A VISION FOR THE C0NSTRUCTON INDUSTRY

The topic the Chairman gave me to speak on is as difficult and challenging a topic as is possible to conjure up. – something that those of us leading large corporations (or attempting to lead) these organizations through visionary leadership will understand.

Finding an enticing and inspiring vision – something that ignites your passion and the passion of your people is difficult enough at a corporate level – it is very much more so at an industry level.

Any vision building exercise must start with the “hard brutal facts’ of the past – providing a clear platform of understanding of where we find ourselves today.

Thereafter an attempt can be made to look into the future and identify these characteristics, resources and broadly based capabilities that will stand us in good stead – next year – in the next five years – and beyond.

This is about attempting to understand what our environment is likely to look like both inside and outside the industry and responding appropriately.

Finally we must test all this against our sense of purpose. Vision goes beyond a simple analytical exercise of matching supply with demand – it goes to the very core of our being, our passion, our moral sense of responsibility. Why has our creator placed us at this particular point in place and time?

Looking at this audience three things come to mind:

1. We are engineers. To engineer means to “bring into being” – to make happen – to implement – to deliver. The implication is even deeper : “to find a workable solution irrespective of problems that may be encountered”
2. We are South Africans. We love our country and its people. Our history, just as in most other countries, has been less than equitable. That has given rise to some specific challenges – and often enormous frustration for all concerned.
3. Finally, we are influential. There are many other groups in our city and in our country that are engineers and South Africans. We are different. With that difference – the difference of privilege and power comes enormous responsibility.

At the nexus of

“ Where we are” and “ Who we are” lies the possibility of vision – that sense of purpose able to ignite our passions and drive us to make a difference and leave a legacy in our industry and for our country. And most importantly – to bind us together as an industry in common purpose.

Let’s start then ‘the Where we are’ with some slides reflecting facts from the past and present and then try and project our thinking into the future.

Proposition 1

Our construction projects are bold and inspiring and highly visible and, if handled properly, have the potential to create excitement, to unite a nation and attract large numbers of high-performing individuals into our industry.

This starts to address our ‘sense of purpose’ – the ‘Who’ we are that I was referring to earlier. Let me show you some bridges

Let’s move to the here and now. The real value of our winning the 2010 Soccer World Cup is not the international prestige or the tourism exposure and TV coverage that we will be getting – it’s the unique opportunity for our President to unite the country behind a project that has the potential to fire the imaginations of soccer-loving – or simply patriotic individuals. Building the stadiums and other support infrastructure will be the visible product of this nation uniting ‘Soccer 2010’strategy.

An automatic by-product will be the high profiling of our industry, the sense of pride that goes with ‘being part of the action’ – resulting in many more high performing students entering our industry.

As an industry we are competing for skills with the banking industry – with their air-conditioned offices and other higher profile metropolitan based businesses – and with their salaries. Hopefully we can make more money in the years ahead and pay our people better.

But money is not the most important considerations in career choice. We need to present a grandeur of what we do (Discovery channel does this well) – the excitement of creating something big and magnificent – something I can show my kids - and be proud of!

The government and other legislative and regulatory authorities have a vested interest in our industry succeeding and are more than willing to listen to our proposals.

• We have spoken of the skills shortage this evening. Government is sufficiently concerned to have tasked the Deputy President to work on this matter. The JIPSA action group has built on some excellent work by Allyson Lawless to prepare a strategy to increase the number of engineers by 1000 p.a. between now and 2010. An excellent example of Government’s willingness to listen.
• Example of past meetings with Minister Pandour, Minister of Education meeting again next week on the FET Colleges.
• The University of Pretoria estimates that South Africa produces only 10 000 matric students a year with symbols between A & C in higher grade Maths & Science. The Department of Education intend growing this to 50 000 by 2008. An enormous challenge if standards are not to be eroded.
• If we are concerned about the less than efficient regulatory environment governing our industry – the 120 pieces of legislation – we need to raise this and fix it.
• Apprenticeships VS Learnerships is another issue that creates enormous confusion.
• If we are concerned about “skewed subvention of salaries formulae” that discourages the taking on of additional students – this needs to be fixed.

IT’S ABOUT TAKING OWENRSHIP OF OUR INDUSTRY

Proposition 3

What we do and say matters – both as individuals and corporately through the various industry and other bodies we serve on.

Victor Frankl found himself in a Nazi prisoner of war camp and in that experience he tells how he gained a powerful insight that saved him fror the horrors that killed his colleagues. “Between stimulus and response lies the freedom of choice”We can choose to act or not act and we can choose how we act – what we do.

In conclusion permit me a comment on the SAAE as a body,

Our mission is “to promote the welfare of our nation and continent by marshalling the knowledge, expertise and international network of eminent members of the engineering profession…..”

In the context of tonight’s discussion, I believe there may be a significant role for the SAAE to play in its quest to give effect to its mission. It is in a uniquely powerful position to offer sapiential leadership - untainted by commercial interest. I spoke earlier about the potential power of the Soccer World Cup and its stadiums to unite the nation behind a project that has the potential to build national pride. Aveng and other organisations of its ilk cannot do that – the SAAE can.

And so to return to the question of the evening: “A Vision for the Construction Industry?”

I offer the following :-

“An industry that unites our nation and leaves a legacy of which we can all be justly proud”