Two Defence Force Academy graduates have been successfully applying their military training to a corporate assault on the project management sector.
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Entrepreneur: Brendan Bilston and Michael Snare (co-principals)
Company: Point Project Management
Business type: Project management in the construction and property sectors
Founded: 2006
Employees: 43 full-time
Turnover: $13.39 million (2008-09)
Head office: Head Office: Canberra, Regional Offices: VIC, NSW, QLD, WA and NT
Contact details: 02 6175 3600
The Point Project Management Story
Point Project Management has been a phenomenally successful construction industry start-up. Annual turnover has grown from zero to $13.39 million in less than five years. The company simply shrugged aside the global financial crisis to leap from 11th slot in BRW’s Fast Starter’s List in 2009 to sixth place in 2010.
Point now has offices in every state and territory and a blue-chip client list that includes federal and state government organisations and corporate clients such as Qantas. Point has also been awarded several key projects in Papua and New Guinea in the past 12 months. These include the Hidden Valley Mine Access Road Project, which involves building a 35km road through rugged terrain near Morobe, and management of the Nambawan Super Fund’s $440-million portfolio of properties.
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Key learning points:
- Human Resources - Bilston says: "Take care of your people; they are your most important asset. The cost of replacing an individual - and the continuity that is lost by having to do so - can be avoided by taking the time to understand your people and finding out what they want to achieve in their careers. Michael and I have always believed that it is most important to meet employee expectations".
- Expansion- Point believes the human factor is equally important when expanding interstate and have only done so on the basis of good individuals becoming available in a location, not merely on the basis of nature and quantity of the work on offer there.
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The Challenge
To be recognised as a financially and professionally credible candidate to manage large projects despite being a new company with no track record and no credentials.
The Solution
Bilston and Snare say their backgrounds as graduates of the Australian Defence Force Academy (Duntroon) have helped them to create a distinctive identity for Point. Before entering the corporate world, their leadership and management skills were honed by military training. It taught them to apply military thinking to business problems such as risk analysis and planning.
Applying military strategies and tactics to corporate organisations has become popular, as witnessed by sales of Sun Tzu’s classic treatise The Art of War. For most corporate warriors, such soldierly wisdom is simply a footnote to their conventional business thinking. But not for Bilston and Snare, whose army training makes it second nature for them to apply military principles to the business world. About one third of Point’s line managers also have had military experience, although that is not a prerequisite to work there. Point values the cross fertilisation of expertise and skill sets.
Starting up in Canberra gave Point the high ground of proximity to many government tenders, creating opportunities that enabled the fledgling company to compete on equal terms with larger competitors. Bilston says: “The private sector tender process is secret and evaluated in the best interests of the company whereas the government process is transparent and must be evaluated against the best interests of the public”.
Point has won several Department of Defence projects by competitive tender, including the HMAS Harman Defence Communications Facility in the ACT. Other federal and state projects include the new Department of Climate Change Head Office and Airservices Australia projects around Australia. The company has also been awarded major health infrastructure projects in Victoria, such as the Lilydale Superclinic and the Yarra Ranges Day Care Hospital.
Point plays the business awards game to win because winning creates buzz, making a relatively unknown company visible and talked about. Bilston says Point has never taken a shotgun approach to awards, entering anything and everything. It only participates in award competitions that take the quality of strategic thinking and management into account in choosing a winner rather than relying solely on financial scoresheets.
Competing for awards is still an important part of the Point marketing strategy but it is becoming less so as the company’s reputation grows. Point also places a high priority on participating in industry forums and bodies such as The Property Council of Australia and the Green Business Council of Australia.
Bilston says: “It is demanding and time consuming to participate actively in these forums, but by contributing clear, fresh thinking, Point has succeeded in putting up fresh ideas that are taken seriously”. The company has also had success in being invited to join government and private sector advisory panels, the members of which have input into major projects planned in the forward estimates.
Another important factor in the company’s success has been the decision to appoint an external board of directors. The board provides advice on structural issues such as interstate expansion and management issues such as database security, compliance with international standards and online operational systems.
The Result
Point’s latest reputation-building crop of awards includes the inaugural Smart Company 2009 Business Start-up Award and three awards in the 2009 Telstra Enterprise Awards, led by the Australian Medium Business of the Year award.
The company’s first win was the NSW & ACT Small Business Champions Award for Professional Service in 2007, followed by the coveted Australian Business Awards Enterprise Award and five regional awards in 2008: the ACT and South West NSW Local Business Award, the Business Point Business Growth Award, the ACT Project Management Achievement Award, the ACT Project Management Project of the Year Award and the ACT Property Council’s Business of the Year award.