< Previous20 CONSTRUCTION WEEK FEBRUARY 2021 EDITOR’S LETTER WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM While the major vaccination drive across the region is providing some glimmer of hope after an extraordinary year, there is a sense of optimism about what the future holds for the industry. After economic pressures brought upon by the global pandemic, many workers have deservedly taken a step back (including myself ) to reflect and come into 2021 with a fresh outlook. Feeling refreshed, I’ve caught up with many members of the industry and the key theme that I have taken away so far is that 2021 is being labelled as the “defining year”. Although there will be worries that COVID-19 will strike back with a vengeance, the construction industry is more prepared than ever to deal with a crisis. But what I like about this industry, and something that also relates to myself, is that business leaders are still prepared to take risks and go that one step further. I believe there is three key areas that the sector should look out for in 2021. While it will take some time for the industry to get back on its feet, firms are acting promptly to set themselves up for a healthy future. Budgets will remain tight for some time especially in terms of recruitment, but this will open up opportunities for employees to prove themselves internally. We’ve already witnessed three of the biggest consultancy firms – Cundall, WSP and AESG - undergo shake-ups within its leadership team. Ensuring staff feel valued is a huge necessity for progression even in the most difficult of times and this is a great step for the industry. I fully expect more stakeholders to follow suit with internal changes and promotions. As globalisation and digitisation fuels the rapid growth of urban populations across the globe, we are seeing an influx of investments in transport infrastructure. Countries are coming under increasing pressure to provide a sustainable transport solution to reduce congestion in city centres and boost nationwide economic and social development. The Middle East is no exception with large-scale rail expansion set to take off in the region over the next 10 years and the momentum is only going to speed up. Interestingly, Alstom, a company that specialises in rail transport and sustainable mobility, revealed that by 2024, Saudi Arabia alone is expected to spend over $48bn on rail projects throughout the Kingdom. Transport contract awards were also ramped up at the end of 2020 with global consultancy firm Mott MacDonald winning a huge tender to deliver the total land, sea, and air transport needs for the 28,000km2 Red Sea development. The details of the contract are unbelievable. Mott MacDonald will be responsible for the developer’s vehicle fleet including e-bikes, cars, buses, seaplanes, helicopters, VTOL aircrafts, passenger ferries, maintenance vehicles, airside vehicles, amongst others. While this is exciting news for the industry, rail or metro project present a series of unique challenges for the construction industry and will face longer lead times and planning phases, the sheer volume of enabling works and structures, along with environmental and societal impact makes rail and metro projects a colossal task. While normality has, well, kind of returned, technology has been the saviour for business survival and is only set to continue evolving. Over the past 12 months, the construction industry has generally resisted change but has been forced to adapt in light of the pandemic. Among the changes included construction disputes turning to virtual hearings, the mainstream roll-out of modular construction has meant less labourers on-site, digitalisation of supply chains, and increased use of digital twins. There is also an interesting development with regards to signing contracts and tenders. The Kuwait Oil Company activated an e-service this month and opened a new website dedicated to contracts and tenders. As part of the move, all bids will now be received online and not through the old method of accepting bids in sealed envelopes. But again, there are complications with using technology. Technology costs a huge amount of money to implement and is normally legislated. We also saw a huge amount of cyber attacks across the majority of developments last year as security measures were easily breached. Last year was a huge learning curve for the industry, but I have the utmost confidence that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Are ‘testing times’ over for construction It’s time to throw caution to the wind as 2021 is set to be a “defining year” for the industry with inevitably many twists and turns expected for the Middle East once again. Ashley Williams EditorTRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION CRITICAL & BACKUP POWER RENEWABLE ENERGY ENERGY CONSUMPTION & MANAGEMENT SMART SOLUTIONS Explore. Empower. Energise FIND OUT MORE www.middleeast-energy.com | info@middleeast-energy.com Online: 17 May - 7 June 2021 l From your office or home Live: 14 - 16 June 2021 l Dubai World Trade Centre22 CONSTRUCTION WEEK FEBRUARY 2021WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM THE BIG PICTURE FOLLOW CONSTRUCTION WEEK @CWMIDDLEEASTLOCATED IN THE SOUTH EAST OF TRSDC’S ARCHIPELAGO IN THE RED SEA, THE SHEYBARAH ISLAND IS THE FURTHEST FROM THE MAINLAND AND FEATURES 30M TO 40M REEF DROP-OFF IN VERY CLOSE PROXIMITY FROM THE BEACH. 30-40M REEF DROP-OFF FEBRUARY 2021 CONSTRUCTION WEEK 23 WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM THE BIG PICTURE Saudi Arabia’s The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) appointed Dubai-based architectural design rm Killa Design to design overwater and inland villas on Sheybarah Island. [Image: Supplied]COVER STORY WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM24 CONSTRUCTION WEEK FEBRUARY 2021 “2020 presented an opportunity for us to review everything” INTERVIEW BY ASHLEY WILLIAMS | PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY WSP Middle East WSP Middle East CEO, Greg Kane, sits down exclusively with Construction Week’s editor Ashley Williams to reveal its re-organisation for the business and accelerated aspirations for growthFOLLOW CONSTRUCTION WEEK @CWMIDDLEEAST COVER STORY WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COMFEBRUARY 2021 CONSTRUCTION WEEK 25COVER STORY 26 CONSTRUCTION WEEK FEBRUARY 2021WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM With 2020 providing a huge learning curve for the construction sector, the ability to adapt and change has been the perfect antidote to an industry that has struggled to keep its head above water in recent times. Setting the standard and raising the bar has never been more important over the past 12 months, and this is exactly what WSP Middle East has achieved after being recognised as the Consultancy of the Year at the Construction Week Awards 2020 in Dubai. Since coming out on top at the Construction Week Awards, the business has undergone a fast start to 2021 by mapping out a new direction and made bold plans to drive further growth for the business. Speaking exclusively to Construction Week, WSP Middle East CEO, Greg Kane, revealed that he wanted to “simplify the business” in 2021 by making changes to its organisational structure. “2020 presented an opportunity for us to review everything that we do. When COVID-19 started to hit us and the industry back in March, April and May 2020, a lot of our norms were up for reconsideration such as how we do business, how we operate and travel. For want of a better term, we didn’t want to waste a good crisis,” says Kane. He added: “Coming into the summer of 2020, we decided to take a review of the business and change a couple of things. We wanted to change what we have done for the past three to five years that have been successful for us, which is great, but are they going to make us successful for the next three to five years in the future? You have to conclude that there is not many things that you can do for ten years and not change.” As part of the changes, WSP Middle East has prioritised its three business units – Project Management Services, Property and Buildings and Transport and Infrastructure, as well as creating a new entity in Advisory Services. Ian McGauley will become WSP Middle East’s Managing Director for Project Management Services, Dean McGrail will remain as Managing Director for the Property and Buildings segment, while Dr. Mohamed Nazier has been named Managing Director for their Transport and Infrastructure segment. “We’ve concluded with three business units – Property and Buildings, Transport and Infrastructure and Project Management Services. These are our three market facing business units which we will tackle the market to serve our clients,” Kane explains. “The fourth market that we want to tackle going into 2021 is Advisory Services. We have hired Kathleen McGrail, which took around a year to get her on-board. Kathleen is our new Managing Director of advisory services, so we have our four managing directors for each of those business units and that’s our new structure going forward.” Kane summarises that the appointments all have a “strong mandate for growth” and believes that they have the right people to guide the business to further success. “We have a strong brand and marketing position in the Property and Buildings space. We have great relationships within the region and we also thankfully have some superb relationships with some of the best architects around the world,” says Kane. “This serves us very well in getting first sight for some of the projects going through the competition stage and they bring us on-board to help them.” Speaking about the appointment of Ian McGauley, Kane adds: “Our project management service business is now led by Ian McGauley, who joined us just over a year ago, and in our strategy, project management is very much a growth part of the business and is currently about 44- 45% of our firm. “Ian has had a positive impact in growing this side of the business and winning work. He’s got great relationships and his mandate for 2021 is to keep growing and winning work.” Dr. Mohamed Nazier, who will be the Managing Director for the Transport and WSP Middle East are the multi-disciplinary engineering consultant for the One Za’abeel project in Dubai [Image courtesy: Ithra Dubai]MAY 2020 CONSTRUCTION WEEK 27WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM COVER STORY Infrastructure division, has held roles in WSP within its US, Kuwait and Qatar offices. Kane said Nazier “understands the transport and infrastructure sector very well”. “Mohamed has a great perspective on supporting clients and their view of things. His role is similar to Ian’s to grow the business.” Kathleen McGrail is among the more notable additions to WSP Middle East as Managing Director for its new business unit – Advisory Services. Kane explains that they previously conducted advisory services in different pockets of the business, but Kathleen’s remit is “to come in and bring it all together”. “Advisory services is a trend that we have been seeing for a number of years around the world where clients want more help from a technical perspective to advise them on their portfolio and their Dr. Mohamed Nazier, Managing Director for WSP Middle East’s Transport and Infrastructure unit Kathleen McGrail, Managing Director for WSP Middle East’s Advisory Services Dean McGrail, Managing Director for WSP Middle East’s Property and Buildings unit Ian McGauley, Managing Director for WSP Middle East’s Project Management Services WSP has made several appointments as part of its organisational re- structure in the Middle East [Photo courtesy: WSP Middle East]COVER STORY 28 CONSTRUCTION WEEK FEBRUARY 2021WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM plans,” says Kane. “We are very well placed to do that and we have big advisory businesses in the UK, the US and Australia. It was actually in our 2019-2021 strategic plan that we lost a bit of time because of COVID-19, but the back- end of last year was to bring Kathleen on- board. She has come in again to grow that part of the business. A lot of the rationale is bound together by growth.” While WSP has been proactive in shaping the business entering into 2021, the consultancy firm’s competitors have also made strategic management changes throughout their organisations. When asked about the alignment of changes from the industry, Kane confirmed to Construction Week that they acted “in isolation” when reorganising their business and believed more firms would follow suit. “We have friendly relationships with most of our competitor group. We occupy a similar space and sometimes we partner with them through joint ventures. You have to review each other’s work and have good professional working relationships,” Kane says. “In terms of WSP’s re-structure, we have completed this in isolation. I imagine that a lot of firms would have taken the opportunity in 2020 to review how they operate.” He adds: “I think if firms have not gone through change in 2020, then more will go through change in 2021 as they come out of a tough year and take that opportunity to look ahead and ask: Is how we are currently set up the best way to run our business?” Elaborating on the re-organisation at WSP, Kane admitted that they would have not gone through the “extent and depth of the changes if it wasn’t for COVID-19”. “There has definitely been challenges around COVID-19, but some of the changes to our work practices has made us more productive and efficient,” says Kane. “We had to change our previous operations. I don’t think we would have gone through the extent and depth of some of the changes that we’ve implemented if it wasn’t for COVID-19. Travel is huge for us and we travelled extensively to meet “WE HAD TO CHANGE OUR OPERATIONS. I DON’T THINK WE WOULD HAVE GONE THROUGH THE EXTENT AND DEPTH OF SOME OF THE CHANGES THAT WE’VE IMPLEMENTED IF IT WASN’T FOR COVID-19. ” Greg Kane WSP Middle East CEO WSP has a strong presence in Qatar Photo courtesy: ShutterstockFEBRUARY 2021 CONSTRUCTION WEEK 29WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM COVER STORY within its Middle East business. “90% of our revenue comes from our three main markets, which in no particular order, include the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It’s roughly split into thirds for those three countries,” explains Kane. “We have around 500-600 people in Qatar and the FIFA World Cup is still yet to be fully delivered and we are still busy on projects and programmes there. The embargo change between the UAE and Qatar will also make travel post-COVID-19 a little easier.” He added: “We have a lot of growth and new work in Saudi Arabia. With those three markets, and particularly Saudi Arabia, we don’t for the time being need to be running off trying to push into other markets. We have plenty of runway ahead of us.” Although Kane remained tight lipped on his project wins for Saudi Arabia due to client confidentiality, he revealed that they are “not the same as other projects that they have worked on and are super exciting”. “We’ve picked up a couple of new projects in Saudi Arabia that are at the very early stages and some of them are super exciting. “Unfortunately, I can’t reveal too much clients face-to-face, while now meetings are conducted over Microsoft Teams. Even the way we interact with people and how we collaborate has changed incredibly.” While the vaccination drive for COVID-19 is underway, the resurgence of COVID-19 is keeping business leaders awake at night, but Kane said the business has put a lot of COVID-19 measures in place and would be “well placed to tackle it” if a second lockdown would occur. “Hopefully we don’t see a significant resurgence of COVID-19 in the community, but if we were to go back into a lockdown that we saw in April 2020, then we believe we would be well placed to tackle it,” Kane affirms. “I have to give some credit to our clients as they have trusted us and accepted some of these impositions, and in spite of them, we’ve managed to keep on moving and keep our projects going. COVID-19 has been a challenge, but I don’t think it has defined us going forward.” Despite working in a challenging market landscape, WSP has managed to win work in the region, delivering milestones for big projects such as One Za’abeel, a mixed-use development in Dubai, and has identified the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar for further growth about the projects, but we will let you know as soon as we are allowed to talk about them.” He added: “Some of the new projects are not the same as others that we have worked on. Some of them need blue sky thinking and are very unique. On completion, these projects will put Saudi Arabia on the map and I believe that people will travel from far to see some of the projects that we’re involved in.” Reflecting on WSP’s outlook, Kane concluded the interview by telling Construction Week that they are primarly focused on the current three year strategic plan cycle. “2020 has shown us that having five year plans doesn’t always come true,” Kane smiles. “We also need to be focused on delivering for our clients. When they give us feedback, we need to act upon it and help them achieve their ambitions. From Q2 or Q3 2021, we will start to work on our 2022-2025 strategic plan. We conduct this every three years and we will bring a number of people within our business to discuss the future of WSP.” “Maybe later in 2021, I can give you some further insights into what the next three years will mean for WSP.” “We have a lot of growth and new work in Saudi Arabia,” says WSP Middle East CEO Greg KaneNext >