Cultivating Employee Ownership with Rob Knott from GHD

Thriving Globally with Equity

From Shareworks by Morgan Stanley, this is Thriving Globally with Equity: A podcast following companies as they break into global markets.

Joining us on today’s episode, Rob Knott, Executive Chairman at the global engineering and professional services firm, GHD, shares the story of how he ended up in the company by chance, how globalization opened new horizons for Australian companies, and the secret behind expanding worldwide without losing yourself in the way: their company's ownership program. Listen now to learn more about GHD’s successful equity plan and how everything changes once your employees have some skin in the game.

Jump straight into:

(00:50) - Rob and the globalization of the Australian market - “We either had to grow and become a global operator, or we would potentially disappear and become irrelevant.”

(05:16) - Expanding without cracking via the company’s ownership model - “I see it regularly with someone who you invite to be a shareholder, they change their mindset set.”

(11:18) - No rush! The long-term benefits of equity - “You can set your own pace. Your pace should always be adding value, but you're not driven by market forces to do that faster than you need to.”

Resources

Connect with Rob through LinkedIn

Visit GHD’s website to learn about the company.

Thanks for joining us! To learn more, check out our website, where you'll find other episodes of Thriving Globally with Equity, along with deep dive articles on each story.

Thriving Globally with Equity is a production from Shareworks by Morgan Stanley, written by David Vallance from Campfire Labs, narrated by Mercy Lee Bell, with additional production and editing by StudioPod Media.