FEATURE
NAVIGATING THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS
DONALD RUMSFELD SERVED AS SECRETARY OF DEFENCE FROM 1975 TO 1977 UNDER US PRESIDENT GERALD FORD. HE ONCE SAID:
“REPORTS THAT SAY THAT SOMETHING HASN’T HAPPENED ARE ALWAYS INTERESTING TO ME, BECAUSE AS WE KNOW, THERE ARE KNOWN
KNOWNS; THERE ARE THINGS WE KNOW WE KNOW. WE ALSO
KNOW THERE ARE KNOWN UNKNOWNS; THAT IS TO SAY WE
KNOW THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE DO NOT KNOW.”
The volatile and uncertain time in which the global community is living right now cannot be a better proxy for this statement.
THE UNKNOWN
COVID-19 is moving unrelentingly towards its peak in South Africa and many of the countries in which we operate. We do not know how many lives and livelihoods will eventually be lost, although early projections are alarming. We do not know how long the pandemic will last, but it will certainly take years
to count its cost – and the costs in human, social and economic terms show no signs of retreat.
We do not know what the post-pandemic world will look like and it might be the most challenging of times this generation has experienced. However, the green shoots of economic recovery are showing as investors around the world look optimistically at the extraordinary effort of the scientific community to develop a vaccine and governments plan large-scale infrastructure investments to kickstart their economies.
THE KNOWN
For Murray & Roberts to remain relevant as a business
and to grow sustainably, we must be agile and adapt
to changes in our business environment in order to
achieve strategic maturity. This includes diversifying our
exposure across the natural resources market sectors,
selected geographic regions and all phases of the
engineering and construction project life cycle.
Accordingly, we have renamed our business platforms to better describe the market sectors in which they are positioned to compete as specialist contractors.
The Oil & Gas platform has been renamed the Energy, Resources & Infrastructure platform and the Power & Water platform has been renamed the Power, Industrial & Water platform. This, to better represent the target market sectors to which these platforms deliver a complete range of engineering and contracting services. The Underground Mining platform has been renamed the Mining platform, due to the strategic decision to extend its service offering to the open pit mining market sector.
THE KNOWN
Despite the uncertainty in the global economic outlook, we believe our New Strategic Future strategy, and the assumptions on which it is based, remain sound. In the year ahead, our focus will be on growing or at least maintaining the order book at current levels, improving project execution, reducing working capital, progressing the digitalisation of our business and exiting the Middle East – which we believe will support a path to earnings growth in FY2021 and beyond.
Our ability to deliver on expectations relies on market opportunity and achieving strategic maturity in each business platform. This will be achieved through organic growth, supplemented by carefully selected acquisitions and braced by our philosophy of Engineered Excellence. Our philosophy of Engineered Excellence, guided by our Group Values, supports all our ambitions. While current market conditions continue to impact the Group adversely, we are encouraged by the Group’s growth prospects, which are supported by our significant and quality order book.
During the past decade, the Group has faced challenges to its stability, sustainability and reputation. Having successfully dealt with and recovered from these experiences, we have not only improved our competitiveness, but also relationships with all our stakeholders. This should give our stakeholders confidence in the Group’s resilience in these unpredictable times.
