People. Planet. Progress.

STRABAG has been thinking seriously about the future and where the world will be in 2030. An interview with CEO Klemens Haselsteiner on the development and implementation of STRABAG SE’s Strategy 2030.

What was the situation like when you started work on your first corporate strategy as STRABAG CEO?

Klemens Haselsteiner: With “Work On Progress”, we have committed ourselves to being part of the solution for dealing with the challenges of our time. In this regard, we have set ourselves a clear goal, perhaps even the most ambitious in our company history: to become climate neutral by 2040.In the medium term, that means that STRABAG must become a different company in 2030 than it was in 2023!
Over the past few months, we have thought seriously about the future and about the challenges and trends that will shape our path forward. The result is the new strategy that we will be implementing from now through 2030. Our decision to think beyond just one board term or just one CEO tenure was taken with deliberation and reflects our determination to make a real difference.

What conclusion have you reached regarding the driving forces and trends that will affect STRABAG between now and 2030?

Klemens Haselsteiner: The driving forces and trends that we will see over the next seven years will determine what kind of economic, social and technological developments we choose to prioritise with regard to our actions. The world is changing as a result of climate change, global urbanisation and demographic shifts. Our success, therefore, doesn’t depend on just one single factor.

This means that we must constantly increase our productivity, be it through industrialisation, modular construction methods or digital solutions that increase our process efficiency. When it comes to our environment, we will find solutions to the climate crisis involving new concepts while making our contribution to mitigating climate change. Because doing business successfully and sustainably doesn’t mean looking one-dimensionally into the future. We want to achieve more. More for people, planet and progress.
Achieving these goals will make us even more profitable overall. That is why we have also set ourselves the ambitious target of a 6% EBIT margin by 2030.

How do you plan to realise these goals?

Klemens Haselsteiner: The six key strategic topics, with their areas of action to put our strategy into practice, are also based on the principle of People. Planet. Progress.

Our key topic of employee focus is about encouraging and supporting our most important asset: people. This requires a global-local presence, which means maintaining a close relationship with people where they work and knowing and understanding their wishes and needs. 
For the environment, we plan to combat the shortage of raw materials and the problem of environmental pollution through circularity on a large scale and by actively shaping the energy transition with our expertise in the energy sector.

Our role as technology leader makes STRABAG constantly more efficient, more effective and, due to the depth of our own value creation, more resilient to external influences. In this way, we are building on our existing foundation while continuing to strategically work on progress.

What are your next steps in the implementation of the strategy?

Klemens Haselsteiner: People. Planet. Progress. was the first step. The key strategic topics defined there are subdivided into individual areas of action that are being strategically developed and gradually implemented by special task groups within the company.

We have a marathon ahead of us. But with Strategy 2030, we now know where we are going and how we will get there. We’re standing at the starting line together. But even in a marathon, unforeseeable things can sometimes happen. That’s why we need to have perseverance, manage our strengths and adapt our tactics if needed.

We can only do that as a team. By working together, sharing our experience and shaping the building of tomorrow. 

What will STRABAG look like in 2030?

Klemens Haselsteiner: We plan to grow profitably – through the expansion of existing and the development of new business fields or by moving into new markets. This will further diversify our footprint, making our business model more resilient overall. The greatest obstacle on this path? The shortage of skilled workers. What we need is to change our mindset and become proactive.

We want to be a pioneer for circular construction and to actively shape the energy transition. That’s why we’re starting to expand our capacities in the field of circularity already today and why, in the future, we plan to increasingly rely on the in-house generation of renewable energy.
To be able to make the right decisions quickly, we intend to sharpen our focus on the topic of data by transforming ourselves into a data-driven organisation and so sustainably reinforce our technology leadership. This is the basis for our target scenario for 2030.