Kiwi Business Story: Israel Rangitaawa of Coastwood Homes

Israel Rangitaawa is the Managing Director of Coastwood Homes based in Thames.

Icehouse Programme: Owner Manager Programme 63
Employs: Five permanent staff, plus contracts two building teams, plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters and drainlayers.

“Committing to the Owner Manager Programme has meant significant changes for me – in business, in my home life and with my wider whanau.”

When you first heard about the Icehouse, what was going on in the business?

I was enthusiastic to learn, and the timing was perfect. After five years in business, I was time-poor and needed to manage my time smartly. Straight after the first block of the Owner Manager Programme I knew I had made the right decision. The quality of the presenters was exceptional. The quality of the guest speakers was also of a high level. Each time we had a guest speaker, I wondered how they could get better, but the calibre kept going up and up.

One of the most significant (or the most significant) benefits was learning from the other participants in the programme; there was an instant connection. We realised we were all in the same waka, and suddenly, we were opening up to strangers. It can be hard to talk to other people about being a business owner – often we don’t talk to our wives, partners, or therapists. There is a level of responsibility in business ownership that others just don’t understand. A comment was made that “it’s lonely at the top”, and it’s hard for people to understand the pressure we put ourselves under.

What have you gained with respect to resilience and leadership improvement?

I’ve learnt so many tools around resilience and I have learnt so much about myself as a leader. I’ve learnt that I’m an assessor-developer and I like to solve problems. In the past, I have always tried to find the solution, but now I realise I don’t need to solve everything. Sometimes it's more important and effective to just listen. Understanding how my brain is wired is helping me to be better at managing my team. For example, when they have problems or are fired up, I’ve learned how not to react impulsively.

I was a happy-go-lucky charismatic leader with Braveheart-style speeches, but that’s not what my team wanted. They want direction, they want to know what’s happening next year and in years to come – they want to know the “plan”. I was also creating vacuums – I was the only person who could do certain tasks. While at The Icehouse, I realised that my style wasn’t allowing others to grow. The same pattern was happening not just in business but also at home and with my wider whanau responsibilities.

My style of leadership wasn’t healthy – part of my OMP implementation workshop for me was to give my team the tools they need and then get out of the way!

How are you sharing what you’ve learnt at The Icehouse with your wider team?

We are now doing some sort of training almost once a month, and I am including our wider building workforce every other month. Prior to The Icehouse, we did not have a structured ongoing programme of training.

I’ve opened the training to our external contractors. I was unsure how it would go because stereotypically trades tend not to see the value in that sort of training and it could have flopped. But fortunately, they saw the positives in the first round of training, so here’s hoping we can keep up the momentum.

What’s your vision for the future?

The vision is to be the best building company on the Peninsula in our customers’ eyes, and we now have the tools to achieve this. We want to be an award-winning team with high-functioning systems, consistency over our appearance with smarter margins.

OMP has given me all the tools to undergo the transformation, including coming up with a simple blueprint to run this business that anyone can understand.

We are now focusing on doing coaching every quarter, covering different aspects of business. We had done very little structured training like this before I did the OMP. I have always done my own professional development in my specific field being a Registered and Licensed Architectural Designer, but not structured training like we are proposing to do moving forward.

Last year was our fifth year in business, and I feel like it's time for me to stop being so protective of my child (the business), drop her off at school, and wave to her from the school gate, so to speak.

All the credit must go to my BNZ banking partner, Hemi Ruru – he introduced me to The Icehouse and opened my eyes to what is available from a business growth perspective, not just funding.