Luis Burnay, First Q General Manager

A Mechanical Engineer graduated from IST in Lisbon with a post-graduation in Fluid Dynamics from the VKI in Belgium, Luis, 46, began working with Luis Malheiro, the CEO of First Q's Portuguese shareholder, back in 1986. Since then he worked in the USA, in Portugal and now in the UK. In 2002 the founders of First Q invited him to set up, launch and manage the operations in London. “I found the challenge irresistible, in particular because of the people I would be working with in an international environment”.

Which were the immediate goals of First Q?

The main objective of First Q is to translate into real business more than a decade of personal and professional relations between 8 companies from different countries in Europe, creating a vehicle for a stronger and more efficient international cooperation and business development. We started in earnest in 2003 and in this short period have already fulfilled contracts in 6 countries in Europe. It's a difficult market with many well established and respectable players, but we have a different message that is proving successful.

…and what is that different message?

The main message is “we are truly local in many places”! We possess our own resources in 8 countries, through which we deliver absolute local knowledge. Unlike most established players in the international scene, we are not an export company. We deliver our best when we deliver locally, through one of our companies, but we are also capable of providing a central single-point-of-contact for contract- and resources- management. We are currently more than 450 people in the shareholders' 8 countries and are expanding to new markets through carefully selected associations.

With this structure in place, we don't need to establish occasion-driven joint ventures or engage in subcontracts with entities we have never worked with, because we already have our local presence (through real corporate commitments) with players that are leaders in their markets.

Which has been, until now, the most important First Q collaboration?

The most illustrative example of our capacity and business model is the work we have been doing for a leading French retail Group. With this client, we are currently engaged in 3 countries, using 4 different First Q offices for 7 projects of between 2000 and 3500m2 for two of its brands. All contracts are performed through First Q Ltd in London in order to guarantee that the Client's standards, philosophy and modus operandi are maintained throughout the different projects. Mind you: this is not easy to achieve! Dealing with a Client from one country and then internally with 3 or 4 teams from 3 other countries requires a significant effort in understanding the different cultures, the local procedures such as the particular regulations, licensing issues (that vary enormously from place to place), tendering practices and, last but not least, overcoming the language barriers that still exist!

How do you see the sector of engineering in Europe, specifically in the countries where First Q is present?

The sector is suffering from overcrowding and under pricing, which drive margins to ridiculously low levels. We are also suffering from longer delays in payments that place an enormous pressure on cash-flow and stifle growth and development.

In my opinion this cycle can only be broken by diversifying our services, by bringing innovation into our approach as Consulting Engineers, reinforcing our “Consultant” capacity! There is an immense need for our services throughout the life-cycle of buildings, not only in the design phase; there is an inescapable pressure to change the design practice and bring in concepts that will improve our lives and the investments of our clients. We are strongly involved in this change process, by adopting more sophisticated design approaches, by seeking an involvement further upstream with the clients from the moment they idealize an investment and by providing a continued service during the operations and maintenance of their assets.