Tuesday 19 March 2024
 
»
 
»
Story

Niall Greene

Linesight targets growth with new name, branding

MANAMA, October 20, 2016

By Sree Bhat

Linesight, formerly Bruce Shaw International, recently hosted a client and partner event in Bahrain to celebrate the launch of its new name and identity.

Linesight offers world-class consultancy services across multiple industry sectors including commercial, data centres, life sciences, high-tech industries, hospitality, healthcare, education, transportation and infrastructure, energy, and oil and gas.

The new name marks the start of the next chapter in business for the company and formalises its strategic growth plan, says Niall Greene, Linesight managing director, Middle East.

The name Linesight was inspired by the company having its clients’ goals in their direct line of sight from early inception on programmes of work through to successful conclusion, he says.

Over the last 10 years, the company has expanded in a big way and it is now in four regions - the US, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. It has 17 main offices in various locations. The consultancy, which set up its first office in the Middle East in 2008, currently has five branches in the region - Bahrain, Dubai (UAE), and Al Khobar, Riyadh and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

"Over the last 20 years, our strategy has been to identify key clients and forge strategic relationships with them. We have been very successful in this effort," says Greene in an interview with Gulf Construction.

Excerpts from the interview:

What are your core strengths and what are the ones being deployed in the region?

As Linesight is an international organisation, we are bringing with us significant global expertise and an experienced local team coupled with our knowledge of our Middle Eastern clients. Our core strengths are in the areas of cost control and programme and project management and with over 40 years of experience we have clear systems, processes and procedures that we deploy on all of our clients' work.

Please comment on your growth/ expansion strategy for the Middle East.

Linesight has had a presence here in the Middle East for the past eight years and is very committed to the region for many years ahead. We have been fortunate to forge a number of relationships with a number of key Middle East clients over the years. Despite parts of the region going through a difficult time, Linesight is still very confident that the recovery will happen through mid-2017. With significant projects planned for the region, in particular the Dubai Expo 2020, we believe the UAE’s construction sector in particular will witness growth of approximately three-five per cent in 2017 as projects kick off in the lead up to the Expo 2020. Bahrain is another exciting market and is currently not directly affected by the oil crisis and has a number of key projects under construction and others under design.

What are your key projects in the Middle East?

Linesight is working in all sectors, however, these can sometime vary from region to region. In the Middle East we focus on the hospitality sector, technology/ data centres and healthcare and education. We are working on a number of exciting projects within the regions, including the Alef Residence in Dubai where Linesight has been providing cost consultancy services since 2011. This project is due for completion in late 2017. Other projects include the Bahrain Bay and Bahrain Marina in Bahrain, a new mall for Majid Al Futtaim in Saudi Arabia, to name a few.

What is the share of the region in your total revenue and what is your target for the medium term?

 Our Middle East business currently represents circa 15 per cent of our overall group turnover. Over the next few years we would see growth in 2017 and in particular 2018 onwards to 2020.

 Do you plan to tie-up with any regional organisations?

 Linesight is registered in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain with offices in each country. We currently do not have plans to tie-up with any regional organisations. We have ambitions to grow our own offices ourselves instead.

 What are the major challenges faced by Cost Management/ PM consultants in the region?

 Like all services within construction consultancy, the key challenge is knowing your market, your clients and the other parties who are involved in the projects. Linesight is selective on the projects it pursues and the clients it works with and as mentioned earlier we have been very fortunate to forge a number of excellent relationships. Project planning is key to any project no matter what part of the world you are in. The project brief, the feasibility model and that of the funding strategy must be well tested and put in place before many commitments and decisions are made. Linesight always makes a point of getting all the stakeholders on board at an early stage in order to make all the difficult decisions early on so that the project brief and roadmap is fully informed in relation to time, cost and value. Being highly consistent, clear and committed to projects from the early phases through to project completion is key to our success.

The major challenges faced by companies like ours are around oil prices and the domino effect this can have on projects being paused, delayed or cancelled unexpectedly. We try to manage our risk in this regard by ensuring that we have a number of projects operating concurrently across our target sectors, across our markets.

 With the construction sector facing a downturn in the region, how do you see the market reacting to it in terms of project delays, costs, etc. ?

There are certainly a number of large scale projects in delay across the region. The oil crisis and the reducing government capex has certainly had an impact on the market. Cash flow for contractors, their sub-contractors and in particular their own direct staff salaries not been paid is a real issue to the extent that we are now unfortunately seeing a number of contractors going out of business. We expect to see a number of contractual disputes and claims arising over the coming months and years. We will continue to manage our client portfolio carefully and are lucky to have a strong corporate base internationally to lean on if we are negatively affected on particular projects. -TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Bahrain | consultancy |

More Construction & Real Estate Stories

calendarCalendar of Events

Ads