The EIC's Supply Chain Case Study Series will highlight key EIC Survive and Thrive Insight Report case studies all throughout COP26, highlighting the success stories of the energy sector in decarbonisation and innovative new energy transition technologies.
On Day 4 we look at Wood's journey to unlock solutions to the world’s most critical challenges.
How is Wood thriving?
In a fast-paced and changing world, Wood is strengthening its position as a global leader in consulting and engineering across energy and the built environment, on its quest to unlock solutions to the world’s most critical challenges. Against a challenging economic backdrop and the intensifying necessity for more carbon responsible and sustainable industries, Wood continues to leverage its core competence, rich heritage and unrivalled experience to diversify its portfolio and strengthen its position as a trusted partner for its clients in the evolution towards a lower carbon and more resilient future.
The challenge
Even pre-COVID-19 pandemic, global megatrends were already reshaping the energy industry. Ambitious, though essential, net-zero targets being set at industrial, national and international levels, combined with the need to accelerate digitalisation and drive a step change in the efficiency and optimisation of operations, have catalysed transformation within organisations up and down the value chain.
For global consulting and engineering giant Wood, the imperative to diversify and reduce its reliance on traditional oil and gas was epitomised in a pivot point five years ago when 96% of revenues were derived from its heritage core market. Wood’s acquisition of Amec Foster Wheeler in 2017 broadened the company’s base, unlocking significant potential across a much wider range of end markets. But realising the potential of the major merger was no foregone conclusion.
The increasingly competitive landscape in the conventional energy space, together with the socio-economic and environmental pressures to transform the way industry does business, has created an opportunity for Wood to position as a leading partner for its clients as they navigate towards better, smarter, and cleaner operations.
The solution
Wood has taken deliberate, and successful, steps to diversify its oilfield services roots and to evolve to become a broader engineering and consultancy business. Today, it offers lifecycle solutions across many markets, including life sciences, renewables, power, utilities, transportation, mining, and the circular economy, helping to design, build and operate projects and assets that enable a more sustainable and liveable future.
Tackling the company’s heritage perception with existing and new clients, evolving and strengthening a differentiated market position, realising growth in new end markets, and disrupting traditional client-contractor relationships have been key to realising success in the transformation and diversification of Wood.
The pandemic presented an opportunity to truly ‘do different’. In the last year, Wood focused on bringing its strategy to life; delivering resilience and agility in the face of unprecedented and enduring challenges.
As part of that focus, Wood has broadened and deepened its relationships with key clients. Taking meaningful and tangible steps towards disrupting traditional ways of working and focusing on achieving effective and value-adding collaboration, has represented a real differentiating point for Wood.
Broadening its clients’ perceptions of its capabilities is creating the opportunity for Wood to leverage the range and depth of its global experience and expertise to propel innovation and problem-solving. Using agile methods, Wood is working with its clients to break down long-established and sometimes complex barriers to collaboration by integrating the collective competence, capability, and experience of both organisations to unlock transformative solutions otherwise not achievable.
Embedding trust and sharing a willingness to fail fast but learn faster is unleashing a new level of creativity in solution development and innovation. For example, taking this approach with one client resulted in the transformation of how their work offshore is approached, planned, and prepared, supported by a myriad of data that has been rejuvenated to create digital twins for several North Sea assets.
With its diversification focus, Wood is delivering a more resilient income base. Its traditional oil and gas activity now accounts for 35% of revenue, with downstream and chemical (20%), renewables and other energy (25%) and sustainable infrastructure (20%) now accounting for significant shares of income.
However, this is not to suggest that Wood will forsake its core market. Thanks to its now strengthened renewables expertise, Wood is supporting its traditional client base to develop novel and impactful decarbonisation roadmaps, incorporating carbon capture, platform electrification, offshore wind, and hydrogen. Once more, Wood’s diversified knowledge and expertise is combining with its formidable oil and gas experience to solve highly relevant and critical issues.
As the world begins to emerge from the pandemic, Wood will continue to support its clients through the challenges of today and tomorrow. Having safeguarded against the worst of the COVID-19 storm, Wood is better placed than ever to work with its clients to unlock solutions to their most critical challenges.
About Wood
Wood is one of the world’s leading consulting and engineering companies across energy and the built environment. The company operates in more than 60 countries, employing around 40,000 people, with revenues of around US$8bn. It provides consulting, projects and operations green-to-green lifecycle solutions across a broad range of industrial markets, including: upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas; power and process; environment, transportation and infrastructure; clean energy; mining and minerals.
Read the full EIC Survive and Thrive Insight Report here.