Every year The Australian’s John Durie asks some of the biggest names in Australian business five key questions about what’s coming in the year ahead.
Here, in his own words, is what Lendlease’s Steve McCann sees ahead in 2020.
Read more from the CEO Survey.
How is your company affected by low-interest rates and what is needed to boost the economy?
There’s no doubt that Australians entering the nation’s property market have benefitted from the current low-interest-rate environment. However, with the cash rate now at an all-time low, the RBA has little room to stimulate the economy using monetary policy. This means policymakers must tackle broader structural issues within the economy including removing unnecessary red tape.
What is the impact of government regulations on your company including those applying to the financial sector?
We now have 22 urbanisation projects underway across Asia, Europe and the US. This international perspective regularly highlights to me the opportunity Australia has before it to significantly slash red tape and streamline our planning processes. As a nation, we need to be conscious of, and willing to learn from, our international competition.
What percentage of company revenues are spent on research and development and how is your company using technology to improve performance?
Our ambition is to create the best places. And we’ll increasingly use new building techniques and digitisation to achieve this. For example, the use of digital twins – a digital replica of a physical asset – allow us to optimise a development from conceptualisation, planning, design and construction in real-time.
What are the three major policy issues facing the country and what should be done about them?
Removing unnecessary red tape, tax reform and productivity improvements.
What are the major impediments to long term growth facing your company and what can or is being done about them?
Our decision to focus on urbanisation projects in key gateway cities around the world has been a great success. In recent years, we’ve grown our development pipeline to more than $100bn, approximately three-quarters of which is outside of Australia. This includes the largest urbanisation project in Lendlease’s history – a $21bn partnership with Google to create three communities in the San Francisco Bay area.
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