The Chief Executive of Balfour Beatty has announced new plans to improve the future outcomes for the company following financial issues
Leo Quinn, the new chief executive of Balfour Beatty, has unveiled his ‘Build to Last’ business programme. It is hoped this will transform the firm and improve the outcomes for the future.
The programme will initially work on cash generation, increasing financial control of the business, and cutting costs.
Quinn said: “The group’s recent trading makes it imperative to gain early momentum in our transformation plans.
“While further challenges remain, there are clear opportunities to achieve improvements in cash generation and profitability in the near term.
“Balfour Beatty has great strengths across its portfolio – not least in its investments division, where recent transactions underline the ongoing ability of this business to create value.
“I continue to believe all our operations should achieve industry-standard performance against what appears to be a beneficial market environment.”
He added: “Longer term, we will shape a group with leadership in key markets, driving best-in-class performance from a platform of strong capability, leaner processes and robust execution.”
Across both the UK and US measures have already been taken. This includes establishing a ‘Build to Last’ programme office to track workstreams in both nations.
Senior leadership teams are also experiencing new appointments, particularly in areas such as IT, commercial and project execution, and business process re-engineering.
This has seen Chris Billimore join the team as chief information officer and Alan Horden as the head of business process re-engineering. Both were former employees at QinetiQ, were Quinn was previously CEO.
Costs will be cut by improving efficiency and reducing reporting layers. Quinn will also try to increase revenue through a planning and training drive at project level in both the UK and US.
Any changes are subject to consultation and will not impact front line delivery, according to a statement from the firm.
On the 25 March, a preliminary update on the programme and the progress made will be provided
