National Marine Dredging Company BFM 78

NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

DREDGED FOR SUCCESS

NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

2 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

THE NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY HAS TAKEN ON SOME HUGE PROJECTS, BUT THEIR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT MIGHT BE GETTING THEIR PEOPLE, AND THEIR BUSINESS, SAFELY THROUGH THE COVID PANDEMIC.

DREDGED FOR SUCCESS PROJECT MANAGED BY: GLEN NEWTON

The National Marine Dredging Company was founded under Emiri Law No. 10, issued by the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It went on to become a public joint-stock company in 1986, with an approximate 45% shareholding, and the rest of its shares divided between the Government of Abu Dhabi and various local organisations. Since its inception, the NMDC has been instrumental in the economical, infrastructural, financial, communal and societal development of Abu Dhabi.

I

f we look at NMDC now, it is one of the top dredging companies on the globe,” points out Yasser Nasr Zaghloul, the CEO of NMDC. “We’re unique. We offer complete solutions on a partnership basis. We respect our clients

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absolutely and we intend to maintain and sustain our clients.

We believe partnership is an essential success factor for sustainability, keeping clients happy, keeping their trust, and keeping ourselves at the top of their lists.”

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People, Power, Passion to build on

The Belgian Aertssen Group counts over 50 years of experience in Earthworks, Heavy Lifting and Heavy Transport. A family business grew out to one of the largest and most acknowledged contractors in Europe. With an outstanding portfolio of expertise and passion, the Aertssen Group extends its territory to the MENA region. Aertssen Machinery Services, Ltd. (AMS), with HQ in Abu Dhabi, is the well-established Middle Eastern division, specialized in horizontal and vertical heavy lifting and heavy transport.

AMS owns a large and young fleet of equipment, consisting of telescopic mobile and crawler cranes, lattice boom crawler cranes, mobile tower cranes and SPMT’s (Self Propelled Modular Trailers).

Aertssen Machinery Services PEOPLE, POWER, PASSION TO BUILD ON

ICAD III - Plot. 88NR36 - PO. Box 40196 Abu Dhabi, UAE T +971 2 555 4976 | F +971 2 555 4965 E: info.ae@aertssen.be | www.aertssen.ae

Operating in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates for nearly 42 years, Stevin Rock is one of the largest quarrying companies in the world with a total production capacity with sister company RAK Rock of over 80 million tonnes per year of high quality limestone, dolomite and gabbro for the construction, cement, steel, chemical, glass and mining industries and with total reserves of over 4.5 billion tonnes.

Stevin Rock is proud to be the partner of NMDC in the supply of core and armour rocks for ADNOC’s Ghasha Artificial Islands in Abu Dhabi.

Contact us: stevin@emirates.net.ae +971 7 258 8666

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Follow us:

www.stevinrock.ae

“IF WE LOOK AT NMDC NOW, IT IS ONE OF THE TOP DREDGING COMPANIES ON THE GLOBE.” TAKING ON THE BIG PROJECTS

Of course, NMDC did not start at the top of everyone’s lists. It is a position they have earned by taking on the big projects.

“If you look at NMDC turning points, we started our biggest one in 2009 when we decided to have a commission and participate in one of the biggest seven marine projects at that time,” Zaghloul remembers.

“It was the most difficult and complicated project we’d taken on yet, and it involved working on a live oil field. We participated there, with huge challenges. At that time, we were not a top contender yet and it was a top tier project. But our success there gave us a strong foundation, allowing us to grow.”

Getting to that point was not easy however, NMDC faced huge challenges with that project.

“Almost daily reports were going to the President of Egypt, so you can imagine how stressful that was,” Zaghloul says. “We dredged 200 million cubic metres for nine months.

During that time, we sometimes dredged over 1 million cubic metres a day, so any mistake on that project and there would have been no way to deliver it. But it was very successful, leading us to be on the top list of our industry leaders.”

In remembering how NMDC achieved this, Zaghloul has no doubt who to thank.

“Our main success factor was people, it was a great effort from the NMDC team, with proper

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

planning updated weekly and monthly for risk assessment,” he says. “As human beings, we are more or less the same, but the success of the team is in how you manage them. If you get the right staff, you give them the trust, it gets them involved.”

While management is important, Zaghloul also tells us that NMDC’s reputation has proved to be a magnet for talent.

“When you have a good name on the market you will find the best staff. If you make sure that you have the right rewards and motivation for your team you will have the best staff,” he says.

“Once we finish a project, we spread the knowledge from the project team by moving people around, putting them on other people’s projects, creating the right environment for the company. So, if you have the proper environment for that, if you reward them in the right way with permanent employment, once they see the backlog of NMDC is sustainable, you can offer them a stable personal life, you will get their loyalty.”

PROTECTING THEIR PEOPLE AND BUSINESS

This year, however, NMDC is facing new challenges in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the very beginning, NMDC took a proactive approach to combat the virus.

“On hearing about COVID-19 we had two main objectivesnot only business continuity but caring about people,” Zaghloul says. “We believe the human being is our main asset, all the business around us is to create money, but for what? For people! People are much more important for the business, so they are the end goal for me.

You can’t just ignore the people because you have a successful business.”

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

Once NMDC had identified these challenges and did their risk assessment their found two things.

“The first was about the health of our team, how stressful our team’s lives are working in these environments, offshore, not sitting at home like corporate staff, so this is important to care about,” Zaghloul says. “The other thing is we heard a lot of noise from the clients, so our first response was to care about our people, health checks, development, our crisis management team.

We had 24/7 communication with our team, our people, creating communication channels that are very quick and making sure that in no time you can be in contact with people updating them about what’s happening and how they deal with COVID-19.”

Very quickly NMDC started establishing how it would respond to potential scenarios following the pandemic.

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“Regarding business continuity- it was very important to make sure our company is resilient. The problem mainly would be the cost, so we made sure we had a quick response from the business if anything happened, lockdown, no jobs, anything. How quickly can we respond? How quickly can we make sure of our cash flow and our business community?”

Zaghloul asks. “The executive committee for the company made two or three times a week updates to make sure that we have a quick response and a proper action plan in case of outside circumstances coming to the company. We aimed for a quick, yet studied response with an assessment of any risks, and to be proactive through all of that.”

Indeed, NMDC is already looking forward to a time beyond COVID. “The future of NMDC is that we will recognise challenges as opportunities,” Zaghloul

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

“THE FUTURE OF NMDC IS THAT WE WILL RECOGNISE CHALLENGES AS OPPORTUNITIES. EVERYONE IS FOCUSING NOW ON HOW TO SURVIVE, BUT WE’RE FOCUSING NOT JUST ON HOW TO SURVIVE BUT HOW TO UTILISE THESE CHALLENGES AS OPPORTUNITIES.”

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says. “Everyone is focusing now on how to survive, but we’re focusing not just on how to survive but how to utilise these challenges as opportunities. We have a focused, clear expansion plan, and during this difficult period, to future expansion and growth. I can say we are rising to those challenges now.”

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

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