Case Study Mott MacDonald

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Case Study Mott MacDonald
www.mottmac.com
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So who is Mott MacDonald?

• Mott MacDonald is a wholly independent
  management, engineering and development
  consultancy engaged in public and private sector
  development in 120 countries world-wide

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Facts and figures

• More than 13 000 staff world-wide
• 1600 shareholders all employees
• Founder member of the UK Employee Owner
  Association
• 2007 turnover 750 million (US1.5 billion)
• One of the top ten design firms in the world
• Work in 120 countries world-wide

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Principal offices
Iceland
St Petersburg
Stavanger
Moscow
Warsaw
Dublin
Calgary
Utrecht
Cork
Vancouver
Croydon
Prague
Surgut
Montreal
Kiev
Seattle
Kyzlorda
Mississauga
Budapest
Sakhalin
Albany
Shymkent
Bucharest
Buffalo
Portland
Belgrade
Boston
Alma Ata
Sofia
Barcelona
Cleveland
Pleasanton
New York
Tashkent
Akron
Beijing
Ankara
Provo
Lisbon
Millburn
Istanbul
Pittsburgh
Sacremento
Freehold
Lahore
Monroe
Cape May
Shanghai
San Diego
New Delhi
Houston
Doha
Kuwait
Crestview
Tripoli
Abu Dhabi
Cairo
Panama City
Mobile
Shenzhen
Taipei
Nassau
Pensacola
Bahrain
Dhaka
Muscat
Dubai
Hong Kong
Jeddah
Mumbai
Bangkok
Manila
Port of Spain
Mysore
Phnom Penh
Lagos
Kuala Lumpur
Caracas
Addis Ababa
Port Harcourt
Singapore
Kampala
Jakarta
Darwin
São Paulo
Brisbane
Perth
Johannesburg
Auckland
Adelaide
Maseru
Sydney
Canberra
Melbourne
Wellington
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Story in Russia

• Entered market shortly after the end of Communism
  with offshore funded environmental projects
• Set up representative offices in Moscow and St
  Petersburg
• Gained a small core of trusted Russian staff
  through project work initially
• Bound these Russian staff into our way of working
  through time spent in UK and, eventually,
  shareholding
• Acquired medium size company, Time, leading to
  current staff complement of around 100 in country
• Mott MacDonald Russia established in 2008

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Power Sector

• Had been watching power sector since 1990s,
  including supporting study tours of Russian
  professionals to UK
• Realised around 2005 that things were changing
  and the potential was about to be realised
• UKTI report on Russian power sector made
  available
• Visited and started to meet people support from
  our office was essential (perhaps the embassy
  could have helped someone going in cold)
• Continued with UK study tours, making contacts

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First wins in power

• Russian clients in power were beginning to be
  active on the international scene, had heard of
  us, and found we had a rep office
• After a couple of lost proposals we won a
  significant power station feasibility study with
  Rusal it went well
• Good news travels the reputation this created
  opened more doors and more wins
• Clients now Rusal, RusHydro, Federal Grid
  Company, TGK-1, TNK-BP, Gazprom and others

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Positives

• Many Russian clients want to work with
  internationals
• Relationships of friendship and trust are quite
  easy to establish
• Despite the language barrier we are quite similar
  and have the same humour!
• Very flexible to accommodate short notice
  meetings (if they want to see you)

• Most business goes through Moscow and regional
  clients seem to like to find an excuse to travel
  there to meet you
• Flexible attitude to contracts and payment terms
  in private sector
• Deep appreciation if you put yourself out for
  them
• Can-do culture (private sector and some public
  sector)

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Negatives

• Bureacracy is alive and well it can take a long
  time from agreeing to work together to finally
  starting
• Immaturity of market means a lot of mind changing
  goes on about which projects will proceed
• Beneath the surface much is still unreformed
  mindset differences

• Most British people cannot speak Russian and many
  Russians have limited English, especially those
  over 40 or so almost everything is through an
  interpreter
• Difficult to understand how Russian firms play
  into the market

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Some lessons

• Find some trusted Russians to work with
• Present in Russian as far as possible
• Go there and take some trouble with people
• Business is often driven by younger people
  wanting exposure to Western business methods
  its easy to make progress with them
• But an older guard of more traditional types is
  somewhere in the approvals chain they have to
  be convinced too more difficult
• Plenty of opportunity for cultural
  misunderstandings if you find yourself getting
  deadlocked check this first!

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www.mottmac.com