The growing importance of sound environmental planning to most major project approval processes, and an overall attitudinal shift towards greater environmental responsibility, has come at just the right time for West Perth-based consultancy 360 Environmen
The growing importance of sound environmental planning to most major project approval processes, and an overall attitudinal shift towards greater environmental responsibility, has come at just the right time for West Perth-based consultancy 360 Environmental.
The company has provided support, advice, project management and environmental approvals for a number of major projects for the mining, petroleum, water and land development industries, as well as infrastructure and land development projects.
And at no time have the firm’s services been in more demand than now, according to co-director Tamara Smith, who said the company had experienced its busiest period ever during the past few months.
“I think that people are aware now that environmental approvals and environmental aspects of projects are not negotiable now,” Ms Smith said.
“They have to be done early or they can hold projects up, and they can cause a real headache if they’re not managed appropriately.”
But on the back of such strong growth, planning for future expansion had brought to the fore some inadequacies in the organisation’s business structure.
“We had three directors, all the other staff reported to the directors, no-one had direct reports; we were working in a very flat structure,” Ms Smith told WA Business News.
With a project team ranging from 10-12 people, Ms Smith said the company began to feel the structural restrictions once more business started flowing in, and the size of the projects expanded.
“We’ve got a conglomerate of people that we pull from to form project teams, which has been working quite well,” she said.
“But for planning purposes and growth purposes we really need to understand who we do have, and who we need in the future. As we got busier, we needed to be able to work as efficiently as possible.”
Utilising the assistance of a business coach, who had previous experience in the professional services industry, the directors identified that they needed to formalise their operational structure – by developing position descriptions, defining their core business, and managing staffing effectively along with their growth projections.
“Our business coach really helped us work out our personal goals and our organisational goals for the business. We sat down and had discussion about those types of things to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Ms Smith said.
In addition to their business coach, the directors also spoke to other professional services organisations that had experienced similar issues to their own company.
Developing a more formalised organisational structure helped the company’s business planning in three key areas: by identifying where additional staff were needed for projects that were in the pipeline; by defining the directors’ roles; and by clarifying the company’s core business and future direction.
“All of the legal, HR and other auxiliary roles were done by directors. So looking forward we will look at a business manager who could take on those kinds of things, so the directors can concentrate on developing new clients and new business,” Ms Smith said.
“Certainly by developing that structure we’ll know exactly who were looking for; we know if we’re looking for a senior person who can do marketing and project proposals, or if were looking for a junior person to do field work.
“I think the organisational structure really defines it for us.”
And with plans to open a second office in Albany to service the Great Southern, Ms Smith said the team was more confident they will be able to manage and plan more effectively for future growth.
