NEW Murray Downs Golf and Country Club chief executive Mark Parry doesn’t think he has simply landed on Easy Street, but happily admits he is walking in some very big and very successful shoes.
Since taking the top job on January 20, Mr Parry has been busy exploring every aspect of the business and is loving everything he sees.
Coming to Murray Downs from Urunga Bowling Club, between Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Heads on the NSW coast, he brings a deep pedigree in club and hotel management as well as board experience, with a strong accounting background underpinning it.
But don’t let that fool you – Mr Parry is adamant his primary concern is the experience of his club’s members and visitors.
“It’s all very well to say you have been on the board of this and that, been a CEO, a general manager or a hotel owner-operator, but the real business I am in is serving the members of this club,” he said. “So whether they come here for golf, bowls, pokies, a family meal or just a social afternoon, they have a good experience.
“Just look at this past weekend – we had more than 200 golfers here for an event, a lot of them from out of town.
“That’s good news for Swan Hill and Murray Downs. They booked accommodation, they spent money and if we got it right, they all went home happy, will talk about the club and its facilities and the region and will come back again. You can’t buy that kind of endorsement.”
Mr Parry made the transition from owning hotels to running clubs because he wanted a bit more family time.
While he loved the challenge of owning his own business, it could be all consuming with time and attention – “hardly conducive to also having a young family”.
“I had taken on a role as vice-chair of the Port Macquarie City Bowling Club, which had 15,000 members and that got my operational juices flowing again, and I realised I was on the wrong side of the board table,” he said.
“Which is how I got to Urunga, where I spent four very enjoyable years -going into these roles you are not reinventing the wheel, these are mature and successful businesses. You don’t need to fix what very clearly isn’t broken.
“While I do have a few ideas of my own, they are for down the track. The board at Murray Downs already has a strong strategic plan in place, there are things in the pipeline, such as our lifestyle village, and we already have one of the finest golf courses in the state, if not the country, which has just hosted the NSW Open.
“The team here is a quality bunch and, like me, they are not about meeting the expectations of our members and guests, they are all about exceeding them.”
Mr Parry said while Murray Downs is a business, and some aspects of all businesses can be problematic, it is also first and foremost a community asset.
He said obviously a business has to make money to keep moving forward, to be able to invest in all the nice things members want and expect.
“Ultimately, if you run a business well you are always looking for opportunities to improve, to expand and to introduce new options for your members, and that’s our goal,” he said.
“My wife Sheridan, who will be arriving here this week, and I have no problems with the transition from coastal living to life inland – I spent a fair bit of time around Tamworth as well in the past,” he said.
“And we were very aware of the weather – and temperatures – we would be facing.
“We came down here before taking the job to have a look around Swan Hill and Murray Downs and we loved it all. This is a great cross-border community, and I think we are going to be very at home here.”
