Harry’s always looking ahead

WHEN Adam Harry joined John Holland in 2007, the engineering and construction group’s Western Australian division had annual turnover of $115 million.

Within the next 18 months, he expects annual turnover will hit $1 billion.

Mr Harry believes John Holland has done much more than ride the surge in resources and infrastructure projects in WA, saying he has changed the way the company – and to some degree the industry – goes about its business in WA. 

Another measure of success over the past five years is the 480 per cent growth in the WA division’s profitability, measured by its margin plus provisions.

Mr Harry does not want to rest on his laurels. As he says, “What I did today, I can do better tomorrow”.

Mr Harry was appointed as John Holland general manager western region in June 2007, at just 32 years of age.

Before that he gained experience at four different building companies, most notably Doric Group where he rose to be general manager of the construction business.

However, with a father who worked in construction, Mr Harry says he has really been in the industry his whole life.

Challenge

He said John Holland was at a low point in 2007 – it had experienced problems on contracts in the Pilbara, was struggling to win new work, and needed a shake-up.

“It couldn’t win or deliver contracts,” Mr Harry said.

He said he was given the freedom to shake-up the western region, and he pursued that goal with vigour.

“I knew that embracing change was fundamental to establishing a sustainable business. I was not afraid to change direction, to challenge the old fashioned culture. We challenged that every day of the week,” Mr Harry told WA Business News.

One of his main strategies is to develop a learning culture, where people can pursue continuous improvement in what they do.

This includes looking after staff by paying them well, ensuring they operate in a safe workplace, and empowering them.

“The life and the energy have to be there,” he said. “Any individual can speak up for themselves, and we listen and act.”

Similarly, he emphasises that all staff need to be very client focused, especially as John Holland has a handful of clients that account for much of its work.

“We need to ensure that we never let them down.”

Back on track

Winning the contract to build the State Theatre Centre in Northbridge was the first real signal the business was turning around, Mr Harry said.

“That was the first reasonable size job that we won in a long time,” he said.

“It showed we could win, and we’ve shown we can deliver excellence on what was technically a very complex job.”

Another highlight was returning to the oil and gas sector, winning work on Woodside’s Pluto project, after the problems the group had previously experienced in that sector.

“We started as the worst contractor and finished as the best,” Mr Harry said.

Winning $200 million of school construction contracts under the federal governments Building the Education Revolution scheme was another very important step.

This occurred during the GFC, when there was a great deal of uncertainty about future work opportunities.

The $200 million contract comprised more than 100 small jobs of a size that John Holland traditionally would not look at.

However Mr Harry said it made sense to win the work as a package, because that allowed John Holland to achieve economies of scale.

It also brought John Holland into contact with many supervisors and sub-contractors who had never previously worked for a tier 1 contractor. Many of those people are now working for John Holland on larger and more complex construction jobs.

Opportunities

As a tier 1 contractor with a diverse range of engineering and construction jobs on its books, Mr Harry is enthusiastic about the opportunities John Holland can offer its 1,500 staff and sub-contractors.

It is currently working on some of the state’s most iconic projects, including the $1.2 billion New Children’s Hospital and the sinking of the railway line in the City Link project.

It is working on major hospital upgrades at Albany, for the state government, and Joondalup for Ramsay Health Care, and is building a detention centre at Northam.

In the resources sector, it has won two building construction contracts at the Wheatstone gas project and is currently building non-process infrastructure for the Gorgon project.

Mr Harry said John Holland had to be continuously pursuing new growth opportunities.

“We spend a lot of time planning ahead and chasing work,” he said.

Future projects on his radar include the Perth Waterfront development and Woodside’s Browse gas project.

The latter is being pursued through the KLH Australia joint venture, comprising international engineering group KBR along with Leighton Contractors and John Holland, and could open up enormous opportunities. 

Mr Harry emphasises that John Holland cannot chase just the big contracts, if it wants to run a sustainable business that provides development opportunities for its staff and sub-contractors and a steady stream of orders for its suppliers.