WHAT CAREER MILESTONES ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF HAVING ACHIEVED?

My current role at Kusile. In particular, being part of a team which has shown significant improvement in productivity and has achieved major milestones including 7 million man hours without LTI and a full year with no industrial action.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU FACE IN YOUR CURRENT ROLE?

Productivity is our biggest challenge at Kusile. We have had a good run so our biggest challenge will be sustaining the success. Breaking it down into SPQCP, which is the language that we speak at Kusile:

In terms of SAFETY our biggest challenge is complacency and gravity. Though we have achieved over 7 million LTI free man hours, this needs to be maintained and we need to ensure our work environment is consistently free from harm.

We have hit our PRODUCTION targets consistently over the last 3 months and have spent the correct amount of man hours to hit our milestones. The challenge is maintenance and consistency.

QUALITY – we continuously strive to get all work done right the first time to minimise the amount of rework. Our team at Kusile has a drive to ensure that quality gets the same level of attention as HSE. Quality is increasingly becoming embedded in our culture and employees realise the impact that poor quality has in terms of costs to the company. We have implemented quality reviews which involve everyone from artisans to senior leadership.

COST – we consistently strive to ensure we work as efficiently as possible to minimise rework and lost material on the pad. The last three months have seen a marked improvement in our efficiencies, we are now the most cost effective solution to our client on the Kusile site.

PEOPLE – maximising the talent pool and attracting the right level of talent to the Kusile team and ensuring that they stay at Kusile. Working on site is a full time commitment, it is therefore very tricky to ensure that the members of our team have a proactive work life balance.


WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT THE FUTURE IN YOUR INDUSTRY?

Seeing young talent developing and gaining experience at Kusile and developing young apprentices and engineers into leaders. For South Africa to reach its full potential the development of infrastructure is essential. The engineering and construction industry will be at the centre of this, particularly the power, energy and water projects.


WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR INTERESTS OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICE?

I don’t have a lot of free time but I do enjoy my off weekends and over the Christmas break I take an annual diving trip with my boys. I also enjoy photography and cooking.


WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF CAREER ADVICE YOU’VE RECEIVED?

Sjoe, I have received lots of great advice. I have been lucky enough to work with very dynamic leaders and project managers in the global as well as local industry. The advice I consistently follow is:
1. Maximise the potential of your team.
2. Maintain open and honest communication with all levels of the organisation.
3. Focus on relationships with all your stakeholders.
4. Trust, but verify – “touch it, feel it, see it”.
5. If you want your team to push high performance boundaries it is important to be visual, show leadership and get your hands dirty. ‘Adult Supervision’ is sometimes necessary.

WHAT WOULD PEOPLE BE SURPRISED TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?

I love cooking and went to cooking lessons for two years and really know how to hold a dinner party – one day some of you may be lucky enough to find this out.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?

I was a newspaper boy at 14 in the United Kingdom. I also served hot beef on rye sandwiches at the Turffontein Race Course. My first full time job was an Industrial Relations Advisor.