The Interview:
Keith Buckley, Executive Project Director, Hsin Chong
Issue 38 - Feb 2008

As Executive Project Director for Hsin Chong, Keith Buckley is head of the main contractor currently working on the Venetian Macau. Having started in 2003 for the same client on the Sands casino project located on Macau proper, Buckley has also been instrumental in completion of the construction works for phase one of the Venetian project, which he describes three years after commencing the project as "An operating wonder". He is now starting work on parcels three, seven and eight of the massive Cotai Strip development.

The road to Macau
Despite having led one of the most well-known, and possibly the largest, construction projects in Asia, Buckley reveals that this was not the culmination of a career masterplan, saying that he arrived Macau almost by accident. After finalising work on a water treatment plant in Beijing, he signed up with Hsin Chong to be the bid director in a consortium which had passed prequalification for Hong Kong's Tamar site project. Buckley was looking forward to working on the high-profile project with a team including the likes of Sir Norman Foster. He arrived in Hong Kong on a Monday night ready to get started immediately only to discover in the Tuesday papers that the project had been cancelled.

The disappointment didn’t last long. While considering whether to go back to Beijing to work on the company’s increasing number of mainland projects, Hsin Chong finalised negotiations with the Sands group regarding the Sands Macau. Buckley stepped in as Construction Manager.

Local site, local practices?
Buckley acknowledges that local culture and business practices play a large part in any construction project and the person heading up the team, especially when they have an international background, should be sensitive to this. However, he did not see Macau as a challenge culturally, unlike when he had moved to Beijing four or so years earlier. "I thought Beijing would be different, and it was, but not in a negative way." For example, because it is common for mainland Chinese to study English automatically at university their English language standard is high even in comparison with places such as former British colony, Hong Kong.

Construction is about people and after 17 years in Asia, and having spent 30 years in markets as diverse as Poland, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Singapore and China, the reliance on labour and the way human error can affect a project is as clear as ever. It is why Buckley says his secret is to have a "can do" attitude. "We shouldn't find reasons why we can't do something, but reasons why we will do something." Working with the Sands group has offered him plenty of opportunity to prove this point.

We shouldn’t find reasons why we can’t do something, but reasons why we will do something

Team set up
The Sands project initially had a bit of a slow start but once Buckley and team, together with architects AEDAS and consulting engineers Arup, was in place construction moved far more quickly and the project reached completion in a year. Due to the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong, the few positions they needed to fill in Macau presented no problem. Now, however, as the number of construction projects increases and the number of experienced people decreases, including in Hong Kong from where many of the international workers have been sourced, innovative pay packages and incentives are being offered to encourage people to stay.

Non-financial or combination methods are also being used to effect. Buckley says 2008 will be the first time that the Hsin Chong Annual dinner will include long service awards for staff who have been with the company for five years or more. A staff referral scheme gets a response rate at least as good as most job advertising methods and has a double benefit. Not only are applicants pre-qualified to some extent by their referee, bringing friends to work with them in Macau encourages the sense of "togetherness".

Importance of job satisfaction
One intangible benefit that Buckley and other staff get from the Venetian project is the pride and respect from working on such a landmark project. "The Venetian is unique", says Buckley. "In terms of wow factor there is no comparison." As a civil engineer by training, Buckley has worked on other projects that were less visible and provided less immediate satisfaction. "Much of what a civil engineer does is underground," he says, using the example of a motorway. "Ultimately people see it as just something to drive on." The sheer scale Venetian Macau, on the contrary, has captured the imagination of regional and global media, and the National Geographic Channel have even made a documentary on its construction. From both an individual and team perspective, it is something to be proud of.

Construction success leads business success
Casino projects bring unique challenges. The fundamental income on a casino is high, so deadlines are tight. However with positive project management, says Buckley this can engender a spirit of "let's get on with the job."

On a project this big with so much concrete, traffic was another challenge. The workforce that at one point reached 11,000 people of 37 nationalities managed up to 1000 truck movements per day. Extremely careful project planning avoided traffic jams on and around the site. Buckley is pleased that his team were able to pull this off.

The next challenge
Buckley advises people setting out in the industry to get as broad a range of experiences as possible - both geographically and in all areas of commercial, technical, cultural, and people management. Places providing opportunities now include Vietnam, integrated resorts in Singapore and a number of other places in Asia, which is a region that he likes and, "The jobs are more exciting". That said, he likes where he is. The next phase of the Venetian projects includes more hotel projects with twice the number of hotel rooms as the team has already completed, with plots seven and eight carrying the project through till 2011.

While he hasn't worked a straight five day week in his professional career Buckley says the pay off for working in construction is enormous. "It's an industry where you have to live it" he says, however nothing compares with seeing the satisfaction of something from start to finish. In hindsight, while some might say coming to Macau was an accident, Buckley can look to the current status of the Tamar site where funding has just been confirmed by the Hong Kong government with some perspective, "Look what we've done in the meantime." RFP.

Buckley advises people setting out in the industry to get as broad a range of experiences as possible - both geograhically and in all areas of commercial, technical, cultural and people managment.

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