My Quest to the Arcadis Hong Kong Office

questIn the previous year I have been interacting with our Hong Kong Arcadis Team and planning my Quest visit to the region.

The purpose of my visit was to understand the Project & Program management services that the team in Hong Kong delivir for our common client HSBC and apply those best practices in India. We have several major projects beginning in India planned in the coming year.

I travelled from Mumbai to Hong Kong, from a developing city to a city where all major infrastructure is amongst the best in the world. This was my opportunity to learn and to share.

On day one I was given a meticulously prepared program by Andrew & Sharon and was introduced to all in the Hong Kong Arcadis office. Later in the day we visited the HSBC main building, where the Arcadis team is providing Project & Program management Services. The HSBC Main Building is the headquarters building of The Hong kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which is today a wholly owned subsidiary of London based HSBC Holdings. It is one of the most critical infrastructure buildings of the bank. A tour of the building was organized; I attended the weekly progress meeting between our team, FM & the client. I have taken several examples of best practices – photo updates as a progress report. I plan to implement the same on the Pune Program, where I am the program manager of HSBCs largest consolidation program.

quest1On day two Stephen Hilton escorted me to the vital HSBC data center: TKO, which is like the central core of the banks data infrastructure. We met with the Arcadis retail design, critical facilities, risk and safety teams. I learned about the complexities and challenges they address on a daily basis.

On day three we visited TST offices meeting and the Arcadis & client project teams there. The team is integrated with the client and I aim to set up a similar structure with the client HSBC team in Mumbai.

On day four I made a presentation for the ARCADIS Asia senior management on opportunities in India, where there has been a rapid increase in infrastructure spending. On the back of the HSBC project delivered in Pune we have more opportunities to deliver Project & PgM services for other clients as well. I met the head of safety HSBC CRE – Yokemun Chan, and spoke about experiences in Hong Kong and key challenges on the India project.

On the last day of my Quest, Andrew organized an informal dinner evening attended by Carl Wilkinson (Regional Head of Capital Projects and Critical Facilities HSBC) & Graham Keegan Head of Arcadis Asia.

This Quest has given me an opportunity to visit the Arcadis Hong Kong office. I was hosted by Andrew Macpherson with great support from Luke Norwood, Anthony Leigh, Sharon Wong, Lisa Shi and Stephen Hilton.

Quest is a great way of exchanging knowledge between regions, where we can learn and share best practice with the consistency of one ARCADIS. Thank you Lovinklaan Foundation for supporting the program.

Aalok Sonawala

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