As PMV Middle East presents its first who’s who of the plant, machinery and vehicle sector in the Gulf, it is almost inevitable that some sparks will fly — from those who believe they should be on the list, and those that would rather not be.
However, while PMV’s inaugural power list does not claim to stem from an empirical basis — you should all be aware how closely guarded your operational and financial figures are — the list does serve to highlight some of the companies and individuals making a name for themselves.
I chose to include people, almost to the exclusion of the machines because for every other issue of the year, it is almost invariably the other way round — and, as mentioned in the introduction, every industry is made of people.
In the case of this year’s list, we see both old and new: some of the first companies to trade plant and machinery in the Gulf, and some of the newest; some representatives from 50-year truck trading lineages and others just a few years in the job. What unites all of them, however, is the ability to be impactful.
There are without doubt more companies in this segment in the Gulf than I would dare to count, and there are easily half a dozen pre-eminent names in each country, or more in the major project and population zones of the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Indeed, there are a great number of companies that I did try to contact who were unfortunately unreachable.
Here, however, we come to the other form of power: soft power. The ability to reach out and be reached, and to be well versed in a variety of channels for both business and communication, is one form of projection into the marketplace. Firms that fail to stay up to speed in the internet age, while potentially from esteemed pedigree, also stand the risk of falling by the wayside.
The most technology and business savvy companies are also not caught out by glitchy IT; they have up-to-date ERP systems, and telematics systems on their customer’s machines that warn of a component’s expiry and send spare part order messages to automated warehouses.
The plant, machinery and vehicle industry is present at the cutting face of quarries, and in the bowels of building sites, amid the dust and the heat; but it is also in laboratories, in dust-free hydraulic assemblies, in corporate offices and is increasingly environmentally friendly.
As I mention, this month’s power list is not prejudiced in terms of age — a number of the region’s oldest companies are included — but it is less forgiving to companies that show little willingness to update their business practices.
Whether this is fair in your opinion is up to you to decide, but a key consideration was every company’s activity in the last 12 months. In all cases, the emphasis is on companies that are active, dynamic and clearly cable of adapting to the changing times — whether we are talking customer service or the epoch of low oil prices.
Agree or disagree, I am open to feedback — and with any luck, this list might even nudge a GM or two to update their contact details.
Power projection: beyond hard infrastructure
In an industry as broad and deep as plant, machinery and vehicles, there is no objective A to Z of success, but there are other measures of impactful business
As PMV Middle East presents its first who’s who of the plant, machinery and vehicle sector in the Gulf, it is almost inevitable that some sparks will fly — from those who believe they should be on the list, and those that would rather not be.
However, while PMV’s inaugural power list does not claim to stem from an empirical basis — you should all be aware how closely guarded your operational and financial figures are — the list does serve to highlight some of the companies and individuals making a name for themselves.
I chose to include people, almost to the exclusion of the machines because for every other issue of the year, it is almost invariably the other way round — and, as mentioned in the introduction, every industry is made of people.
In the case of this year’s list, we see both old and new: some of the first companies to trade plant and machinery in the Gulf, and some of the newest; some representatives from 50-year truck trading lineages and others just a few years in the job. What unites all of them, however, is the ability to be impactful.
There are without doubt more companies in this segment in the Gulf than I would dare to count, and there are easily half a dozen pre-eminent names in each country, or more in the major project and population zones of the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Indeed, there are a great number of companies that I did try to contact who were unfortunately unreachable.
Here, however, we come to the other form of power: soft power. The ability to reach out and be reached, and to be well versed in a variety of channels for both business and communication, is one form of projection into the marketplace. Firms that fail to stay up to speed in the internet age, while potentially from esteemed pedigree, also stand the risk of falling by the wayside.
The most technology and business savvy companies are also not caught out by glitchy IT; they have up-to-date ERP systems, and telematics systems on their customer’s machines that warn of a component’s expiry and send spare part order messages to automated warehouses.
The plant, machinery and vehicle industry is present at the cutting face of quarries, and in the bowels of building sites, amid the dust and the heat; but it is also in laboratories, in dust-free hydraulic assemblies, in corporate offices and is increasingly environmentally friendly.
As I mention, this month’s power list is not prejudiced in terms of age — a number of the region’s oldest companies are included — but it is less forgiving to companies that show little willingness to update their business practices.
Whether this is fair in your opinion is up to you to decide, but a key consideration was every company’s activity in the last 12 months. In all cases, the emphasis is on companies that are active, dynamic and clearly cable of adapting to the changing times — whether we are talking customer service or the epoch of low oil prices.
Agree or disagree, I am open to feedback — and with any luck, this list might even nudge a GM or two to update their contact details.
Top 10 PMV deals in the Gulf through H1 2016
Fine-tuned faculties: Rapid PMV market maturation