Warren Thurlow is the former owner, co-director, and operations manager of Kerb & Concrete, and has extensive senior-level experience in the civil engineering industry. Warren exited the Tauranga-based business in December 2021. 
Tell us about yourself and why you decided to become an entrepreneur?
I’ve been living in New Zealand for six years now. I’ve also lived in Australia and my native Zimbabwe and I’m lucky enough to live in an amazing part of the world (the Bay of Plenty) with my wife and two young sons.
I studied civil engineering and project management in Australia, working on some billion dollars projects as I progressed through the ranks.
I have always had that entrepreneurial gene and an interest in business, and was always coming up with money-making schemes back in my days back in Africa, like importing sugar from Mozambique!
How did you arrive in the business?
Through my cousin I met my then-business partner who had a construction business in the Bay of Plenty and was looking to continue his succession. I saw that as my opportunity to get into business for myself and in an industry I was really comfortable in – construction. It took two or three years of negotiation and in 2016 I bought into Kerb & Concrete and went from there.
What are your current challenges?
Towards the middle of last year, I saw some signs that I needed to exit the business. I was having some mental health issues and made the hard decision, but the right one, to do that for both myself and my family. Now I am exploring several business opportunities and I’m so positive about the future. It’s hard to reconcile [exiting a business you’ve worked hard to build and grow] but once you make that decision you get a huge sense of inner peace.
What did you do with The Icehouse?
I did Owner Manager Programme 46. I went to a business seminar hosted by Nick McDonald, an Icehouse alumni, and one of the speakers was Carmen Vicelich. She talked about her OMP experience and was so enthusiastic about it. I’d been searching for some sort of leadership or business development course and when she spoke, I was like, ‘Oh, what is this?!’
After doing my research and chatting to Liz [Wotherspoon, Chief Executive of Growth] and Maryse [Dinan, former CGP] I thought this was cool, and fitted in with the way I think.
It was a bit of a journey getting on the programme as it’s a reasonable financial outlay and I needed to convince my business partner that this was a good idea, but I was lucky enough to get an Icehouse scholarship and some funding through RPB.
What were your key takeaways?
It’s been invaluable. I loved it and it’s something I looked forward to each month. The sessions on resilience really hit home. I’d always noticed I had some sort of anxious tendencies, so those insights really resonated with me, as did the session on Knowing Your Numbers, and I loved the financial simulation.
Another big takeaway was just about getting some external advisors involved in the business. We weren’t a huge business, so we didn’t need a full board or anything, but what we did do was appoint an external advisor to act as an impartial voice. Basically, to keep us honest. Developing a more structured five-year plan and a clearer vision for the business were just two of the key things we managed to incorporate.
How do you weave those into the business?
I know the business was better for me doing OMP, especially once we got in that external advisor. A lot of the things we talked about on OMP also helped me through the exiting process. I leaned on a couple of the facilitators, such as Deb Shepherd and Liz to get their advice – ‘how do I approach this problem with my business partner’ and so on. And that was so valuable.
I saw so many good structural changes happening in the business, which was fantastic and that are still going today, and I know that what I learned on OMP will set the business in good stead for the future.
A lot of OMP is very transferable, which you can weave into other parts of your life; like building a good team, a good structure around what you're doing, and having a clear vision of where you're going.
The great thing about that is that I can apply it to any of my future businesses, whether I am working for someone else or setting up from scratch. I’d love to do OMP again when I jump into a new business because at some point in the future, I do want to have another business of my own. I'll be able to structure a really sound organisation.
One of the most valuable assets is the community you inherit during your OMP experience – just getting a chance to meet, interact and connect with people going through similar journeys to yourself. You feel comfortable talking about business with them – there's only so many times you can talk to your friends and family about what’s going on at work before they begin to switch off!
Have you worked professionally with any other alumni since doing the programme/workshop?
We are all in touch, we have good catchups, attend speaking sessions, and have dinner together. It’s an awesome network that you end up building with those other business owners, and I ended up doing some formal work with a fellow OMP 46er.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to start a business right now?
I would tell people to just really have a think about who they are and how they tick. And then, when you're structuring or setting up your business, make sure you account for that, as I know a lot of people will just focus on whatever product or service they want to set their business around. After all, that’s what businesses do, solve a problem.
You have to understand how you are going to operate within that business and if you do that from the outset, both you and your business will be far more sustainable.
Check out Warren’s podcast with Bryar Stewart, Community Manager, where he addresses his exit in more detail and the importance of noticing and managing wellbeing in business.
Connect with Warren on LinkedIn.