Hello and welcome to the IPM podcast. Brought to you by the childhood body for the project profession in 2022, a PM has been celebrating its 50th Anniversary. So throughout the year apm's chief executive Professor Adam bothersome has hosted a special series of episodes reflecting. On both the past and future of the project profession in this series.
Professor ball, Dustin has been in conversation with senior leaders from the world of projects across industry and government who have shared their career Journeys and advice as well as predictions for how the profession might evolve in this episode Professor Burleson meets Craig hatch, president at Tetra Tech, UK Tetra Tech is a global technology environmental and management consultancy with over 20,000 employees worldwide.
It's a pair discuss, the need for greater inclusivity in the profession, the state of project expertise at c-suite level and the importance of delivering long-term value to communities through projects. Well, good morning Craig and thank you very much for joining us on the podcast today. It's a real pleasure to have you with us. We've got a series of discussion points for today really, but
let's start. I think by talking a little bit about Tetra Tech and I wonder if you could give us a bit of background into Tetra Tech and explain what makes it unique may be compared with other project delivery organizations. Ins that operate in the same space. Good morning Adam. Thank you for that. I say, it's a privilege to be here.
Tetra Tech is one of the world's leading Global Technical environmental and management consultancies, with 22,000 of the smartest people on the planet who lead with science to solve our clients complex problems. The uniqueness of our business is that we're all we are led by technical people who have developed through our company. Our leadership are fully aligned and Our business model, simple.
We focus on clients and projects and developing great people to deliver those great projects within the UK. We can draw upon the Tetra Tech part of the business, but also on our sister companies like Hawley Norman Disney and young Tetra Tech International Development and we have ambitious plans to further expand to become one of the UK
and Europe stock consultancies. Well I mean it's interesting to put you in making about being led by science and being led by technical expertise in the organization because one of the things I often hear when I'm out and about talking to people is that the project profession is seen as a very technical profession, but that the balance between project profession has been technical versus strategic is Shifting.
And I wondered whether you were seeing that at all in Tetra Tech, Yeah, I mean when we refer to leader with science it's science in its biggest area, really yo, so science. Overseeing everything. So everything that we do in our Technical and management delivery is linked to the science, is linked to having smart people in diverse ways.
So sometimes it's technical people, sometimes it's people with broader P EQ skills that are able to sort of Help and provide the the overarching management that's required to deliver the complex projects that we, we have and our clients need delivering. Yeah, thank you.
And it's important that you make about EQ, as well, but because I remember reading it was a report from McKinsey about six months ago and he talked about the two, fastest growing areas of skills development, that leaders were investing in. And one of them was project management and the other one was emotional intelligence, which I thought was Quite interesting.
So, look in terms of the profession more broadly, what would you say the main priorities and challenges faced in the project profession I'm thinking particularly here in terms of social mobility and the and the reason I ask that is because I've I often think about the profession as a kind of catalyst for social Mobility because you can almost come into it, any point in your kind of career Journey. But that, but that diversity itself. Adds value to project outcomes as well.
I'm just interested what you think the priorities and challenges are in that context. I agree. I any qualities. Remain a major factor in our industry. In the project profession, we need to ensure that everyone is given a chance to be part of our Organization, no matter the individual or social background, and where they enter equal and inclusive opportunities.
With strong, internal governance for decision-making, using diverse panels, and Equitable decision making, we have targeted Recruitment and and build relationships across schools, colleges further education and universities across the varying demographics. Not just the top performing
ones. And then once we have colleagues in our organization, we have targeted mentoring with the, we have our own mentoring program along with good policies, that sort of make it real live the values that we set. Ensure that everyone could be their true self and best self at work and allow the development to occur. And if we get that right, it means we have broader diversity of thought, at all levels of our business, that help us deliver
our projects in the right way. That sounds excellent. And clearly there's a lot that you're doing there in terms of both within your organization and through the partnership's that you have. But what about when it comes to the the places where your projects are actually taking place in the communities that those projects are Taking place in. How do you approach the challenge their of delivery, in kind of real long-term value to those communities. Yeah, that's that's really
important to our business model. We are a global organization with 450 offices, around the world, and a big part of what we try to do is provide value in the communities that we live and work. There's nothing more rewarding for that are at the people. All business to deliver a great project locally. So whilst we do make commitments through social value that public procurement requires in tenders and Frameworks. That's not the only measure that we make. We embed that in our values.
It's probably important to know the, whilst the pandemic has accelerated. Flexible and agile working, meaning teams can be better, connected remotely. I think their remains value you and satisfaction in local teams delivering successful. It's in the local community and I guess being on the ground in a local community, gives you a real firsthand insight and experience are supposed to be able to adapt up the project delivery to make sure it really works those communities? Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, okay. Brilliant sustainability then. Because let's talk about that because this is something that I hear everywhere, everybody's talking about sustainability. But what's interesting is, when you kind of I'm kind of peel the surface away of that conversation. It means quite different things in different organizations.
So, for example, when I talk to those who are very heavily involved in, just construction, for example, you know, they're talking about Innovations, like green concrete and this type of thing. But I know that Tetra sex work is very broad. I'm really interested to understand what sustainability means from a Tetra Tech context and how that works sustainability is at the heart of everything that That we do, we made our 2022 to sustainability report that we released on Earth Day on April
22nd. We reaffirmed our commitment to creating more resilient and sustainable communities. The report includes new Baseline sustainability, metrics for 2021 interim targets for 20-25 and new goals for 2030. And if you take it right back to our company's initiation in 1966, I'll focus on sustainability began then and we continue to support clients to develop innovative solutions, using our leading with sites approach, and that improves
lives worldwide. The environmental social, and government government ESG principles. We apply to our projects are reinforced our commitment to the UN Global impact and sites Bates targets initiative in 2021. We share the results of our first decade of sustainability reporting with the even significantly beyond our original aspirations and that continues to grow.
But we recognize this still work to be done and we're pleased to share our Baseline goals for a new decade of tracking for our sustainability progress, we've established our Baseline greenhouse gas emissions, scope 1 and 2 and Target Productions and report on these through a carbon reduction plan and we made a big commitment. And you know what? I talked about it being part of our ethos, we've committed to improving the lives of 1 billion.
People globally through the projects that involve sustainable Water Supplies. Reducing carbon emissions, generating neural energy, and supporting social, and governance programs. We have a wide range of projects Fallen under the sustainability. Banner things like greenhouse gas reduction, strategies, sustainable, buildings and
infrastructure. Renewable energy projects flood risk and release schemes Energy, Efficiency, Management Systems, ESG environmental due diligence and then in the UK, We've specifically have examples of that. So sustainability report in supporting for radioactive waste management team Regional Green Technology, scoping report for invest Northern Ireland, hydrogen Hub, study for me Denise, tantrum District Council Darby. Riverside, we're undertaking a flood alleviation project.
Led by Dolby city council partnership with the environment agency and we are appointed to design one, half kilometers of flood, Defence to reduce flooding to the north of the city. We have a large number of Priam dhyryam and sequel assessments and our, high-performing buildings group are involved in designing some of the planets,
greenest buildings. Well, I think just well really the, the volume and complexity of the different work amount of work that you're doing in that space is very significant and the thing that really struck me there, as you were talking was what you said about the about the kind of benefits realization piece. I think there's one was it 1 billion? People globally that you wanted to make a difference for? Yeah, I don't our Target. Yeah. You know, and it really just
shifts. The focus, doesn't it? It's not just about we've delivered our project on time and on budget. It's actually that long-term benefits realization piece which I really like. As part of the focus that you've got that. Yeah. And we're measuring ourselves against that Adam. It is something that we're taking very seriously, and we're measuring ourselves our progress on that. Yeah. No, that's brilliant and let's talk about the c-suite.
I sometimes Grumble a bit about the c-suite and that's because in some organizations, what I see is they've got really capable project professionals kind of across the organization and then I look at what's happening in the c-suite and you don't see that always replicated. And so sometimes I see projects not being as effectively delivered as they could be because there isn't that sufficient knowledge and understanding at the c-suite
level. And I'm just interested to know how significant the expertise is that, you've got to see Suite level in Tetra Tech book, do you have any Reflections on my, my
grumbles? If you like more broadly about the profession, Yeah, I think they're legitimate grumbles Adam. But as previously mentioned, I think quite uniquely for a company of our scale and breadth of our executive leadership across all our operations, without exception are exclusively developed from within people that have been through the business have delivered projects and provided high-level technical delivery to our clients within my own UK operating unit.
I remain close to our project delivery through governance reviews and the fair amount of time with project teams and we have a weekly high-performing project management team meeting for each area of the business. I'm joined on those by Tetra. Tech chief engineer, dr. Bill Brownlee, from Pasadena, who leads our company, project management Excellence initiative, training our teams around the globe.
And I fully expect not just myself, but my team of managing actors in each of our business units to understand their projects efficiently to effectively incorporate the role. That I know that's something that APM promote is that of a CP 0 and to take that role on within their area of the business. Yeah well I'm really pleased you mentioned that that kind of CPR that the chief project office or sometimes CTO Chief transformation officer in some organizations as well.
I mean my sense of all of this is that if you were kind of Designing a Ste sweet from scratch I do wonder whether some of the roles that are traditionally associated with seats. We've let the CEO. For example, would those roles really exist in a kind of in this new world? I think they exist from being a, because of a legacy perspective situation, wouldn't anything else but I do wonder whether that would that would change. Okay? So yeah, that's that's a sweet.
It's a really, really interesting. But one of the regular features of this podcast at Craig is that we get People who are obviously in really interesting and Senior roles like yourself and people always ask me how do these people get to that point in their career. It's not something you kind of can plan I guess right? From the outset and say look I want to be the president of Tetra Tech by 2022. Or you know, it, I guess there are kind of decisions that you make along the way they've
gotten to that point. I wonder if you could tell us a bit about your journey, how you discovered the project profession and some of those early Career decisions that you made, which were may be pivotal to getting you to this Stellar position that you're in now. Yes, thank you definitely not a plan although I'm pleased with the outcome. I'm pleased with the way that things have worked their way
through. But like many of us at senior levels in our profession, I've had a diverse journey to my current role started. My career in a private practice SME which vary between 25 and 40 people private partnership. And I spent the first 15 years of my career in there and it'll pass As sort of operations director for that business.
But you know, I started as a trainee qsr at the age of 19 before, also qualifying as a chartered building surveyor and going it alone with my own private practice for a while for personal reasons. I then spent a few years working in technical management within the charitable sector something. I wanted to do for the greater good.
But then join the world of big multi-service consultancy around about Years ago, it's 20 years, in January, actually my work over those 20 years, has involved a diverse combination of projects and business management of major projects and programs across multiple. Sectors are really interesting range of things that I've done and I managed to progress my career. Sort of year-on-year through that to the role that I'm currently doing when Tetra Tech was acquired acquired wi Gene, 2019.
I was part of the senior. Bishop team that came across with W YG and I fitted the model of operational leadership within Tetra Tech. You know, I'd come through various grades. I joined a senior level and that work my way through to managing director and that fitted the model of operational leadership that we have in Tetra Tech
around the globe. I understand what we deliver and therefore sort of fulfill the role of both CEO and so a CO o in being close to what we actually operate, what we deliver So and when test check acquired in 2019, I became Great Britain MD in 2020 and became UK president in 2021. Well, it's a very inspiring story and I'm sure I'm sure people will take a lot away from that.
And you've led me nicely on Craig to talk about leadership because one iíve been involved in this profession now for only about 15 months. And one of the misconceptions that I hear from those, Outside of the profession is they say but you know projects isn't that just good leadership? You know is that not all? You need to lead a project good leadership so I'm interested to know how you would Define good
project leadership. And do you think there's any difference between the kind of leadership qualities required for project leadership? And those required of leaders can have more broadly Yeah, I've always seen the good project leaders have the same credentials as good leaders or Business Leaders and we promote and support people that, you know, show that strong project leadership.
And therefore they, they can become Business Leaders in our business, because there are obvious synergies in skill, set around EQ, which mentioned previously rather than purely IQ. You know, everybody in our business has a strong IQ, but at two different levels, different Disciplines the EQ becomes more important in that business leadership but the key requirements I see around good project leadership are the ability to manage complex
working and organizational environments mainly around that you know the need to require the management of change is the key element and that's what I look for in a good project leader its Association for project management. We know your most important project is your career but As a project manager, it's not always easy to make project me happen. That's where our membership can help. We offer exclusive training qualifications and learning resources to keep your development on track.
Join our 35,000 members and become part of the only charted membership body for the project profession. Open up your future AT AP, m dot org.uk. Right so tractor check the significant size and scale of operation that you're running and one of the challenges of that of course is how you remain kind of nimble and adaptive particularly when the world is changing Pace.
If anything in the past few years of accelerated, the pace of change of the kind of operating environment and the trends and so on, how does Tetra Tech can have make sure that it stays ahead of the curve and and ready to embrace. That the water changes. As as operational leaders in our business, we all understand the importance of delivering quality products to our clients. That's our starting premise, that's what we're about as a business.
And that means that we are in touch with what is required and what is changing. We are encouraged to continue our personal development through coaching and training. The pandemic was new for all of us, but as a business, we were able to show our ability and Agility and making fast-moving decisions that benefit. Fitted, our clients and our colleagues. And since then the pace of change, hasn't slowed down, it continues to accelerate.
We have a shortage of skills in some of our areas of work. So, you know, we've looked to bring in industry-leading flexible and agile, working Arrangements, parenting and carers support menopause policies and many other ways of solving that challenge to make as the employer of choice. So we've had to move quickly to get people who want to come into. Business for a career, not just not just a job. So we keep people long-term.
It is a challenging environment, geopolitics and UK politics are challenging at the moment. But we look to ensure that we are always looking forward. We spend the time to do that investing in the right areas, which is predominately our people and positively reacting to the changes required and the the key kind of take away from me. And all of that is you're being really proactive as an organization. That's what it sounds like. It's the rather than waiting for things to happen.
You're really kind of pushing the boundaries, so what can we do to to make sure we're ahead of the game with this and that sounds brilliant? One of the things I hear when I talk to are in a 500-plus corporate Partners, but we're almost without exception, actually, is that there's a kind of War on Talent happening at the moment that, you know, there just aren't enough project management professionals out there to meet the scale of demand for project delivery.
That exists. And, you know, I think you were talking about 22,000 employees that are in your organization and I wondered if you might say a little bit about how you, how you go about recruiting, really high-quality talented, in that kind of environment. Yeah, yeah. Simply by concentrating on the Simplicity of our outwardly complex business. So when I describe what we did, it sounds really complex but everything we do revolves around delivering projects that solve our clients problems.
And to do that, we need great well-qualified project managers alongside technical colleagues. So we look to work on the best and most exciting projects that are aligned to our corporate. Goals, we're continually looking to diversify that portfolio of Works to ensure RPMs can experience breadth and depth of experience across many sectors and that attracts and retains
them in our business. Alongside that we have engagement across industry through the a p.m. through universities schools and other associations to drive interest interest and showcase Tetra Tech and the opportunities that we have we're engaged through industry at events. Thought leadership, but the best outcome of all is ensuring.
We deliver good. High-quality work, delivering valuable outcomes, which increases our reputation, that's how we will make sure that we ensure that pipeline of p.m. Talent, you know, that makes sense. And you kind of reference a little bit there about the kind of development aspect of that one's that one's the project managers are with you. You're obviously in in the business of Kenneth multiple professions so you've got the project management profession you.
And CIO be earlier on, you've obviously got you know, technical people in terms of the engineering space and architecture space and everything else. I mean how do you how do you balance the kind of development of so many different areas and in particular? What are your expectations as an organization for the kinds of qualifications and skills that your your colleagues need to have a different point through their Journey?
Yeah, I think it's recognizing the differences that are required so Sonia. We do that through targeted and continued investment in our people. That the only thing that we have is people, so if we don't invest in their Mark, you know, our product will go down. So we recognize that and invest heavily in our people. Technical Excellence is really important. Professional development. Underpins our people strategy, we have a series of technical development, roadmaps built.
So each one of us Twenty-seven disciplines. And this provides a clear demarcated route through the grades, within our business aligned to professional bodies, qualifications and a path to Charter ship and fellowship. We have a business focused on strong project management. Every one of our colleagues in all disciplines has a base level of project management training and those responsible for leading projects have what we call level to project management
training. That they undertake on a block. Release course delivered by dr. Bill Brownlee are the chief engineer along with other members of our UK Senior Team. That's brilliant. I my, I look forward to the day when we have youngsters who are not even in the profession yet. And you know what I do for my career, what I really want to do is to become a chartered project professional in the same way, they would further chartered professions. I think they'll be great when that happens.
But and talking about Young people. Of course there will be those who are either. Just just just left school and thinking about what they want to do or those who are career Changers, maybe and really thinking about whether the project profession is a profession for them and going on that kind of career journey. And what advice would you give for somebody who is thinking about the profession and whether it's right for them? Yeah, it's a really interesting question.
Adam and young people. Aspire to be part of what they were where they work and where they want to be. And having started as a trainee myself, the equivalent, today's apprentices I didn't really know where my career would take me. So my advice to anybody entering our profession would be choose the right path, but be flexible along the way that certainly helped me. Always be honest and take support. That is off. Offered, you will be offered support along the way, make use
of that. People that have been there and done it. You can take things from them, work for an organization that shares your values and I think the youngsters today, get that more than I did 30 odd years ago, I think they want an organization that shares their values that will make you happier at work and then talk about sort of qualifications, you know I joined at 19 I follow through on commitments and qualifications. Aim to be a chartered professional.
I think that, you know, that is the ultimate place in our industry where we want people to be. I undertook a lot of my professional qualifications whilst an employment and on although it was tough at the time, I've always felt the value of doing that. So work hard, but be flexible and make the most of the opportunities as they come along. Some excellent advice that and I really like the dimension of
apprenticeships there, as well. Because I think sometimes, Oppressed people not everybody's understood that apprenticeships now are not the same as what an apprenticeship was 10 years ago. It's very, very different now and it is a genuine alternative. I think an alternative pathway into the profession in a way that didn't exist before. So I'm really pleased that you
mentioned that great. So thank you for that, you know, talking back in the past and present that, you know, be it, the project manager role, you know, has changed a lot if I think about 50 years ago. Go to today and I just wondered what you thought the most important skills and traits for a modern project manager. Yeah, I think it's a difficult combination to be a really great project manager.
It's a combination of great organizational skills but aligned with agility skills that are not always compatible with in people. But the best project managers exhibit that you know a good project manager structured, but able to flex and a key element also is inability to manage the many different stakeholders that you get on a major project. Yeah, you know, Noah says it comes back to your complexity
Point again, doesn't it? You know the so many moving parts now, it's it's not just the simple kind of, you know, start to finish it. It does at the second of bandwidth that's needed almost to, to take on some of these roles. But what about it Edie? And I so equality, diversity and inclusion.
You've kind of referenced it several times to our conversation today in terms of some of the work you've been Internally. But I wanted for my to specifically talk about the the representation of women and minorities within the project Workforce because some of the sectors that traditionally associated with the project profession have been quite male dominated and not necessarily
ethnically diverse either. I think that is changing but I wonder how Tetra Tech was approaching that that challenge Yeah, so I mentioned when we're talking about young people about being aligned with the values of a business and that was one of the things that I noticed when I first came into Tetra Tech is that they are very strong in. We refer to it as D and I Dia and so globally. We have a deai council with various employee resource groups to support women minorities in
our business. Because we want to have, as Versus a Workforce as we can to get the benefit as a business to have the best people possible that we can have that deliver our leading, the science approach. So we've created a ERG groups for a send for our pan-Asian colleagues, believe the black colleagues. We've got our professional women's Network, we've got acute for veterans. That would that we have a strong element in our business, we have Tetra.
Pride, we have voice Is for Latino and Hispanic colleagues. And our latest Global glue group with a disability Focus, which we haven't named yet and it will have a name in time and I'm involved in the the launching of that on a global basis. And and within the UK, we have our own EDI team with subsets of the main ERG. And we have chairs of those groups that feed into the Global Group and they oversee a breadth of initiatives and awareness sessions within our UK
operation. We've set ourselves, a target of 25% representation by 2025, across all areas of our business, we have diverse panels for decision-making in Recruitment and c-suite decisions are made via the DIY panel when whenever we can really but whenever necessary.
So, you know, as I say, I talked about aligning values with who you work for, you know, our commitment to EDI absolutely aligned in my own values and the commercial value that we get is Diverse Workforce, who can all be safe to be their best selves at work. Not that sounds brilliant. One of the things I've been picking up on, is this shift
cultural shift? I suppose at described it as which is, yes, inclusion is great, but belonging is better and, and that sense of how do we move kind of on from having strategies and so on to help people feel included in the workplace actually help, what, help helping people to feel that they They belong there and I think that's a really welcome next stage in that kind of inclusion Journey. If I think of it in that way, I don't do that.
Then if that's something you've heard anything about before. Yeah. Absolutely resonates. I've noted that I like the term belonging. That's exactly what we're looking for for people within our business. Yeah, I mean I can't claim the credit for it myself, Craig. It's something I've been hearing about myself and about I think it's actually something that's coming from the states. The u.s.
In terms of in terms of the the language there but also the concept and I think it's a really helpful okay and final part of our discussion now really but it really interested to know a little bit more about the growing importance of data analytics and artificial intelligence because that transparency of Supply chains and how data is used particularly at senior levels to make strategic decisions on what
are quite complex. And Abroad problems from, you know project sorry from what you've talked about. I'm just interested to know how Tetra Tech's use of data is changing given the kind of growing role of AI. Yeah, day trying to lytx is extremely important to senior level decision-making. Absolutely fundamental. It allows decision makers like myself to review live up to date project data, analyze performance across, various kpis and make informed decisions to assist our people projects.
And clients data is allowing us to see the ability to make intervention sooner on Troublesome issues and Allowing them to propagate and cause delay which in turn leads to overspend or or other issues on a project relationship issues on a project data analytics and AI is allowing us to digitize our systems building tools and processes that drive efficiencies for our people doing things quicker and in turn driving, better margins for our projects, making us more
competitive and allowing our clients to deliver more affordably. So passing that down through clients with intent, Attack. We have a suite of Technologies under our Banner of Tetra Tech Delta. The premise behind this is implementing a global digital differentiation strategy for our services to move as ahead of others in our industry, in the markets that we choose to work in. No, no that's excellent.
And we haven't actually having a conversation with somebody yesterday about the importance of empathy for project professionals and you You referred to it earlier on when you were talking about the kind of EQ side of things and there is no came up in the context of artificial intelligence as people were saying look it doesn't matter how good a I get it's never going to be as good as humans are as empathy which you know it's probably a point for debate but by the point that
was being made there was, you know we're always going to need really high quality people to accompany whatever AI or data that we've got and empathy. Is just one aspect of that which I thought was really interesting observation. Yeah, fully agree. Okay. Well look, I think that brings us to the end of our discussion. Craig, I've really enjoyed the discussion and I hope those listening of got some good insights now into into Tetra Tech. I've certainly learned a lot.
So, you know, thank you very much for giving up your time this morning and thank you to all of the project Professionals in your organization who are doing such a great job. As you, as you say to help those 1 billion people. Really benefit from projects and thank you crave for today. Thank you. Adam been a pleasure. Thank you for listening to this episode of the APM podcast.
If you have any feedback or suggestions for topics, you'd like to hear us discuss in the podcast, get in touch at a p.m. podcast at think publishing. .Co.uk OPM, is the charter body for the project profession. For more information visit a p.m. Dot org.uk