The South Africa renewable energy industry is maturing, and many highly entrepreneurial project developers are now exiting the ‘start-up’ mind-set and entering a period of longer-term thinking, with companies starting to think beyond just the next bid window, recruitment agency AltGen Recruitment MD Sean Gibson says.

This is evidenced by the increased demand for skills the specialist recruitment firm and many of the company’s clients are recruiting for skills across the areas of project development, construction and maintenance and operations at the same time. “It is a definite sign that the industry is beginning to mature,” he notes.

However, with this growing maturity, he cautions that some organisations are not being mindful of the fact that people working in ‘operational’ type roles – engineering maintenance, management accounting, IT and HR – are by nature more adverse to risk than their counterparts working in the development and construction space.

“All the great organisations of our time were started by brave individuals with a strong sense of purpose and self.  It is this strong ‘self-centred’ belief of the founder that sees a company survive the stormy weather, uncertainties and set-backs that all starts-up go through. But once a company grows out of the start-up phase, management, more than leadership, becomes vital to the success and longevity of the company.

“Companies are applying their standard employment conditions and benefits, previously used in the start-up phase, to contract with candidates tasked with taking the company beyond the next few years.  This will not work and neither will the previous leadership style that was applied to create the organisation. One year contracts must give way to full time employment.  Salaries, days leave, and other benefits like medical aid need to be re-evaluated,” Gibson notes.

Management must be able to apply consistent processes, procedures and standards to the growing entity and must understand the ‘new’ employee profile, and understand that the organisation that they are responsible for is greater than the personal belief and values of its founder.

Organisations such as car manufacturer Ford, energy solutions provider General Electric and consumer electronics manufacturer Apple all became great when strong managers guided the organisation to fulfil the vision set out by the founder and leader.

Gibson, an entrepreneur himself, states that it is imperative that company heads take a long hard look at themselves and honestly assess whether they are the right person to  ‘manage’ their organisation, or whether it would be better to continue to lead, while handing the day-to-day operations over to an ‘experienced’ manager.