Getting Technical
In conversation with Tom Bower, MD, WSP Middle East
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On 11 May this year, Tom Bower celebrated 15 years at global consultancy WSP. Having led the Middle East operation for four years, Bower’s first role in 1999 – as assistant to then-chief executive Chris Cole – was very different. “I met Chris by chance,” he reminisces. “When I first joined in 1999 it was more of a support role. But it provided an opportunity to get a view of WSP as a business, as well as the CEO’s vision.”
Although Bower received no formal engineering training – having followed his family’s farming heritage by studying agricultural management at Reading University – he discovered that an underlying “technical mindset” soon came to the fore. Bower continues: “When I first worked for WSP, I didn’t realise there was this thing called an engineer – I thought there were architects and contractors and that was how buildings were delivered. I came into this world and realised how exciting technical consultancy is.”
After four years as CEO assistance, Bower was appointed commercial management of the ‘buildings business’, one of WSP’s divisions in the UK. He then became UK commercial director and held that position for another four years. In 2009 he was presented with the opportunity to lead the Middle East operation and refocus a business that had been hit badly by the downturn.
Bower remarks: “With all of the changes it had gone through during the downturn, it wasn’t particularly focused. We were about 1,000 people in 2007/2008 and we came down to about 320 at the end of 2011. We have grown back to around 550 today in the Middle East.”
He describes himself as a “hands on” manager that likes to have regular client contact, as well as advocating an “open style” – company directors sit within the open-plan rather than separate offices.
Bower says that his lack of an engineering background allows for a more balanced viewpoint. “We are a multidisciplinary firm, and the fact that I don’t come from a particular discipline means that I have a good oversight without favouring one in particular. I see them for the value they add to our clients and to our business as well.”
With the company containing five business areas (building structures, building services, specialist services, environment and sustainability, transportation and infrastructure) amassing a total of 23 different services, does the market fully understand the capabilities of WSP?
Bower concedes that this is a common challenge for multidisciplinary firms. “You can be known for one thing when in actual fact you do much more. There are some things we don’t do such as architecture – although we have a small architectural team which supports some of our clients – we don’t do contracting and we don’t do project management.
“We see ourselves as a multi-disciplinary technical consultancy. Our services are all focused around the technical aspects of the construction industry – that covers both consultancy and design work and supervision of construction. In our minds it makes a lot of sense.”
Recently Bower has taken on personal responsibility for WSP’s India operation, which acts predominantly as an offshoring business undertaking design for the other regions of the group. “We have around 60-70 people based in India who focus on the Middle East work. I fly out maybe once every six weeks and spend a few days there,” he says.
WSP as a whole has experienced a recent expansion, in part due to the takeover by Canadian engineering firm Genivar in 2012. This year, Genivar changed its name and the whole organisation of 16,500 people is collectively known as WSP.
Bower explains how both parties have benefitted from the takeover. “Interestingly, and very positively, Genivar and WSP had almost no overlap – Genivar was 90% in Canada and WSP weren’t in Canada at all. The other 10% of Genivar was in Colombia and a small amount in France, where WSP did have a small business. From a regional point of view, the change has had very little impact. So it has been a very natural progression.”
According to Bower, the Middle East is one of the company’s key markets. “The group’s ambition is to grow to 20,000 people in the next two years and the Middle East is seen as one of the growth areas,” he says. “In terms of staff numbers, it is a fairly small percentage (550 out of 16,500), but because of the project opportunities the Middle East is seen as a market of great interest. We have offices in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Doha, and we also work on projects in Oman and Saudi.”
He explains that key regional clients include Emaar, MAF Properties and Meraas. Many of the company’s high profile active projects are in Abu Dhabi, such as Zayed National Museum, the Presidential Palace, Masdar City, Sowwah Central Mall and New York University on Saadiyat Island. WSP is also working on the ‘Contract 2’ infrastructure project for Ashghal in Qatar as well as Al Barari’s Seventh Heaven in Dubai.
Recently, WSP was involved in a more unusual project in Dubai – providing a three-by-one-metre platform on top of the Burj Khalifa for the dramatic base jump which took place on 19 April. Bower says that the project was useful for publicity and showcasing WSP’s focus on safety.
“Overall it was a very positive experience. It was actually the tallest manmade structure when it was built, as it sat on top of the Burj Khalifa.
“It was a fun project and good for getting publicity and building our reputation. A key aspect was making sure it was safe – our director of health and safety David Larter spent a lot of time with the fabricators and erectors.”
Bower reveals that safety is now one of the four key ‘themes’ that runs through the Middle East business. “Most of the challenges of safety in the construction and operation come from the design phase,” he remarks.
“Another of our themes is quality. It sounds a bit strange but we need to make sure that people know how we position ourselves. I believe in fundamentally doing things right, first time. We try and do something in the best way we can.”
A third theme is sustainability, which is reinforced by the LEED-certified Dubai office. Bower continues: “We take sustainability seriously and we are looking at how it can be built into everything we do – in either consultancy or design.
“We’ve recently been involved in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park – it has a huge impact of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels,” he says.
“We took that project on because we could do it, and also because of our focus on sustainability. We believe it’s so important for the future, everywhere across the globe. It’s something we want to be known for.”
Although sustainability is by no means a new concept, Bower believes the Dubai construction industry has changed its approach in recent years, partly due to a greater awareness of operating expenses.
He comments: “Sustainability is a growing agenda as it makes operational sense. Dubai is more integrated in its way of thinking. Previously developers might have had a team that procured the capital expenditure and a team that ran the operational expenditure. They didn’t really look at each other.
“Now developers are looking at the cost of running projects. For example, a project that cost x has cost y to run in five years. The owner is starting to think ‘actually if we’d done something when it cost x, we’d now be running at y minus 10%’. Sustainability is starting to become a commercial reality for client bodies. Previously it wasn’t because they weren’t running these assets. You learn these things as you go and people see the benefits for themselves.”
The fourth and final theme is technology – an area which Bower is personally championing. He explains: “I use technology in all aspects of my life to make it easier, and I try to push our people to use it in every way possible. Technology is something that will enable us to be more competitive, produce a higher quality product in a shorter timescale, and engage with our clients and staff more effectively.”
Elaborating on specific measures, Bower points to the use of computer-to-computer conferencing software, Lync. “You can call up to 30 people at once and share documentation – it enables a multiple office delivery. We can engage our India and UK offices, speak to everyone simultaneously, while looking at what we are talking about.
“We’ve invested in three screens for everybody, across the business, which enables you to be looking at multiple things simultaneously. It’s a very efficient and effective way of operating. If you take the capital cost of a screen, it’s the equivalent of three or four hours’ work per person.
“It’s something that’s been done in other industries for several years, but there aren’t many other consultancies in our industry that do it,” he claims.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of embracing technology, according to Bower, is the creation of global office environment in which employees can work from any location, including home. “Utilising technology enables us to do the work, wherever we want to do it,” he explains. “We have a very disciplined management of documentation – it is all available wherever you are so the whole global network can work together very effectively.
“The previous model was that if you operated in a city you had to have a presence and people in an office. I think you need to have a presence but you don’t need people sitting there – the work can be done elsewhere. The technology will only improve our ability to work together, while not sitting next to each other. We’re moving to a different way of thinking.”
