The new chairman of Scottish Enterprise said establishing core business values is key in drawing up a road map for growth and success.
Bob Keiller said defining and ingraining a small number of key principles had helped him and his team as they led a $280 million management buyout of Halliburton’s Production Services Network (PSN) in 2006.
PSN was eventually acquired by north east-based Wood Group in 2011 and Mr Keiller a multi-award-winning industrialist was named as CEO of the energy services giant in late 2012.
Mr Keiller told an audience of local industry leaders at the latest Courier Business Briefings event at Dundee’s Malmaison hotel that his career had been defined by a number of ‘Eureka’ moments.
He said taking the time out to define why a company was in business in the first place and ensuring senior directors understood that purpose and were all heading towards the same destination had provided such an inspiration.
However, he said setting out core values and, crucially, sticking to them when difficult decisions required to be made had been the real key to his success.
Mr Keiller said the guiding principles had seen Wood Group walk away from potentially lucrative deals but it had also helped secured a pipeline of work worth more than $2 billion.
“Take the time to sit down and be really clear about what you are trying to achieve,” Mr Keiller said.
“If you haven’t got a plan A, then you haven’t got a plan. Some people have a business plan that sits on a shelf and doesn’t relate to what they do on a day-to-day basis.”
He said he also questioned himself when setting up a new venture.
“What are the founding principles of this new business? What are we trying to create?” Mr Keiller said.
“What you want is as short a list as possible and you also want staff who genuinely believe in it.”
Following his keynote address, Mr Keiller was joined on stage by Craig Nicol, joint managing partner of Dundee-headquartered law firm Thorntons, and Dundee City Council’s head of planning, Gregor Hamilton.
Mr Nicol said having guiding principles had helped Thorntons through a period of major expansion that had seen it grow to rival the previously dominant central belt law firms.
“We established core values in the business in 2006 and they were written by our staff we didn’t impose them on the business,” Mr Nicol said.
“Communicating those values time and again to staff has really helped the business.
“We will be setting out a new roadmap for the business over the next wee while and, yes, that roadmap will reflect that our core values are key to our business.”
Asked what the future was likely to hold in his new role as SE chairman, Mr Keiller said he would listen to key public and private sector stakeholders before forming any conclusions.
However, he said he expected digital technologies to play a prominent and potentially market disruptive role in the business life of Scotland .
He also pointed to advancements in renewable energy production as a significant future economic theme.