When this engineer joined a Perth start-up, he found a multidisciplinary company committed to a positive culture and premium solutions.
In 2017, when Tony Daniel heard that Craig Bloxham and Tony Comerford were launching a consultancy, he knew he wanted to be a part of their vision.
“I was aligned with their approach on a cultural level,” he recalled.
“We’re a very good fit together and I believed they could actually do it. What they proposed was a different offering to the market that could help solve people’s problems.”
Daniel’s commitment to that ideal saw him join Agilitus as one of the company’s earliest foundation team members and, eight years on, he has grown with the company to become a member of its executive leadership team responsible for nurturing and managing its biggest clients.
Agilitus, for its part, has transformed from a start-up with a handful of employees working together out of a small room in Perth to a national firm of more than 460 employees providing engineering, design, advisory and project delivery services.
With more than 100 clients across the resources, energy and industrial sectors, its top 10 projects in one year alone delivered $35 billion of capital value, and it has overseen more than 50 decarbonisation strategies and projects.
Daniel is proud to have been a part of a journey that’s seen the business diversify its client base, expand its capabilities and increase the size of its team, all while maintaining its core values and culture.
“Seeing new people come into the business and bring their approach to the work has been great,” Daniel said.
“The diversity in our office and the spectrum of what we can offer is quite extraordinary. We have the ability to support each other and learn from each other, so there’s a lot of collaboration.”
Growing with the company
Today, Daniel is Agilitus’ Regional Manager of Western Australian Operations.
“This encompasses everything from an operational perspective within the business; all the projects and our core disciplines report to me,” he said.
“It’s quite an exciting role to be honest and I’m really enjoying it. It gives me the best opportunity to engage and foster talent, making sure our original culture we developed is consistent and filters through to everything we do now.”
“And because we’re on a growth trajectory, this philosophy is a priority for every new person joining the business and every client we work alongside.”
A core strength of Agilitus is its repeat clientele, primarily because of the effort it has put into maintaining a strong culture, Daniel believes.
“We approach each project challenge carefully, placing the best skilled people who align with project needs,” he said.
“This is all done while considering how we mitigate risks, and refining a best for project solution, which considers the entire lifecycle of the project and the immediate outcomes required.”
“We listen to really analyse a client’s problem so we can own our assessment and mitigate any risk. That way we can be confident about moving down an innovative path that delivers potentially increased cost savings or added value. We challenge convention, particularly when we know it will deliver superior results. It’s a mindset.”
For instance, when one of Agilitus’ largest clients began facing significant production implications due to fatigue and vibration issues with their large crushing stations, the traditional solution would have been to demolish the structures and rebuild them.
“We were able to come in as a last resort and challenge ourselves to think outside the box and develop a solution that had never been tried on that scale or in the industry before,” Daniel said.
“We took the client through the potential risk, which enabled them to bring their stakeholders on the journey, where they could understand how we would mitigate those risks. We developed a solution, shock-tested it, implemented it, and then replicated it on another site.”
All for one
The commitment shown by Agilitus employees like Daniel reflects some of its distinct qualities as a growing business with a national footprint.
Most significantly, Agilitus is entirely employee-owned, ensuring the team is highly engaged in its clients’ success.
“When we say shared success, it really is shared, because our business is 100 per cent employee owned. We reward loyalty, high performance, and cultural fit,” Daniel said.
“We’re all personally invested in the success of our business and its projects.”
The company also boasts a low employee turnover rate and engages a large proportion of full-time employees.
“When you join Agilitus, we work hard on providing a long-term career path for you. We’d like to think when you join us; we’ll work together until you retire. We’re big enough to do important projects and small enough to really care about our people and clients,” Daniel said.
“Our team is here for the long term and, as a result, we align together on what we’re trying to achieve and where we want to be in the short, medium, and long term. We’re good at celebrating our people and our successes, as well as identifying where people need support. It’s about being set up to achieve your greatest success.”
Daniel is just one of the many instances of Agilitus’ ability to recognise talent and help develop it to ensure their people have the best chance to succeed. It’s the kind of working environment that keeps engineers excited about the future.
“Our vision is ambitious and long term,” Daniel said. “We all see ourselves as part of Agilitus for a long time.”
To find out more about Agilitus, visit their website.
