Management for Design participated in Consult Australia’s Annual ASPAC Conference in Sydney at the end of April. The forum provided a unique networking platform for CEOs and senior business leaders of the major consulting and engineering firms in the Asia Pacific region. This three-day event offered an opportunity for insightful debate and discussion with peers from over 25 nations in the region.

Management for Design’s Gordana Milosevska presented the session ‘The value of benchmarking — how to use it to drive business success’. Other speakers at the benchmarking session included Max Bomben, Managing Director, Calibre Consulting, and Justin Davies, Chief Operating Officer Northrop Consulting Engineers.

In her address, Gordana took a close look at Consult Australia’ practice performance survey and discussed the role of benchmarking to identify areas of opportunity where clients can make improvements. In a participatory and educational presentation, Gordana focused on the importance of benchmarking as a radar for change where true value resides in the actions leaders take.

The Consult survey highlights areas of strength within firms when it come to decision making. Firms who are able to see their strengths and weaknesses are better equipped to take the right steps and maintain their advantages.

With numbers becoming a reflection of the decisions made, Gordana underlined key steps to success. These include knowing your numbers, setting your KPIs, measuring financials and also your reputation and brand, comparing or benchmarking, and ultimately taking the right action to create change.

Gordana and the Management for Design team have been instrumental in enabling businesses to attain financial stability and sustainable growth by creating the change that’s needed to unleash the professional expertise and creative spirit in AEC firms.

Other main speakers at the conference included Megan Motto, Consult Australia CEO; Phil Davies, Infrastructure Australia CEO; Stuart Fowler, Norman Disney & Young CEO; and Professor the Hon. Stephen Martin, CEDA CEO.

The program included interactive sessions consisting of an initial presentation followed by a facilitated discussion or workshop to enable participants to share their concerns and learn from each other’s experiences. Sessions covered strategy and planning, legal, operational, managing growth, building brand CEO, future leaders, infrastructure, economic and political outlook, global M&A trends, free trade agreements and practical challenges in working across Asia Pacific.

The Management for Design team very much enjoyed the conference and the opportunity to share knowledge on benchmarking, business systems and strategy in the AEC sector.