Clarke, who joined the firm as chief executive last October, said that the consultant was concentrating on designing and implementing projects.
His aim is to secure more high-value work for the company. He said: "We believe we can produce better products for clients."
His comments follow the consultant's announcement that it had made a profit in the year to 31 March.
Pre-tax profit stood at £62m compared with a loss of £45m for the year to 31 March 2003, caused by a catastrophic failure in its IT systems. Turnover was up £230m to £1.24bn.
Clarke said: "They are good results. There is a healthy level of profits, the sorts of levels we should be at. We are focusing on performance, not on top line growth."
The results included the first year of the Metronet consortium's work on the London Underground PPP.
We believe we can produce better products
Keith Clarke
Clarke said there had been delays on the capital programme planned by Metronet, which is overseeing two thirds of the London Underground, but they were not significant to its overall programme.
He said: "They do not in any way undermine the integrity of the contract."
Clarke said he did not expect any major changes to the PPP contracts, but there would be smaller "day to day" changes to plans for the upgrading programme. He said Metronet was partnering with LU and Transport for London on changes to the deals.
He said: "Metronet has done an extremely good job of behaving the right way. I think it is working. It has a long way to go but it's where it should be. There are challenges but there are meant to be challenges."
Clarke said he had been concentrating on training the 14,000 Atkins workforce, staff retention and improving graduate recruitment. He said: "Staff retention is important. It's our key constraint on growth."
Clarke said he had "tidied up" the way the firm dealt with graduates by making it easier to apply for jobs at the firm and explaining to students exactly what Atkins did.
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