The CEO Magazine: Tell us about Brisbane Airport Corporation and what you do.
Krishan Tangri: Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) is the operator of Brisbane Airport (BNE), the premier gateway to Queensland. Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, BNE has two major terminals servicing 27 airlines and flying to 69 domestic and international destinations. Its a suburb in its own right, the largest capital city airport in Australia by land size (2,700 hectares), and the third-busiest airport in Australia by passenger numbers, with more than 22.8 million passengers travelling through the airport in FY2015.
With passenger numbers forecast to more than double by 2034, BNE is on the cusp of the most exciting phase in its history. It will see more than $3.8 billion privately invested over the next decade to build critical infrastructure at the airport.
As GM Assets at BAC, I lead the diverse business unit of 100 plus people responsible for the strategic management of $4.6 billion of assets, with a $50 million operating budget and $20 million operating revenue. Myultimate responsibility over the next 10 years is the delivery of $3.8 billion of major civil, building, and commercial infrastructureon budget, on time, and ensuring safety and environmental compliance, including Australias largest aviation project, the New Parallel Runway.
What does it take to be successful in your role?
Substantial executive experience, skills, and knowledge has helped me to successfully deliver the outcomes required of my role. I am very attuned to the changing business needs of the company and respond accordingly.
My focus today is not only to create and maintain a large number of assets successfully, but also to improve return on assets in doing so. Understanding my customers needs, developing my people, and creating a vision for the future has also helped in producing excellent results for BAC.
What is your advice to others wanting to take the same journey?
Be strategic. In today’s dynamic world, one must be continuously identifying opportunities and threats, and responding accordingly. Create a team of competent people and empower them to make decisions. Spend more time in planning. It will improve the chances of success of a project enormously.
What has been a key challenge and how have you overcome this?
The responsibility of successfully delivering Australia’s first privately funded runway in a capital city is a mammoth task. This can only be achieved by dividing all the tasks relating to this major project into manageable tasks and then focusing on immediate tasks.
Picking up the best people for the job and having sound and robust systems and tools to deliver this challenging project has really delivered the desired outcomes so far. The first phase of the project has been delivered under budget, ahead of time with excellent quality, environment, and workplace health and safety records.
Who helped you get to this position?
I owe a large proportion of my success to my team. They have helped me to get to this enviable position.
The opportunity was initially provided by my CEO Julieanne Alroe. Then comprehensive support by Julieanne and my peers to execute the strategy to deliver the business outcomes has also played a significant role.
What does it mean to be a finalist in the Executive of the Year awards?
Its great privilege to be nominated for Construction Executive of the Year. To win this prestigious award within this category among strong and worthy peers would be something very special and personally satisfying for me.
However, this award is for Brisbane Airport, its management team, and my own team in the Assets group. Without their support, these achievements would not have been possible.