黑洞社区

Buro Happold鈥檚 mission statement is pretty punchy. Some might say unrealistic. The consultancy aims to help solve the world鈥檚 problems by engineering not only buildings but entire cities and countries. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to engineer better lives for people,鈥� says Mike Cook, the new senior partner.

It is a noble sentiment. But can a top engineer really put saving the world on a par with the day-to-day task of staying in business? Buro Happold鈥檚 partnership model is central to its corporate values and has thus far enabled it to say no to acquisition approaches while other UK engineers are struggling to remain independent. 黑洞社区 spoke to the new chief executive Paul Westbury and Cook, as well as outgoing founding partner Rod MacDonald, to see whether the firm can hang on to the 鈥渟oul鈥� of the company, as they put it, created by MacDonald and others 35 years ago.

That sense of 鈥渟oul鈥� is embodied in the idealistic aim of its new leaders to help developing countries grow more sustainably. But their dilemma is that this can mean working with regimes with a less than exemplary human rights record.

The line between improving quality of life around the world and running a profitable business must be a difficult one to walk at the best of times, not least at the tail end of a recession during a leadership change.

The changeover

Westbury and Cook have been promoted to the top jobs at Buro Happold more in the manner of US presidents, elected by the firm鈥檚 partners, than traditional business leaders. They will be the first new leaders in six years, as their predecessors, Gavin Thompson and MacDonald, have finished the second and final of their three-year 鈥渢erms鈥� as chief executive and senior partner respectively. This is a deliberate and planned strategy to quench Buro Happold鈥檚 demand for new blood. This is so the firm can be run by engineers, who will return to their first love after their time is up. 鈥淎t the end of the term, we want to go back to our engineering,鈥� says Westbury. 鈥淭he firm can鈥檛 afford to lose its best engineers to these big lumpy management roles forever.鈥�

At some companies, senior executives lose their jobs only when there is a problem. At Buro Happold, leadership changes are built into the fabric of the company.

China and the moral dilemma

While the Buro Happold trio stress that the changeover does not mean a radical shift, there is little doubt that the company is changing focus naturally anyway - towards developing and emerging markets, where work is available.

鈥淭he problems that the world faces - urbanisation, population growth, scarcity of resources, scarcity of energy, price of energy - are big issues,鈥� says Westbury. 鈥淎nd we are in a tremendously strong place to step in and help resolve those issues. That鈥檚 at the heart of our strategy.鈥�

But there is a flipside - the trouble for engineers is that they can end up designing nice things for governments that have rather nastier motives. While this poses a problem for all UK companies working abroad, if you aim to use engineering to create a better world, the moral dilemma becomes particularly acute. Has Buro Happold turned down any morally dodgy projects? 鈥淭here are parts of Africa where you wouldn鈥檛 feel comfortable,鈥� says Cook, although this didn鈥檛 extend to Libya: the firm helped design a government complex for the Gaddafi regime in Tripoli. Buro Happold has also done infrastructure and environmental engineering masterplanning for a vast new city at Beitun, in Xinjiang, northern China, which will swell a 30,000-strong town to a metropolis of half a million. The engineer is using its expertise to ensure a 鈥渃ommitment to sustainability鈥�.

Yet the city is designed to replace the current capital of the prefecture, Altay, which is in the north of Xinjiang - a province that is home to the Uighur ethnic minority, which faces widespread labour discrimination and attempts by the Chinese government to 鈥渆ngineer broad cultural, economic and demographic shifts in the region鈥� to marginalise them, according to a 2009 US congressional report. 鈥淭he government imposes top-down development policies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region that exacerbate inequalities and deny local residents the autonomy to chart their own course of development,鈥� it states.

How can Buro Happold be sure it is not being unwittingly enlisted in a development programme to help create 鈥渆thnic unity鈥� in the region?

Cook says 鈥渘o one can ever be sure鈥� about the broader purpose of development by political regimes, but Buro Happold believes it is doing good within the Chinese system. 鈥淲e might not be able to change the political system in these places, but we can work within it,鈥� says Cook. 鈥淚 know from the [Beitun] project the conditions of the people in the region were tough, grey lives - and what we鈥檙e trying to do is give them more comfortable and colourful lives.鈥�

Macdonald then turns the microscope on the West: 鈥淭he Chinese government has brought 400 million people out of poverty in the last 10 years,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he Western world has brought 1 million people out of poverty in the last 10 years. The Chinese government do some things that we regard as not right for modern society, but go back 50 to 100 years in British society and we were doing much worse.

While Westbury says he would rather not wade into the 鈥渢ricky territories鈥� of the relative morality of governments, he commends the efficiency of the autocracies. 鈥淚f you want to get something done in China [or] Saudi Arabia, they get it done.

I mean, holy cow, this stuff moves like the wind and that is bloody refreshing.鈥�

Facts and figures

Projects like these also mean more success for the firm and the trio say staff numbers will grow 鈥渟ignificantly鈥� outside the UK this year, and they are budgeting for 鈥渕odest growth鈥� in Britain, although 14 redundancies occurred shortly after the leadership change due to UK regional restructure. In yet another mark of how the company thinks of itself as different, Westbury is not disposed to talk about the conventional financial measures of business growth.

鈥淵ou talk about growth presumably in terms of turnover,鈥� says Westbury, with a slightly dismissive emphasis on the last word, 鈥渁nd people. We are forecasting enormous growth across every aspect of our business, and by growth I refer to knowledge, passion, drive, energy, experience - and not just revenue. Chasing revenue and chasing headcount doesn鈥檛 actually make a business any better.鈥�

Pressed on turnover, Westbury remains elusive. 鈥淵ou can turn over 拢1bn,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut you can go out of business very quickly 鈥� I鈥檓 almost deliberately not answering your question because we don鈥檛 do things in a normal way.鈥�

Buro Happold鈥檚 website, states that the engineer 鈥渄oes not declare profits鈥�, and only declares fee income up to 2006. But this is not because the firm is in trouble: far from it. Companies House reveals that turnover for the year to 30 April 2010 was 拢123m, down from 拢149m the previous year, but making 拢12.7m in pre-tax profit. Net debt was just 拢1.6m, cut from 拢11.5m in 2008/9.

Buy-up bonanza

Although Buro Happold is in a position of financial strength, mid-sized UK engineers are still being bought up by foreign giants.

At the beginning of April, Danish engineer Ramboll, which has a turnover of 鈧�810m (拢708m), bought British engineer Gifford, meaning Ramboll now rivals Buro Happold in size in the UK. Steve Canadine, Gifford鈥檚 chief executive, said after the deal that British engineers had to be 鈥渢op 10 and growing鈥� to be big enough to expand quickly into overseas markets and avoid takeover. Last year, Buro Happold was ranked at 11.

Westbury is dismissive of the idea that consolidation is inevitable. 鈥淭op 10 in what?鈥� he asks. 鈥淪o they [any engineer] can deliver rubbish,鈥� he says, to the sound of agreeing murmurs around the room, 鈥渂ut provided they鈥檙e in the top 10 largest and they鈥檙e still growing [they can remain independent]?鈥�

Buro Happold鈥檚 approach to staying independent is simple: 鈥淚t鈥檚 very easy to avoid being snapped up by a competitor, because partners will just say no.鈥� This has happened 鈥渓oads of times鈥�, says Westbury. 鈥淲e get loads of good dinners out of it.鈥�

What if, for example, engineering giant Jacobs offered each partner a cool 拢1m for the company; can the new leadership be sure the partners wouldn鈥檛 take the money? 鈥淚t鈥檚 inconceivable,鈥� says Cook. 鈥淵ou need to meet my partners.鈥� Asked if this is exactly what the senior partner at Davis Langdon would have said before the partners voted to sell to Aecom in August last year, Cook adds: 鈥淭hey [Davis Langdon] are not Buro Happold.鈥�

Freedom to be creative is what helps mark out Buro Happold from its much larger, listed rivals, says Cook: 鈥淲e allow our engineers significant freedom to explore and innovate鈥�. This doesn鈥檛 mean Buro Happold is a cushy environment, but any stress comes from finding the right engineering solution, not keeping to procedures.

As Macdonald, the last founding partner, retires and leaves Buro Happold, he says he believes Westbury and Cook are carrying the original values into the future. The kernel of these values is a fierce, almost evangelical, belief in the power of engineering to transform the world for the better.

Westbury quotes the business guru Sir John Harvey-Jones, famous for turning around the chemicals firm ICI in the 1980s. 鈥淭here are three professions. And only three. There are engineers, because they make things. There are teachers, because they train engineers. And there are doctors, because they keep teachers and engineers healthy. Everybody else is parasitic.鈥� Even, for example, journalists? Westbury repeats: 鈥淓verybody else is parasitic.鈥� And you鈥檙e not quite sure whether he鈥檚 joking