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.

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