Future focus

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As regional director and deputy COO of one the largest MEP contractors in the Middle East, Shaukat Ali Mir has a sizeable task to carry out. Voltas is currently undertaking work on some of the biggest and most prestigious projects within Dubai and the region at large, including the Burj Dubai Tower, Raffles Hotel and Bahrain City Centre project. But as we sit in the firm's Bur Dubai office, he calmly deals with a series of urgent phone calls inbetween outlining the firm's plans for yet further growth over the coming years.

His calm confidence, it seems, comes from experience. Mir has worked for Voltas for around 25 years, over 20 of these in the Middle East. In his role as regional director he is responsible for the firm's Middle East and North Africa 1 (MENA1) region. This encompasses countries that are currently undergoing major growth including the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He became deputy COO around five months ago and plans to remain with the firm for the long-term he assures: "One of the things that keeps me with this company are values," he states. "There's phenomenal trust and faith in individuals and corporate governance flows right through, so there's a lot of learning and a lot of growth possible."

Voltas is an Indian firm that is headquartered in Bombay. It belongs to the multi-national Tata Group, which had a group turnover in excess of US $60 billion (AED220 billion) last year. The firm's first venture in the Middle East was in 1976 when it undertook work on the Sultan's Palace in Muscat, Oman. It proceeded to enter the UAE in 1978. "We created joint ventures with local partners," Mir explains, "we started off by doing small air conditioning jobs and we were into the maintenance of air conditioning systems in a big way."

The firm's presence in the region grew considerably over the next decade and it moved to the UAE in 1989 as a direct parent company. "The joint ventures still continue, but they are complementary and are mainly doing maintenance and small projects," Mir explains.

Mir himself moved to the Middle East as a young engineer with Voltas. Having graduated from university with a mechanical engineering degree, he spent around 18 months working in India before moving to Saudi Arabia with the firm. Within two years he was promoted to project manager of a housing development project and stayed in the Kingdom until 1989, when he moved to Abu Dhabi to head a Voltas joint venture firm. In 1996 he became responsible for Voltas' business development within the UAE.

The firm's operations are now widespread across the MENA region and it has carried out projects as far afield as France from its UAE base. There are over 2,500 staff in the UAE alone, with a further 800 in Qatar and 750 in Bahrain. The international business group now represents 25-30% of the firm's annual turnover, with around 85% of this being attributable to the Middle East operations. The current strategic plan aims to extend this reach further; with some moves on the radar involving the neighbouring countries.

"We developed and evolved a strategic plan a year ago that is very pressing," explains Mir. "We are going to be present in Kuwait in early next year; we've already decided to re-enter Saudi Arabia and we're also re-entering Libya sometime next year. We've done work in all of these countries, but are now going to establish offices there," he adds.

The reason for the expansion is two-fold: opportunities are arising from market growth; plus a desire to spread risk. "Our strategic business plan talks about spreading the risk in these countries. Dubai is an important market for us, but we have significant presence in other areas. We are not after all projects in one country...we have an advantage of being present in many markets, so we can balance out the risks in each," he explains.

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