Focus on clients and think beyond the box

ROBERT PRIETO

Chairman

Parsons Brinckerhoff, a New York-based global transport infrastructure, energy and telecommunications company.

What did the Apec CEO Summit mean to you?


Really the CEO Summit and Apec in general was about business. In one sense it was a pity there was a political overtone about East Timor. Clearly it is an important issue in the regional context, but it tended to take a little bit from the focus of Apec, which was really business.

On the other hand a major portion of Apec and the CEO Summit was to provide business leaders in the region with a chance to network among themselves and to talk about issues.

How did you stay in contact with your organisation while in New Zealand?


I visited the Auckland office on the Thursday, Wellington office on the Friday. As a global company we use internet e-mail systems, voicemail systems, and fax machines. I think probably one of the things that has allowed global companies such as ours to exist, quite frankly, is the emergence of the internet.

What makes your day at work?


Well I like winning, but winning what? A sense of satisfaction on a professional level and winning or doing something new. At a personal level - minimising the travel and increasing the amount of time I can spend with my kids and watching them grow up. So I guess it's always balancing those two things.

How did you get where you are today?


I think it really came about by the fact that initially I was willing, as an engineer, to look at new technologies.

My background is in nuclear engineering which is very unpopular, of course, in New Zealand. In 1979 there was a little event called Three Mile Island in the US and my biggest career break was at that time I was running a nuclear engineering project. I went to the chairman of the company that I worked for and said: "I think we should tell our client to cancel the project because it's never going to get a licence." For a 25-year-old to make a recommendation to put 125 people out of work was probably a little naive, but the result was we made a pitch to the utility company. It came back with two things. Firstly to kind of mothball the project. Secondly we still needed power and the alternative at that time was coal. The result was I was made the project manager.

I knew nothing about coal, but what I did know about was taking care of clients and I got where I am because of a willingness to think out of the box.

What was the most important lesson you learned on your way up?


Focus on the clients. Our corporate philosophy is Vision, Focus and Drive. There is no substitute for hard work.

What advice would you give to a young person starting out in your sector?


Young people today have to look beyond. They have to be good engineers. But they have to keep sight of the business and political context. At the end of the day anything that they do is being done for people, whether the client or the end user.

I tell our younger professionals that they are responsible for their own career. The firm has obligations to provide the framework but, at the end of the day, they have to own their career. Seek out mentors, take personal risks and make hard decisions.

What's the biggest challenge to your organisation in the present economy?


The entire market is becoming more competitive and so I think you have to avoid any tendency to rest on any of your laurels. You have to be trying new things and pushing the frontiers.

What ambitions do you have?


I have a role in my company now that carries a responsibility to 8000 people and I also have a role to be the leader. I think the thing that drives me is how do I continue to do that. I could look back and say it has been a great career, but I'm too young to do that.

How do you relax?


Well, I don't relax well. It takes me a good week to relax, so I now have to take two week vacations. The best thing I can do to relax is to get away with the family. I don't take the computer with me, I don't take the cellphone and I have a secretary who is a very good filter and understands what the definition of important is. It's amazing when you put that filter on how many things you can keep away.

* Robert Prieto talked with Susan Jennison.