Restructure, rebuild and refocus

In 2013, the Capita Group asked its experienced director Richard Marchant to operate with a new brief to refocus its property and infrastructure business formerly Capita Symonds lead a significant restructure and rebuild the team.

Its been a hell of a year, admits Richard, who is now operating under the title of chief executive of Capitas Property and Infrastructure business.

Weve rebranded and everyone involved has done an excellent job. Weve made a lot of progress and the business is back working in an acceptable way. Weve now put a three-year plan in place in terms of growth and this identifies the clarity in the direction of travel for the business.
Capitas Property and Infrastructure arm sees it delivering project and programmes in a plethora of industries, in both the public and private sectors.  The secret to ensuring high output across the entire portfolio, says Richard, is strong personnel and a rock-solid governance structure.

The advantage of my role is that I am one of 10 who sit on the groups executive board. There are all sorts of opportunities in the Groups bid pipeline, which is around 4bn of public or private sector projects. By having a seat at the table I am alert to what the opportunities, challenges and risks are.

Richard explains that the Property and Infrastructure division is viewed as a unique selling point for the group. A lot of Capitas competitors dont have a company like ours, he explains. Were integral to the group and this really helps with our integrated business model.

Theres a lot going on and a lot of opportunities on the horizon. To try and keep a handle on that, we have some very good people. Were recruiting quite heavily at the moment at a fairly senior level.

We also have a 40-strong housing consultancy team and are continuing to grow that business. Were not passive or waiting for opportunities to come to us.

Clear message
Richards refocused role in the organisation came at an ideal time. Property and Infrastructure had just rebranded and there was a clear message, both internally and externally, as to what this arm of the group was there to deliver.

Its about consistency, he says. Were trying to create positivity so that as we move forward, we have a clear roadmap of what were trying to do as an organisation.

He places significant emphasis on engaging stakeholders and his team.

One thing Ive realised in life is that if we dont take the people with us then we will struggle. Its fundamental. We want people to feel a part of this business.

This attitude extends to the way Capita Property and Infrastructure employs staff members. The culture is to invest in graduates and bring them through the ranks, something Richard is particularly proud of.

Weve got a young lady who started with us at the age of 17. She is now 24 and a fully qualified engineer. She absolutely loves her job and more importantly, she thinks its cool to be an engineer. This is what we need. Bringing young people in is a real opportunity for us.

On the state of project management in the UK, Richard maintains that we boast some of the best. The delivery of London 2012 was a particular highlight, and something his team was heavily involved in.

Project managing some of the major venues was great for us as an organisation. We took a lot of important lessons away from the experience and are continuing to use the experience to deliver today.

There are some significant things coming up for us. We are project managing some of the major infrastructure here in the UK and are involved in some of the design and engineering of these projects too.

The projects Richard refers to are a result of successful delivery in the public sector, which has led to a multitude of opportunities in the private sector. Capita Property and Infrastructure is now delivering billions of pounds worth of projects in each sector, and is continuing to add to its portfolio.

Project talent
Have we got enough excellent project managers? I dont know, muses Richard. The talent we have is exceptional, but we are continuing to grow. One of the reasons we bought the Symonds Group was because they brought a major project management capacity, which allowed us to grow and develop our practitioners.

He ponders again: Is there enough out there that we can recruit from? Well find that out.

Certainly, for us, the right way to go about it is to bring people through as graduates. Its something we have done successfully and will continue to do.

The lingering question for Richard and his team is whether or not the growth of the business will increase demand for project managers before a sufficient number of graduates have passed through the system.

The big challenge for us is recruiting enough senior people to move the business on a step-change basis, and making sure that were attractive to those compared to some of the bigger competitors.

Retention is a big issue for us at the moment too. Theres a lot of pressure with competitive salaries. Having a proper retention strategy in place is key. Weve worked very hard on getting the right finance and operational people in, and the key for success is keeping those who are very good.
Richard believes that many competitors seek project management talent from overseas. This was certainly the case as the recession hit here, he explains. Organisations were keen to seek project opportunities overseas.

Capita is very much UK based. We do work on overseas projects, but were not a major provider and dont establish those big bases. Its not a major part of our business plan. Building credibility and capacity over here is our number one objective.

Building in Britain
Building in Britain is clearly a successful business model for Capita, so is this the formula for the future? 

Its an integral part of our plan, explains Richard. When were looking at our development growth plan for the next three years, weve got a really good understanding of where we think we need to be and there are no dramatic plans to dramatically shift the business model.

He explains that the continued growth of Capita will mean further acquisition.

We recognise now that we need to be on the acquisition trail, and were starting to look at areas where we can bolt on services to add  real capacity. Essentially this will be UK based.

A recent win in the London Borough of Barnet is just one example of the kind of work Capita is delivering here at home.

The Barnet win has delivered fantastic opportunities, says Richard. Weve taken over all of its property estate functions and its regulatory and development services. It takes us into some quite new areas. Theres significant regeneration in the area and we need to be the prime organisation that is helping to facilitate delivery of that regeneration.

The 10-year contract gives Capita another major platform in London, something Richard hopes will lead to further opportunities around the capital.
Capita has also worked on some of the Governments major on-going programmes, including HS2. Richard says: Weve done a significant proportion of the design work on HS2. It is projects like this people want to get involved with, so being involved helps us retain and attract talent.

A view on HS2
On HS2, Richard is keen for the high-speed scheme to go ahead, hailing from Leeds, he believes that the promise of more capacity and faster travel times will bring major benefits to the north.

It took me nearly four hours to get here [London] today due to weather problems, he says. If I could get here in an hour and a half that would be wonderful. A lot of people commute both ways. Its not just about HS2, its the benefits to the areas around the route. The places around the route, not just on the route, need better infrastructure too.

Travel-to-work time has to be improved on. Its a significant investment but it will benefit a lot of the country, there will be significant benefits for the regional economy that will come out of it.

Career path: Richard Marchant
Richard began his career working for Leeds City Council. I wasnt really sure what I wanted to do, he says. I did some payroll clerking and quite enjoyed the accounting. After two years I joined the finance treasury department and trained to be an accountant. I qualified as an accountant within two and a half years on the fast track. At 22 I was a qualified accountant which was good at the time.

He worked his way up the ranks in the finance department before eventually applying for the job as finance director for the Direct Labour Organisation. This got me into bidding for work and  cost management, and got me into managing people and doing things in a different way.
Richard applied to be a management consultant at Capita and joined the firm in 1990 as a senior consultant. He recalls: At the time Capita was a local authority-based company. It was a small organisation of 210, now we have around 65,000 people.

The role gave him excellent exposure to both the public and private sectors. Richard continued to scale the rungs of the career ladder, working his way up to director of the management consultant business. In 2002 he began to manage what was then called Capita Property Consultancy.

We had about 1,500 staff and 95m turnover. The biggest acquisition within the four years there was the one of Symonds Group in 2005.
Around 850 new team members joined as part of the acquisition.

Urban Vision  was the first secondment joint venture deal with the public sector, and its still going very strong today, with turnover of more than 35m a year.

In Capita, my role was not as a property professional, it was to look at and lead a business for the group.

I then headed up local government for five or six years, which was managing all of our major outsourcing deals and major partnering deals in Birmingham, Sheffield, Swindon and others.

In 2013, Richard was asked to become the managing director of Capitas Property and Infrastructure business.

This article first appeared in Project magazine. APM members can read all feature articles from Project magazine over recent years by accessing the Project magazine archive.

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