Changing times in a changing world
An important maxim for a business leader to remember is that to stray towards hyperbole is fraught with danger. Yet 100 days or so into my role as the new global CEO of Arcadis, it is no exaggeration to say that the next three years will be game changing, both for me personally, but also for our business, our industry, and the markets in which we operate.
Arcadis has established an enviable reputation as a leading built and natural environment consultancy, delivering for a huge variety of clients all over the world, from city leaders and local authorities to investors, asset owners and developers. But the Arcadis of today is very different to what it was three or four years ago, before the pandemic massively disrupted our lives and changed our businesses forever.
The Arcadis of today is very different to what it was three or four years ago, before the pandemic massively disrupted our lives and changed our businesses forever.
Our transformation in this period has been astonishing – revolutionising the way we work, how we are structured, acquiring and incorporating new businesses in diverse and innovative sectors, and making huge strides on our mission to lead the journey to net zero. Today, we are more than 36,000 people strong, working on more than 40,000 projects a year all around the world. These range from huge gigafactories across Europe and North America to advising clients on environmental remediation or with developing their sustainability strategies. We help to create world-class transportation hubs, such as at JFK in New York, Schiphol in Amsterdam and Manchester Airport.
The breadth and depth of our work is vast, and in November we will be moving into a new phase with the unveiling of our next three-year strategy. This will accelerate our strategy as the pace of change increases, building on the last three years of progress, with a renewed focused on the global market needs that are most important to our clients.
The global challenges of urbanisation, climate change, digitalisation and growing societal expectations have intensified and require greater focus for both us and our clients. By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities, yet more than 21 million people are currently being displaced by climate-related events every year. How are we going to redesign our spaces to relieve pressure on urban infrastructure? The war in Ukraine has accelerated the move to greater renewable energy sources in Europe, and AI is disrupting and increasing the pace of digitisation.
So how are global businesses like ours adding real value? Take our work with Transport for London as an example. This is heavily focused on improving safety on the London Underground, with a single system responsible for optimizing how every single asset on the network is managed. We are playing an integral role not only in creating greater operational efficiencies but ensuring more frequent and reliable journeys for commuters as well.
Plotting the way forward together
It is my firm belief that it is our people who will drive our future strategy, and it is up to us to create the culture that allows our colleagues to succeed and achieve great things.
I am passionate about creating a more people focused and diverse culture at Arcadis. I want our people to feel they belong in the business and the opportunities are limitless. Inclusiveness, integrity, and human rights are basic expectations that we must also champion with our partners and our communities.
Integrating new and existing businesses in the Arcadis family has been a significant challenge for my colleagues across the globe, but one that will reap huge rewards. In bringing together Arcadis, architecture firm CRTKL, and IBI Group, we have formed one of the most dynamic and diverse design firms in the world and created our Architecture and Urbanism business – driving forward new design innovations, sustainable solutions and digital leadership with greater focus and scale. In addition, our acquisition of DPS Group adds world-leading life sciences and semiconductor manufacturing capabilities to our already diverse portfolio of sectors and solutions.
Sustainability and digital: underpinning everything we do
Driving all this change and progress at Arcadis are two cornerstone themes: sustainability and digital innovation. These two megatrends must guide and inform everything we do, and be central pillars of the expertise we can offer our clients. Our track record of delivering sustainable solutions can extend our climate response capabilities to help society mitigate climate risks, for example in our work designing the decarbonisation strategy for Canada Corporation. As part of our work on HS2, we are also embedding carbon reduction targets as a key part of delivery; through the design of green tunnels and viaducts between London and Birmingham, we have been able to reduce the amount of concrete being used by up to 30%.
Innovations such as AI and machine-learning may have fundamentally changed the face of the industry, but we need to use these tools to our advantage – taking digital intelligence to create actionable responses that meet our clients’ needs. They are expecting us to bring innovative solutions and supporting advisory at a pace which keeps them ahead of the curve, and it’s a challenge we are meeting head-on.
Our new three-year strategy will be unveiled in November, and a lot of hard work by our Arcadis family will go into the launch and delivery. Still being mindful of hyperbole, this strategy will redefine our future and will be the basis for our future growth and success. It is an exciting journey. I, for one, cannot wait.