Pryce... You have to just be tough and be persistent (Photos by Bryan Cummings)

The spheres of general management and motor repairs are male-dominated arenas. But that hasn't stopped Nicola Pryce, with little or no auto mechanic experience, becoming the first and only female director of the Motor Repairers Association of Jamaica (MRAJ).

Nicola received this distinction in September 2003; having become a member as general manager of her family-owned cylinder head repair business, Just Heads in Kingston. When all woman visited Just Heads, she was neatly dressed in a coffee and cream pants suit, a stark contrast to the cylinder heads, repair equipment and technicians around her.

Sitting in her office, speaking over the sounds of water flushing a cylinder head clean, the attractive, thirty-something year-old admits that her background is in the sciences and not auto mechanics.

Nicola displays a cylinder head that is being repaired at the Just Heads motor repairs company which she manages.

"I know the basic auto stuff," she says, adding that she can independently perform a pressure test. At the University of the West Indies (UWI), she did a degree in biochemistry. But upon graduation in 2000 she found it very hard to get a job in that area.

"When I looked at the salary it was a 'no no'," she says.
She was just about to apply to do her masters overseas when her uncle Gersham, who started Just Heads with her aunt and cousin in December 1981, passed away.

Her uncle's two sons assumed ownership of the company but because they lived abroad were not able to actively manage the company or monitor the daily proceedings.
Different people were brought in to manage the company, says Nicola, but none of them performed efficiently and Just Heads suffered from a number of problems including a lack of growth.

Her aunt asked her to investigate what was happening at Just Heads and Nicola put her masters degree temporarily on hold and began working at the company.

"I came here and I started at the bottom," she said.
December will mark Nicola's fifth year at Just Heads, having moved her way up to general manager in 2002. Her younger sister, Nadine Pryce, was not surprised when she heard Nicola's achievements.

"I didn't really doubt her potential at any point," says Nadine. "When she sets her mind to do something you know she will do it."

According to Nadine, her sister put her everything into keeping Just Heads from going under. She notes that Nicola has been dedicated and hard working from childhood.
When the two were growing up with their mother and grandmother in Red Hills Road, Kingston, it was the elder Pryce who had her head buried in the books.

"When I wanted to play, she wanted to read," says Nadine.
While reading her schoolbooks Nicola would also sneak and read romance novels, which she carefully hid in between the pages of her literature books. She had to hide these novels because her mother was very strict about boys and felt young Nicola would put into practice what she was reading.

Nevertheless, Nicola's love for reading helped her to become a spelling bee champion at Gaynstead Preparatory and also a high achiever. Her seventh grade teacher, Carmen Neil, said that Nicola was a very disciplined and quiet student who got along well with students and teachers.

Nicola went on to become head girl at Gaynstead and was one of 25 students of her fifth form class on the honour roll at Holy Childhood High School. Nicola partly attributes her early academic success to her grandmother, who stressed the importance of education and would ensure that she and her sister do lessons at home from as early as kindergarten.
"I had a very good foundation," she says.

She also attributes her academic success to her father who, although he moved to the United States when Nicola was very young, paid for her education. His only condition was that he expected the best from the investment he had made.
She also has an older sister and brother living in America.
"If you make a mistake you are on your own," her dad said.
And Nicola has been careful not to make any mistakes. She is now pursuing her master's degree in nutrition, an area that she enjoys and balancing her final research paper with her managerial position as well as her MRAJ responsibilities.

The road to having Just Heads registered with MRAJ was not without its potholes. One of the initial problems was that some employees were accustomed to being independent and to having a man in charge.
"It was rough," she says.

Nicola persevered, however, letting her male employees know that she would not disrespect them but expected adherence to certain standards. Eventually, she said, the technicians got used to and began respecting her.
"You have to just be tough and be persistent," she says.

Indeed, Nicola's persistence has paid off. Computers with Internet access - instead of manual documentation - security systems, and debit card facilities are some of the changes implemented under her supervision. In 2003, after one year of serving as general manager, Just Heads joined the MRAJ, fulfilling the group's high standards of adequate facilities, cleanliness, properly registered and meeting insurance and tax requirements.

Nicola attributes her competence as a manager to organisation skills and stresses the importance of having a "to do" list. Customer service too is important, she says.
"That is key and what we lack in Jamaica," she says.

In her opinion, customers should be satisfied with the service they receive and a satisfied customer will refer other potential customers.

Jermaine Patterson, technician at Just Heads, noted that Nicola has a very "hands-on" approach.

"She likes to see what's going on and make sure business running okay," he said.

After becoming a member the MRAJ, Nicola was asked by the board to take on the secretarial position. But she decided that would be too stressful. In September of that year, however, she was nominated and appointed as the first female director.

She said her male co-directors were happy to see a female face and readily welcomed her. Nicola said it wasn't strange working with the predominantly male group as she had been the only female at previous summer jobs. She is grateful, however, for the female company provided by secretary Shauna-Lee Wilmot.

So far, Nicola says she plays an active part of the discussions and monthly meetings and has had no problems with discrimination.

"They are okay," she says. "I am free to voice my opinion."
Family is also very important to her and in addition to keeping healthy relationships with her siblings and parents she also mentors young people.

She has been a mentor at Youth Opportunity Unlimited since 2003 and regularly counsels a teenaged girl. She enjoys volunteerism and service, a joy that was inspired by the late principal of Gaynstead, Frederica Gaynier.

"She was always stressing to be kind and giving," she said.

Nicola also believes that her spiritual side is important and she is a regular visitor to Swallowfield Chapel.

"At times you're stressed out and it is an issue and you pray about it," she said.

She staves off stress too by working out. She is an admitted gym addict, doing weight training and aerobics five days a week.

"I work and play hard so I have to strike a balance," she says.
She also enjoys going to movies and sessions but doesn't go out regularly as before because of the high levels of crime.

Some of the people who have inspired Nicola include Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell and, to an extent, minister of state Deika Morrison. She explained that she can relate to the minister because both Morrison and herself are females in their thirties operating in a male-dominated arena.

Nicola's dream, also in a male dominated arena, is to have her own company or companies, possibly in the realm of nutritional consultancy or in the food industry.

"I don't believe everyday you wake up and you go and work for somebody," she says. With her determination, we have no doubt she will achieve her dream.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World