6
P R O F I L E
Levy Park, Houston
Conference call: Ramesh Gunda Founder and president of Gunda Corporation (#32 Hot Firm for 2017), a 60-person engineering consulting firm based in Houston.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
“I ’m not a big fan of utilization rates,” Gunda says. “I believe teams do better when you re- ward them by their accomplishments rather than utilization rates. I think this practice encourages more learning, more bonding, and more efficient time management.” A CONVERSATION WITH RAMESH GUNDA. The Zweig Letter: The talent war in the A/E in- dustry is here. What steps do you take to create the leadership pipeline needed to retain your top people and not lose them to other firms? Ramesh Gunda: Employee retention and leader- ship development are an integral part of our stra- tegic plan. We revisit the plan on an annual basis to re-examine needs and action items. To develop staff into the leaders of tomorrow, it’s essential
that we provide training and mentorship from the leaders of today. It was with this ambition in mind that we hired a COO, director of client services, and human resources/organizational development manager, who are not only veterans in the indus- try, but also have a passion for watching employ- ees grow their skills. As you can imagine, creating a leadership pipeline and maintaining a high level of employee satisfaction is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re happy with the results so far. TZL: As you look for talent, what position do you most need to fill in the coming year and why? RG: While we’re looking for good people at all lev- els, mid-level engineer positions seem to be the most difficult to fill right now. We’re diversifying our firm in terms of services and need experienced engineers to allow us to better compete with firms
Ramesh Gun- da, Founder & President, Gunda Corpo- ration
THE ZWEIG LETTER Ap
Made with FlippingBook Annual report