iicorr pulls it off!

The winner of the 2007 Northern Star Achievement in Internationalisation Award is Aberdeen-based iicorr ltd, a technology company specialising in integrity, inspection and corrosion services.

George Watson of iicorr with his Northern Star Award A plainly delighted Managing Director George Watson received the award at the prestigious Northern Star awards dinner on 27 September at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre from James Smith, chairman of Shell. The Achievement in Internationalisation Award is sponsored by ASA International.

“I really was surprised at how much of a buzz we all got from winning the award,” he recalled a day or two after their win. “Winning something like this gives iicorr just that bit more credibility in the many international markets in which we operate, and I think all our staff picked up very quickly on that factor.”

George attributes the company’s success in internationalisation to clear-headed planning and impressive personal director commitment. International sales at the company have more than trebled as a percentage of turnover in three years from 20% in 2003 to an impressive 66% in 2006, with further growth predicted for 2007.

“In 2003, we totally committed ourselves to a four-stage internationalisation strategy, beginning with growing our Caspian operations from an initial two or three to its current count of 30 staff,” George explains.

“Like many oil service companies, we are capable of ramping up our overseas business through winning ad-hoc contracts, but we also wanted to aim for long-term consistency by setting up local operations in strategically important territories.”

Following the Caspian growth, iicorr targeted the Asia Pacific market, and a number of the company’s Aberdeen-based directors took it in turns to spend a twelve-month posting in Perth, WA, supporting the local team to expand their operations.

Phase Three was Houston and the Gulf of Mexico, and, again with regular hands-on director support, the US operations have been steadily grown to their current total of twelve full-time staff.

Still to come is the Middle East market, but George Watson is confident that the award-winning approach will also bear dividends in that challenging environment.

“In my recent experience, I would say that the biggest challenge in growing your international operations lies in making sure you don’t take your eye even marginally off your home business – we worked very hard at that to make sure we got the balance right,” he reveals.

The Northern Star business awards are organised by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, and in 2007 were sponsored by The Robert Gordon University, in association with Aberdeen Harbour, Bibby Offshore and Mearns & Gill.

For more about iicorr, visit http://www.iicorr.com/Redirect/About.htm