Nearly 4 decades after its establishment in Abu Dhabi, National Consulting Office for Engineering (NCO) is navigating a UAE project environment defined by scale, complexity and rapid technological change. CEO Amir Hasan (known to the industry as Amir) explains why sustainable growth depends on accountability and the ability to build organisational capability ahead of demand.
The UAE’s engineering landscape is entering another significant phase of development. For engineering consultancies, the role is consequently changing. Technical expertise remains fundamental, but it is increasingly accompanied by demands for delivery certainty, integrated project management, stakeholder coordination, digital collaboration and stronger visibility of risk and performance.
National Consulting Office for Engineering (NCO) has experienced that evolution first-hand. Established in Abu Dhabi in 1986, the company has grown from a smaller engineering practice into a multidisciplinary engineering and management consultancy serving public and private sector clients. Today, its capabilities extend across concept studies, FEED and detailed engineering through to construction management, stakeholder management, project controls and digital delivery.
The company works across many different market sectors including industrial buildings, infrastructure, utilities, renewable energy and other building developments.
Its current portfolio reflects the changing nature of the UAE market. NCO is involved in the engineering of power infrastructure supporting industrial development in Ruwais, civil and multidisciplinary design for one of the UAE’s major solar projects in Al Ajban, and the development of a new high-voltage grid station at ICAD4. The consultancy is also undertaking FEED, tendering and construction supervision assignments for water and utility infrastructure.
For CEO Amir, however, the most important lessons from NCO’s growth have not been about expanding the business for its own sake. They have been about building an organisation capable of sustaining performance as complexity increases.
The transition from a smaller practice to an organisation of more than 100 professionals fundamentally changed the way NCO needed to operate.
“One thing we learned during a significant period of growth was that informal communication stops working surprisingly quickly. As the organisation expanded from a much smaller team to well over 100 professionals, visibility and alignment became much more important than they were before. Over the years, NCO has continued to invest in people, strengthen leadership layers, improve communication and build systems that support decision-making. Growth itself was never the objective. Sustainable growth was,” says Amir.
“The lesson for us has been simple: as organisations grow, they need to become stronger operationally. Otherwise growth eventually creates more problems than opportunities,” he adds.
It is a lesson that resonates across the consultancy sector. Growth brings additional revenue and market opportunity, but it also creates more decisions, more information and greater potential for disconnects between teams.
The ability to manage that complexity therefore becomes an organisational capability in its own right.
For NCO, that has meant investing not only in technical resources, but also in management structures, communication, processes and systems.
As projects become more multidisciplinary, the challenge is often not whether the required technical expertise exists, but whether that expertise is sufficiently coordinated.
“Most project issues are not technical. They usually happen when ownership is unclear or decisions are delayed. One practical step NCO introduced was regular operational alignment reviews. As project volumes increased, it became important to bring project managers and department leaders together to review commitments, risks and bottlenecks,” explains Amir.
Furthermore Amir remarks, “Projects operate with defined responsibilities, deliverables, budgets and schedules. More importantly, people know who owns the decision and who is accountable for the outcome. That clarity has helped improve collaboration and resolve issues earlier.”
That philosophy is particularly relevant to NCO’s current project portfolio, where the consultancy’s responsibilities often extend across several disciplines and interfaces.
On Project Volta in Ruwais, NCO is undertaking detailed engineering for the 220/33kV grid station at the Volta Centralized Utility Plant. Its scope encompasses architectural, structural, water supply, drainage, HVAC, electrical and conceptual firefighting engineering for the complete electrical special facility.
The consultancy is also responsible for the design of a crossing bridge over the project’s seawater intake channel. The structure must accommodate heavy-duty vehicular loading in accordance with Abu Dhabi Vehicular Load standards while integrating stormwater drainage pipes within the bridge.
Significantly, NCO’s role does not end with the production of design drawings. Its obligations also include interface, modification and integration works at remote ends – a responsibility that highlights the importance of coordination beyond individual engineering packages.
Project Volta itself forms part of the continuing industrial expansion of Ruwais. The cogeneration facility is being developed to support the growing industrial ecosystem,
For consultants operating on such projects, the engineering solution is only part of the challenge. Ensuring that multiple systems, disciplines and stakeholders remain aligned is equally important.
From individual management to organisational visibility
As NCO grew, Amir says the company encountered another familiar challenge: information was available, but it was not necessarily visible across the organisation.
“To be honest, the biggest change was visibility. As the business grew, we realised that important information existed in different places. Project teams had information, departments had information and finance had information, but there was not always a complete view across the business,” he says.
“Over time, NCO introduced more structured systems and reporting across project management, finance, procurement and human resources. Project reviews became more regular, resource planning improved and performance information became easier to access and understand. We also placed greater focus on project budgets, schedules, resource utilisation and risk monitoring. The objective was not to add more process. It was to make better decisions with better information. The biggest shift was moving from managing through individuals to managing through visibility,” adds Amir.
The principle is increasingly relevant as consultancies manage portfolios rather than individual projects.
Visibility over project budgets, resources, schedules and risks allows leadership teams to identify emerging issues before they become critical, while giving project managers a clearer understanding of the broader organisational context in which they are operating.
The approach also supports scalability. A business that depends heavily on individual knowledge can struggle as it grows, whereas structured information and reporting create a more repeatable operating environment.
Consistency without losing flexibility
NCO’s portfolio covers sectors ranging from infrastructure and industrial development to energy, utilities and residential projects. Maintaining consistency across such different environments requires common standards, but Amir argues that standardisation should not come at the expense of client-specific solutions.
“Although the sectors are different, client expectations are usually the same. They want quality, reliability and confidence that commitments will be met. NCO maintains common review processes, technical standards and delivery frameworks across the business while still allowing flexibility for project-specific requirements,” explains Amir.
“We also encourage teams to learn from one another. Lessons from infrastructure projects, utilities, industrial developments or residential projects are regularly shared across the organisation. That helps maintain consistency regardless of sector,” he states.
That cross-sector learning is particularly valuable in a market where energy, infrastructure and industrial development are increasingly interconnected.
NCO’s involvement in Al Ajban Solar PV3 provides a clear example.
The 1.5GW Al Ajban Solar PV3 project is one of the UAE’s major renewable energy developments. Located approximately 70km northeast of Abu Dhabi, the project is designed to contribute significantly to the emirate’s growing solar generation capacity.
NCO’s technical scope covers the complete detailed civil design for the IPP area, including the stepup substation, security fences, gantry structures and access roads.
The design responsibilities encompass civil, structural, architectural, water supply and drainage, HVAC and initial Civil Defense drawings for the structures within the project boundary. NCO is also responsible for the 400kV cable trench design, with the project structures designed for a minimum service life of 30 years.
The nature of the project illustrates the increasing convergence of traditional engineering disciplines with the requirements of the energy transition. Large-scale renewable generation requires not only photovoltaic technology but also substantial electrical, civil and infrastructure systems capable of integrating that generation into the wider network.
For Amir, the transformation of the client-consultant relationship has been particularly noticeable over the past decade.
“Client expectations have changed considerably over the last decade. Ten or fifteen years ago, clients were mainly looking for engineering solutions. Today they also expect support with delivery certainty, stakeholder management, risk visibility, digital collaboration and long-term value. To respond, NCO has strengthened its multidisciplinary capabilities, project management expertise and digital delivery capabilities. The conversation today is much broader than design alone, and consultants need to contribute across the full project lifecycle,” says Amir.
That evolution is reflected in NCO’s work for TAQA Distribution, where the consultancy is undertaking assignments covering FEED design, tendering services and construction supervision for water infrastructure and utility building infrastructure.
The progression from early engineering definition through tendering and into construction supervision demonstrates the value of continuity. When knowledge is retained across project phases, consultants can better understand the reasoning behind earlier decisions and identify potential issues as projects move towards execution.
It also places greater emphasis on the consultant as a long-term project partner rather than simply a designer delivering a defined package.
Designing for integration
Fragmentation remains one of the industry’s challenges. Projects can involve different consultants, contractors, disciplines and stakeholders, each with their own responsibilities, information and priorities.
“One of the biggest causes of inefficiency in projects is fragmentation between phases. When planning, design, project management and stakeholder engagement operate separately, information can be lost between handovers. An integrated approach helps maintain continuity and improves decision-making throughout the project lifecycle. For clients, that usually means better coordination, earlier identification of risks and fewer surprises during execution,” explains Amir.
NCO’s work on the new 400kV grid station at ICAD4 illustrates the breadth of this integrated approach.
The consultancy’s scope encompasses full architectural, structural and infrastructure design for the 400kV GIS building, 220kV GIS building, control building and fire pump house.
It also includes transformer foundations, GIB foundations, capacitor bank foundations, fire water tank foundations, fire trenches, duct banks, interconnecting trenches, internal roads, boundary walls, site grading, drainage and stormwater systems.
Such a facility brings together multiple engineering requirements within a tightly coordinated site environment. The successful delivery of each individual component depends on its relationship with the others.
For NCO, that reinforces the argument for maintaining continuity between disciplines and project phases.
Digitalisation for the future
Technology is changing how that coordination takes place. BIM, digital collaboration platforms, digital twins and increasingly sophisticated data environments are becoming integral to the way major engineering projects are designed, coordinated and delivered.
But Amir sees the value of these technologies in practical rather than purely technological terms.
“The value of digital tools is not the technology itself. The value is visibility. Tools such as BIM and digital collaboration platforms allow teams to work from the same information, improve coordination and identify issues earlier. We have seen this particularly on multidisciplinary projects where design coordination is critical. When information is visible and accessible, accountability becomes clearer and decisions can be made more quickly and with greater confidence,” explains Amir.
That perspective is significant because digital transformation can easily become focused on the acquisition of technology rather than its application.
For an engineering consultancy, the real benefit comes when digital tools improve collaboration, reduce information gaps and support better decisions.
In complex multidisciplinary projects, the ability to establish a reliable common information environment can directly influence project performance.
AI and the next evolution of engineering
The emergence of artificial intelligence is likely to accelerate that transformation. Engineering firms are beginning to explore AI for tasks ranging from information processing and document management to design support, analysis and business operations. Yet the question of how far AI should influence engineering decision-making remains an important one.
Amir sees AI primarily as a means of strengthening professional capability.
“AI has the potential to improve productivity and decision-making across our industry. Recently, we ran an internal exercise where teams used AI tools to develop visual solutions around business challenges. What stood out was not the technology itself but how quickly teams were able to generate ideas and communicate them. AI can help professionals process information faster and spend less time on repetitive tasks. What it cannot replace is judgement, experience and accountability. The organisations that benefit most will be those that use AI to strengthen human capability rather than replace it,” explains Amir.
This sentiment has been echoed across most of the industry since the beginning of this year.
The most successful applications are likely to be those that remove repetitive work, improve access to information and enable engineers and project managers to spend more time on higher-value activities. For an industry ultimately built around professional responsibility, however, the human element remains central.
Preparing for a more complex decade
The next decade is likely to place even greater demands on engineering organisations. The UAE’s energy transition will require new renewable generation and associated grid infrastructure. Industrial expansion will create demand for sophisticated power, water and utility systems. Urban development will continue to require integrated infrastructure, while clients will increasingly expect projects to be delivered faster and with greater transparency.
Amir believes the organisations best positioned for that environment will be those that develop capabilities before they are forced to do so.
“Technical expertise will remain important, but it will not be enough on its own. Successful organisations will need strong leadership, digital capability, effective governance and the ability to attract and develop talented people. The organisations that prepare for complexity before it arrives are usually the ones that sustain performance over the long term. Adaptability and execution will become increasingly important,” believes Amir.
It is a view that places organisational capability alongside engineering capability.
The ability to recruit and retain skilled professionals, establish effective leadership structures, use information intelligently and maintain governance as the organisation grows may ultimately determine whether a consultancy can convert market opportunity into sustainable performance.
For Amir, that requires leaders to recognise when the management model that worked in a smaller organisation has reached its limits.
“One lesson many leaders learn is that they can unintentionally become bottlenecks. What works in a smaller organisation does not always work in a larger one. At some point, growth requires leaders to spend less time making every decision themselves and more time building capability around them,” he explains.
“My advice is to invest early in people, accountability, leadership development and systems. Growth creates complexity, capability absorbs complexity, and organisations that consistently build capability create lasting value. Sustainable growth is ultimately about building an organisation that can continue to perform without depending on a small number of individuals,” concludes Amir.
Hence then, the article about building for growth was published today ( ) and is available on ME CONSTRUCTION NEWS ( United Arab Emirates ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Building for Growth )
Also on site :
- Trains carrying Boris Johnson and foreign dignitaries were 'likely' targets of Russian drone attack, Ukrainian officials say
- Jemima Goldsmith marries multi-millionaire financier Cameron O'Reilly as her cricket legend ex-husband remains seriously ill in Pakistani prison
- Labour is accused of trying to 'punish' Reform with law that could force it to return its £72million in donations