OU on the BBC: The Bottom Line - Business evolution

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Interviewer:  Is change more important than continuity in your business?

Respondent:  I think the best answer for that would be that today what we see is a continuous change.  So it’s a combination really of change in continuity and you have to make yourself ready and alert to a very changing business atmosphere, but in a very continuing way meaning your core element, your core advantage, these are the things that you really need to emphasise, but to change and adjust along the way.  So that’s my view on that element.  

Interviewer:  Could you give me a specific example of that?

Respondent:  Um, I need to pause for a second.  I think if I look at, you know, one of our subsidiaries is an infrastructure company, real estate and infrastructure, and when we entered the company or we took a controlled position over the company – it’s as a public company – several years ago, the company was a straightforward construction and infrastructure company with the ability and significant knowledge on that level.  What we managed to do is actually take this knowledge, combine it with the environmental and sustainability element and turn around the strategy of the company so it will still be working in construction and infrastructure but it’s actually focusing on creating quality if life for people, a sustainable quality of life for people, and that drives an enormous change in the company and in the way we look at businesses and the fact that we built a plan to end up in a five year period with 100% of our projects – and these are large scale projects – that meets the environmental and sustainability standards in the world.  So it’s kind of like that’s where the world is changing, you have to continue doing your business in that environment, but you have to adjust it and make sure, and actually I think that really benefits the company.  The company’s been very successful on that level.  So that’s an example.