EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
new opportunities for expansion. As the
largest listed company in the
international infrastructure and
engineering sector, CCCC has exciting
plans to utilise the group to develop
their own international growth, which
will involve doubling the size of the
John Holland Group within five years.
“We’re now in the first year of that
five-year plan, with a broadening focus
on what we have to do to achieve that,”
says Glenn. “There are a couple of
different areas John Holland will be
focusing on going forward, to reposition
the group as a business grower, not just
a constructor.”Across the company’s three key pillars
— buildings, infrastructure and rail —
each division has been charged with
seeking new opportunities to vertically
integrate new service offerings. “We’ve
been exploring how we can continue to
operate as a constructor in the markets
that we’re already comfortable in, but
also introduce new operations, whatever
they might be — asset management and
maintenance, development, facilities
management, and so on,” says Glenn.
Further, while previous owners restricted
their operations to Australia, CCCC
provides the benefit of geographic
expansion, with the group’s first South
East Asia office opening in May. “The
firm will be taking that expansion very
cautiously, servicing the Singaporean
and Malaysian markets in the first
instance, and hopefully that will
facilitate further growth.”Before announcing his retirement,
Glenn had been overseeing the
implementation of a new John Holland
Group Development and Investment
vehicle, which will cover property
development, mergers and acquisitions
and public–private partnerships. “It’s
going to make the company a major
player going forward. With the financial
backing of CCCC, John Holland will be
able to create its own opportunities,and we expect to see those initiatives
start to crystallise over the next twelve
months or so.” More than anything,
Glenn says the support of such a strong
new parent company has been a great
win for the people of John Holland
Group, who have banded together
through what was quite a difficult and
uncertain time before acquisition, with
most choosing to stay loyal to the
business despite uncertainty.“In that period of uncertainty, we lost
less than twenty people. Not everyone
could stay, and that’s understandable.
But there was a large majority who
stuck to the task, kept their heads down
and did their best. I’m so pleased that
we’ve come out the other side of that in
a very strong and exciting position —
that is probably the best we could have
hoped for,” says Glenn. Above all else,
Glenn says taking care of people is the
most important part of leadership
today. He says that John Holland
prioritises people’s overall well-being— rather than just on-site safety — as
well as ensuring a strong diversity of
workers, and providing ongoing and
multiple types of training and
development opportunities. “We actively
drive a strong diversity agenda right
across our business and place a huge
emphasis on training and development
opportunities,” says Glenn. “I am
particularly proud of our ongoing
achievements in diversity, whether that
be age, gender, culture or even career.”“We have not been leaving this to
chance, we have been very active. We’re
not perfect but we acknowledge that,
and the company is certainly not afraid
to tackle it. I see this as being a major
part of why people want to work at
John Holland,” says Glenn. This is no
understatement — each year the
company receives thousands of
applications from aspiring engineers or
construction professionals wanting to
join its graduate program, despite there
only being around 100 spots for the