Family business lessons inform Mainline leadership style
“I was ‘pencilling’ for my father at race meetings as soon as I could multiply, learning about the business of risk and numbers," shares Mainline CEO Jamie O'Rourke.
DELOITTE LEADERSHIP SERIES: Jamie O'Rourke, Mainline CEO
Jamie O’Rourke credits his happy youthful days around the sandhills of Ballybunion beach with influencing his eventual career calling as a civil engineer. “The building thing was there right from the start even as a kid, it was always about wanting to make the perfect castle,” he smiles in answer to Honor’s enquiry on the moves that shaped him.
“I also knew early on that being my own boss was part of the deal,” he added. Indeed, that same body of water also led to his adult passion as a surfer, another aspect of his life that fed into an appreciation of the natural world: “Catching a wave is about feeling and momentarily harnessing the energy and the power of nature.”
As chief executive and majority shareholder in Mainline, the multifaceted utilities contractor he’s nursed and driven over two decades into an annual turnover of €30 million, he again cites his early days at the family business in Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, as having helped define his life journey.
Such an eventful twenty years at the helm of Mainline must have involved many a period of calculated risk taking in growing the company, Honor ventured. “Many of my life lessons were learnt behind the family bar counter and on the bookmaking circuit as a youngster with my father. Dad had studied hotel management and operated the pub to the standard expected in a top hotel. We learned to always ‘picture yourself outside the counter looking in’ — effectively see the place through the customers’ eyes.”
As a result, the delivery of superior customer service is part of the Mainline focus on a daily basis — an attention to detail grounding that served his engineering eye well in later life. As to the risk taking, that was a strength honed on the bookmaking circuit: “I was ‘pencilling’ for my father at race meetings as soon as I could multiply, standing on a box beside him and learning about the business of risk and numbers. As life experiences went, it was fantastic. After one particular week in Dingle running the betting office on my own, there was no challenge too big.”
Having started with Mainline in 2002 as Commercial Manager on the Cork Main Drainage Project, Jamie progressed to National Operations Manager, before being appointed CEO in 2020, after nine years as Managing Director. He previously worked with Pearse Construction and Bord Gáis, following four years with Insitu-Pipelines in South Africa as Operations Manager. He holds bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Civil Engineering from Trinity College, and is a Member of Engineers Ireland, as well as Mainline achieving platinum standard as a Deloitte Best Managed Company.
Mainline’s areas of activity encompass a number of sectors — telecoms, aviation, water metering and renewable energy. Wind farms figure prominently in the company’s recent work, having completed two major projects in Sweden. A €10 million-plus contract to provide power and communication infrastructure to a major wind farm at the Markbygden Cluster in the north of the country, involving the installation of over 350 kilometres of power and fibre optic cabling. The Cork headquartered company was similarly engaged in a second Swedish project at the Hästkullen wind farm, installing cable to 73 wind turbines. “We essentially do all of the wind farm electrical work — design, build cables, telecommunication, bringing power to the turbines, back to the substation and then on to the grid.”
In addition, Mainline was the main electrical contractor on the north runway project at Dublin Airport, delivering over 400 kilometres of cable and the fit-out of two substations on the site. “Winning the Swedish wind farm really put us on the map, the site alone was nearly the size of Louth.”
Building a company over the past twenty turbulent years in Ireland must have encountered some economically bumpy periods, Honor suggested, wondering what the key principles at the core of Mainline’s operational agenda were. “It is about building genuine relationships and being honest in all our communications, identifying the challenges in a project, and working with our clients to address issues in the most cost-effective manner,” he explains, adding that the company’s upward progress has been underwritten throughout by a three-point strategy — people, process, partnerships. “Getting the right people on the bus and into the right seats has been key,” he says about finding and keeping the best talent.
The renewables sector has an advantage over for example data centres in the ‘war on talent’, with graduates increasingly attracted by the positives of sustainability. Robust process and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reporting are the final piece of the puzzle to ensure any issues are identified and addressed as close to the problem as possible. Mainline’s renewable energy, both in solar and wind, accounts for over 50 per cent of its business — an area primed for significant growth over the next decade. “The focus on renewables is constantly increasing and has been accelerated by the war in Ukraine.”
The immediate challenge for Ireland is building seven gigawatts of renewable electricity by 2030, part of the Government’s overall commitment to generating 37 gigawatts through offshore wind turbines by 2050. “Going back to my bookmaking days, you would get reasonably good long odds-on Ireland having 7 gigawatts of offshore up and running by 2030 — our original target of 5 gigawatts would be a huge achievement. Regardless, the potential is enormous, and with offshore wind we have an opportunity to secure the future of Ireland for generations to come. Looking at Ireland as a business and if you wanted a strategy to deliver that future, you’d certainly throw everything at it and get all the relevant stakeholders around the table to ensure we maximize our vast renewables opportunities, and buildout the renewable infrastructure ASAP. There has been a huge number of positive steps, but it needs significant further focus to have any chance of being a reality by 2030, and beyond that to 2050.”
In the meantime, Mainline will continue to punch above its weight in pursuit of turning its current €30 million per annum turnover into its medium-term target of €100 million.
After twenty years at the helm of Mainline, had Jamie’s leadership style changed, Honor asked, and how had his operational style changed? “I have had a number of different mentors and have been with the same business coach for over four years. I would be very logical by nature, too logical sometimes at the expense of the emotional, which has to come into play as well,” he explained.
“Numbers inform decisions, and we are very process oriented — which works well with some people and not with others. The most important thing I’ve learned is about getting to the right answer, getting the right people around the table.”
Part of that process is maintaining an organisational structure based around a ‘clean hands’ principle. “We have a no-blame culture in the company, and it goes from the top down — a process I call ‘clean hands’. Mistakes will happen, but you have to look in the mirror and ask if you have clean hands before you blame someone else. It starts with looking to improve the situation before looking at what went wrong.”
Yet even with a busy work schedule Jamie ruefully admits frequently bleeds into weekend family life, Honor does remind him that the Mainline work ethic is ably matched with an altruistic desire to lend its considerable weight in support-worthy causes — in particular the Cork ARC Cancer Support House Garden Project at its headquarters on Sarsfield Road. “It is a project we are very happy to be involved with, despite Covid having delayed it for an extended period. It is a tremendous project in a space that offers excellent dimensions to create something fantastic for a facility that does so much for people who need it. We will get it done to the standard it deserves, and hopefully put in place a wonderful garden to be enjoyed for many years to come.”
Deloitte Ireland’s Best Managed Companies programme shines a spotlight on outstanding private businesses from across the island of Ireland. For further information about the programme and application process, visit www.deloittebestmanaged.ie.
