Construction is a Lifestyle, Not Just a Job
As a General Manager, Jennifer provides a unique position to the construction industry. There aren’t many people who have solid practical and technical backing with the ability to construct and negotiate successful business opportunities.
In this piece, Jennifer shares her reputable experiences, into the projects, people and what she enjoys in her role.
How did you get into industry and did you know from the outset that being a General Manager was the path for you?
I wasn’t one of those people, that had a clear idea of what I wanted to be growing up. I knew I wanted to go to university, so I sought out the advice off a career advisor at school, to understand what path to take. She asked me what I was good at and I was clear that maths and science were my thing and so, she suggested engineering as a possible option for me. Having no real idea what an engineer would do, I applied for a variety of engineering courses across the major universities. I started with double degrees, as one didn’t seem enough so, I enrolled into Civil Engineering and Business at RMIT.
I didn’t really gain any clarity around what I wanted to do for work during university, but I soon realised that Engineering could be the basis for a variety of career paths. I ended up in construction through a scholarship, offered by a Civil Contractor, to commence working as I finished my studies.
I loved the ‘problem solving’ and ‘team effort’ of construction and the variety of people that I got to deal with – from CEOs of global organisations to plant operators, specialist consultants and general labourers and each of them taught me something. From civil construction I ventured into the IT world, supporting the building of websites for a short stint and then worked in Project Management Consulting. Through these experiences, I realised, I wanted to get to the start of the decision-making process of construction projects, so I joined a national development company. This gave me exposure to putting project ‘deals’ together, plus a huge variety of facilities clients. I got to work in three different states (across Australia) and revelled in the professional development and personal growth that came with working outside my comfort zone and without the safety net of local contacts.
Having returned to Melbourne, I started working with Built, where I’ve now worked for nearly nine years. Wow – I just realised how long that sounds. I did not know General Management was the path for me. I’ve always taken whatever was in front of me and gave each role 110%. I responded to opportunities as they arose.
It’s only recently, I’ve started thinking about what I’d like to do next in my career and the importance of building my business leadership experience and broadening the impact I can have either within our industry or outside, where property or construction expertise are needed. I’m looking at the Company Directors courses and am keeping an open canvas to other industries or even not-for-profit groups that I could add value to. I’m also broadening my points of influence across the construction industry to make a difference for others – whether it’s helping in the decision of what career path to take or support for working within this amazing and challenging industry. We still have a long way to go for gender diversity in industry and I’d love to be a part of a paradigm shift to make it not a ‘thing’ in the future, but just a given for how we operate, attract and advance talent.
What about construction interests you the most?
I love the problem solving of construction. I love adding value for clients – really making a difference and giving them more than they could have imagined.
Collaboration is something I am passionate about and the variety of people that we get to work with, as I’ve been involved in projects where it’s worked and where it hasn’t and there’s nothing better than true, respectful collaboration. The projects are a joy for all involved - the results achieved surpass any initial expectations and every single person involved feels like they’ve done their bit to create the amazing outcomes – for it can be lost during projects, but only if the genuine commitment to collaboration wasn’t there to start with. The variety of work is great too, as no two projects are the same and it’s a social industry - where you can make some great friends, some of which become friends for life. I often say that Construction is a lifestyle, not just a job.
As a General Manager, can you provide an understanding for what your role entails and how it fits into project delivery - What does a typical day look like for you?
OK. This is a big question. I’m the General Manager of the Fit Out & Refurbishment business unit at Built. We deliver projects that involve an existing building – either new interiors or total refurbishment and repositioning of assets, plus everything in between. Built is a diverse construction business. We construct new builds, modify existing buildings and carry out a lot of repeat, smaller works for key clients. We deliver these types of projects across most sectors, including Commercial, Health, Accommodation, Entertainment/recreational, Residential and Education plus others. The business unit that I manage has an annual turnover of around $150 million per year, generally - that’s 8 to 10 live projects under construction. As the General Manager, I’m responsible for the sourcing of new work as well as the overall delivery of each project on time, within budget and to the satisfaction of our clients.
There are no typical days - most days involve a combination of meetings associated with new opportunities and monitoring or resolving operational issues across the projects. This is, as well as carrying out business reporting and general people management. Then, there’s the general networking and mentoring aspects - it’s a big role and the days are usually long and involve evening shifts.
You’ve built an incredible career working in construction, what have been some of your highlights?
There are so many, as my highlights have varying importance in my career, but for all intent and purposes here are some of these key moments:
Setting up the Grand Prix circuit in the early years
Recognising the transferrable skills and project management discipline across to other industries
Turning around ‘distressed’ interstate developments
Delivering $200M developments with solid returns
Building a unified leadership team and collectively exceeding all financial metrics
Recognising that I could add value for key clients and genuinely make a difference and
Working with amazing people and gaining many long-term friends.
Can you share any perspective you might have, on your future steps given the current situation, being COVID-19?
Built is a diverse business, with expertise across a variety of projects. This company is in a solid position to respond to the rapidly changing economic environment. We’re an agile business and responding to niche sector growth in the light of COVID-19. There’ll be a definite impact on our industry and a slowdown in construction, but we’re in the best position to retain a solid share of works proceeding in this environment.
What are your top tips for negotiation and maintaining relationships?
Be open and honest and genuinely build respectful rapport with all industry collaborators. We work in a very transient industry - someone working for you now; may well be a client, connector or your boss in the future. Don’t burn bridges and if you do mess up, then own your stuff up and clean it up.
I truly love helping our clients solve problems and with some empathy, you can often identify your clients need, which may be different to what they’re asking for. During negotiations: it’s quite often a process of finding different ways to navigate through the challenges to get to an outcome that works for all - sometimes it seems that I am negotiating situations internally, just as much as I do externally.
What advice would you give to people who are interested in refurbishments and adaptive re-use construction and how does this compare to working on new builds?
The pace of refurbishments is usually a lot faster than new builds. Not only because the value is often less, but also because the works start immediately on multiple fronts. You need people with strong passion and drive for these types of projects. Another key distinction from new build projects, is you need to expect the unexpected – you have to have a plan A, B and C on how to build a project and plan well in advance of the physical construction works onsite. It’s essential to minimize productivity impact from discovering unknown conditions. Most refurbishment projects are also ‘live environments’ so the client interface and collaboration are significantly more than what you will experience, on a new build project.
There’s a great deal of reward from re-positioning assets or transforming existing facilities too. There’s a much closer connection to the project vision and the before and after result fills everyone involved, with pride.
This piece was curated by Sandra Lin for The Construction Coach blog.
General Manager, Fitout & refurbishment VIC, Built
Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) – RMIT
Bachelor of Business (Business Admin) – RMIT
Post Grad Diploma (Property) - RMIT
Jennifer began her 23 years career journey in the construction industry as a civil engineer. Her expansive and dynamic career has spanned civil, commercial, industrial construction and developments, as well as Project Management consulting across various government sectors including Health, Justice and Defence.
Over the last decade, Jennifer has held senior leadership positions at Built, one of Australia’s largest diversified construction groups. In this time, she has negotiated and secured over $500 million worth of work for the Group’s Victorian business and more recently in her role as General Manager, Fitout & Refurbishment, leading the delivery of $200 million annual worth of complex refurbishment projects across diverse sectors including Health, Commercial, Education, Hotels, Retail and Arts & Entertainment. This has included delivering several award-winning refurbishment works for iconic Victorian public buildings, such as the Palais Theatre, Melbourne Museum, Flinders Street Station, the State Library of Victoria and the new facilities for the Australian Ballet.
With her strong focus on customer service and construction delivery background, Jennifer enjoys problem solving and adding value for clients through the entire process of a project, from inception to final handover of the transformed building. She is a strong advocate for women in construction and has mentored and encouraged the career development of many young women entering the industry.