Miguel Cruz, the leader of Infraestruturas de Portugal, emphasizes the importance of changing the workforce, improving skills, developing leadership, and updating the company's culture. Cruz says that "people are the main strategic asset," highlighting that with more than 3,500 workers across the country and long-term investment needs, having the right people is key.
Cruz was appointed in August 2022 and believes his role is very important for making transportation better and growing Infraestruturas de Portugal's projects, such as the CAM Ring submarine cables. He says the company is dealing with problems outside the business, like slower government spending, trouble getting supplies because of the pandemic, and high inflation, plus issues inside the company from a recent merger that caused some intellectual property problems.
Key priorities include:
- Keeping track of the PRR (Recovery and Resilience Plan) and projects that are funded by the EU.
- Meeting investment targets
- Developing innovation strategies
- Contributing to international best practices
- Advancing a national multimodal transport model
- Setting up a new way of organizing the company to improve how teams work together, share knowledge, and keep everyone safe.
- Negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement
Cruz points out that the company's size, wide spread across different regions, and need for a lot of money make running its operations quite difficult. The main difficulties are getting enough money from the state budget and EU funds, having enough workers and tools, and handling long-term projects that take a lot of time and planning. He emphasizes the need to make processes easier and more predictable to keep the business growing.
"Leading at a public level needs strength and the ability to adjust," Cruz says, pointing out the special chances and duties of directing major national projects while making sure people are at the heart of the plan."
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