CASE: Baker
Chief Information Officer
The Situation
We were approached by Baker Concrete Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the US and the country’s leading specialist concrete contractor with revenues of around $1.5b. The company wanted to become a more integrated organisation and manage their 28 divisions more effectively through a more enterprise approach to technology and data. There was a desire to develop more modern, strategic, data-led and technology-influenced platforms.
A long-standing contact of ours from our CEO’s time at BP was working at Baker as their COO and he suggested that the Digital Board be brought in to assess and analyse the company’s needs by interviewing the members of the executive board and evaluating the existing IT department.
After outlining the huge potential, and examining the traits of the company that could make this role challenging, we were then tasked with recruiting a suitable IT leader to drive their ambitions.
The Opportunity
Baker operated as a highly decentralised set of businesses with no real central governance or business prioritisation for investment and consequently no ability to track ROI or find ways to innovate at scale. All of their business units operated largely independently of each other. The group wanted to create a more business centric IT capability, yet also a central oversight function, to collect and utilise data more effectively in order to manage their activities more strategically.
IT was very much seen as a reactive and tactical function, designed to underpin existing operational processes. There was very little strategic engagement with either the group business or within the key BUs.
Nothing was fundamentally broken with regards to systems or operational integrity, but the consensus of the Executive team was to try and hire a more forward thinking, engaging leader who would operate at a more strategic level within the business, building a clear picture of the future business needs and overseeing the integration of the existing IT estate.
While this was a recruiting exercise, the key objective was to spend time with the Executive team at Baker to establish what exactly it was they needed from IT, and what kind of leader they would respond to and accept as a peer on the executive board. Baker were also notoriously poor at ‘welcoming the new guy’, struggling to buy into senior leaders who were brought in from outside of the construction world and used to working in organisations with different cultures. We determined that Baker were looking for someone tough and strong-minded, but also patient and methodical. A down to earth leader, in touch with the operational side of the business and keen to spend time on the field, understanding needs and coming back with solutions. A good listener able to convince other members of the board to see the value of their ideas.
What made this interesting?
In short, it was really exciting to work with the founder of this business, a “self-made” billionaire who started the business over 40 years ago and has grown it to be the United States’ third largest privately owned construction company through relentless focus on excellence. -Also to work closely with an old client (and great friend) from BP.
Despite having the trust from the founder (as well a his CEO and COO) we worked with the Executive Management team, interviewing each one of them on their specific role, challenges they faced and how (if at all) a more aligned and integrated technology strategy could help them. At the same time, the business was also deep in planning around CEO succession preparation and therefore we had to understand both the “as is” as well as the “go to” culture of the future.
Flying in from London to Florida, losing the suit and (quite literally) swapping it out for a hard hat, jeans and shirt. Getting under the skin of the culture – what made Baker, and how could we help them believe that as an outsider we could find someone they would accept.
What made this challenging?
Overcoming the obvious resistance to embracing change. This was a company (rightfully) proud of its roots, its values and its heritage that saw IT as a “fix it” shop as opposed to a strategic enabler. This was their first CIO, the first time an IT person would report to the CEO.
The themes that came out, while very embracing of their need to change, were also very honest in their ability to actually move to a new approach. A lot would depend on a candidate’s ability to strike the right balance of deference and respect of the past, while slowly (and assuredly) guiding them to the future.
Running a search across the entire US, knowing only a handful of people could really/would really take this challenge on.
The Digital Board Process
At the beginning of the project, we were invited to interview the members of executive management team and make an assessment of where we believed the company were at and what they needed from a technology perspective. The Digital Board acted as a consulting partner in this first stage of the project, interviewing the management team and building out a set of themes that they could get behind to embrace a more technology driven approach to running their business.
We conducted research into the construction industry and asked the senior management what it was that they wanted from technology, whilst also painting a picture of what kind of individual would work in their new IT leadership role.
We then collaborated with Baker’s leadership to outline an appropriate job title and description for the IT leader that the company needed, honing in on the following attributes:
A strategic business partner- proven ability to influence and drive change and adoption
Diverse technical acumen- experience of driving better value from data, promoting emerging technologies and evidence of evolving IT infrastructure and moving to the cloud
A cultural fit- a strong-minded character, in touch with the operational side of the business and capable of inspiring people at the board level and lower down.
Our research team identified over 500 candidates, eventually narrowing to 50 potential candidates for the role, soliciting interest and assessing their initial fit.
From there, we began the first stage of Digital Board qualifications, holding 45-minute preliminary qualification calls with top candidates, particularly looking at (1) reasons for interest, (2) fit to brief, (3) key achievements, (4) culture alignment and beyond.
Nine of these candidates were then formally interviewed by the Digital Board with four being shortlisted and recommended to the client.
Throughout the process, our research team worked on identifying further profiles in case we ran into any issues with our existing candidates.
Success Story
This was a unique search for The Digital Board, beginning as a consulting opportunity where our CEO outlined the huge opportunity for Baker to invest in a more strategic approach to IT (and leadership). This then resulted in an executive search to find a leader that could enact change and have a great deal of influence.
The successful candidate was a unique fit, having had the unusual background of starting in investment banking IT and then landing in a construction services company. They were a left field candidate, but they really knew what good IT was and had the essential change management experience Baker needed.
Baker now has an IT leader with a clear focus on business transformation, data science, digital integration, and other leading-edge aspects of technology. With their deep knowledge of the construction industry, as well as their energy, enthusiasm, sharp intellect, and keen interest in the opportunity with Baker, they have ticked all the boxes.
The company had a history of being terrible at welcoming the new guy, but they worked on this culture and the CEO really bought into our candidate, who has now successfully integrated into Baker, and has been positively driving the business through IT.