Excellence
drives real
change
Rob Hudson, Head of Energy and Carbon Capture, talks about why fostering excellence, a no-blame culture and empowering individuals are key for growth and success.
Leading the way
Rob Hudson, Head of Energy and Carbon Capture has worked for TCE in a variety of roles over the last 10 years. Here, he reflects on the importance of a no-blame culture, which foster excellence and empowers individuals.
Fostering excellence
“As a graduate chemical engineer, I was immediately immersed into the world of TCE, where I was given the time, contacts and exposure to learn the business and get involved in a wide range of projects. It is this approach of combining technical experience with vision and business acumen which not only promotes innovation, but also fosters excellence.
“I see excellence in action every day at TCE in the form of continuous learning and development whilst always referring back to core engineering principles, as well as utilising – and more importantly – contextualising huge amounts of data. This against a backdrop of high and always improving safety and engineering standards, demonstrated both by individuals and by the team as a whole.”
Set up for success
“From my perspective, excellence starts with a clear set of shared objectives and standards, which are shared and agreed with the team up front. Each team member has clear areas of responsibility but ultimately, I’m accountable, which gives the team the freedom to innovate and define their own path to success.
A great strength at TCE is the lack of a blame culture – mistakes will always be made, and the important thing is that we learn from them. We are at our best working collaboratively as everyone has something to add. All of this fosters excellence and drives the right outcomes.”
Empowering individuals
“It is also important for me to lead by example. I set the standard on quality of outputs and nobody in the team has a monopoly on being right, especially not me! A great strength of the team is the range of technical knowledge, which greatly surpasses my own! My role is different to that of the experts, so it is important that each individual is empowered to disagree and make their case. My role is often to ask the “daft questions” to prompt the experts and guide the team to the right decision.”
Culture of excellence
“At TCE we also believe that a theoretical approach can only take you so far. Seeing the theory in practice and learning from mistakes is a far quicker and more powerful learning tool. By trusting the team to apply their knowledge and drawing on their strengths, we foster a culture of excellence which is then reflected in our everyday work.
This approach is vital, particularly in energy where the repercussions of not holding ourselves and our practices to the highest of standards could have significant economic repercussions, never mind the clear safety implications of working with high pressure steam and ammonia, for example.
Having said all of that, a key part of excellence is also knowing what we don’t know. Excellence can only truly be achieved with a degree of humility and a key part of my team’s work is to continue to build a network of external experts to make sure we remain at the forefront of the energy and carbon capture sectors, both from a technical and commercial perspective.”
Clear credentials
“For businesses around the world, sustainability has been top of the agenda for many years now, but it’s an area where we at TCE have “walked the walk” and not just “talked the talk”. As a global brand, there are various frameworks and policies to which we adhere when it comes to sustainable practices and decarbonisation. This is becoming even more important to our customers, and we should be really proud of our achievements to date, but the journey doesn’t end here, and we plan to remain at the forefront of decarbonisation in manufacturing by continuing to evolve and adopt best practices. Our customers know and value this, and we have the data to prove it. Our track record is there for all to see, and the results speak for themselves.”
Market leaders
“The energy and decarbonisation sectors are now moving quicker than ever. Our engagement with government departments, trade associations and other external stakeholders is critical to promoting best practice and sustainable outcomes within our communities and ensuring the business is in the best possible position to react in what is a rapidly changing regulatory and market landscape.
“Decarbonisation underpins everything we do at TCE and there is a huge amount of work to do! In practice this means never-ending opportunities to learn, develop and work on projects which significantly affect the future of the business. It’s a live example of how excellence drives real change in a sector which couldn’t be more relevant. Whilst the world continues to talk about climate change, we have the opportunity to lead the way with tangible solutions.”
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