I'm done so I can sleep in again.
Angi: That sounds great and congrats to running your marathon. Thank you so much for answering my questions today!
Paul: I have to thank you for giving me the opportunity to.