Master Plan: Seero Engineering On The Road To Success Haytham Sadeq remembers when he got the idea for establishing Seero Engineering- it was the same year he got accepted to the Master's degree program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
By Erika Widen
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Haytham Sadeq remembers when he got the idea for establishing Seero Engineering- it was the same year he got accepted to the Master's degree program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "I decided to specialize in transportation engineering because I was expecting a huge demand from all countries for this discipline, especially with the continuous increase of population and the demand for efficient and safe transportation modes," he says.
Sadeq's gut feeling soon proved to be right on the mark. Qatar winning the bid to host FIFA World Cup 2022 paired with the National Vision 2030 meant that huge investments will be spent on infrastructure and transportation projects. "It's expected that Qatar will have more than three million visitors and inhabitants by 2022, so my specialization in the field was the main reason behind my passion of starting up a specialized consulting company in transportation engineering," says Sadeq. "We chose the name "Seero' because it means "going forward' in Arabic, and it reveals for smoothing and facilitating roads and paths for humans, and this reflects the main objective of the company, which is to, with design, improve transportation systems in order to enable mobility by innovative engineering solutions," says Sadeq. "We found that there is an excellent opportunity in the area of transportation engineering, especially after the huge plans for Qatar infrastructure, metro projects, public transport and freeways."
Since its establishment, Seero Engineering has finalized a number of projects in Qatar as well as in neighboring Gulf country Bahrain. "We have done more than 50 projects in Qatar ranging from commercial buildings such as New Boulevard Mall in Qatar, and education projects such as colleges of engineering and pharmacy in Qatar University, three Tarsheed Schools, and the new Philippine School in Qatar. We also did several towers in West Bay such as Abdul-Wahab Tower, Burj Al-Mana, JW Marriott's new tower, QIMC's new tower and more." At present, Seero Engineering focuses on engineering services mainly in the area of transportation engineering and infrastructure. In other words, their main expertise lies in traffic impact studies, road safety audits, traffic management plans, highway design, pavement consultancy, and accidents' analysis and prevention studies. "We also offer detailed studies and consultancy services in the area of public transport and demand forecasting for buses and metro," Sadeq adds. "We build statistical models to determine current demand and identify the main variables that help promoting and increasing demand on public transport in order to reduce traffic on highways and pollutions. We also do road safety strategy plans for new roads, because it required by law in Qatar to review road designs by an independent engineering crew who evaluate the safety of roads before constructing them. This is considered one of main services provided for design companies and developers in Qatar."
'Trep Talk
On evolving business models:
"My advice to all entrepreneurs is to not stop at one fixed business plan, because as [it is] usually said, "There is no perfect business plan.' There will be always an area for improvement and modification, and this gives the working team its flexibility and understanding of the market."
On dealing with unforeseen business difficulties:
"We face several obstacles, but we call them challenges because we know that there is no huge success without huge challenges, and that encourages us and inspires us to resolve them."
Given its functions, Sadeq considers Seero Engineering to be well-aligned with the country's National Vision for 2030, as they are committed to build Qatar to be one of the best cities in the transportation field."We will help in making Qatar pedestrian-friendly, cycling-friendly with attractive public transportation," he says optimistically. Sadeq strongly believes in the relevance of road safety and design improvement: "As Qatar National Safety Committee has been established in Qatar, we propose engineering solutions that helps reduce accidents such as macro-safety planning, concept design safety reviews, detailed design safety audits, and in-site safety analysis for currents roads and intersections. It can help in identifying safety issues in current roads and help propose feasible and fast solutions to improve safety continuously." By the year 2022, Seero Engineering's vision is to have five branches worldwide, and in order to achieve this goal, it has started developing its business in Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. "Our team is also growing and we invest so much in our smart team members who can participate in delivering the value of Seero, and our strategy to get more projects with bigger teams to deliver our value." Furthermore, the company has special programs and internships to encourage young Qatari engineers. They are already doing quite well on the Qatarization front, since 90% of their team members were born and raised in Qatar. "We know Qatar, and we know how transportation in Qatar has grown," he says. "We have equal opportunity for all people to join us, however, we strongly believe that people belonging to Qatar will have a high engineering judgment of what can work and what cannot. This is our Qatarization strategy that we'll keep working on going forward."
