20 - Beca: A Case Study in Creativity and Connectivity for Sustainable Business Growth

Summary

Mr Paul White drew from the experience of Beca Asia to demonstrate the creative ways by which companies in Southeast Asia and New Zealand can successfully synergize their operations in both regions. Mr White started his presentation by outlining the work of Beca in Asia. Beca is one of New Zealand's largest privately owned engineering service providers. Catering mainly to the hubs of Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, Beca offers services in engineering, planning, project management and valuations to clients on a global scale.

Mr White elaborated on Beca's early growth in Southeast Asia, which started from the late 1970s. The company established a local presence in areas with the promise of suitable engineering work and recruited local staff to support its senior New Zealand personnel. He said that the “Kiwi desire” to give their business partners a “fair go” complemented the Singaporean partners desire for a long-term “family relationship” and this helped both sides forge a relationship with common values. Local leaders — who rose to be directors in local entities — were encouraged to take up shareholding in the company and this, Mr White pointed out, was “critical” to the growth of Beca in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

Mr White went on to describe the three main “synergies” that mark the company's Singapore-New Zealand business initiatives:

1. The eschewal of patch protection: White emphasized that Beca “cannot afford to be territorial” and thus patch protection had to be avoided fully. Expertise from different offices would be continually required to make what is essentially a “one Beca” product. He said that this was fundamental to Beca's success especially in times when resources are stretched. Further, this provides a basis for technology and management skill transfer.

2. Promoting inter-operability: White pointed out that the open sharing of systems and best practices was critical to both standardization and the avoidance of reinventing the wheel. The ISO 9001 quality system in Singapore for instance was an adaptation of the New Zealand system. Similar such interoperability has been employed in risk mitigation procedures, among others.[…]