our ‘philosophy’ describes the thinking and strategy adopted in order to abide by sureside’s values.
values
our values are described in a separate page. our values are of particular relevance as they are central to the formation of sureside and the way it operates.
values-based business
sureside is a values-based business. Values-based businesses differ from traditional businesses in that they are committed to magnifying an organisation’s social or environmental impact while also ensuring that the business itself is sustainable.
It means putting values front-and-centre in our operations and ensuring that our impact is as positive as possible, not only for our clients, but also our staff, community and any other stakeholders. to do this we have established a core set of values that define everything about how sureside conducts itself as an organisation both internally and externally.
Our Founding director, matthew killian, has always believed in the importance and power of businesses to be important contributors to the communities they service. also of great importance to matthew is that people find fulfillment and happinness through their work and thus in turn find the same within their lives. Given that engineers and professionals spend so much time at and thinking about work. matthew benefitted from observing the performance of teams of engineers and found that the very best engineers that achieved the very best outcomes for their clients did so because of their own values.
further, again the best and most talented engineers often resented the focus upon return on resources at the expense of their own values, which are normally focussed upon technical excellence, client satisfaction, progressive practices, community benefits and environmental and ecological conservation.
conservation
sureside operates as a social enterprise, intending to contribute at least 50% of reported profit to conservation organisations that undertake conservation efforts in areas connected to our projects.
best for project
sureside assesses its approach to project execution on a ‘best for project’ basis. ‘Best for project’ means identifying the needs of the project and the client and appropriately assigning resources with the appropriate capability to deliver each component of a project. refer to our capability section for a representation of sureside’s capability.
not every project requires ‘expert’ capability in order for a project to meet its objectives. all projects require ‘competency’ capability level in order to develop any project or component of a project. however, some projects are of higher risk due to value, infratructure function, difficulty of design, precedence and unknowns. sureside has developed tools to optimise delivery of design and advice that takes into account the roles that risk and capability play in successfully meeting project objectives.
risk
sureside seeks to base its design practices, advice, reporting and design almost entirely around the concept of ‘risk’. this is done with the intent of optimising decision-making of sureside and its clients using risk assessment as the principal tool to measure the drive to undertake certain actions and decisions.
resource sharing
sureside recognises the role that competition plays in providing a competitive consulting industry that acts to control pricing for the community. it also drives continual improvement in consultancy conduct and practices and encourages investment in same.
the downside is that the industry has not found consistency in practice in numerous areas and investment in improving resources is siloed, which is naturally quite inefficient.
In accordance with our values, sureside plans to develop guidelines and checklists and to make these available through our website to the broader industry.
systemisation
sureside is committed to the development of systems that optimise delivery of design and advice. This includes development of tools and guidelines to guide staff through the design process from start to finish.
sureside has also developed supplements and checklists that clients shall have visibility of. these tools shall assist the client to understand considerations that have been taken into account during design.
staff fulfillment
staff fulfillment is contributed to by:
- ethical conduct of business and its management including communication of values
- ethics of projects
- ethical conduct, behaviour and quality of clients
- support of staff for technical and career progression
- investment in staff development
- work-life balance
- management that communicates and is receptive to staff needs
- interesting and diverse projects, roles and opportunities
- appropriate stress management and support
- a balanced focus on business performance and sustainability for staff security
- prioritisation of outcomes and performance before profit
- Identification of community responsibilities and advocacy for positive community outcomes
- commitment to ethics, values and courage to collectively advocate for positive community outcomes
- contribution to industry and recognition
- selfless drivers for performance.
- transparency.
community
sureside’s philosophy often refers to ‘community’ and its importance.
Community has a number of meanings and contexts to sureside. by community we mean among the following:
- direct public stakeholders, being beach goers, promenaders, boaters, holidayers and locals etc. we recognise that direct public stakeholders hold a very high value in the assets that we design, inspect and advise on. this value may be an emotional connection as well as dependence upon infrastructure for enjoyment and recreation. sureside sees itself very much as professionals who exercise responsibility for community safety and enhancement of enjoyment of coastal and riparian environments.
- indirect public stakeholders being community represented by ‘the crown’, the federal government and local councils plus stakeholders that are dependent upon functional ports for their livelihood.
- the maritime industry is a close-knit community that benefits from the performance and progression of its professionals in advancing the quality of its infrastruction and investment.
