The ‘monster’ project – Fletcher Building
As it appeared in 
Fletcher boss has implemented centralisation and ‘turned up the dial’ on management
Fletcher Building chief executive Mark Adamson’s five-year transformation plan for New Zealand’s biggest listed company is running faster than initially planned.
“I’m probably further ahead now than I would have anticipated,” said the boss who last year announced a multi-pronged approach to centralisation, technological innovation, creating more unity among the businesses, cost savings and better procurement methods for the company with a market capitalisation of $5.8 billion.
The transformation project has an official name: FBUnite. “The transformation is about more centralisation. Previously, Fletcher was a decentralised business but when it comes to procurement, do we need to negotiate with Telecom 50 times, or once?” he asked, giving that example of way separate divisions and business units could use the corporate’s size to drive better deals and increase profitability.
“The reputation of Fletcher is of a big, ominous, all-seeing monster, manipulating everything but the reality was we didn’t utilise that at all!”
Adamson admitted to initial qualms about the level of change he had planned, which he said was aimed at the culture, not the headcount. He was unsure if he could transfer the skills he learnt in the more aggressive private equity sector across to the huge corporate.
“My concern was the ability to bring that to Fletcher which is a big, traditional conservative organisation and I’ve been greeted with open arms. Very few people have had to leave the business”.
More rigorous management performance standards have been introduced but they come with incentivised rewards to provide a balance. “It’s just turning up the dial on management. I expected cultural resistance and that I would have to fire quite a few more but none of that has transpired.”
Before becoming Fletcher CEO, Adamson said he was dismayed when one of his children explained what his father did – “Dad fires people”. That was true, in previous roles, Adamson admits, but not the approach he is taking at Fletcher. “I spent 20 years in private equity and there are a lot of people who left the business as a result of changes but I didn’t wear that as a badge of honour.”
The biggest changes in Fletcher lately had been at senior management level, with the appointment of new executives to run divisions, including Graham Darlow in construction, Mark Malpass running infrastructure, Tim Richards in charge of building products, Paul Zuckerman changing from steel to laminates and panels and Nick Olson as chief financial officer.
“We have four Kiwis, three Brits, two Americans and two Aussies in senior management so there’s a breadth of international experience not many other companies would have. We probably argue as much as the United Nations but we’re more effective.”