You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Meet Mark Pay
Job:
Business Development Manager at Rockit Global.
<- Homepage: Our Primary Industries: Unpacking the apple story
Job description:
Travel the world developing new customers, new channels and new products for Rockit™ apple company.
Favourite part of job:
Customers. We do business in an exciting industry, selling healthy, delicious products, with daily challenges arising from every corner of the world. Doing all this with customers who are equally passionate about delivering the best to consumers is a daily kick! And I get to travel to different parts of the world doing this, so far having visited 37 countries (14% of the world). I’ve experienced cultures, traditions and food I never even knew existed, and have experienced the lifestyles of the mega-wealthy and the slums of Mumbai. I truly am “living the dream”!
Least favourite part of job:
Negative mindsets. Our industry needs to move beyond basic products, and Rockit is just showing the start of what is possible when you brush off the old mindsets and constraints, and are open to completely new thinking. Rockit however is only the start, and I’m excited for the future of the primary industries, with the youth coming through, their new ways of looking at the world, their passion for the environment, and their spirit of giving different ideas a go.
What I am working on now:
Working on sales in Japan, India and Thailand and developing online sales channels for Rockit.
A quick story about a job well done:
Actually most often it’s the small wins that mean the most. The simple pleasure of winning over a retailer or buyer after many months of their refusal or push back. I remember driving along, punching the air in victory, after finally getting a retailer to stock our product after more than a year of rejections from them (and yes, I turned up at least once a month for 12 months to try to achieve this).
A (humorous) story about a job that went badly and what you learned:
I’m always making mistakes, in fact I have a personal policy that somewhere between 10-20% of what I do should have a high chance of failure. It’s only through pushing the boundaries that you realise what is truly possible. I don’t believe in being wasteful or reckless, simply that failing is a learning opportunity, not a final result. I encourage everyone to fail. Fail often and fail fast. Learn from your failures and make improvements, so when you come back you’re wiser than your competitors.
Qualifications:
Diploma in Business (EIT)… I wish I had more qualifications. This is my biggest regret not doing more when I was straight out of high-school!
Interests outside work:
Cars, family, business, building things from timber, gardening (as long as I can eat it), swimming, food, history, science and I care deeply about our planet’s future (I still make sure I spend one day a year picking up rubbish with my kids at a local beach by ourselves…not for show, not for charity, but because it’s the right thing to do).
Mark Pay is the Business Development Manager at Rockit Global. Image: Supplied.