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10 Introduction
Chief Executive’s Statement
Our strategy
Continued
Strategy process
The Atkins strategy is developed by an
integrated process of establishing the Group
priorities and evaluating the strengths of
the businesses within the Group. Business
unit bottom-up five-year plans are therefore
set in the context of the top-down Group
strategic aims.
We evaluate the market areas in which we
may best use our skills, identifying any skill
or market gaps, and formulate options for
approval at Board level.
We review our strategy on an annual basis
focusing on different aspects each year. In
2006 we established a new five-year plan
for the Group providing medium-term
targets that ensured we would deliver
shareholder value. In 2007 we revalidated
the fundamental aspects of the Group
strategy and carried out a thorough market
segmentation exercise to analyse options
for the Group going forward. The 2008
process will review five-year targets in light
of the strategic direction set in 2007 and
Company and market developments since.
Strategy review
The 2007 review confirmed:
• The primary objective of creating longterm
shareholder value as measured by
growth in normalised diluted earnings
per share can be achieved by both our
business activity and our business model
• Atkins will remain a consultancy –
diversification by becoming a pure
contractor, technology company or
developer is not an attractive option
for the Group
• Working across multiple markets gives us
robust underlying performance – we will
focus on those markets that are attractive
and are aligned with the Group’s strategy
• Demand for our services is present in
many countries across the world –
however we focus on those services and
countries that will provide the best
long-term returns for the Group
• The financial stewardship of the Group
allows a return of capital to shareholders
whilst retaining considerable financial
capacity to pursue organic growth and
to exploit suitable strategic opportunities
that might arise
• The recruitment, retention and
development of our staff remain
key to growth.
Following the review we confirmed that
we need to continue to:
• Reinforce our focus upon Identity
and Excellence
• Deepen and improve the quality of
our service offering through recruiting,
retaining and developing our staff
and management
• Follow appropriate sector opportunities
into new and related markets.
We have made good progress by increasing
headcount by 24% in the past three years
and a key element of this has been to apply
considerable effort in recruiting appropriately
qualified staff in Sharjah, Bangalore and
Manila to work for our key home markets
– the UK and Middle East. We need to
continue to focus on maximising the
effectiveness of such intra-group working
and continue to enhance the mobility and
flexibility of our staff. This has improved
materially in the past two years.
With confidence in our markets over the
medium term, the Group has robust
foundations from which to build.
Business Unit strategy
The Group’s decentralised structure and
empowered management allow businesslevel
strategy to be established very close
to the customer, leveraging the competitive
advantage that being part of a larger
group brings.
Decisions about product and market diversity
form part of the Group-level strategy.
Consequently, the business units can focus
on the excellence of their offering in specific
areas where the Group’s capability is best
used to advantage.
WS Atkins plc Annual Report 2008