Execute the plan
Burgess and his team were ready to move on their plan. The highlight was the purchase of two companies, Corrpro and The Bayou Cos. Inc. The acquisitions would put Insituform in a better position to expand its presence in the industrial sector of pipeline remediation.
When the acquisitions were made, Burgess did not spend a lot of time worrying about aligning the two companies under the Insituform brand.
“You obviously do think there will be synergies and ways that you can cross-sell and the business is starting to do that now,” Burgess says. “But out of the chute, we tried very much to focus on acquiring businesses that could essentially operate on a standalone basis and just drive increased performance at that business-unit level.
“We spent a lot of time with our core business increasing the performance requirements and eliminating cost. But by taking this approach, what we allowed the business-unit leadership to do was focus on their business and drive that to maximize their return without having to worry about this integration and cross-selling. I think that’s a key when you’re trying to dramatically expand a business. … If we tried to say, ‘OK, we’re going to buy these things and then put them all together in a complicated, integrated organization,’ I don’t think it would have done nearly as well. It’s always been key to me to maintain business-unit focus with as little corporate interference as possible.”
That doesn’t mean you just sit in your office and play solitaire and watch the world go by as all this is going on. You actually have a lot to do to make sure everything is staying on track.
You need to work with your board of directors to keep the plan moving. You’re communicating your strategy to investors so that they stay excited about your business. Maybe they even look to strengthen their investment in your company.
“You have an even longer list of potential investors that you have to expose to the business plan and strategy so you can attract additional business,” Burgess says. “You become the face of the community in your local communities and other communities globally. You also have a time commitment with your customer base. You can do all of those things and very quickly run out of hours to stay connected to what’s going on in the business and be active running the business. It’s easy to drift off into CEO land and out of the operating framework of your business.”
Burgess made time to meet with the leaders of his business units to keep in touch with what was happening. He kept an eye on goals that were set to make sure progress was being made toward achieving them.
But he also took time to make sure his employees had reason to be confident in his leadership.
“People want to know that their management team has a competent plan and is focused and hardworking and will do what they can to execute against that plan and improve the company,” Burgess says. “People are smart. If you roll out a plan, most people would figure out pretty quickly if you lack true belief in what it is you propose to do.”
You can’t assume that enthusiasm will wash away any flaws that may exist in your plan.
“Enthusiasm has its place,” Burgess says. “It ranges from the rah-rah you get in a sales meeting to the very focused and rigorous approach of figuring out operating performance and whether it can improve. I tend toward the latter. People can figure out if managers are focused, intense and rigorous on improving the business and making sure it achieves its goals. If they believe that, I think they would be enthusiastic about the company.”
The best formula to demonstrate confidence in your plan is to be direct and factual with your people. Don’t be sneaky. Tell people what you’re trying to do, how they can help and what the outcome should ultimately be.
“Whether you’re giving a message about the current performance, good or bad, the needed performance, the direction, a strategic direction, the need to change or the need to be better, it doesn’t really matter,” Burgess says. “What people really want to know is, what is the situation? … When they lose sight of that, they get disconnected from the purpose of their work. But maybe even more importantly, they lose sight of how their work contributes to the overall goals of the business.”
The numbers say Burgess has Insituform on the right track. Revenue has grown from $495.6 million in 2007 to $726.9 million in 2009. The company is also on its way to meeting its goal of a 15 percent return on invested capital.
In early 2011, the estimated return had grown from around 3 percent when Burgess arrived to 9 percent.
“A 15 percent return on invested capital is the level I believe we need to be at to sustain a strong investment premise for the company,” Burgess says. “We wanted to create a company based on the solid skill sets that were here at Insituform that could sustain performance in a much broader range of economic and market conditions. I think we’ve done that, or at least started to do that.”
How to reach: Insituform Technologies Inc., (800) 234-2992 or www.insituform.com
