I am on my way to a 10 day visit to our major South African offices and am using my flight to write a note about things that are exciting me about 2016. I still expect this to be a tough year as economic conditions in our major markets will continue to test us. I remain committed to tight cost control but I also know (as you do) that you cannot cost cut yourself to greatness.
Having now been at Aurecon for almost a year I am slowly starting to understand our business a bit beter. The more I get to know the more excited I get. We do such interesting work and attract such interesting people. We need to get our clients to be more excited about us and that will only happen if we get more excited about ourselves. In February I will be spending a lot of time with leaders working on improving the way we communicate.
The one thing I, as an outsider, did not understand is that engineers are key to making most projects work. Others may have the ideas or dreams but it is our involvement that ensures they come to life. With the benefit of hindsight I am even more proud of our positioning that was developed by a number of you using yammer last year. More than 2000 of you gave us feedback as part of the development process. We spend almost every chargeable hour “Bringing ideas to life”. We are the custodians of our clients’ dreams and aspirations and we need to understand the importance of that responsibility. We need to learn how to tell that story. By late February we will be launching our campaign to communicate that message internally. We will waste our time taking it external before we have convinced the majority of you that it is a great way of thinking about the exciting work you do. If we are going to change how clients experience us, we first need to change how we think about our relationship with that client.
To support our chosen positioning you will also see a new corporate brochure in February. This will be designed to communicate our desire to become a more innovative firm so that our clients can experience something different when they deal with us. The “Just imagine” concept introduced by John McGuire gives us an powerful way in which to talk to clients about the benefit of working with a Future Ready Aurecon.
We have had a comprehensive review - using our design thinking team - of our approach to people management, recruiting, training and development. (We don’t want to spend more money – we are searching for a way to have greater impact with our current spend.) I like the new position that Liam Hayes and his team have taken as it communicates our aspiration so much better. They also identified the 8 attributes a Future Ready Aurecon staff member should have. When I saw these they resonated with me. I think many of you will be able to relate to them. What I like a lot is they don’t look like similar statements used by other professional firms.
When we tested those attributes with clients they were clear that they liked them a lot – but they did not believe they were the attributes for a Future Ready Aurecon - they were the attributes that they wanted to see in those that serve them today. This feedback was a big wakeup call for all of us. Liam and his team will be communicating these to you after they have been presented to the L40 in February.
I will soon communicate to you our intended next steps to creating a Future Ready Aurecon. I want to ensure that we are all clear on the fact that we won’t be dreaming up ideas and then try and find markets for it. All our energy will be focussed on real client problems where buyers for our new solutions are clearly identified. We have to ensure our best clients experience the difference as soon as possible. A few of our leaders have already proven that this is possible.
I love watching the impact our small design thinking team is having on select groups. Every time I get feedback about their impact I am energised. We will however remain disciplined and only work with a small number of teams during 2016. The design thinking team has been instructed to select a small number of teams that have great talent, have demonstrated an open mind to new ideas and have proven client relationships that will ensure maximum impact. We must demonstrate value to a manageable number rather than attempt to boil the ocean. Our approach to design thinking will be about action. Doing things to have a short term impact. For most of February the design thinking team will be in RSA and I am looking forward to seeing what they achieve.
If this sounds interesting you may enjoy the 33 minute video at the link below. The presenter helped me understand how to use design thinking to get growth into the firm, even under testing market conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1EAMntH8Jo
I hope that as we roll out these new initiatives you will get as excited about our firm and our future as I am. This is why I love my job.