Julian Doyle

Thank you very much. Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor, presiding deans, University Secretary, members of the University Executive and Academic Board, staff, friends, family and graduates. I’d like to begin by thanking the university for inviting me to this ceremony and the honour to speak to you today.

I stand here, 30 years after deciding that I wanted to work in construction. As director of a construction company called Icon, it has been a winding, sometimes bumpy road with lots of detours but no dead ends. On it, I’ve met amazing people experienced more success than failure, happiness than pain, but every inch of that journey has made that fateful, if slightly optimistic at the time, decision to be a builder a truly rewarding and satisfying one.

I admit, things got off to a bumpy start. In 1987, I finished Year 12 and set my sights on a career in construction. For whatever reason, I knew this was exactly what I wanted to do. First setback: I received my HSC results and realised maybe it’d be best if I actually got enough marks to get into the course. So, 1988 passed by; I gave the HSC another crack and then I was off. So, it began. I arrived back from Schoolies – again – and went straight to work at AW Edwards as a cadet on a project in Martin Place.

I was terrified. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was inducted, given my hard hat and introduced to my project manager, my site manager and the team and led to a carpenter mentor who would be guiding me, educating me, looking after me. ‘Julian, this is Harry. Harry, meet your new apprentice.’ I can’t remember the exact words that Harry used to say hello, but fair to say he wasn’t happy to have a new apprentice and I couldn’t repeat them in this forum today even if I could remember them. I do remember thinking, what the hell have I got myself into?

A bit of history: my first 12 months were on the tools with the directive to understand the skill required to be a tradesman and hopefully pick up a trick or two. Two, get a feel for life on the site as a construction worker. Understand how safety is managed, how the industrial client operates, how subcontractors live and work together. The first 12 months were a very valuable part of my learning.

Following that, I honed my skills in contract administration, coordination, planning and programming, site management and design management. After a six-year part-time degree coupled with the cadetship that exposed me to all facets of construction, I graduated in 1994 without honours. In fact, I didn’t even know honours was a thing. At the same time, someone decided I was responsible enough to be a junior project manager on a $7 million office building at Macquarie University. I was pretty happy with how things were unfolding.

I was always keen to travel. As soon as the job finished, I travelled to work in Vietnam. My first visit to Asia was actually to Ho Chi Minh City to begin work. In 1996, home to 7 million people including approximately 7000 expats, so for every one of me there was a thousand locals. It was an exciting challenge. Talking in a coordination meeting via a series of interpreters, broken English, sketches and a game of charades, that was business as usual. My experience in Vietnam taught me very quickly that our construction skills are infinitely portable. However, it’s our communication skills that really determine successful outcomes.

After three-and-a-half years away, I returned to life in Sydney to join LendLease. Here, I learned to work in the big machine. Procedure, paperwork, stakeholder management, bigger projects with a whole lot more moving parts. It wasn’t just about building anymore. I was in a new world learning how to manage people – lots of people. Lots of people who needed to be involved in so many processes. Working out how best to manage those stakeholders was critical. If you can’t manage the machine, the machine won’t operate.

Also in this phase, as part of the team for Aurora Place, I learned how to really appreciate good designers. Working alongside Renzo Piano, the Genoa-based Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Renzo left a legacy that’s been instrumental in my career. His message: if it’s too expensive to build, if it’s unfeasible or too complex, we haven’t done our job. Good architecture, great architecture must be affordable. A good architect can always make it work. I walk back through Aurora Place today and I think it looks as good as when we handed over the keys 18 years ago, and it’s still a highly sought-after A-grade building. That, to me, is good design.

In 2000, I moved to Melbourne to look after a project in the Docklands. In Melbourne, I learned that if the unions were strong nationally, this was their epicentre. And so, I learned that when you’re dealing with an opposing force, exceptional planning skills are a weapon. Construction is a confrontational industry at times, full of big personalities. I’ve always been pretty comfortable having an argument, a skill I thank my six siblings for, and I’ve been threatened on more than one occasion. Melbourne, I was learning, was not the delicate lady of those tourism adds. This was one tough town and it was teaching me how to deal with confrontation. A wise subcontractor offered some great advice: ‘Julian, I like your style, but remember it’s a boxing match, one where we’re both fighting to hold a commercial position, but it’s a fight that requires us both to survive for the next bout. If either of us knock the other out, the game is lost.’

After I left Lendlease to continue my evolution, I took that advice with me to a property developer at the Sunland Group. It was here that I learned to really appreciate the importance of the legacy we leave behind. [Names], the owners of this business, were passionate about what we leave behind. Will I be happy to put my name to it? Will I be proud of it, not only from a design perspective but from a quality perspective, from a user’s experience? It was less about the financial income, and that belief created some incredible projects. The Gold Coast Q1 and Circle on Cavil, magnificent buildings along St Kilda Road in Melbourne, Palazzo Versace and the 80-storey D1 Tower in Dubai to name a few – I was working with the best designers in the industry. Adam [name], SJB, Zaha Hadid, Woods Marsh in Melbourne, the House of Versace, [name] in Milan – the list goes on. Truly inspiring designers pushing boundaries leaving amazing legacies.

So, after 22 years, I learned how to build, how to communicate, how to plan and manage people, to appreciate the importance of workmanship and design. So, what was next? Returning to my beloved home to join a partnership setting up a new construction business in Sydney – Icon, the last piece of the puzzle. But how do I start a new business at a time when Sydney’s construction is really on its knees? And the secret is to ask the experts. I rang the owners, CEOs and senior executives of each of the major construction companies in town. Some of these people I knew, and some I didn’t. Every one of those phone calls was returned, and in this phase I was being educated on the pitfalls of running a business. The common thread? People. It sounds so obvious, doesn’t it? Very good advice I’ve been given along the way: you don’t work for a business; you work for people. It’s all about the quality of your people. Focus on them, train them, empower them.

Today, Icon NSW employs 230 people, has completed $1.2 billion in projects and has a pipeline of $700 million. We also have the best graduate program in the country. As an industry, we’re a tough one. I think it’s fair to say we have a poor reputation. We overcommit and we under-deliver. This is something I’d love to change. I’m such a believer that this is a noble profession, and in my experience, empathetic, incredibly generous and rewarding. We design, and we construct. Very few industries leave such a tangible legacy.

Our reputation is something I’m trying to change, and it starts with you guys. And this is how I suggest you do it: firstly, be humble. Be humble and never be too proud to ask what you don’t know. Every tradesman, every designer is an expert in their field. Acknowledge that; tap into it. You’ll find we’re an industry that has no time for arrogance and all the time in the world to help. Secondly, build relationships. Build relationships during good times, because you’ll have to call on them during tough times. I don’t know where I could find better guys than my partners and those of which I work. Thirdly, challenge yourself and work hard. A lot can be said for the saying ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get.’ Lastly, travel. See the world. We are privileged to be able to do so. Do not be frightened of foreign cultures; immerse yourself in them, learn from them and implement what you learn. Thank you all for the privilege and good luck in the years ahead.