Founded by Robert Richardson in 1944, HW Richardson Group is New Zealand’s largest privately owned transport business. His grandson, Bill Richardson, grew the company via acquisition and partnerships. The business is based in Invercargill and operates across six sectors and 42 companies supported by a central shared services team. Annual revenue exceeds $2bn, and the company employs over 2500 people.
Despite operating in well-established industries such as transport, bulk fuel, civil construction, and aggregates, HW Richardson is innovative and responsive to the changing strategic environment. For example, they use their exposure to the transport sector as a platform for leading the fleet’s transition to hydrogen fuel.
Each of the business units has a sense of strategic intent. Our businesses are mature and successful. We understand what we need to do to remain successful.
HWR needed a group strategy. As we grow and expand, we risk losing coherence and becoming inconsistent and disorganized. We need a shared purpose and way of working that allows us to be diverse but maintain a sense of collective direction.
The other challenge is that our team is experienced, practical, and has a no-nonsense business approach. We value relationships and outcomes as a business that derives its success from building partnerships. We do not tolerate ‘fluffy bunny’ consulting and management speak. Having experienced some other strategy approaches, the team was very dubious about this process's value.
Our GM of People and Safety, Elliot Mitchell, had heard Steven McCrone from AGLX outline his adaptive strategy approach during his study for the strategic CIO program at the University of Auckland. We thought this approach would be perfect for our situation, so we gave him a call.
"I used to think that strategy was BS until I met Steve."
The team from AGLX took the time to talk to all 16 of the leaders of our divisions. They use lightly structured interviews to discuss aspirations for the future, uncover decision-making principles, and understand our business's diversity and nature. The team also reviewed our existing divisional business plans so they could gain an understanding of what we felt was important and why.
The central part of the work was conducted at our strategy retreat in Cromwell. This was a relaxed and open environment where we explored our current business and uncovered the principles we needed to adopt to move forward with confidence and coherence.
Steve deliberately held the team back from solving problems and creating objectives, forcing us to explore various options from multiple perspectives. I thought the team would find that frustrating, but the facilitation method allowed us to have fun with new ideas and see that our desire to jump to conclusions was counterproductive.
At the end of the session, we had many notes, ideas, and options, but we also had a shared understanding of success and three clear principles for activating the strategy. What impressed the team is that these emerged naturally from the exploration rather than being scripted or forced. It was ours.
Over the next few weeks, AGLX worked with us to craft a short, clear, and high-utility strategy.
The strategic development process was hugely beneficial.
“The principles are widely discussed among the team; they will provide the pillars for strategic decision-making for the next ten years.”
Anthony Jones - CEO, HWR Group
The strategy describes the shared understanding of success—the three principles for activating the strategy at the divisional level and how we make decisions. The design shows us how to maximize the potential of our current business (even if that means divesting some of it) and explore new opportunities to create future value while remaining safe to fail.
The strategy concludes with some clear and practical objectives and key results that will provide the basis for management reporting. Even the original doubters were impressed!
At AGLX, we thrive on helping organizations like HW Richardson Group navigate complexity, unlock potential, and create strategies that work in dynamic environments. If you’re interested in finding out how this process could work in your organization, we’d love to hear from you.