Ritchie Bros. -project management office delivers maximum ROI

Despite coming from the most solitary of sports – tennis – he has a deep appreciation for the power of collaboration, states Peter, Manager in the Project Management Office at Ritchie Bros. He elaborates by saying he was a professional tennis player in his native Scotland before becoming a Chartered Accountant. He’s now tasked with orchestrating massive change within an industry leader of global equipment asset management and disposition. We sat down with Peter to discuss his role and his search for top Project Management talent, that are looking to make an impact. Apply today

What’s it like working in our Project Management Office? 

We were once a relatively straightforward business, but tech has enabled us to transform the way we work – to take advantage of opportunities and markets that we thought were not possible.

What’s great about the Project Management Office is you are at the cutting edge, the forefront of change.

Before we led with more linear change – now our mandate is no less than transforming and revolutionizing all aspects of our industry, business practices, how we engage with customers and Ritchie Bros.’ culture.

Can you share a high impact project?

A great example is Project MARS (Multichannel Administration & Reporting System). MARS represents an opportunity to transform our back-office operations for live auction events. Our live events constitute the majority of our revenues, and remain the cornerstone of our business, over time iterative technological advancement and a number of site-specific adaptions have allowed inefficiencies to creep in. Now that we have brought on board the IronPlanet virtual auction business, we are effectively running two operating models. MARS is focused on taking the very best from existing the IronPlanet system and then adapting it to cope with live events. Ultimately, this will be rolled out over 40 sites all across the world. The benefits of this will be tremendous. Effectiveness and efficiencies will be driven through standardization and sharing, with streamlined processes eliminating non-value add activities. The wider business will benefit from having information in one place, providing increased analytical capability, reporting and, crucially, allow us to deepen our relationship with our customers.

Your team is growing - what are you looking for in a Project Manager?

We are looking for two things: people who can help deliver the big ticket, large scale change projects we do and people who can drive relationships with other departments, who can anticipate the needs of other groups.

This position is not just watching budgets. Obviously, that’s important to us too, but someone who can do more than that – deliver the best possible, optimal solution for what we’re trying to get to and where we are moving towards.

What’s the corporate culture like at Ritchie Bros.?

Ritchie’s culture is all about enthusiasm. It’s about energy, a “get ‘er done” mentality.

There’s a real focus on delivering customer value, and I think people who can get behind that, and bring energy and integrity to our teams, can do very well here. To thrive in this position, you need to be someone who can come out of your shell, bring people together and drive cross-team collaboration.

What does success look like in this role? 

You need to understand project management foundations, technology as well as how to drive results through people. The PMO engages across our business with different cultures around the world every day. You are given the opportunity to be at the heart of technology transformation, meet with senior executives, and you will understand how your efforts impact the organization. It’s a strong place to start a journey to senior leadership.

I’m a huge believer in collaborative working and this team is at the cutting edge of bringing together two different but merging cultures (Ritchie Bros. and IronPlanet). 

Judging by your photo and background in tennis, you are athletic. Is that one of the reasons you like working at Ritchie Bros., with its free gym and personal trainers?  

It’s one reason but not the only reason. If you enjoy delivering results, exceeding expectations, and performing consistently, then the opportunities are endless.

Interested to join the team? Apply today.