Paul McDonald is the managing director of Paul Waite associates and PWA Geo-environmental. They do consulting, engineering, ground investigations supporting design & build contractors through the planning phase, construction phase and all the way through the lifecycle of the building.
Here’s what Paul had to say about his experience and TAB:
I’ve been involved in Paul Waite associates for 13-14 years. I bought the business in the first week of March after a protracted period. TAB was introduced by a colleague of ours that we’ve worked closely with over the years and who had connections with TAB. It was really a support mechanism for me in taking that step into business ownership and leadership. Just to get a bit of backing really. And that’s what TAB has provided me, to sit with a board of people who are all in a very similar situation, hold you to account, challenge you on things which you need to be challenged on. You’ve not got an audience of Managers who just say yes.
It’s a really challenging environment and it pushes you to keep on with your plans, keep pushing, giving you that clarification that what you’re doing is right. And being able to give your advice to other people and help them as well. It’s a two-way street and hopefully everybody gets something out of that. I certainly do.
It’s strange because I’ve never known TAB to be any different than in the virtual environment. But the video conferencing is great. We have a little mini board table where we’re still going around and talking turns. I don’t see it’s any different. I think the benefit is still there except we don’t get lunch.
When I took over the business, I didn’t expect to be thrust into a situation where out of nowhere, I had to deal with all the challenges of business ownership and management, as well as a global pandemic. And ultimately when the book stops with you, that has the potential to be quite a lonely place. But TAB protects you from that.
Joining TAB at the start of the pandemic had allowed me to: share that experience with people and understand what everybody else is doing, and gather ideas for people so we’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re all helping each other out. Everybody wants everybody to succeed, which is great. And the benefits of TAB have been far greater than what my expectations were at the start. And I think the pandemic has probably helped with that in a strange way.
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