Kapitol and Bulldogs Extend Partnership to 2029
The Western Bulldogs and Kapitol are excited to announce a three-year extension, taking their partnership through to at least 2029.
Strategy Summit 2026 gave our people a full day to pause, reflect and talk about how we work across Kapitol.
Held at CENTREPIECE at Melbourne Park, the Summit brought the business together for a midyear update, leadership Q&A, interactive workshops and a Health and Wellbeing Expo. The programme covered leadership, safety, customer centricity, quality, business strategy, and health and wellbeing.
Each topic came back to the same practical challenge: how do we keep improving while the business grows?
Kapitol Directors, Andrew Deveson and David Caputo, opened the day with a midyear keynote. They spoke about progress so far, the priorities ahead and the part each person plays in moving the business forward.
That last point shaped the rest of the programme. Strategy becomes useful when people can connect it to their own work. For a site team, that might mean raising an issue earlier. For a design manager, it could mean bringing the right people into a decision before it reaches site. For a support team, it may be finding a clearer way to give projects the information they need.
The sessions were designed to prompt those connections.
Staff moved through smaller workshops, heard from external speakers and spent time with colleagues outside their usual projects and departments. The smaller groups gave people room to work through the ideas and compare notes with colleagues.
Head of Modular, Andrew Morrison, later hosted an open Q&A with Directors Andrew and David. Staff were given to ask them about the direction of the business, test ideas and raise the questions that often get pushed aside during a busy week.
Katherine Wilson from Momentum Partners led a session focused on behaviour, communication and trust. Those words can sound broad until they’re placed inside a project meeting. Trust affects whether someone raises a problem early. Communication affects whether an instruction is understood. Leadership affects how a team responds when the first plan stops working.
People also worked through the role of feedback. Useful feedback is specific, timely and directed to someone who can act on it. It gives the other person enough information to understand the issue and decide what needs to happen next.
That matters across every level of a project. A cadet can spot a gap in the information. A contract administrator can see a procurement risk forming. A site manager can identify where sequencing will create pressure later. Decision-making authority changes with the role. Everyone still has a responsibility to consider how they communicate and reflect Kapitol’s values each day.
As Kapitol grows, these everyday leadership habits become even more important. More projects create more handovers, more interfaces and more chances for information to get lost. Clear expectations and straight conversations help keep teams aligned.
Richard Field’s “Do No Harm” session focused on awareness, accountability and decision-making. He shared an unforgettable and hair-raising story coming face to face with a lion and the steps that led him to that life-altering moment.
The message landed because it dealt with choices people make in real situations. Plans, permits and controls set the conditions for safe work. People still need to notice when conditions change, check assumptions and respond before a risk becomes an incident.
Our approach to health and safety in construction includes in-house expertise, project systems, high-risk planning and digital tools. Those systems give teams structure and visibility. Their effectiveness depends on the conversations happening around them.
Read more about health and safety in construction
A daily briefing needs to reflect the work being done that day. A concern needs a fair hearing. A change in sequence needs to be checked for new risks. Trade partners need clear expectations and the chance to contribute their knowledge.
Safety culture grows from those repeated actions. People watch what gets discussed, what gets challenged and what gets followed up. The standard becomes clear through the way a team works.
Kirryn Zerna led the customer-centric session, exploring the human moments that shape how people experience a business.
Construction creates plenty of those moments. A consultant waits for an answer. A trade partner receives a revised detail. A client hears that an issue has emerged. A colleague asks another team for support. The response in each situation affects trust.
Good customer experience often looks straightforward from the outside. People receive accurate information. Commitments are kept. Problems are explained in plain language. Follow-up happens when it was promised.
The hard part is maintaining those habits when a project is under pressure.
That’s where customer centricity connects directly to delivery. Clear expectations reduce rework and confusion. Early conversations help teams make informed decisions. Honest updates give clients and consultants time to respond. Closing the loop prevents questions from sitting unanswered.
Sean Poff’s session explored standards, systems and accountability through the lens of quality.
Quality starts well before a final inspection. Requirements need to be understood during design. Shop drawings need proper review. Prototypes and samples need to be checked. Installation records need to show what happened on site.
The session asked people to consider what accountability looks like when work falls short of the required standard.
The first step is to make the issue visible. From there, the team can understand the cause, correct the work and record the lesson. Sharing that lesson matters because another project may be dealing with the same detail, material or sequence.
Kapitol’s Continuous Learning and Improvement Process gives project lessons a path into updated processes, checklists and training. That process moves improvement between projects and gives the lesson a longer life.
The Health and Wellbeing Expo ran alongside the Summit sessions, giving staff a hands-on way to explore recovery, prevention and everyday health.
Everlab, Re.Mode, Sound Healing Melbourne, Midori Matcha and Bike n’ Blend were among the providers involved. Staff could speak directly with providers, take part in activities and explore different approaches to physical and mental recovery.
The format helped make the topic accessible. People could walk through the Expo between sessions, ask questions and spend time on the areas that interested them.
Health and wellbeing affect how people work. Fatigue can influence judgement. Recovery supports concentration. Strong social connections make it easier to ask for help. These issues are relevant in head office, on site and everywhere in between.
Bringing providers into the event gave people practical options to consider after the day finished. It also made room for conversations that may not happen during a normal project week.
Strategy Summit 2026 gave our people time to hear the same priorities, question them and discuss how they apply across different roles. It also gave teams a chance to build relationships beyond their normal project groups.
Those connections matter. Construction relies on people passing information, solving problems and making decisions together. The better those working relationships are, the easier it becomes to deal with the hard parts of delivery.
For more construction industry news and practical stories from our projects and teams, explore the latest Kapitol insights.
Explore more construction industry news
