Taking the helm

Bradberry outlines philosophy, goals for DOTD

Editor's Note: In April, Johnny Bradberry replaced Dr. Kam Movassaghi as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development, bringing with him a unique management philosophy and some immediate goals.

Bradberry, who has been based at ConocoPhilips Co.'s Houston office, has more than 26 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in engineering, operations and profit and loss management.

Positions held at ConocoPhilips include director of engineering recruiting, North American operations coordinator, division engineering manager, manager of business development, asset manager/acting vice president of operations for Dubai Petroleum Company and Gulf Coast asset manager and extraction manager.

Bradberry received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, in 1973 and his master's degree in industrial engineering from Louisiana State University in 1976. He has also participated in the University Management Development Program at the University of Pittsburgh, Katz School of Business and Manager of the Future Development Program.

Shortly after assuming the secretary's position, Bradberry agreed to answer a few questions from Louisiana Contractor. His answers follow.

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Louisiana Contractor: Could you explain your management philosophy?

Bradberry: My management philosophy is simple - getting the most out of our people and the dollars we spend. In both cases, the success you achieve largely depends on having the processes in place that allow that to happen.

For example, on the human resources side of any business, you have to have processes in place that establish accountability for obtaining results. A performance-based process must clearly establish and communicate goals and objectives, measure progress, assess results, drive continuous improvement and incorporate a meaningful incentive program that effectively rewards and recognizes those who achieve expected results.

In addition to holding supervisors and their teams accountable for results achieved, a process must also be in place that provides the training and skills development that people need in order to succeed.

You have to have a mechanism to analyze, when appropriate, why we're not getting results, and the tools to do something about it. So having the right performance accountability, incentive and training programs in place are critically important.

As for maximizing dollars, you need to have a process in place to build a budget that is accurate and not "sandbagged." You must have a process to track dollars as you spend them, a mechanism to report results relative to the goals set and a process that enables you to systematically respond to and act on those results, positive or negative. On the human side and especially on the project side, there must be an avenue for continuous improvement.

How do you take what you've learned from one project and transfer those learnings to the next one? If you had a quality control issue on a project or didn't come in on time or on budget, how is that learning transmitted to the next project? A continuous improvement process is critical to organizational learning and improvement.

Critical to my philosophy is an emphasis on effective leadership at all levels and building strong, effective teams.

Louisiana Contractor: What are your strengths and how do you feel they will help DOTD?

Bradberry: I recognize that many people will question why an individual with an oil and gas background is being brought into the state transportation business.

My strengths, however, which are managing dollars and getting the most out of people through sound leadership and a focus on quality, are essential to any organization. It's what you do in all good businesses - not just reserved for the oil and gas industry.

To me, it's pretty much common sense and not rocket science and I bring to the table a history of success in doing those kinds of things. I have over 26 years of experience with ConocoPhilips and 23 of that involved supervisory and managerial responsibilities, so my interest in and talent for managing people was recognized at an early stage of my career.

Louisiana Contractor: What are your short-range/long-range goals for the department?

Bradberry: My short-range goals are to understand the issues that drive the department, the current goals and objectives of the department and analyze whether they are consistent with the vision Governor Blanco has for the state and the philosophy I want to bring here.

I'll strive to understand the "whys" behind the public perceptions of the department (and let's face it there are some negative perceptions) and analyze why those perceptions have transpired and how I can use what I bring to the table to reverse the public's paradigm.

I want to understand the mentality in the department and understand what people believe are the problems and issues so that I can apply my management skills and their talents to address the situation. Until you fully understand the problems, you can't manage them.

My long-range goals are to take that understanding and the issues that are critical to the state - i.e. limited capital resources, economic development etc. - and align them accordingly. In other words, I want to align the goals and objectives of DOTD with Governor Blanco's goals and her vision for building our economy and moving our great state forward.

Louisiana Contractor: How important do you feel the construction industry is to the efforts of the transportation department? And why?

Bradberry: The construction industry is obviously critical to our business. Providing the public with a quality product is tantamount to our department's success.

We are truly partners with our contractors in providing the public with the level of service they both demand and deserve.

In keeping with the governor's vision of economic development, I also want to ensure that the construction industry in Louisiana optimizes its manpower and has the talent to generate quality work on time and on budget.

If we have to go out of state to get that talent, we're not supporting our own economic development vision. So I want to embrace Louisiana contractors, energize the industry in general and focus on obtaining world-class quality services/products from skilled Louisiana contractors.

Louisiana Contractor: What do you perceive the weaknesses/strengths of DOTD to be?

Bradberry: This is difficult to answer, being so new in the position. But the one glaring weakness that is consistently communicated is the negative image of DOTD.

I believe we have a lot of good people in this department. Perhaps the way we have conducted ourselves in the past through our responses to the public and their elected representatives has created a negative perception.

I don't think the overall perception of DOTD accurately reflects the dedication and commitment to public service that our employees have.

Maybe we've lost our focus on who our customers are and why we're here. We're here to serve the taxpayers whose dollars we're spending, our representatives, our local and state officials and the Governor. You improve customer service through dedication and commitment and by clear and concise explanations on our decisions and actions to our customers.

We need to be able to effectively communicate to people what we're doing and why, the value of it to the state etc. Just like any business, we must recognize that we will not survive unless we satisfy our customers and bring value to the state.

The obvious strength is the multitude of excellent people at DOTD. We have a highly experienced, technically competent workforce that we need to capitalize on. Former Secretary Kam Movassaghi made some significant contributions in this area and we need to continue the good programs that have recently been established.

Louisiana Contractor: How do you plan to address the weaknesses? Strengths?

Bradberry: I plan to address the weaknesses through the management philosophy I discussed earlier and the strengths through a program of emphasis on continuous improvement.

Louisiana Contractor: Any organizational changes planned?

Bradberry: Yes, but I'm really not at liberty to discuss these at this time. It wouldn't be fair to the individuals involved and I still haven't talked with all of the key people on the staff. I'm still thinking through the plans at this point.

Louisiana Contractor: Are you glad to be coming back to Louisiana?

Bradberry: Absolutely. I am very grateful and honored that the governor has given me the opportunity to be a part of her team and the history she is going to make.

Her vision for the future is right on track and I fully support her emphasis on fundamentals, i.e. you've got to understand the fundamentals of your business and manage more effectively or you won't be in a position to leap to bigger and better things.

A great example is DOTD - we know how to build roads, bridges, manage flood control programs etc. What we need to do now is get the most out of the resources we have. You can fix most of our problems with more dollars and make almost everybody happy.

However, the reality is we have limited resources so we have to take a two-pronged approach to the future: continue to search for additional funds and build a more efficient organization that maximizes value returned from our human and capital resources.