Q&A with Dick Bell, Chairman and CEO, HDR, Inc.
Q: HDR celebrated its 90th anniversary not long ago—what will take the company through the next 90?
A: Our focus is on the next 10 years. We have a corporate strategic plan to guide us through the next five years coupled with company operations plans that have reasonable targets. We must continue to create opportunities for young people and are focusing on both domestic and international markets. Our international priority is in healthcare with support from engineering.
Q: You touched on international. What is HDR’s international strategy?
A: We have identified the architecture program, specifically healthcare, as a world-class program that can compete internationally. When we acquired CUH2A it enhanced our science and technology program. With the combined resources, HDR is now extremely strong and has a presence in the Middle East, where we won very large projects recently.
Q: Employee ownership continues to be a cornerstone of HDR’s approach. Why is that important?
A: Employee ownership means different things to different people. In the broad context it lets management make the right decisions to produce opportunities and results. Broad-based employee ownership gives the benefits to the people who are actually doing the work and creating the financial results.
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing our clients?
A: The biggest challenge we face as a nation is funding our infrastructure, which is aging across the board. As a society, we have to commit to rebuilding that infrastructure. We can't save ourselves into prosperity. We have to balance our priorities and find solutions to our infrastructure problems, in both the public and private sectors.
Q: What are challenges facing the industry as a whole and HDR as a service provider?
A: Having the resources to properly provide infrastructure solutions, and developing human resources to adapt to different work requirements. We have to be tolerant and accepting of generational and other changes that are occurring in the workforce, but we also have to have appropriate discipline. Make no mistake, we’re providing services to clients and when we lose focus on that, it's a very slippery slope.
Like many companies that have been around for a long time, HDR's biggest issue as a company is transferring our culture and work ethic to the next generation of leadership.
Q: What's your advice to young people just entering into the engineering or architecture professions?
A: Learn how to communicate and how to work on a team. Recognize your education is top notch but never stop learning; there are always opportunities to learn and HDR's opportunities are unmatched in the industry. Early on I said to my manager just stay out of my way and I'll do this, this and this, and he encouraged that. We still encourage that today, but you have to communicate. You also need to remember there is a safety net here, you're not in this alone. Try to solve problems at the lowest possible level but if you need help ask for it. Operate from the plan but don't revisit it once a decision is made. Make the decision and move on.