Cardno to 'bridge' gap between donors, private sector

For Michael Renshaw, getting the top job at Cardno after 11 years in the firm is a mix of humility, trepidation and excitement. A week after his official appointment as CEO, the former international division executive general manager shares his plans and visions for the company including plans for market and service expansion in previously underserved markets, discusses the importance of private sector engagement and local ownership efforts to make development initiatives sustainable, as well as the company’s unique position in global development. “[One of the] feelings I have is excitement about the potential to continue to grow this company and provide great development outcomes in emerging countries,” he explained in an exclusive interview with Devex. “We believe that we can provide a bit of a bridge between the aid and international development funding agencies and the private sector to maybe look here and do projects in partnership.” 42-year-old Renshaw, who succeeded Andrew Buckley, 57, after serving 16 years as Cardno boss, added: “We actually see part of [our] role, not just in the projects that contribute to development outcomes but [also] in transferring knowledge ... to individual countries to become part of our team.” Below are more excerpts from our conversation with the new Cardno CEO: How do you plan to guide the company forward? I like to say that my leadership style is going to be an evolution, not a revolution. We're not going to turn the company on its head, but we are looking at how we can further expand Cardno's capabilities particularly in emerging markets around the world. If you look at our staff mix, 49 percent of all of our staff is in the United States. We have 27 percent in Australia and New Zealand, 8 percent in Asia, 8 percent in Latin America, and the remaining 8 percent in the rest of the world. As Cardno continues to grow, we actually see the contribution of the company's employee numbers and the work that we perform increasing in emerging markets. We already do some fantastic work across 85 countries in the world. What we are looking to do is build upon our project delivery success and establish more in-country offices and capabilities. We've done that, for example, in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nairobi, and Ecuador where we have built a considerable size of operations that are run and managed by local people. We actually see [that] a part of Cardno's role, not just in the projects that contribute to development outcomes but transferring knowledge ourselves to individual countries to become part of our team. What about your vision for the firm? What will be the first major steps Cardno will take under your leadership? We are going to continue marching towards our vision, and our vision is to be a world leader in the provision of professional services for the improvement of the physical and social environment. We have a positioning statement that says, "Shaping the Future", and that is the core of Cardno. We partner with our clients and the communities which we work to shape a better future. What you are going to see is us increasing the array of services that we provide in developing countries. We have a tremendous capability in social infrastructure programs such as anti-people trafficking, law and justice reform, and education and health. We're looking to augment that with strong capabilities in engineering, infrastructure and economics. The other aspect that we're looking to do more of is partnering with the private sector in delivering development outcomes. We already work for a number of major global corporations in oil and gas and resources who have recognized that what they want to achieve in delivering projects in countries is a way of doing that they understand that the engineering side must deliver the right outcome for them. But major global corporations have realized that they must deliver best practices, environmental management and what we're seeing is a far greater awareness and understanding of the need to engage the local communities in which they are delivering these projects and do that in a way that they are delivering sustainable outcomes. You've talked about in-country and overseas expansion. What are the countries you're looking at in terms of expanding Cardno's operations? There is still an opportunity for us to expand in the continent of Africa. We already have about 170 people delivering projects for a number of bilateral, multilateral, and private donors. What we're looking to do is build on that capability and expand, particularly targeting what we're working with in aid agencies and we want to increase the amount of work we also do in partnering with the private sector. In Latin America, we are looking at the markets of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. In Asia, we're looking at further augmentation particularly in Indonesia, the Philippines, and we could also look at expanding our presence even in Myanmar. In terms of engaging the private sector, what will be the kind of partnership? What we have been doing in the past is working with philanthropists, not just donors but philanthropic donors in delivering their development outcomes. But we are also looking to partner with the resource sector [including] oil and gas, and mining companies who recognize the benefits of taking a corrective stance in developing capacities in-country to understand the need for having appropriate government legislation in which they operate and to also understand the need to develop capacity-building to support their growth endeavors. We believe that we can provide a bit of a bridge between the aid and international development funding agencies and the private sector to maybe look here and do projects in partnership. [In terms of success rate], we've actually found that we're getting a high degree of success with companies in Ecuador and multilaterals. We've noticed we've got some good evidence of success in Nairobi and Kenya, looking at the values chain program there with a leading retail manufacturer and we've also been working with the mining sector at a project in Mozambique and an oil and gas project in Kenya. We're proud to be part of AusAID with their Australia-Africa Partnership Program which was a lot looking at how money and development can be facilitated in such a way that aid facilitates trade. I think that was quite a successful project and a case that could potentially be applied across countries in Asia, and even Latin America. Given the changes in the global development space, especially with the advent of aid contractors, how do you see Cardno taking advantage of these changes given that the company is structured differently? What we're seeing is an increase in focus on local partnering, developing of in-country capacity as opposed to just always applying international contractors to projects. We support that change. We support the trend of engaging the local community to deliver outcomes, so the projects lead to more sustainable and ongoing initiatives once the initial funded project has been completed. From our perspective, we as a company have 7,700 people that are delivering projects right now in more than 85 countries. I think we're well positioned to support donors and the private sector in those markets. The other advantage that I think we bring is that we bring a holistic set of services to developing countries. We have strong expertise in infrastructure and engineering, combined with the world's leading expertise in environmental and natural resource management, applied with a very strong and in-depth understanding of social infrastructure development and community engagement in developing countries. When we look at any community around the world, you need infrastructures upon which to support the community. You need access to clean water and sanitation, access to transportation. But the appropriate social infrastructures [like] schools, housing, and governance, we ought to do that in a way in which it is providing impact, and in harmony with the environment. Unlike many contractors out there, we believe that we understand those items greater than most. In some cases, the interests of contractors don't always align with the interest of donors and development fund agencies, and vice versa — which can affect the delivery and success of these projects to communities. How important is alignment of interest in development work? I think in any development project, it is important to have alignment of goals. One aspect that I think we do is we take a lot of time to understand the goals of the donor that we're working with, understand the community, and develop the methodology and approach to take [everything] into consideration. From our perspective, alignment of those goals is a key part of our initiation even before a project commence. We spend a lot of time understanding and getting alignment before committing to a project. Aside from your appointment as CEO, there were also changes in some key positions in the company including Ross Thompson's as new head of the Emerging Markets division and Marian Boreland leading the Emerging Markets section in the U.S. Will there be other staffing changes in the next few months? There are no [further] changes anticipated in the Cardno group. Ross Thompson was the operations manager to the CEO and he understands all of those capabilities of the company. His appointment to the role of emerging markets head is a recognition of his broader understanding of Cardno's capabilities so we can better focus them on the needs of the development outcomes of developing countries around the world. We would hope to continue to seek expansion of our employee numbers across all our offices, [not just in the U.S.]. Cardno is a growth company. We understand that the donor market has changed a little bit especially with funding priorities that different countries have given, but we're still seeing opportunities to grow in these markets and deliver development outcomes. You talked about expanding operations in several countries around the world as well as heightened engagement with the private sector. Do you also plan to expand your engagement with more multilateral development agencies? We would really anticipate and hope so. An area where we have not been that active is in Latin America. Latin America now is one of the largest [economies]. For example in Ecuador and Colombia, we have about 650 people. We're seeing that there's more opportunities for us to deliver development outcomes in that market and we hope we can demonstrate that and deliver some quality projects in the coming 12 months, this year. Cardno is always seeking to expand into Canada. Expansion in Canada would also be great if that was also an expansion of our development systems business. How we can support CIDA in their development outcomes. [With other agencies], we already work with them. From our perspective, we would want to continue that relationship with all those donor agencies going forward. As a Brisbane-based firm, how do you view AusAID's integration into the country's foreign affairs and trade department? The move of AusAID into DFAT, now called Australian Aid. within that agency — we understand the decision. The government has come out with a clear indication of where they see their development priorities. We believe that we're well-positioned to support them, particularly given our strong experience in doing development projects across Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. We do acknowledge that AusAID is likely to reduce some of its project investments across Africa. We understand the reasons. But in discussions with the resource sector, we hope that there's an opportunity to continue the success that has been made in combining projects that link resources and aid to facilitate trade. How about the importance of emerging and non-traditional donors, including the private sector, in pushing forward development objectives and outcomes? Part of that is communicating the benefits of development broadly across all markets in which we operate in. It is about partnering with firms in countries. It's about partnering with other agencies to deliver more effective outcomes, essentially considering better linkages between donors, philanthropic funds and the private sector to continue to advance development. We do work on issues to do that through publications where we report best practices through our resources like development conferences, and as being a general industry partner. In your view, what’s the future of international development? The answer to that is international development has a very important role to play in advancing the needs and basic human rights of communities and individuals around the world. It can play a key role in providing a framework and a basis upon which emerging economies can achieve self-sustainability, and with that, improve the lives of those in communities and bring broader political and economic stability globally. Cardno is a strong supporter of international development systems and will continue to be so and see it as a key part of the culture and operations of our business. Join the Devex community and access more in-depth analysis, breaking news and business advice — and a host of other services — on international development, humanitarian aid and global health. See more: After Africa, Cardno looks to expand in Latin America, Canada