2020

Ben Haines, Director / Structural Engineer, Project Structures

Ben attended a Leadership Development Programme run by Icehouse:

The course was held as two 3-day block courses based out of a conference facility in the Waitakere Ranges in Auckland. All 20 or so of the participants attending the course stayed on site. This allowed for a lot of time over meals and in the evenings to network with others. It was great to share experiences from around the country with others who were also leaders of small teams in roles similar to my own.

The course itself was presented by a number of well-respected New Zealand leaders who had a good understanding of our marketplace and the New Zealand economy. The presenters led discussions on a variety of topis, such as effective communication, financial statements, brand awareness, advertising using social media, how to improve productivity, and effective delegation, to name a few.

My two main takeaways from the programme related to how we could improve the service that we provide to our client by:

1. Gaining a better understanding of our clients and establishing what they deem to be a quality service - noting that our clients' idea of quality may be quite different from our own.

2. We also learnt about an output triangle - cost, time, and quality. A successful business will achieve one aspect well, and a second to a moderate level, but you cannot excel in all three aspects.

At the end of the course I had a notebook full of ideas and an entire separate ring-binder of course material for reference, should the need arise.

A big thank you to CEAS and in particular the Don Houchen Scholarship. The application process for the scholarship was delightfully easy, and I really appreciated the opportunity to take some time out of my general schedule to work on the business, rather than in the business. 

2020

Michelle Farrell, Director, NZ Civil

Michelle enrolled in a Master of Construction (Construction Law) course at Massey University:
I am very fortunate to be one of three recipients of the 2020 CEAS Don Houchen Scholarship, which is covering my fees for a Master of Construction (Construction Law) through Massey University distance learning. I have so far completed two of the four papers, which will be followed by a dissertation (subject yet to be decided) I am so grateful to receive this scholarship and have learnt and applied so much in my work already.

The masters course involves papers in construction contract drafting, administering, project management, and adjudication, infused with the overarching emphasis on construction law. I really enjoy the case studies and the pace of the course, which has helped me understand areas such as liability, risk allocation, warranties, and use of plain language (this in itself is incredibly worthwhile!).

It is clear that the NZ construction industry will benefit from the knowledge gained by attendees of this course, especially with respect to risk and efficiency. The learning are applicable to all types of construction contracts throughout the world, and I hope that I am already making a difference within the NZ industry. I look forward to continuing the course next year and wish to thank CEAS so much for sponsoring me and giving me this wonderful opportunity.

2018

Joe Bain, Principal Engineer & Managing Director, JSK Consulting Engineers

Joe attended a short course called "The Professional Service Firm Leader" at Judge Business School at Cambridge University (UK) in May 2019.

Here is his feedback:

As a recipient of the Don Houchen Scholarship in 2018, I was able to attend a course at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School in May 2019. This short course was called “The Professional Service Firm Leader” and covered a range of topics of importance to leading and managing professional firms. These included strategy, disruption, managing personnel for high performance, staff professional development, and coaching, leadership and fostering inclusive workplace cultures. Attendees at the course included accountants, lawyers, management consultants, and engineers.

I found the course enormously useful, and have come back with a notebook bulging with ideas and tools that I can apply in my own role. These arose from both the course materials and from discussions I had with other attendees. I expect the material from the course to keep me busy for at least the next year. I would have no hesitation in recommending the course to anyone in a similar role to mine.

I would again like to thank CEAS and the scholarship committee for awarding me the Don Houchen Scholarship and enabling attendance at this course. Receiving a scholarship like this from a panel of professional peers is a very humbling experience, and I very much appreciate the opportunity provided

Julian Ramsay, Ruamoko Solutions

I was fortunate enough to have been a co-recipient of the 2018 CEAS Don Houchen Scholarship, for which I attended the Leading Professional Services Firms (LPSF) course at Harvard Business School (HBS) in Boston, Massachusetts. The course was a week-long intensive program of case-method presentations and learning while living on the picturesque Harvard campus, and the week included networking and attending workshops in the evenings. There were approximately 140 attendees from professional service firms from all over the world, from hugely wide and varied backgrounds.

One of the unique features of the HBS is the “case method” style of teaching, whereby participants are required to contribute as if they were involved in the cases themselves. Many interesting and relevant cases were presented, and I was glad for having done most of the case reading beforehand to allow maximum benefit from the course. Cases presented covered numerous management and business acumen topics such as leadership style, firm culture, staff retention, metrics and analysis, risk, client management, mentoring, strategic planning and resilience. In addition there were presentations on globalisation, and new technologies in business. The calibre of the presenters was exceptional, and it was almost impossible not to be fully engaged due to their presentation style. The subject matter was hugely relevant, and I found it useful to get a feel for international best practice in professional service firm leadership.

There were many immediate take-aways from the course that I have since directly applied to our business, but the nature of the course is such that I will still be realising outcomes many years down the track. The intense nature of the course and close living environment was such that I made good friends and contacts from all over world, and our living group network regularly keeps in touch with a social media page, and has plans for a reunion in Hamburg next year.

I cannot recommend the LPSF course enough. I would like to thank CEAS and the Don Houchen Scholarship for making it happen. It is wonderful that the scholarship can help to continue the principles of skill development for consulting engineers which Don Houchen was a passionate advocate for. The scholarship application process was simple and straightforward. I would strongly encourage CEAS members to apply for the Don Houchen Scholarship.

2017

Rebecca Jackson, Senior Environmental Engineer / Quality Programme Manager at Tonkin & Taylor Limited.

"I was the lucky (and delighted!) recipient of the CEAS Don Houchen Scholarship for 2017. I chose to attend Harvard Business School’s Risk Management for Corporate Leaders. The programme is aimed at senior professionals who manage risk for their companies.

The programme was very cleverly designed. 45 attendees from all over the world essentially facilitated risk-based discussions around 15 well known (some very famous!) case studies, including the Columbia space shuttle disaster, the Mars Curiosity landing, Cyber attack on Target, the Fukushima and 3 Mile Island nuclear disasters to name a few.

The programme was very inclusive rather than competitive and made networking easy. Other training programmes could learn a lot from this inclusive, case-based style of development. It made learning so easy.

I learned about the three types of risks: Operational/ preventable risk, Strategic risk, and Novel risks, and was able to bring back a number of useful risk tools and techniques.

Thank you so much to CEAS and to AON for sponsoring the Don Houchen scholarship. This programme changed my whole thinking around risk and I can’t recommend it highly enough". 

As part of the course Rebecca was asked to give a testimonial to Harvard Business School - read more:

https://www.exed.hbs.edu/assets/testimonials/Pages/risk-management-for-corporate-leaders-rebecca-jackson.aspx

2015

Hamish Bennett, Senior Mechanical Engineer- Dobbie Engineers Ltd

Matt Bishop, Senior Mechanical Engineer/Managing Director - BVT Consulting Ltd

Hamish Bennett (2015)

"I attended the PSMJ Architecture and Engineering Consultants Emerging Leaders workshop in Seattle for two days in September 2015. Since I have returned from the course our MD and I have put together an action plan to implement a number of items I identified during the workshop including staff evaluation and development, tendering techniques and firm performance benchmarking.

CEAS is also assisting me with attending the FIDIC Conditions of Contract Training Course on the Red and Yellow book. Our firm is starting to use FIDIC contracts for some projects and I see future opportunities for the firm to be involved with overseas work where FIDIC contracts are frequently used".

Matt Bishop

"In April I attended the "Leading Professional Service Firms" course at Harvard Business School, thanks to the Don Houchen Scholarship. The course content and networking opportunities were of immense value to myself and my business, value that I am still realising 6 months down the track. The scholarship application process was not at all onerous, I would highly recommend both the LPSF course and the Don Houchen Scholarship".