Continuing to work collaboratively and constructively for BRS has been a key theme for us as we progress through the first quarter of a new financial year.  The challenge compared to previous years is that you are working with constraints in a whole range of areas outside of your control which can be difficult to manage and accept.

From our perspective, this is a positive challenge that we need to adapt to.  As many people more famous than us have said, you cannot control what occurs but you can choose your response.  This is important when you are dealing with constraints which for us currently include:

• Not being able to travel to interstate and also to New Zealand.  The face to face experience we have enjoyed with our clients is not available.  Still ensuring we provide a great customer experience virtually is an area we continue to work on and improve as a team;
• Ensure we follow COVID-19 restrictions and protocols as a business is important and an area of focus for us in keeping our staff and clients safe;
• We continue to connect with clients and our staff, even though we can’t meet with them face to face.  This requires us to be flexible and adaptive sometimes against our preferred communication styles to ensure we continue to connect regularly to deliver outcomes for our clients;
• Continue to support our clients through challenging times. There are many instances of businesses and industries being impacted far more significantly than us.  We need to ensure that we support clients, suppliers and even our local communities in ensuring they are coping and being supported with the challenges that are being presented.

Staying in a constructive space through these challenging times is a key focus as we continue to hopefully see green shoots of progress to returning to a “new normal” that allows us to all continue to learn, grow and improve.

We believe it is critical that we continue to support our leaders and teams through these challenging times given the importance of having constructive leadership at all levels of our industries and communities.  Leaders need to be supported as they support their people.

A link to our team and their profiles can be found at our team page at: https://www.brsresults.com/our-team/

If you would like to learn more about Human Synergistics and the tools we recommend, this can be found here: https://www.brsresults.com/capabilities/leadership-team-culture/human-synergistics/

This playbook and the associated website links has a range of resources including:

• Mobilisation phase checklist;
• One page project summary template;
• Project team and governance selection role clarity document;
• Project brief template; and
• Risk allocation table example to allocate risk transparently between the client and contractor.

I would encourage everyone to look at these resources and tools as they are a great place to start in getting shovel ready projects moving across our industry.

Buying and resourcing locally has never been more important than now given the restrictions many businesses have in exporting or working away from where they live.  This is particularly important for government agencies given the level of spending they make within their communities on their projects and other spending initiatives.

For government agencies to do this well and in a sustainable way, it is important that they are provided with the appropriate support to understand how to make procurement decisions with local jobs, industry participation and economic growth and sustainability in mind.

Given this, we have been impressed with the work undertaken by the South Australian government Office of Industry Advocate (OIA) who have developed up a set of new resources for government staff so that they appreciate their obligations with procuring locally but have clear direction on how to do it.  The website link to these resources can be found at: https://industryadvocate.sa.gov.au/saipp-agency-information/

It covers all areas of procurement of projects with buying locally in mind from project inception, tender preparation, tender release, tender assessment and contract award.

Well done to the OIA for this good work and we look forward to seeing this continuing to be a focus for all levels of government.

We are delighted to announce Rob McKay has recently joined our team as an Associate. Rob is a South Australian local who returned to Adelaide in 2010 after spending 12 years working with global market responsibilities based initially in Asia and followed by North America. Rob’s primary role during this time was Executive Leadership of large scale strategic change initiatives across large and complex customer driven organisations. While Change Management is a core skillset, Leadership, Strategy, Brand and Culture management form the foundations of Rob’s expertise.

A natural Coach and Mentor of Senior Leader’s, Rob’s Executive Leadership role call includes CEO experience along with C Level Business Unit leadership roles spanning global and regional scope. In addition Rob, has also lead large scale, large budget, global project secondments driving process and technology upgrade along with procurement and frontline implementation. Rob continues to hold Board Director and Chairman roles for significant public, private and not for profit organisations in South Australia.

Rob’s broad industry experience includes Retail, FMCG, Energy, Oil & Gas, Convenience Store, Supermarket, Fashion, Health, QSR, Building & Construction, Education, Conference and large scale Events.

Married to a former elite sportswoman, as a result Rob’s life tends to revolve around sport and the outdoors with 2 aspiring teenage athletic children. To try to keep up, he is a keen runner, continues to umpire senior Amateur league football while being very active in coaching and supporting junior community sport development.

For more information on Rob McKay and what skills he bring to our team please go to our team page on our website at the following link:

BRS Our Team