True to Focus

BIG PROJECT ME INTERVIEWS PHIL MALEM, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT SERCO MIDDLE EAST, TO HEAR ABOUT HOW THE GLOBAL GIANT AIMS TO HELP THE REGION’S GOVERNMENTS AND ORGANISATIONS ACHIEVE THEIR AMBITIONS IN 2023 – THE UAE’S YEAR OF SUSTAINABILITY ith COP28, and the recently completed COP27, being held in the Middle East, sustainability has been firmly in the spotlight for the region, across all spheres of business and industry. However, nowhere has this been felt more strongly than the built environment, where significant steps are being taken across related industries to push forward with sustainability and carbon emissions reduction methods.

As awareness of sustainability grows, there has been a strong uptick in adoption of policies and processes from companies looking to implement better standards and procedures to become greener and more efficient across the board. Despite this interest and willingness to grow and develop, there remains a lack of knowledge and understanding from organisations, industries, and even governments about what sustainability actually entails.

In order to answer these questions, Serco Middle East, the global professional services company, recently launched the Advisory with Purpose division. Committed to driving Environment, Social, and Governance goals, the firm says that the new division will help it support organisations and governments in the region to achieve their environmental and sustainability targets via an advisory service that spans from concept to implementation.

In a year when COP28 will dominate the agenda of the UAE, the launch of the Advisory with Purpose division will continue to cement Serco’s continued commitment towards embedding the latest global best practices into local organisations and government entities.

This will not only help improve performance, but will also ensure the transfer of knowledge, skills, and resources from Serco’s experts who specialise in sustainable, socially responsible advisory services, says Phil Malem, who spoke to Big Project ME about the British multinational’s plans for the coming year, and his thoughts on the region’s future, and the legacy of the COP events.

From a business perspective, what was 2022 like for Serco Middle East?

Last year was a strong year for the business. Despite a challenging geopolitical and economic landscape, we showed resilience and delivered a strong trading performance, in addition to launching several new ventures to support regional growth.

From an operational perspective, we proactively demonstrated our commitment to KSA with the launch of a new regional hub in Riyadh. This is part of our long-term strategy to develop our Saudi-based resources. We are working on numerous high-profile contracts, and we anticipate continued growth. Our predictions are that the Kingdom will account for over 50% of Serco Middle East’s revenues by 2026.

Finally, we continue to support nationalisation efforts and are future proofing the business with a continued emphasis on attracting the best emerging talent in the region to join us. Last year was the third year of our Graduate Programme in the UAE and KSA. As a business, we are committed to making a difference to the lives of citizens and residents in the region and bringing national visions to life and we will be continuing this programme - and our commitment to creating future leaders - into 2023.

What were some of the major growth areas for the company and how did the company successfully pivot in response to changing market demands?

With COP28 shining a spotlight on this region, we launched our Advisory with Purpose division and we’re looking forward to helping organisations act on their commitments to ESG in a way that enables them to reduce operational costs through digital asset management, create a better future for citizens and residents by providing customer experience expertise, and protect the safety and security of the region through emergency services and crisis management.

We have a long heritage in supporting governments and organisations alike to reach their visions and we are now investing even more into helping them reach their net zero and ESG goals.

The recent launch of our Advisory with Purpose division is a natural progression of the work we have been increasingly doing over the years, and now we’re harnessing our expertise, experience, and ability to implement an under-one-umbrella offering to continue to create a better future for citizens and residents in the region.

How will the company’s performance in 2022 shape its future moving forwards?

As a business that works closely with governments and corporations across the region, our company performance and role reinforce our commitment to our duty to do the right thing. We want to ensure we are operating with purpose at every level. Purpose is what is in our DNA. It’s what motivates us to deliver great work in a positive and sustainable way every day. It is also the seed from which the Advisory with Purpose division sprouted. We have also partnered with the sustainable activewear and streetwear company, The Giving Movement to design eco-friendly workwear for our colleagues, which we announced at our

Leadership Conference in January. We expect to be making additional, similar announcements about how our company is taking purpose to the very heart of our business operations in the future.

What will be the company’s focus areas in 2023?

For 2023, our focus areas will be bringing national visions to life, whilst supporting organisations to operate sustainably. To support this, our Advisory with Purpose division has recently launched, and so, in 2023, this will also continue to grow into a major part of our business offering here in the region.

We have been operating in Saudi Arabia for more than 10 years and we have made significant recent investments there to enable us to support the Kingdom’s significant investment in public infrastructure, as part of its Vision 2030 goals. We will continue to strengthen our regional hub in Riyadh, and we already have advisors across the Kingdom’s public sector and government agencies. The Kingdom is where we see the most amount of growth coming from in the region, and we are committed to bring our operational expertise to help advise on strategies and plans for the long-term.

We are also excited that Serco will have a stand at SpaceOps in March, members of our global space division will be in attendance, and we will be sharing a major update on our plans for Serco’s Middle East Space division. So, it has been a busy start to the year, and there is much more to come.

How are you working with regional governments to help them deliver on their ESG ambitions, and how will the Advisory with Purpose division help with this?

We were very proud to launch our Advisory with Purpose division last month. With President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announcing 2023 as the ‘Year of Sustainability’ in the United Arab Emirates, and measures also featuring heavily in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s transformative Vision 2030 ambitions, we wanted to take proactive steps to support organisations and governments to achieve their environmental and sustainability targets through an advisory service that spans from concept to implementation.

The launch of the Advisory with Purpose division cements our continued commitment to embed the latest global best practices into local organisations and government entities, enabling them to meet their ESG commitments.

This will help improve performance

50%

through the transfer of knowledge, skills and resources from our experts who specialise in sustainable, socially responsible advisory services both globally and in the region. It will also help us to train workforces in ESG, so that we are supporting nationalisation mandates –which is strategically important to Serco.

How do you anticipate COP28 impacting the way organisations look at sustainability and the way they do business and develop their projects?

With 2023 being the ‘Year of Sustainability’ in the UAE, and COP28 being a platform for the region to drive positive change and best practice to protect the people and our planet, organisations will increasingly need to demonstrate they are operating sustainably. ESG is on everyone’s mind – and governments and organisations across the board will need to ensure they are driving towards these goals.

This means that all aspects of business operations need to be looked at, and so there will be an increasing focus on the use of technology, digital assessment management and operating with purpose to ensure we are contributing towards a better planet for future generations.

Nationalisation efforts are another major focus area for Serco Middle East, how are you helping regional governments achieve their nationalisation targets?

We believe that knowledge transfer is key to accelerating nationalisation agendas. If we take KSA as an example, through Vision 2030, the Kingdom will gradually reduce its reliance on international contractors by fostering the skills, capabilities, experiences and qualified personnel within its own population. We have a major role to play here – and we’re proud to help bring national visions to life, whereby we train local workforces that can accelerate the visions of the government.

An example of our work here is our partnership with Expro, where we provide management consultancy services, for a very complex and critical scope of work to the Kingdom. National development programmes will also be key in knowledge transfer and support the sourcing, recruitment, training and development of Saudi nationals within businesses. Another core pillar of Vision 2030 is the privatisation of certain governmental and semi-governmental entities and services. There is no better way to partner with regional governments, than through the development of Saudi nationals. We are passionate about our role in supporting regional governments through our graduate programmes and bringing international best practices to the region.

Further to that, how is Serco helping to improve the gender disparity in the regional workforce?

Our aim at Serco is to create a culture that is diverse and inclusive. Serco allows individuals to experience different facets of the organisation to become wellrounded employees and leaders in the future. In order for a diverse workforce to thrive, we need to encourage women into more roles that are traditionally male dominated; this will allow them to accelerate their path to leadership.

50% of our executive leadership team are women, but we know we have more to do, and so we have a multitude of initiatives to support women at Serco. We have established a focus on women in leadership to get more women in more positions around the boardroom table and from there we are looking at how we can cascade down to support women throughout the business to achieve their ambitions.

For International Women’s Day this year we have planned a special event‘Women in Serco: Leading with Purpose.’ Through this event, we aim to provide a platform for women in our organisation to come together, share their experiences and learn from each other. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women in our workplace and highlight the potential of our female employees.

Finally, what are your expectations and plans for the company in 2023? How do you intend position the company for further success in the coming years? This year we remain true to our focus on operating with purpose and bringing national visions to life. We are excited about the opportunity in the Kingdom, and we’re proud to be working on some major contracts that will help realise and drive forward Vision 2030.

This year we also have COP28 in the UAE – and therefore we are looking to helping drive forward ESG agendas, for example through our Advisory with Purpose division, for governments and organisations alike.

Finally, we are looking forward to continuing to build nationalised workforces – and through the transfer of skills and knowledge, we’re proud to be able to play a role in supporting the region to thrive now and in the future.

At.mosphere

PROJECT NAME:

At.mosphere Restaurant and Lounge

PROJECT LOCATION: Burj Khalifa, Downtown Dubai

CLIENT: Emaar Hospitality

CONTRACTOR:

ALEC FITOUT

PROJECT MANAGER: Mirage Leisure and Development

INTERIOR DESIGNER: London 1508

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