sureside exists to do things differently, to align our organisation with common values and to invest in outcomes we and our communities seek. the reasons why we do things differently is described in our values and philosophy. But what are the differences? how have our values and philosophy resulted in differences. How is a client’s experience with sureside going to differ from any other consultancy?

authenticity

at our core and perhaps more important than anything else we do is the authenticity we provide to our clients and our community.

we do this primarily in the way we communicate with our clients. we aim to be frank, transparent and factual. in what we’re communicating, we always seek to reach a mutual understanding of our project between ourselves and our clients, what is really motivating the project, what our genuine concerns are from the perspective of designer, advisor and client. what do sureside’s services cover, is there a disconnect there?

this website aims to demonstrate our approach. there is no word salad. there are no ‘buzz’ words that we do not practice. what we say is what we do. we want our clients to know who we are. we want our clients to read about us and to recognise that as exactly their experience.

authenticity is not necessarily automatic. sureside is taking measures to develop systems that support its business operations to enhance mutual understanding of undertakings, limitations and expectations.

attention

our clients are our lifeblood. regardless of size, revenue or cause. all of our clients are valued and all warrant and can expect our prompt attention.

again, this is not automatic. it is also challenging but there are measures that can be taken enhance the attention paid to our clients.

Most important is undertaking time critical roles. sureside, out of principal does not take on time critical roles. we are not set up to do this. to do so would be to accept the diminishment of our attention to our clients. time critical roles include being the contractor’s designers on design & construct projects and some construction phase services. historically, on construction phase services we have subcontracted to ensure responsiveness to client needs.

sureside also does not take on lead roles on major projects. we have major project experience and capability but are suited as an augmentated resource, partcularly where technical and managerial oversight is sought.

profit is not paramount

to sureside, profit is sustainability, it is contributions, it is a sign of good business practice, it reflects great client relationships, it reflects fulfillment and is an indication of the merits of our business model.

it is not everything.

we do not prioritise profit over technical excellence, the interests of our clients nor the interests of our community.

in our view all businesses should aim to make a profit. without the measure of profit it is difficult to gauge what constitutes responsible business practice. our difference is, what is paramount in our day-to-day decisions. in traditional business, most consultancies prioritise top tier responsibilities such as safety, compliance and a narrow view of ethical considerations as non-negotiable priorities above profit. then comes profit and obligations to the organisation as these represent self interest. However typically, close behind these are considerations of a broader view of ethical considerations.

some consultancies go further than this. Profit is their primary motivation. return to shareholders is a non-negotiable and engineers and advisors can feel that they need to walk a tortuous path between their own ethics and their obligations to their employer. Such decisions may commonly be taken out of their hands.

our reality is not worlds apart. profit and good business practice have to be taken into account, this is vital to the sustainability of the business. the difference is, profit would rarely steer our day to day decisions. our day-to-day decisions shall always fall back to our values and philosophy with considerations of profit being simply a component of our values and philosophy. our attitude to profit shall primarily come back to improvement activities and what measures we can take within our business to realise profits. it shall not be a basic question of simply being at the expense of our clients and our project outcomes.

experience

our experience and capability shall be face to face. it is the sureside representative you talk to, that undertakes the design, that steers the project. client’s enjoy our full attention and further the attention of senior and capable people.

technical capability

technical capability is a cornerstone of sureside’s offering. our processes seek to ensure that the capability we offer is appropriately suited to the project and the way it is undertaken. What’s more, we share our capability, it is woven into our systems, our curriculum vitaes and is included in this website.

our capabilities are broad, this is a key attribute for a maritime engineer. our projects are broad and multifaceted and we are able to call upon a broad range of proiject experience and roles.

value proposition & accessibility

we’re affordable. that’s right… we’re more senior, more capable and more affordable!

how do we do this?

our clients do not pay for commercial office space, we’re virtual as well as mobile.

we’re not beauraucratic. our systems are fully integrated and focussed upon precisely what we do. our senior people are not focussed upon business systems but project outcomes.

we do not need complex and expensive systems that are necessary of large organisations and organisations engaged in major projects. our business is simple. we do work and we only need simple capability to deliver these services.

our costs are invested in the very thing that delivers superior outcomes for our clients. our people. that is senior and capable people being rewarded for their capability. also, the very real investment in the development of our talent.

risk

our systems seek to tie our activities to risk.

this is an innovative approach to system development where risk translates to all business activities.

this shall be a long journey to develop systems that are fully conversant in measures of risk to guide how our services are conducted and our business operates.

measures of success

ultimately, the measure of success of sureside is not its financial bottom-line.

it is the standard of client expectations, it is attention to project outcomes of community scale projects, it is nurturing an investment by highly capable profressionals into outcomes for our maritime, coastal and riparian communities. it is improvements in practice and it is a change in the way projects are undertaken. it is taking a broken way of doing things and morphing into an optimised method of project execution. a shift away from profit based motivations to values-based motivations.

it is also building systems that facilitate changes in expectations and practice. it is being progressive, identifying needs and venturing to progress to practices that better meet identified needs.

along the way, we’d love to see conservation efforts enhanced, feel recognised and valued.

best for project

is sureside’s capability suited to our client’s project. that is a fundamental question that we ask of ourselves. if not, we seek and bring in the capability to align to the project.

why is that different? well contract capture is a significant part of the consultancy business model. the capture itself often involves offering both a diverse and deep capability to the client that assists the client by avoiding the client having to go through its own extensive procurement process for each capability. unfortunately, the client is often limited to only undertaking a skin-deep assessment of the consultant’s capability. once the consultant has ‘control’ of the way a project is executed, the consultant is then able to direct revenue to its own resources, almost independently of its actual capability or suitability for the project. on some occasions, where required capability lies outside the bounds of the consultancy, they’ll bring in the expertise.

The benefit of this approach is (1) its circularity, (2) that it facilitates access to high revenue opportunities and (3) cross-market opportunities based around existing relationships.

the circularity benefit comes from maintaining a diverse capability in order to attract enhanced opportunity capture. many consultants in a given market cannot offer the depth of capability required for a diverse project. hence, for larger projects, competition goes down to a few ‘usual suspects’ and thus returns increase.

in between major engagements, it becomes the challenge of the large multi-disciplinary consultancy to maintain its capability for the next major opportunity. During this period a consultant has to attract sustainment revenue. this is commonly achieved on smaller to mid-sized projects, using the otherwise unutilised resources, with those resources being optimal and geared towards major project capability.

cross-market opportunities are another source of sustaining capability. for maritime and coastal markets, cross-market opportunities typically come from industry, defence, international aid, water industries.

Maintaining capability is a constantly dynamic balancing act of securing, retaining and managing talent. it is extremely challenging for consultancies to do this successfully. our view of the prevailing model is that the only beneficiaries of this approach are the consultancy investors and stakeholders. our experience is that smaller clients or clients with lower-scale needs essentially subsidise consultancies maintaining capability, which in the main is not suited to its projects.

in the case of sureside, bringing in capability for a project is ‘business as usual’. we are tooled to manage this and we hae outstanding flexibility to pick and choose the capabilities that best meet the needs of the project. we also monitor capability performance, including responsiveness to needs and the capability offered. plus, we actually understand the capability required very well. our assessments are not skin-deep, we actively monitor performance and capability and our providers are subject to objective performance measures.