By all accounts, it’s a good time to be running an engineering business. The Labour government’s new industrial strategy promises to prioritise several sectors which need engineering talent. It’s already been reported in The Engineer that the UK could see a wave of reshoring as manufacturing industries experience a surge of growth across the economy.
Exciting times, then. Growing a business in any sector isn’t just about growing the pipeline of work, though; nor is it as simple as filling the office (or Zoom call) with enough warm bodies to churn through a given project.
The key challenge for any growing business is to maintain the consistent quality of delivery that contributed to the growth in the first place, but allowing space for innovation and improvement.
What we tend to find is that a few like-minded people set up an engineering business, and with a book of existing contacts and a hard-won reputation, gradually win new work. The ‘like-minded’ bit is important because it brings a natural flow to how projects are delivered – and if the market likes it, demand grows.
What happens when the original team runs out of capacity? They hire more people. And as the team grows, consistency is harder to maintain – mistakes start creeping in, management time is gobbled up by fixing mistakes and hand-holding, clients get frustrated and growth stalls.
But engineers and designers like the autonomy of problem solving and creating new solutions. Squeeze too hard on ‘The Way We Do Things Around Here’ and they’ll get fed up, then leave.
So how to tackle this knotty conundrum?
There are three broad areas to get right. As we’ve established, an entirely laissez-faire approach is too chaotic; but full command-and-control stifles innovation and excludes the talent you need as you scale.
Taking elements of each – not as diametrically opposed as they may sound – is challenging and does need more structure than might come naturally to a growing business. But it’s the way to control the scaling process while allowing space for new ideas.
Start with a deliberate process
The way your business has grown is through the way you do things. Get everyone on the same page as to the fundamentals of your process and ethos, and don’t allow assumptions to take hold – be explicit about the important stuff, even if it seems obvious.
Setting boundaries for exploratory work and the idea stages of a project avoids the temptation for people to go too wildly off-piste. You want people to think freely and bring their own ideas and experiences, but too many rogue agents can scupper the whole mission.
That said, being too prescriptive about outcomes can be counterproductive. Get your team to report at defined stages of the project and resist the urge to lay out exactly what you want to see. If you have good people, they’ll often exceed your expectations.
Develop a creative culture
This might seem like a contradiction, but the parameters laid out in the deliberate process is what allows a creative culture to flourish. Set aside time to explore new avenues and ideas, discuss questions and build relationships across teams. No-one has a monopoly on good ideas, so it’s worth creating the conditions where people feel comfortable putting forward their own ideas.
And if those ideas fall short of expectations, it’s not always a bad thing. Toxic cultures prohibit failure, smothering innovation. You should expect some ideas to miss the mark, but that’s a lesson learned. As long as experimentation and leftfield ideas are in the service of a clear strategy or defined outcomes, you could unearth some amazing new innovations.
Foster inclusive leadership
It’s worth knowing that 81% of engineers consider diversity to be an important factor when choosing an employer. There’s quantifiable benefit to adopting a leadership style which makes people feel comfortable being themselves, able to contribute ideas and speak openly. Teams with inclusive leaders are more likely to report high performance; and greater diversity leads to 19% more revenue. These stats are from a report published earlier this year by The Royal Academy of Engineering, the data from which makes a pretty compelling case for inclusion – in every respect – and diversity.
And yes, this can all feel like a lot of additional work on top of the other pressures of running and growing a business. But if engineering firms really want to capitalise in what could be a golden era for the sector – if the government delivers what it promises – then carving out the time to take a deliberate approach to growing their teams is well worth the effort.
Dr Abi Hird is the founder of Defankle Innovation Consultancy
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