Meet Marilynne Paspaley

SW caught up with Marilynne Paspaley to discuss her successful and diverse life from her time with the family business of the exquisite Paspaley Pearls to acting and hospitality. Marilynne is a force to be reckoned with.

SW: Pearling is traditionally such a male-dominated industry. Did you have to change the way you operated in order to be successful?

MP: There is some confusion on the structure, which misrepresents the hierarchy in the company. The company is a family-owned company and the executive chairman is my brother Nick Paspaley. My role was executive director and I was an executive in the retail side of the company. Pearling is the engine of the company: we have many diverse interests from farming of pearls, to pearl cultivation, a wholesale arm of the company, retail operations and jewellery manufacturing. For 17 years I looked after the retail and manufacturing side of the business and because I was involved in that area I was also involved in the marketing. My brother Nick, who is the executive chairman, has been pivotal in the development of all of the pearling systems in the pearling industry.

SW: What was one of the biggest hurdles or challenges you faced within the retail environment?

MP: I think the most important lesson to learn in retail is that retail is not passive, your success doesn’t rely on sitting back and waiting for someone to walk into your store and it doesn’t rely on just accepting whatever sales you get for the day. Retail is a business that needs very clear goals and it then needs to have very strongly motivated people working within that organisation who are prepared to work with you to achieve the goal. But if you don’t set the goals you will never realise the potential of your business. I am very goal driven, very clear and aggressive in my expectations of achievement. I find that whenever you are clear about what the standard of performance is that you’ll accept, the more you’ll attract really, really, really good people that are just as excited and motivated as you. The more you’ll achieve those goals no matter how many people will tell you it’s not possible.

SW: So, did you achieve all that you planned within your circle of influence within Paspaley when you were there in that active role?

MP: Well I did because I was very, very clear that retail was an extremely important part of our company and I knew that it was an essential part of our future. I knew that we did it better than anybody. Nobody could sell a pearl, a Paspaley Pearl, better than a Paspaley store, it’s just logical. So I proved in my time with the company that retail was an absolutely integral but also absolutely critical path for us to take in the future.

CK: Obviously you chose the location for the stores and chose what they look like, but even more than that there’s the transcendent connection with the customer that can be very intimate. Do you think that’s why having your own individual stores is so important?

MP: I think a retail system must reflect who you are. It must have a personality: if it is carried out by people who have no passion about what they are doing; if they are not knowledgeable as trained sales people; if they are not immersed in the culture of the organisation, in the history of the organisation, in the vision of the organisation so they understand what it stands for, you’ll never have successful retailing. So to me that’s critical and that’s what creates the relationship with the client. It’s that experience with a professional sales person. Some of them have never sold anything in their lives before they work with us but if you have a good program in place to train people and if you have your culture and your vision and your standards very clearly expressed you could turn any highly motivated, intelligent person with a particular personality into an extraordinary sales person. And when I say sales person I mean a representative of your company who surely serves people and makes a buying choice pleasurable and liveable and exciting, and therefore generates tremendous revenue for your company.

SW: You mentioned that you have worked before with your brother and that Paspaley Pearls is a family business. Do you think that made it easier or more difficult to manage and grow the business?

MP: I think that he was so busy doing what he was doing that I just simply kept doing what I believed in. I put into place what I truly believed was necessary for us to become a leader in retailing and a leader in the market.

SW: Sounds like you both have respect for each other’s roles and could really allow each other to do what you do best.

MP: Yes.

SW: You mentioned that you are not in that active role at the moment, so what are you working on now?

MP: Well I turned my focus to hospitality interests. I’m now building a hospitality portfolio in the northwest including an historic property called McAlpine House which is a really magnificent boutique retreat in Broome. I added to that portfolio two years ago by purchasing another historic pearler’s home nearby called Captain Kennedy House. I am also now the 100% owner of a hotel that we’ve just opened; called The Kimberly Grand in Kununurra, it’s a 73-room property. It was full of the Bazmark film crew when they were filmed ‘Australia’ last year with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. My next project is to build a 71-room resort and spa in Broome, which will be opened as a 5-star property by late 2008.

SW: Well, that’s obviously keeping you busy! You’ve said that McAlpine House has an ambience and a spirit that you find really calming and nurturing. I am wondering if the properties that you develop, I guess a bit like retailing, are chosen based on some sort of affinity you feel? Is there some sort of connection that happens first with each property?

MP: There was with McAlpine, which is what got me interested in hospitality. There definitely is with my decision on how I am going to do this. I could have bought the properties and then handed them over to a chain - Peppers or some management company. I have chosen not to do that because I really want to imbue my portfolio with very personal approach to hospitality, I want to develop within my hospitality portfolio that same standard of genuine service and care for clients that I developed in retail. I am not there yet, but I will eventually and my umbrella company that manages the property is called MP Personal Hotels and Resorts for that very reason.

SW: I know that you’re also an accomplished actress. You have acted in both TV and in theatre. Do you ever feel the calling to go back and spend more time in that area or are you pretty set with keeping yourself busy?

MP: I doubt that that would happen, I am so busy I don’t think about it. I am not one to look backwards and I don’t really ever do that. If I wanted to be doing that, I would be doing that. I would stop what I am doing and get back into it.

SW: What was perhaps the highlight of the time that you did spend in that area?

MP: Well I worked on stage and I worked in television. I would have to say that I was always very fortunate. I was always passionate about acting. I absolutely loved it, I always found it challenging and demanding and I really loved the challenge of working on GP. I think the wonderful thing there was to working with such an incredible group of people for so long. They were people I really admired hugely and they were truly wonderful to work with. Our writers were just exceptional and our whole crew was exceptional. It was an extremely happy production to work on and I had no idea that it was any different to anything else. There was genuine respect, because it was a more mature cast.

SW: I know that you are involved in local and territory community issues. Is that because you want to give back to your local community and something you are passionate about, what more do you think needs to be done within our communities?

MP: I’d have to say that I am just so busy that I’m not sure that I could be classified as a truly committed community worker in any way. I think I give back to a community by developing a good business and by employing locally as much as I can and making sure we stick to the highest standards so that it gives kudos back to the community. When I was with Paspaley, of course I was very involved in determining how we would sponsor and who we would sponsor: I was very clear that sponsorship had to benefit a community as a whole. So it was less about an individual that wanted to sail around the world or climb a mountain or something or do an artwork. It was very much about the community, the public swimming pool for the town or sending a whole group of school students on a trip that they otherwise would simply not be able to do that was not just a holiday, it was actually an educational experience giving them a chance to travel somewhere which they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to go.

SW: It seems that every woman you speak to wants to leave the corporate world and start their own business. If there was just one piece of advice you could offer younger business women, what would it be?

MP: Have faith in your dream, have faith in your vision for sure, and then underpin it with the discipline of a good business plan that is open to discussion, open to refinement, open to analysis. Also be very clear with the type of people you want to work with you.
Don’t think that you have to work with anybody just because they look good if it doesn’t feel right. Be strong enough to say, ‘You’re fabulous but this combination doesn’t work. You go and fulfil your potential somewhere else. Because I need to find somebody who is the right mix for me’.
Those things are all incredibly important and make sure that you are open for people to give you their ideas if you attract good people. Good people will contribute so much to your business. If you are precious about your own idea and it’s only about what you know already you’ll never develop it to the full degree.

SW: You’ll never get bigger than what you are right now.

MP: Yes, exactly.