Simon Smith

New York, USA

"I firmly believe it is incumbent upon us as consultants to not only provide solid technical advice and deliverables, but our work must also have the right strategic fit for the organization."

Describe your journey to AMCL

After graduation, I spent seven years working in London as a business analyst for an IT consulting firm, before my American wife and I moved to the US in 2008 – the same week that Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering the global financial crisis! Thankfully, the job I had lined up wasn’t affected, and I spent the next eight years working for a technology and engineering company that supported smart cities and infrastructure projects across North America. This brought me into the world of Asset Management which immediately resonated with me; I stumbled across an incredible diagram that was created for Crossrail, and I knew I wanted to work for whomever developed it.

Well, that company was AMCL, and in November 2016 I joined as the fourth employee in what was then a fledging US business. Beyond the diagram, what attracted me to AMCL was the opportunity to work with and learn from true experts in the field of Asset Management, while helping them build their US business.

I’m now our longest serving North American employee and have been fortunate enough to help build the business from the four people when I joined, to the more than thirty people we have now. Along the way, I’ve worked with some very talented people, learned a huge amount about Asset Management, and have been constantly challenged and stretched. I’m currently in a highly satisfying role where I provide technical guidance and direction for many of our projects, have responsibility for defining our North American business strategy, and play a key part in the ongoing development and growth of our business.

What project(s) are you currently working on?

I split my time fairly evenly between many of our transit and power clients. As part of my recent work with National Grid in the US, I helped them build their organizational capabilities in Asset Management. This involved leading a comprehensive and complex assessment of their maturity level across both electric and gas commodities. Our work resulted in identifying various improvement opportunities and defining a five-year roadmap, developed jointly with senior leadership.

I’m also currently helping another major US utility with the data aspects of a multi-year EAM system transformation program, supporting the definition of an AM vision and strategy for a tier 1 transit agency and helping a west-coast utility which is seeking ISO 55001 certification.

What challenges do you see facing when it comes to managing their assets?

There are some big global trends affecting infrastructure organizations, such as National Grid and other utilities:

  • The first is the transition to Net Zero, and the accompanying pressure that places on grids around the world as more industries become electrified: transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, ports, commercial and residential buildings, the list goes on.
  • Closely related to this is mitigating the impacts of climate change while maintaining levels of customer service, which requires improvements to grid resilience and reliability, along with other ways to modernize the grid, such as modernizing components and adding digital capabilities.
  • Thirdly, the global infrastructure workforce is changing – the generation of people that has been managing our assets for the past 25 years is reaching retirement, and not being replaced with enough new people. What is more, as they leave, they take their deep asset knowledge with them, and so there becomes both a capability and capacity deficit.
  • Finally, while these big changes to their assets and their people are taking place, the core mission remains the same, and organizations like National Grid must continue to deliver excellent levels of service to its customers, in a safe and efficient way.

What are the most common pitfalls you see, and how are you supporting clients with these?

I work across a wide variety of sectors and projects, but many of the technical Asset Management challenges are the same across industries. So, the question I keep coming back to when supporting my clients is: what is the strategic context for this work? I firmly believe it is incumbent upon us as consultants to not only provide solid technical advice and deliverables, but our work must also have the right strategic fit for the organization.

What is something fun and/or interesting about you that your colleagues may not know?

I once won a 1970s disco-dancing competition!