Culture Of Success
One of Australia’s fastest-growing infrastructure services companies finds and keeps good people by stoking morale and providing plenty of juicy incentives.
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Entrepreneur: Kerry Osborne
Company: CityWide Service Solutions
Business type: Infrastructure and environmental services management
Founded: 1995
Employees: 1,000
Turnover: (2006 - 2007) $148M
Contact details: +61 3 9261 5011
The CityWide Story
In a little over a decade since it was founded in 1995, CityWide Service Solutions has stormed its way into a leadership position in infrastructure services. CityWide’s staff are ubiquitous in Melbourne, maintaining the city’s gorgeous parks, sweeping streets, paving roads, servicing parking meters and a myriad other vital, behind-the-scenes functions. It all helps keep Melbourne one of the world’s most liveable cities.
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Key learning points:
- Leadership - The leader's role is to set a direction and motivate people to get there as a team.
- Motivation - Invest in training and incentives - they pay back far more than they cost.
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But CityWide’s growth arc slumped in the late 1990s as staff direction and motivation slipped. Some clients went across to a rival company lead by Kerry Osborne. So CityWide took a logical step and in 2001 head-hunted as CEO the competitor who was eating their lunch - Kerry Osborne.
Kerry found a business with some good people whom he felt had lacked leadership, direction and motivation. There was an entrenched government-service philosophy within the business, which reflected the defence forces background of some staff and former management. Kerry says: “We needed a major shift in mindset right through the company.”
The Challenge
To motivate a dejected organisation and make it grow.
The Solution
When Kerry Osborne arrived at CityWide he discovered some excellent managers, but he knew they would become disillusioned and leave if the organisation remained sterile and static. The business had been struggling to develop a performance-orientated culture at the mid-management level.
Kerry began by drawing together the small talented management team and creating a dynamic larger team around them. He says: “A business is only as good as the people who are running it. CityWide now wins business not just on the quality of its work, but the skills, experience and innovation of its operations managers.”
Keeping people informed is central to Kerry’s management philosophy of creating an entrepreneurial team spirit. He says: “I needed to give people all the information necessary to make them part of the business in a real sense.” Openness and transparency foster accountability.
Kerry began to link individual objectives and actions to broad business objectives. External trainers were used to support the new cohort of managers in motivating their teams. Kerry says: “We listen to our people when developing KPIs [key performance indicators]. We aim to understand what makes them tick, what they value as a reward, and then we provide an opportunity to earn it … I love seeing people meet targets and achieve the goals we have set for the business.”
On some contracts performance bonuses are shared with delivery teams. Those who exceed their KPIs can earn bonuses of up to 25% above their salary package.
The team structure and eight distinct business units give staff room for career growth and new experiences. Kerry says: “There are plenty of opportunities for those who want to try something different. We also offer competitive salary packages, a range of appropriate incentives, and support for our people to up-skill.”
Celebrating success is a feature of CityWide’s culture. Senior management regularly visit company depots to celebrate achievements. The CityWide Christmas party is a renowned event, with generous lucky dip giveaways including iPods, concert and movie tickets.
The company runs footy tipping competitions to help build camaraderie. Birthdays, service records, safety awards and other significant milestones are recognised with BBQs and by spreading the news (CityWide has two newsletters). It has 20 seats permanently booked at Telstra Dome and the MCG in Melbourne to reward the outstanding achievements.
Kerry says: “We’re old-fashioned in that we like to give watches to people with 10, 15 , 25-plus years service. After seven years [as CEO], I still show up at BBQs such as the one we had recently at 7am for our Apprentice of the Year. Our investment in training, quality staff and motivational programs is paying off. I may spend 3-4% of profit on incentive schemes, but I get that back many times over in performance.”
Kerry says that the best incentive is being smart about setting pathways to achievement at an individual level and then celebrating that achievement with people when they get there. “Clearly our aim is to achieve maximum productivity from all our people but that doesn’t mean working them into the ground. On the contrary, we know that if our guys enjoy their workplace and their roles and understand our incentives schemes, they’ll give 100%.”
The Result
CityWide’s revenue over the past six years has more than tripled, growing from $38 million to $148 million. Clients include such high-profile, blue-chips as City of Melbourne, Melbourne Docklands, Parks Victoria, VicRoads and prestigious interstate names such as City of Sydney.
CityWide’s work environment is considered to be among the best in the industry, with a low incidence of safety breaches, a strong commitment to the environment and plenty of opportunities to achieve performance bonuses.
View CEOTV Interview with Kerry Osborne on e-Learning:
CEOTV - Kerry Osborne
Case study by Performing Words www.performingwords.com.au
First published: 20 August 2007.
Last updated: 20 August 2007.