Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2002
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How Canada’s consulting engineers view the future

Jim Beechinor,
Executive Vice-President,
AMEC Earth &
Environmental Operations


I have been in the engineering consulting industry for more than 20 years, moving from technical to management roles. I’ve seen trends come and go, some leaving a lasting imprint on the industry, others, not. An important indicator of a firm’s ability to survive and thrive has been its ability to act and react quickly and appropriately.

Everyone develops a comfort level in their respective roles, but to drive success in the consulting engineering industry, there’s a real need for experienced people to take on new assignments. Organizational development will be a key challenge in the years ahead. New approaches will enhance how we run our business, who is running our business, and how our business is perceived.

I recently read “Straight from the Gut”, by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. One word really caught my attention and inspired my imagination. Boundaryless.

Organizations are developing non-traditional structures to reach across jurisdictional and functional boundaries. As the environmental consulting market matures, businesses need to adopt these same kinds of structures to stand out from the pack and add value in client service. We will be seeing increasing flexibility in leadership roles, leading to more creative and nimble thinking to meet market and client demands.

We will also be looking at changing trends in the kind of people that are filling these leadership roles. The engineering consulting industry hasn’t been very good at helping people along in their career paths. Typically, the strongest technical achievers have been placed in managerial roles. This model just isn’t working anymore.

The most successful firms are investing significantly in their human resources and developing leaders internally. Project management training and leadership development will be taking on increased significance throughout the engineering consulting industry.

These new leaders are going to be facing unprecedented scrutiny, and not only in publicly owned companies. Corporate governance issues have been saturating the headlines recently, as the crises at Enron and WorldCom have come to light. I believe we’ll be seeing new regulations for public companies that will change how they do business. But there will be repercussions for private firms as well. Private companies will have to find some way to demonstrate responsible management to attract and maintain employee investment.

Reputation is becoming a key driver in today’s market. Clients are demanding levels of responsibility that only activist NGOs did in previous years. Words like sustainability and corporate social responsibility will have to move beyond the realm of mere corporate jargon. They will become a way of doing business, colouring decision-making in business strategy and project selection. Sustainability concepts will be embraced as part of a company’s organizational fabric.

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