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HyderConsulting Middle East's MD, Wael Allan, says “the economic landscape in Dubai has changed drastically in terms of business.” This calls for a particular approach on the part of consultancies as they strive to maintain growth.
“The best strategy is a simple strategy. It is about having a sustainable business. I guess during the boom we tended to do things differently, where we designed things simply for the sake of design. I think with the boom people tended to forget some of the basics of client care,” says Allan.
“I think whenever there is a crisis in the economy it brings maturity to the market. Expectations from clients become a lot higher because now they are questioning why they need something much more, and why they need to spend a certain amount of money. Therefore I believe only competent companies that bring operational effectiveness to bear will survive in the region. In the past, there was so much work I think clients were looking for anyone who was willing to do it; now it is going to be a lot more focused on the value proposition.
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“So I believe operational effectiveness is absolutely key, and that is what we are trying to do in all our sectors: to improve performance, to do things better with less cost and shorter time, and obviously then you have got to balance those parameters depending on client needs. I think another thing that has really changed in terms of ensuring growth in the future is that we as professionals tend to define excellence from our own perspective, when excellence really has to be defined in what the clients think excellence is. Some clients may want quality at any costs; other clients may require a specific level of quality for a certain cost; we have to customize our offering to suit client needs, rather than what we define as their needs,” says Allan.
As for the future, Allan says future growth in Dubai will be much more controlled. “We do not anticipate the kind of growth experienced in the last three to five years, at least for the foreseeable future definitely. I think 2010 will be a tough year. A lot of the backlog of companies has been exhausted, so they are looking for new work. And I think companies that have reacted properly to the slowdown will survive and do well. If there is any region to be in during a recession, I would say the Middle East offers the best opportunity, compared to much more developed economies like the US and the UK.”
Richard Smith, group chair of carbon critical design at Atkins, describes the current situation as “quite complex”, and stresses “we are not under the illusion that things will just bounce back to what they were. What will come out of this is that things will be different to what they were before.” In this regard, Atkins is exerting considerable effort in trying to understand the current situation and marshal its resources accordingly.
“The Atkins business model is totally dynamic, and is always being reviewed. Some of the larger contractors I have spoken to have not been that affected. They lost work, then won other work. Their turnover is down a bit, but not fundamentally. Then there are people who have had horrendous experiences. And then there are those still recruiting because they have work in Saudi Arabia, for example. It is kind of how the dice fell.”
Atkins design director Keith Hill says working in Dubai is substantially different than working in more mature markets like Europe. “When you are working here, timelines are more constrained, but things actually get built. So you tend not to have that big a lag on a project, whereas in Europe there is quite a lot more prior consultation, which is all good and what should be done. So the industry differs slightly in its approach to major projects.
“Combined with the economic crisis, people are a little bit more nervous than usual. Maybe they have not tied up all their downstream issues, and there are no people at the end of the line queuing to snap up the assets, as they were before.” Added to this, says Hill, is “a case of, I guess, more process in the paperwork now, mirroring the European market more, and becoming more prevalent here. This is all good, as it brings a different level of innovation and understanding to bear, but it is bound to slow things down further.
“If you are actually going to audit yourself every time you do a development or a master plan, you cannot do it in a snap judgement way, because then you are not according it your due respect.”
What this all means at the end of the day is “in my view a slightly more mature market,” says Hill. In terms of specific challenges, he cites ongoing transition as a major issue. “I think we are in that big transition stage right now, certainly if you look at Abu Dhabi as a focal market. It is now the centre of attention again, probably as it used to be back in the 1980s.”
Smith confirms that the market in terms of MEP specifically has also changed drastically. “The market has obviously gotten a lot bigger, a lot faster and a lot more complex, especially in terms of buildings going through technological step changes. We had reached a point where buildings as single entities could become so big that the primary focus was no longer building services but infrastructure in the vertical plane.
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Specialiseed engineering consultants (SpEC) is one of the leading MEP consulting firms in UAE with offices in Dubai, Abu