Neil Muller Construction

Source: Construction Digital

Date :12/06/2008 15:04:52

NMC has a very different approach to the ‘typical’ South African construction firm. Exec learns more

Written by Ian Armitage and Produced by Nicholas Davies

Very much Africa’s superpower, South Africa has the continent’s biggest economy - it also faces major problems. However, with three successful national elections since the end of white rule and Apartheid, a democratic culture appears to be taking hold which is allowing people to have a say in the country’s rapid improvement.

The democratic government is determined to build a ‘bright future’ for all South Africans and has ambitious plans to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014. R372 billion will be spent on infrastructure development in the country over the next few years and this has created a burgeoning construction sector.

Cape Town-based construction company NMC (formerly Neil Muller Construction) - one of South Africa’s leading private construction companies – is playing a noteworthy role in the country’s development.

Exec has learnt that it is currently embarking on a journey to further grow the business to meet increasing demand, and, more importantly, to accommodate more efficient and effective decision making, cost control and improved client service.

“This is an exciting time,” comments NMC Construction’s Managing Director Mike van Coller. As part of this programme, it has launched the NMC Business School, which opened its doors in March 2008. Designed to ‘boost’ the growth of NMC’s supply chain, the school is founded on what van Coller calls “the belief great people build great companies,” mirroring the principles of Ubuntu, which he says are seen as the foundation stones both of NMC and the new republic of South Africa.

“Ubuntu refers to the spirit of the community and togetherness,” van Coller explains. “We are a family and together we achieve a lot more. No one person does it alone. This has extended further than just the employees of NMC, it encompasses the strategic partners of NMC, that being its supply chain, wherein NMC and the supply chain partner work with one another on projects which leads to improved efficiencies and strong relationships.

“This is a unique culture and one which we promote in all our workshops and out on the job. We run our entire business on such principles.”

If the future’s bright, the future’s BEE

Over the past couple of years, due in part to a focus on Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), NMC has kept abreast of its competition and has increased both its turnover and its market share.

Although poverty remains widespread in South Africa, NMC (like the government) aims to encourage black economic empowerment, and so ‘transform’ the current situation.

“We were one of the first construction companies to commit to Black Economic Empowerment and 26 percent equity is in black hands,” says van Coller. This rare empowerment deal was signed in March 2004 with F Stars (Pty) Ltd - formerly Infinity (Pty) Ltd) - a BEE company wholly owned by black women.

“BEE has opened new avenues for us,” adds van Coller, who says it has enabled the firm to procure on a more competitive basis.

“We remain committed to improving our BEE status, as it acknowledges that as we grow, we must be all inclusive,” he continues.

Training

“Building trust” and “setting the standard,” says van Coller, are the drivers behind NMC and its vision for the future. The firm places a lot of emphasis on developing staff, a subject close to van Coller’s heart, as he himself owes much of his own success to NMC’s progressive policies.

“We want to create an environment of motivated and fulfilled employees,” he says, aware that NMC would not have grown to the levels it has without a focus on creating the right culture. “Culture is the most important thing in any business,” van Coller stresses, adding that a lot of “time, effort and expense goes into coaching employees and developing the NMC Culture Wheel.”

The NMC Culture Wheel embraces pride, Ubuntu, relationships, trust and balance and all employees are encouraged to adopt it.

“Training is one of the most critical elements in our success, but empowerment plays an important part too,” says van Coller. “We give empowerment equally [regardless of gender, age, race etc] and let staff take responsibility. This has contributed to our success and keeps people happy as they have a sense of responsibility.”

Filling the skills gap

The construction industry has traditionally been quite poor at marketing itself as an attractive career path - and this is part of the reason for the lack of skills coming into the sector. However, initiatives such as ‘Go for Gold’ are beginning to alleviate the problem, by providing theoretical and experiential training paths for students in their final school years.

“The Go for Gold Programme is fantastic,” van Coller confirms. “It identifies students in underprivileged areas and offers them support. It focuses on mathematics, science and general life skills specifically aimed at implementation within the construction sector. It has been a great success - the students that have come up through this have done very well. Some even work for us.”

The programme was developed jointly by NMC and the Amy Biehl Foundation and enjoys the support of all the major players in the industry. It focuses on ‘upskilling’ Grade Eleven and Twelve pupils from previously disadvantaged schools with extra lessons in mathematics, science and life skills.

Integrity and delivery

NMC is well known for delivering its contracts on time and within budget, and is particularly noted for its design and construct turnkey packages and solutions. In the past it has perhaps been best known for its work on industrial projects, but with the infrastructure boom, it is fast being recognised for work on commercial buildings and shopping centres, in particular.

“I’m proud of what we are and what we do,” says van Coller. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time here and am excited by the future.”

“We have always maintained as a board that we don’t necessarily want to be seen as the biggest contractor out there, but we want to continue to provide opportunities for people that work in NMC. We would like to see continued organic growth and have recently opened a branch in Kwa-Zulu Natal; we are also pursuing a branch in the Eastern Cape .

“For now, we want to maintain our high standard of delivery and we emphatically don’t want to dilute what we’ve got. We want to maintain our strength and keep our clients’ best interests at heart,” van Coller concludes.

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