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Graham Nicholson is executive managing director at Tony Gee and Partners, and has served as ACE’s treasurer for the past three years. He was elected to the position of ACE chair for 2011 and is delighted at the prospect.
“I am quite humbled and honoured to take on the important role of trying to lead our board members. One of the real advantages of working with ACE is that I get to see what is happening across firms in the industry. Being able to share our common challenges helps us find solutions that we might not have thought about around our own board tables.”
The year ahead
Graham Nicholson feels the UK needs confidence and vision to invest in long term projects.
“There are a lot of pressures with the large deficit and everybody knows that there is going to be some pain as that is addressed. So it is for ACE to try to ease that process.”
“It is going to be a tough year but it is going to be better than it might have been. I do believe that ACE has had a real influence on government and managed to get across the findings in ACE’s infrastructure paper. When you look at what is being affected by cuts in public spending, infrastructure has seen a clear direction from government and there is a clear need to maintain spending in the power and energy sectors. In other sectors it is less rosy. Highways are facing cuts and that is going to affect our members, and so it is for ACE to keep getting the message out that infrastructure is the key to the UK’s economic future.”
With that in mind he notes the value of last year’s infrastructure paper.
“It is a fantastic paper and I hope a lot of people get the opportunity to read it. It gets across the case in a very quantitative way. And that is what we need to do, provide a very compelling argument by putting numbers together to demonstrate benefits rather than relying on warm words.”
Finance
Getting projects underway means finding money. Graham is aware of how hard that may yet prove.
“How do we find a way to release money so that the private sector can invest? There is pressure on public spending. We don’t know a great deal yet about the LEPs, but they seem set to engage with the private sector.
“ACE has to be part of that debate. There is some movement now. There are signs of improvement in the private sector, particularly housing and commercial property,in the south of England. We need to make sure that continues and see real commissions and work flow through for members. But we also need to expand our influence to cover as much of the country as possible. ACE is very conscious of the regions and there is room for more regional activity.”
Northern Ireland
Following a terrible winter in Northern Ireland, where water infrastructure virtually collapsed, Graham Nicholson sees wider lessons to be learned.
“The incredibly severe winter has shown the weaknesses in our infrastructure and particularly the fagillity of our water supply. From what I read and see the infrastructure there is old and in poor repair. There is always a case for saying we should invest and maintain, but until the problems arise we have a tendency to put investment off. Then, when all of a sudden there is a problem, the public suddenly ask why hasn’t there been investment.
“So the lesson is that we should be looking forward. We don’t have to assume the worst all the time, but it’s important that we understand the risks and consequences of only dealing with the short term problems. So we must emphasise continued investment in important infrastructure is essential for our everyday lives. Water, sanitation, communication, power and transportation are key areas that we take for granted and that we must maintain and be robust enough to withstand what we can reasonably expect the climate to throw at us.”
Climate change
That leads into climate change and the drive for greater sustainability.
“Weather patterns are changing and global warming is happening. So, although as engineers we can solve these problems after the event, it must be better to look ahead and get engineers leading the solutions at the earliest stage.
“However, we are in difficult times. There are calls from each individual sector making its case. For example, education and health are two that are probably most visible in the public’s mind. Transport too is important as people rely on our infrastructure to get to work and they don’t expect roads to be blocked or the trains not to run.
“In the UK, people generally aren’t exposed to or, feel the impact of, a water shortage. They turn a tap on and the water runs. We should be ensuring that we never get to a situation where we run short of clean, fresh water. People expect water from their taps and you can see the shock on people’s faces when suddenly it isn’t there.”
SMEs
The new chair is keen to build on the formation of ACE’s SME Forum last year and reflect the needs of struggling small firms.
“SMEs can be very sector dependent. Large consultancies often work in a large number of sectors so they can divert resources from sector to sector. Smaller firms tend to specialise and so can’t do that. It is important for ACE to listen to them and help those in sectors where business is relatively depressed.
“I come from an SME and I understand most of the SME challenges. But we do need to find ways to encourage SME members to come to ACE events and make full use of ACE membership. I would like to see greater involvement and participation.
“We know that senior figures in SMEs often find it hard to allocate time to get involved with ACE’s activities. It is different for larger firms who have larger management groups who are able to spread the workload around more. The SMEs are more restricted. However, ACE offers SMEs a large range of benefits for their membership and I’ll work with the new SME Forum under Alan Bramwell to see what we can do this year to engage better with the smaller firms.
“SMEs have some advantages. The ACE Benchmarking project suggests that they have lower overheads and can be competitive in a market where work is in short supply. The trouble is that when there is a falling workload, perhaps due to a lack of capital spend in the private sector, SMEs can suffer. ACE is here to help by engaging with stakeholders and facilitating ways to release finance and allowing clients to fund new work.”
Benchmarking
To build on advantages and overcome problems Graham Nicholson is keen to ensure members are as well informed as possible.
“I’m a great advocate of the ACE Benchmarking initiative and I would like to see members take advantage of what I really do believe to be an incredibly valuable tool. It allows people to understand where the costs are in their businesses and where improvements and efficiencies can be made.
“For my business it has been an incredibly constructive initiative and a confidence building exercise, because it has enabled us to look at all our performance data and, for example, confirm that our overheads are at the right level. We also study the amount we spend on marketing and bidding and so on. To be able to compare ourselves with other similar organisations is very valuable. Even if you are doing well it gives you the confidence to know you are doing everything right.
“If you were to go and employ an outside consultant to carry out a similar analysis it would cost you a huge amount more than the ACE benchmarking project. So for the money it is very good value.”
The future
Finally, while the economy continues to struggle, Graham notes that there is still a positive long term outlook for the industry.
“Although it is a tough year, as an industry we have an awful lot to offer. The challenges of climate change and the challenges of growing the economy are real. The solutions on those will come from our industry. It is really important that we continue to believe in ourselves and invest in the graduates who are coming through our university now so that they remain in our industry. We need to make sure there is a place for them.”
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