As of January this year, Genivar became known as WSP. Of course in Northern Ontario, there’s an extra bit of confusion to the switch, stemming from the fact the Thunder Bay office was known for decades as Cook Engineering. But in the long run the headaches of rebranding are well worth the effort, according to Isabelle Adjahi, WSP’s Director of Communications and Investor Relations.
The march toward the name change began in August 2012 when Genivar acquired UK- based firm WSP and almost overnight went from being a Canadian consultant firm with a presence in all 10 provinces, to a company whose reach extended clear across the globe.
“We realized that while we were Genivar in Canada, they were WSP in 35 countries and common sense told us that we had to change our name (in Canada) and not ask 35 countries to change theirs and become Genivar,” said Adjahi.
Another rationale for the change was that even though Genivar has a long history in Quebec dating back to the middle of the last century, the name is a relatively new one outside La Belle Province.
“Genivar was a name really known in
Quebec but there’s less attachment to the name outside of Quebec,”
said Adjahi. “Also, it really made sense to
leverage this asset
that is the WSP brand, and change the name of our company.”
There’s one more serious growth spurt
on the horizon for WSP, but this one won’t prompt any more name
changes. The company announced plans in September to acquire
U.S.-based professional services firm Parsons Brinkerhoff. A deal
that, when finalized, will bring another 13,000 employees and a
network of 30 offices, spread across five continents into the
WSP
fold.
“Once we close the transaction we will probably be one of the top, if not the top, firm in the world in what we do,” said Adjahi. “We'll have 31,000 employees, if we look at the two firms today, we have revenues of $3.8 billion and we are a leader in business and transportation around the globe plus additional services.”
But, Adjahi stresses the changes aren’t just about growth for the sake of growth.
“We realized that our clients wanted us to be able to offer more services to them and they also wanted us to be able to follow them as their projects get bigger and move all over the globe,” she said. “We want to support clients, whatever the size of the project is, no matter what they want to do, or where they want to do it.”
While the company’s growth has left
the firm poised to take on major, complex projects pretty much
anywhere in the world, WSP hasn’t lost focus on local business. In
fact, local projects make up the majority of work the
company
does.
“I will tell you that 70 to 80 per cent of what we do is local, so what we want is to keep a small firm mentality, with an international platform,” said Adjahi. “So for us having a local presence is key and we want to be close to the communities where we operate, we want to be close to our clients.”
For Adjahi, WSP has found a sweet spot striking a balance between that “small firm” feel, but still giving clients access to the impressive, worldwide resources of a company of its stature.
“What we want is our local clients to benefit from the expertise we have at the global level,” she said. “So, for example, if a local client has a particular problem we know that we can call one of our colleagues anywhere on the globe to ask for advice so that the client can benefit from that. “
With the company set to double in size, Adjahi said things are busy at WSP’s corporate office, but there’s a lot of enthusiasm about what the future holds.
“Sometimes big companies become so big that they lose a sense of community. But how we operate, we empower the local offices to deliver for our clients,” she said. “It's great to be part of because we feel we’re building something unique but still staying true to who we are.”
