As the dust settled among the laneways and tower blocks of deserted cities across Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, a sense of uncertainty was building. And while laptops powered on in home offices or even from the comfort of the living room couch week after week, the conjecture gathered force – would workers ever go back to the office?

There’s no doubt that a new hybrid way of working was born during those years of disruption, but while many sounded the death knell for the traditional city-based office culture, the reality it is still very much alive and bouncing back with vigor.

And who would know better than the CEO of one of Australia’s largest car parking operators, Wilson Group?

Jose Da Silva has presided over the company since 2018, but has worked there for 13 years, and in that time he has seen plenty of trends come and go. But while the pandemic was certainly a troubling time, abandonment of the cities was never a grave concern.

“We knew that people would come back,” he tells The CEO Magazine.

Although hybrid working has become the new normal, the rebound has exceeded his expectations.

“What’s interesting is that parking volumes are higher than pre-pandemic, despite the fact that people are only in the office between 60–70 percent of the time.”

That resurgence is the result of a greater dependence on cars as a mode of transportation.

“People have gotten into the habit of driving,” he says. “If I’m coming into the office only two times a week, why not drive?”

On the horizon

While the trend is good news for Wilson, what is more worrying is the longer-term outlook. With many CBD areas in major cities being pedestrianized and congestion charges put in place, the dynamic does look set to change. Da Silva highlights London and Manchester in the United Kingdom as prime examples of how things are likely to pan out, with their congestion charges and clean air zones.

“We’ve taken those learnings and we can see that’s where things are heading,” he says. “Is it a threat? Of course. But we’ve got ways to address that.”

Among these are the Wilson Parking App and the new Elevate program, which aims to enhance the company’s digital engagement with its end consumers and make their journey into and out of every one of its car parks ‘frictionless’. The new offering, which will launch later this year, will enable loyal Wilson customers to get preferential treatment and rates.

“It’s all about you and your vehicle being recognized, opening the boom gate, allowing you to park, giving you preference in the car park as to where you want to park and then, once you leave, your credit card being charged, with your loyalty recognized,” Da Silva explains.

“That sort of program is going to be so important for our business long-term, because if you choose to park or choose to drive and park, well, I want you to choose to drive and park with us.”

Such initiatives revolve around the power of data – with the rise of such information crucial to its parking business but also to the operations of its Wilson Security business, with substantial potential to grow technology use.

“The focus on technology within that segment is so important,” he stresses. “The global benchmark is to have about 20 percent of revenue technology-based and 80 percent manpower-based. We still have a long way to go to meet that benchmark.”

At the forefront

This growing reliance on the latest technology will swiftly yield another interesting effect, according to Da Silva – the demise of the parking ticket.

“Honestly, I’d like to see the end of the ticket in the next couple of years,” he reveals. “People were asking me a couple of years ago, maybe just pre-COVID-19, when is it going to be the end of cash? And I said, give us a couple of years. And guess what? It’s pretty much dead now. So it’ll soon be the end of tickets as well.”

It’s a futuristic shift that will also see EVs rise up in importance for Wilson – although with varying momentum across different markets.

“In Singapore, EVs represent something like 30 percent of the fleet. And so with our Fast Park and Charge brand, our offer in that space is just taking off. Because of the geographic challenges that exist in Singapore, most people don’t live in houses, they live in apartments and so they look to their car park as being the place to charge their vehicle,” Da Silva says.

“That’s playing a very huge part in the overall value that we offer the customer. It’s all integrated. You don’t have to pay separately. It’s all part of your parking tariff.”

While Australia is a ‘much slower burn’, there is definite movement taking place, with EVs becoming an increasingly important part of the mobility mix. China is also seeing considerable EV growth, with more and more car parks being installed with charging infrastructure under a mandate that all car parks be equipped with EV charging facilities.

“So we are seeing that evolution happening and customers are looking for it,” Da Silva says.

Wilson has therefore integrated this information into the Wilson Parking App so they can book a charging unit as necessary.

Broader reach

Enhancing its offering in these ways will help futureproof Wilson’s operations, but so too will diversifying. Already the company has invested heavily in a new self-storage business, which aligns well with the rest of its portfolio.

Started around 10 years ago, it has grown from one sole facility to 28 – all branded with the Wilson moniker. So far, there are four in Sydney, Australia located in Revesby, Homebush, Picton and Forest Hill.

“It’s another diversification, but with strong alignment to the core competencies that exist in our business, delivering a yield or a return from space, which is what we’re very good at in parking,” Da Silva says.

“We park your car and we try to maximize the way in which we deliver that service to you. We do the same thing from a self-storage point of view.

“That definitely was an important thought process for us as parking, particularly in CBDs, becomes more difficult with people using public transport, congestion charging and a whole range of other things that might occur that shift the balance.”

Storage offers an alternate use for all that space, and has been tried and tested in major world cities such as New York.

A war for talent

This adaptability and foresight mean that the outlook for Wilson remains strong, but one challenge continues to perplex Da Silva and his management team – finding the right mix of talent. It’s a difficulty that the entire business world is facing, in his view.

“Good quality talent is in huge demand, whether it be in very technical roles like cyber, which is so important in every business’ risk landscape, right through to the frontline quality staff who deliver the service to our customers,” he reflects. “In a growing business like ours, finding and developing talent and hanging onto it and keeping it engaged at a high level, that’s tough.”

Wilson now has around 12,000 employees across Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Malaysia, with a further 4,000 in Hong Kong and China. Maintaining high levels of engagement across such a vast workforce is therefore an immense task, and one which Wilson is tackling in a strategic way.

Firstly, the company places great emphasis on momentum.

“There’s an element of more with less,” he explains. “You’re asking your really important and quality talent to do more. And in any business, your best talent always steps up.”

Finding the right balance between what you have and what you need as a business is the next step.

“You’ve got to be relentless with that because there’s always so much that gets added to the agenda, whether it be regulatory requirements or exploring great ideas.”

As a result, the last five years have seen Wilson adopt a culture of promoting from within and developing its existing talent pool, which is already proving effective.

“The average tenure across our leadership team is 17-and-a-half years. Very low churn, long tenure,” he says. “There are benefits and weaknesses with that, of course, as you can imagine. But for us, continually bringing people through the organization is so important, to give them opportunities and to give us more horsepower in the delivery of those initiatives.”

The hard work that has gone into carefully honing the business in order to achieve that engagement is Da Silva’s proudest achievement in his six years at the Wilson helm. And there’s no shortage of achievements to choose from.

“Look, you can easily point to the scoreboard and you can say, well, our profits have improved since 2019 despite the challenges,” he says. “But I look at that and say that it’s a consequence of all the hard work that’s gone into aligning the organization behind one purpose and one strategy. For me, it’s about getting that alignment and then getting that engagement.”

Results back him up – according to Wilson’s survey results, engagement has been rising every year, even in the face of such hurdles as the pandemic.

“That’s important,” he insists.

“People are more engaged than they were, and they’re all completely understanding of that strategy, that purpose and how we’re moving forward. For me to feel that momentum, to feel that happen, I have a sense of pride in that, no doubt.”

Join Jose Da Silva in celebrating the leaders shaping the future of business and innovation at The CEO Magazine’s 2024 Executive of the Year Awards. Visit www.theceomagazine.com/australia-awards-2024/ to learn more about this prestigious event.