This has been one of the most interesting projects I’ve been a part of to date. An entirely new industry, a core brand problem that needed to be solved and with billion dollar tenders, a high stakes outcome. This case is a prime example of how strategic thinking can be applied to any industry, regardless of one’s experience in the vertical. In fact, as often is the case, a fresh set of eyes can make a big difference.
Atlas Engineering Group, a mid-sized water and wastewater engineering company, competes with global/local and large/small firms to work on Australian infrastructure projects. And given tenders of significant scale don’t arise often and are typically for 5-10 years contracts, increasing your tender success rate is critical.
Atlas was a nimble innovator who started as a business of one, expanded to a 60+ person strong company in 12 years. They were ready for the next step-change in their business and crystalising their brand and their business model would be the next step in their development. They needed a full brand repositioning to make them stand out in-market, focus the business, direct culture and hiring policies and increase their tender success rate.
Like any good marketer, the first step is diagnosis.
Diagnosis
Stage 1: The industry culture
With billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects going on every year, it was surprising to learn that on average, 48% of projects failed to meet their business objectives (read on time and on budget). This was a staggering statistic and one that would be acceptable in few industries around the world. But given the complexity and scale of projects, it's one that’s considered ‘a cost of business’.
Projects are consistently plagued by a lack of or incorrect data at the outset leading to late stage issues that throw any cost and planning schedules out the window. It’s where the death loop of latent conditions, scope adjustment and variation business cases begin.
“It’s an industry where the majority of effort is in design and construction rather than asset diagnosis and defining the actual engineering requirement.”
The truth was actually quite simple: bad information in, a bad product out.
Secondly, it was an industry geared to new builds. There are two typical types of engineering projects: greenfield projects (new builds from scratch) and brownfield projects (updating existing infrastructure). As the dollar value of new builds was greater, it’s where the focus of the industry resided.
It’s also an industry where teams within a single company work in silos. There is a lack of information sharing, cross pollination of ideas and novel solutions as a result. It’s no wonder why business objectives are only met 50% of the time.
Stage 2: The competition
The complexity of large-scale engineering programs means that your competition one day might be your partner the next. It all depends on the circumstance.
After conducting a competitive analysis of the entire industry across 41 engineering firms, contractors and maintainers, one thing became abundantly clear: if there is an industry where brand and storytelling can make a huge difference, engineering is one of them. A legacy industry where many companies swim in a sea of sameness: saying exactly the same things, looking the same way with the same set of values.
Not necessarily a surprise as most engineers focus on the outcome, not the story. In fact, there were only 5 brands in the entire category who stood out with a distinct brand and compelling story. Atlas needed to become the 6th.
Stage 3: The customer
While the ultimate consumer may be the people of Australia and the communities they live in, Atlas’ customers are governments and corporations who run Australia’s water and wastewater utilities. Their responsibility is to maintain and/or improve community infrastructure.
Always trying to find a cost-effective option they are now also tasked with hitting Australia’s Sustainability 2050 goals across carbon, greenhouse gas and recyclable materials, among others.
To hit those goals, they need to recognise that the cities supporting the communities of 2050 have already been built. So although greenfield projects may get the larger corporations attention, given their huge lead times it’s brownfield projects that will deliver the utilities goals.
Stage 4: The brand & business
Through extensive interviews with the company founder, GM and head of HR, I was able to get under the hood of the brand. What became abundantly clear was that Atlas had a unique point of view and team model that drove their business.
Incredibly, when Atlas was responsible for the entirety of a project (apart from construction and regulatory approval and submission which is not their purview), they were able to complete projects 94% on time and 98% on budget.
How? Where most companies have a typical pyramid structure (a raft of juniors and few seniors), Atlas flipped it on its head. It meant that those with the most experience would not only lead the project, but complete the on-the ground tasks like conducting the asset assessment - their experience allows them to immediately start thinking of solutions or ask questions that might lead to a different solution. At the outset, they are already thinking how it might affect planning, constructability and maintenance.
It’s on-the-ground-experience that helped Sydney Water avoid a $10m greenfield project to replace the obsolete DC motors with AC motors, and associated equipment by turning it into a $300K brownfield project - they just needed to raise the weir by 300mm to solve the problem. Someone just needed to look at the problem a bit deeper.
Atlas were also an early adopter of new engineering technologies and are nimble enough to test new ideas. A truly future-focused organisation who never rested on its laurels.
Strategy
These learnings would inform both the business strategy as well as the brand strategy. Already embedded in the brand's DNA, it just needed to be fashioned into a compelling story for both internal and external stakeholders.
Business strategy
Double down on brownfield water projects. And more specifically, brownfield programs of jobs (a solution applied to multiple infrastructure sites). Not only are the importance of brownfield projects on the rise, but programs of jobs meant that instead of working on a single job worth $1m, you might work on 100 x $1m projects with repeatable solutions across sites.
And with the lack of brownfield specialists in Australia, Atlas’s experience in these projects over the last 12 years would stand out.
This business decision would focus their tender efforts, shape their teams, hiring policies and processes. With everyone competing for greenfield projects (new builds), Atlas would focus on lower dollar value projects - the perfect whitespace for a mid sized company. And when ‘lower-value’ projects could still run into the $100m+ value bracket, it’s good business.
Brand Strategy
Atlas' new positioning and tag line would become Engineering Lifecycle Performance. A line that focused on Atlas’ differentiation starting upstream in the process at the Asset Assessment phase and providing continuity throughout. Not focusing solely on engineering design like the competition and a company who can deliver through the lifecycle of the engineering process and deliver on the lifecycle of the asset itself. Although sustainability was important, it was industry table-stakes and a red-herring we needed to avoid.
Engineering Lifecycle Performance speaks directly to the future of the industry and infrastructure goals.
With a new positioning, Atlas would need to start from scratch when it came to their brand story. They had never articulated one. We started by codifying their Vision, Mission, and How they would deliver it.
It would be an inspiring call to arms to change the state of the industry: to transform the brownfield standard of success.
We also codified their process of owning the full process lifecycle and branded it LIFECYCL (lifecycle engineering).
Finally, we aligned their values and governing principles to communicate to employees and ensure it would be brought to life. Values focused on innovation and optimised delivery. They also clearly highlighted which firms Atlas should seek out partnerships with for joint tenders based on their common set of beliefs.
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The brand would also be redesigned to portray its modern views and practices, embrace of digital technologies and its focus on water infrastructure projects. Where the majority of the competition would use the same stock imagery of happy people and communities, we’d elevated the design focusing on water in all its forms. It’s amazing how much design can impact the perception of your brand inside and out.
Brand guidelines
Capability statement
By the end of the process, Atlas Engineering group had a clear vision and story for both internal and external stakeholders with materials including:
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Vision, Mission and Values setting and documentation.
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EVP development and HR documentation (onboarding, check-in and performance reviews)
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Brand Book & Guidelines
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Company-wide presentation of new brand positioning and how it impacts company processes & teams
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External presentaiton
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Creation of new external Atlas Capabilities Document
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Website and case study content updates
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Personas
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Marketing and content plan
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Marketing materials
A mammoth project that launched at the beginning of Q2 with a great initial response from both Atlas employees and clients.
“The work Ryan has developed for Atlas has given our company and its employees a clear, unified direction. For the first time our teams understand our broader purpose and our prospective clients and partners are seeing our value beyond pure engineering design. It's already started opening doors for us at Melbourne Water and my teams are chomping at the bit.”
Scott Rudram, Founder, Atlas Engineering Group
What a great document! I’m not usually one for reading through capability statements – but this had me engaged all of the way through. Suspect a lot of time has been spent ‘crafting’ this. Really clear on where you can add value and what you have on offer.
Dave Evans | Pre-Contracts Manager | Utilities | Fulton Hogan
Excited to see how Atlas changes the engineering game going forward.