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A minute of your time...

MEP Middle East chats to Drake & Scull International PJSC chief corporate affairs officer Zeina Tabari about the manifold responsibility that a listed company has towards its shareholders, its employees and the construction industry in general.

What is your role in the company?
I have been at Drake & Scull International for six years. I started my career with DSI as HR manager in 2003. When the company was just 500 people; now it is 12 000. In 2006 I was promoted to corporate service director overseeing the HR planning process across the nine areas of the company's activities.

When we embarked upon the process of transforming into a PJSC from a LLC, I wanted to become more involved in the financial side of the business. So I took a year's leave to complete my MA and MBA in the UK. I returned eight months ago to assume my new role in corporate affairs, which encompasses all the ‘soft' services, such as PR, branding, marketing, investor relations and HR.

This is a lot of responsibility, but it has probably been made a little easier as I have been here such a long time. So I know the business pretty well. I am not an engineer myself, but dealing with engineers it tends to rub off on one. When I first started, I used to be far more involved on-site. However, projects then were a lot smaller and more accessible; now we do large-scale mega projects.

What is your current strategy in terms of regional involvement?

A frequently posed question is whether or not we are downsizing. No, we have not downsized, and have no intention of doing so. On the contrary, we have just hosted an open day to fill 100 vacancies for our new civil office in Abu Dhabi.

We had 220 interviews scheduled, and 450 people turned up. Our IWP (infrastructure, water and power) division is also recruiting heavily, as it has clinched another project in the Sudan, in addition to a new project in Saudi Arabia. So the staff requirement still exists.

Instead we are promoting a regional focus. Our MEP and Civil divisions operate in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Our IWP division is based in Dubai, but operates across the GCC and MENA regions.

It is clear that our growth in 2009 will come from the IWP and GTCC divisions. Abu Dhabi is a very good market to be in right now; projects are not coming as thick and fast, and the awarding is taking a long time, but the market is still ticking over. Hopefully we have just picked up another contract in Libya. Yes, the market is difficult right now, but our strategy over the last couple of years has been to expand in other related areas.

What is your assessment of the current trading environment?

What is going on in the market right now is something the entire GCC has not experienced before. The market has gotten used to being higher, bigger and better. The main reason that developers and contractors are not being transparent at the moment is simply because they themselves do not know what is going on.

People often ask me if we have slowed down at all. Right now we are actually working longer hours because we are constantly following up with the developers, especially in terms of the issue of payment. So we are also working very hard on collections. People also ask if we have had projects cancelled or put on hold? I always respond that we are not immune; we are like everyone else in the market. We have even received letters of intent and been awarded projects that have subsequently been cancelled.

What we do in this regard is work even closer with the developers, some of whom we have had a relationship with for three to four years. Hence it is a long-term thing. We are being very patient and trying to help them as much as possible, such as negotiating with suppliers, as the cost of raw materials has declined sharply.

It is very important to see this as a ripple effect. When a developer does not pay its main contractor, it means the sub-contractors and suppliers, in turn, do not get paid. Everyone in the industry needs to understand this and help each other. It is how you respond to the current trading environment that will distinguish companies - whether or not you see it as a downturn or a challenge for further growth.

And do you see it as an opportunity?

Even in a recession, there are so many good opportunities out there. And now is the right time to shine, as it is the survival of the fittest. If you have a good management team with a sound vision, a healthy cash flow, and staff who are willing to stand by you, then you are positioned ideally to make the most of the current situation.

We managed to put on the brakes at just the right time. For example, we embarked on the process of hiring 2 000 workers in September last year, but then decided to adopt a more cautious ‘wait-and-see' approach. Three weeks later, one of the projects we had planned to hire staff for was extended.

This came as a big shock, and to some extent we were in denial. No one expected this to happen. Where were all the financial advisors who had been predicting huge growth in 2009? Suddenly the picture became gloomy. It did not go from white to grey and then black, but straight from white to black. A big problem has been that developers have been investing funds abroad, which has impacted negatively on their cash flow back home.

The fact you are still recruiting means people are still important to you?

The human element is at the heart of what we do. Innovation is also important, but the human resource is the most critical. This extends from our expert technical staff to our blue collar workers. We run frequent awareness campaigns to inform them of the company's strategy and where they fit into it. I also do a lot of visits to our workers accommodation, at least once a month, as happy employees are productive workers. Health and safety and quality are also vital focus areas at present.

We are also taking advantage of the current situation by being proactive and recruiting the best talent out there. There a lot of good people looking for work, and this is an ideal opportunity for us to showcase our strength and that we remain committed to the market. We have recruited enough skilled staff to sustain ourselves until the third quarter of 2010.

We have been in the market since 1966, and are well established. We have never downsized, even with the market crashing. We have not let anyone go. That shows that there is security in the company. Right now we are busy refining our HR strategy in terms of the human element. Yes, it is an employer's market right now. But we are also looking at ways of motivating our employees through an improved working environment and sustainable career paths.

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