Very Large Firms

Facilitator: Eigil Pedersen

1. Acquiring staff
2. Motivation of staff
3. E-Commerce
4. Shortage of Eng/Increased Margin
5. Business Management Structures
6. Advantages of size
7. New entries (Management consultants)
8. Ways to increase profitability
9. Cash flow
10. Ownership transition
11. Professional liability - is insurance current?
12. Business ethics - sustainability, corruption
13. Firms
14. Unique elements of each country’s regulations/requirements/conditions
15. Integrity management
16. Multi vs single branding
17. Increased risk of BOT
18. Transfer of technology
19. Acquisitions

Importance

I. Staff  1, 2

II. Finance 8, 9, 4

III. New Entries 7, 3, 16

IV. Structure 5, 6, 10, 16

V. Risk 1, 17

VI. Ethics 12, 13

VII. Acquisitions 

STAFF

• Engineers leave developing countries.
• How do we attract engineers to enter and stay in the profession?
• Use of technicians
• Increase productivity
•   High-school recruiting
• Pay what we are worth
• Stock options
• Improve profile/image of engineers

 IMAGE

• Resist the clients with multiplier caps
• Business approach
• Value based pricing – get away from multipliers
• Understand the client
• Publish rates on Web site
• Countries are developing incentives to get engineers to stay.

• RISK BOT
• Designer % equity
• Roles vary
• Finance – 80% Banks,  2% Eng, 18% Cons
• Changing situation
• Compensation for bid preparation?
• Design – build

• Risk vs reward
• Reverse stream – toll roads?
• Project specific insurance
• Country currency swings
• Japan: low profit liability

ACQUISITIONS

• Cultural issues
• Some firms avoid this growth option
• Take enough time to “Court”
• Must make sense: 1+1 = 3
• Common culture is a big plus
• Overdiligence
• Loss of people
• How do you measure success?
• What is “large”?

E COMMERCE

• Anderson

Portals for pertinent info

• Black & Veatch
• Laws are different
• Pertinent discovery

Participants

• Facilitator: Eigil Pedersen, COWI, DK
• Recorder: Bill Howard, Camp Dresser & McKee, US
• Observer: Steve Goddard, HNTB, US
• Bangladesh: A.K.M. Rafiquddin, Dev. Design Cons. Ltd
• Canada: Dave Chalcroft, UMA; John Boyd, Golder Ass.; Ben Novak, Stantec Inc.
• China (PRC): Fengchen Yang, Tianjin
• Denmark: Carsten Boesen, NIRAS; Jesper Rasmussen, Carl Bro; Knud Østergaard Hansen, COWI
• Japan: Katsuyoshi Wade, Nippon Koei; Tamaki Miyazaki, Chodai; Kenji Mori , Kiso-Jiban Cons.
• Korea: Jung Chang-Soon, Korean Council of Cons. Engiineering
• Netherlands: Hans de Haan, Royal Haskoning
• Jan Coppes, Witteveen + Bos
• Pakistan: Mima Zaheer, Eng. Cons. Int.
• South Africa: Johann Du Plessis, BKS (PTY) Group; Thomas Marshall, VKE Engineers
• UK: Robert McGowan, Scott Wilson Group; Stephen Bamforth, Griffiths & Armour
• US: Don Trim
• Observers: Dave Raymond, ACEC; Jean Felix, CICF/Syntec