29 July 2015

Costain's Group Innovation & Knowledge Manager, Tim Embley, reflects on a vision to strengthen relationships and trust in the industry, as legal firm Pinsent Masons stages its annual two-day ‘Infrastructure Retreat’ at the RAC Club in Epsom, with this year’s theme ‘Collaborating to deliver value’.

Pinsent Masons describes its overarching strategy as building long-term sustainable relationships with major infrastructure providers with whom it can interface and to be recognised by clients as delivering value as opposed to consuming cost.

"Pinsent Masons is one of our legal framework partners. Our industry is about value-adding services, so no matter if you’re a traditional partner to Costain or a business partner like Pinsent Masons, it’s all about how its business can improve our services to deliver value to our customers.

"It was an opportunity for Pinsent Masons to talk to its customers and focus its valued resources to develop the relationships on key priorities.

"Costain was seen as a role model ambassador in terms of collaborative working. They wanted us to come and share experience with their team, to explain how we have approached this with our customers, and the benefits.

"Tony Bickerstaff, Costain's Finance Director, presented last year on the subject of addressing their customers’ needs and this year was a follow-up session that focused on collaborative working and value-added services.

"I was invited onto a panel with three others, chaired by Michael Blacker, who for 35 years was head of legal and general counsel at Amec. The audience was made up of Pinsent Masons’ client executives, a mix of partners and practising lawyers in the company’s infrastructure section.

"From a Costain perspective, it was about how we collaborate with our partners to bring better services to our customers. By having a two-way dialogue, you strengthen the relationship and bring trust and that trusted relationship brings value to the customer. Pinsent Masons is a true partner that is aligned to our business needs and we go to work as one team to deliver innovative solutions.”