By Jeff Bell.
What does it take to lead a top level professional services organisation?
What are the challenges of international expansion?
What makes it work into the future?
These were some of the questions put to Ross Donaldson, the former MD and Global Executive Chairman of Woods Bagot architects.
Ross led a conversation for Band of Leaders Australia (BOLA) Prime members and guests entitled What Makes It Work?, at the group’s monthly meeting on Friday 19 July at Casa Nostra in Osborne Park.
(Ross 2nd right with David Blythe-Wood, Arnold Stroobach, George Koutroulos.)
BOLA is a peer membership group for business owners and chief executives. We seek to take our members beyond achievement to success—the essence of leadership. Inviting Guest Conversations is a key activity in our group meeting.
From 2006 Ross was CEO and Chairman of Woods Bagot, Australia’s largest and only global architectural practice. Woods Bagot grew under Ross’s leadership, from a mid-size Australian practice to be the world’s 6th largest in 2015 and named equal 7th as the ‘most admired firm’, judged amongst its peers in a World Architecture survey in 2016.
In an in-depth conversation Ross said that to lead a top level professional services organisation it had taken the recruitment of young, enthusiastic and fearless practitioners along with the introduction of knowledge-driven design. This concept was based on how any given space was to be used and was articulated, documented and published–becoming central to their practice, marketing and recruitment efforts. Knowing how buildings perform was their central concept, and this became very powerful for designers and clients alike.
In the 9 years following 2006 Woods Bagot’s turnover increased 600% and their staffing from 300 to 800. A crucial part of this growth was the improvement in productivity by 240%.
They opened offices in San Francisco, New York, Shanghai and Beijing, meeting the challenges of international expansion, building their platform of knowledge and passing work between their locations, based on demand. They paid closer attention to leadership, including their gender balance, and attracted bright young practitioners who brought colleagues with them.
They also developed a highly agile culture–becoming a company that “could change as fast as change itself”. They had also learned that “once you can demonstrate knowledge, you can own it” in terms of branding and marketing.
Ross said that also crucial for success had been senior colleagues with whom he worked very closely to drive the agenda for the firm. This close-knit small “core” of senior leaders was very important in maintaining momentum, building trust, challenging each other and delivering the strategy.
After serving as CEO for 8 years, Ross became executive chairman. He said that the company’s sustainability was built on having a vision, getting everyone to “buy” into it, developing and adhering to a strategy and tapping into the aspiration of the young designers. And, he added, it was vital that the CEO knew as much about finance as the CFO–“don’t hand off, never lose touch,” he said.
These days, Ross is Chairman of Bridge 42 and founder of EPM Experimental. His rich background in tertiary education spans 40 years and he continues to lecture at Curtin University and UWA.
He is also a champion of and much sought-after keynote speaker on environmental sustainability. He currently sits on the national Climate Action and Sustainability Taskforce which was established by the Australian Institute of Architects.
Ross also provides business strategy advice to a variety of construction industry-related companies and he mentors mid-career professionals.
He lives in Darlington, in a house that he designed and helped to build in the late1970s. Ross said that the experience, which involved working with a highly skilled carpenter, had inspired him to marry design with practicality and the involvement of the end user. It also led him into setting up his first professional practice in architecture, where he gained a deep understanding of the dynamics of business, as well as of the development and investment drivers in the construction industry.
BOLA members will meet next on Friday 16 August when our Guest Conversation will be led by Brendan O’Reilly, MD of Jason Windows, Welshpool.
Typically, our agenda includes such a Guest Conversation as Ross’, processing of strategic opportunities raised within the group and leadership development tools and activities.
Prospective members and referrers are invited on request as Paul Manning is continuing to build his BOLA Growth group and Kate De Jong is recruiting for the first BOLA Startup group. In the meantime, each member will have a monthly coaching session with their BOLA Chair, Jeff.