The North American market will continue to provide the firm’s “bread and butter,” and will be our primary source of revenue through the next decade.
However, the regulatory-driven, do-it-at-any-cost market catalyst that drove much of the firm’s and our industry’s growth has been tempered by the public’s desire for smaller government and less regulation. Today’s flat domestic market dictates that CH2M HILL must aggressively lure U.S. and Canadian clients away from competitors to achieve continued growth in an industry that is just starting to consolidate. As an industry leader, CH2M HILL will have to work harder to retain clients who will be pursued by our aggressive competitors.
Anyone nostalgic for the “go-go” growth of the 1980s need only look at developing countries (Asia, Central/Eastern Europe and Latin America) and the Middle East. The value of this market equals nearly half of the North American market, and it is growing far more rapidly. As a group, international clients look to U. S. firms for leading-edge technologies and to provide “at-risk” project delivery, which encompasses design/build, construction management at-risk, and various build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) privatization projects.
Design, bid and build services comprise CH2M HILL’s “traditional” project delivery market, and will continue to be the cornerstoneof the firm’s operating foundation. During the past two years, CH2M HILL has dedicated significant resources to develop, document and train staff on our own benchmark project delivery methodologies to ensure that CH2M HILL is the vendor of choice for clients who want consistent, best-in-class services. However, an increasing percentage of our clients are hiring firms that offer at-risk project delivery services. CH2M HILL clearly must add more value, assume and manage more risk, and creatively package a broad range of services to compete domestically and internationally.