eKourier Jan 2014

WHO’S WHO

10 Questions... With Gorden Guthrie - Team Support Manager

or practical, is something I would like to get involved in. At the very least, I can capture nature as it should be on camera. I am planning a trip with friends to the game parks in Africa next year. A new camera is definitely on the agenda for that. Further down the track, some land by the coast, with enough space for two horses, would bring great enjoyment. As for achievements, my most relevant at KSS is keeping our centres staffed and making sure we have coverage, Christmas and the New Year sees a lot of the Team taking holidays. Why is recording and capturing Customer Enquiries so important at Kennards? Enquiries are the means by which we track our sales success because they allow us to generate a conversion rate from the number of move-ins that result. Measuring our conversion rate then gives us the opportunity to compete against ourselves as we track our sales improve- ment in getting people to move in to our centre(s). Do you feel training is a crucial element to making a successful Kennards Team Member? Training in my view is largely what we make of it. For me, training helps keep me on track with our procedures, systems and developments - sometimes I think I know the way things are done, because I’m used to it. Then training highlights that somewhere I have gone off track and helps me get back on. We should also use it, I believe, to raise and address issues and areas that we would find it helpful to know more about, even if they are not strictly on the agenda. I Recently attended PEP, which I found enormously rewarding. It brought the whole Blue-Red-Green Circumplex graphically and meaningfully to life for me. And finally, to sum up KSS in one word would be? TEAMWORK. It gives real depth and satisfaction to so much of what we do together.

centre challenges. I also inherited the TSM Co-ordinating role which is a stimulating challenge in mental gymnas- tics, and a task I find satisfying by supporting and being of more direct benefit to my Teammates. Most of all, the constant change of scene is a real buzz for me. Tell us about your family, hobbies and interests? Four children, two who came with the marital package (hence the early grandchildren), and then two later with whom I had a more direct involvement. There is a 13 year gap between numbers two and three, which means the older siblings are really good role models and mentors for their younger brothers. They all relate to each other well, which has been a very gratifying experience for me. I have a few interests which are fairly varied and probably a bit male-oriented. Sport; mainly cricket, all four codes of football, horse racing and even occasionally a bit of golf. Also fishing, camping/outdoors/walking, going to remote areas, music; mainly opera, classical, jazz and classic pop; steam locomotives and their restoration and model railways. Preferred exercise is bike riding, swimming and flexibility/core exercises (to help me get more out of life). Tell us about your background and personal origin? Like many at KSS, I was not born in this country. I was born in Inverness, capital of the Highlands in Scotland. I occasion- ally indulge in Scottish events/culture with friends. I used to do a bit of Scottish dancing too, which is really great fun. It’s something I intend to get back into next year, as a Scottish Ball is a sensational experience. Do you have any goals in life that you have yet to achieve and can you tell us of any that have been great achievements? The environment and natural outdoor regions, with all their flora and fauna, attract me and draw me to them. An environmentally-based project, research

Tell us how long you have been with Kennards? I recently celebrated my anniversary of six years with Kennards. Three and a half years at a centre and then the last two and a half years as a TSM. I would never have believed at the start how involved I would get with the company. What role do you have with Kennards Self Storage and have you always done this? My role was as Assistant Manager at Huntingdale in the South-East of Melbourne until about two and a half years ago when I switched to become a TSM. I really needed a change of scene and role, and the TSM position definitely provided that. What would be the best thing about being a TSM for Victoria? It’s brought me into contact with a broader spectrum of our KSS community whom I had previously had little opportu- nity to interact with. I enjoy an enhanced sense of teamwork with my Teammates getting involved with their individual 30th November was St Andrew's Day. St Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland. We went with friends to the St Andrew's Day Dinner in Melbourne.

3 Kennards Kourier January 2014