John Wood Group
Careers at John Wood Group
MISSION
John Wood Group PLC (“Wood Group”) seeks to provide innovative and effective energy services, providing flexible and creative solutions to its clients.
FOUNDING STORY
Wood Group has its roots in three engineering, utility, and energy services groups: AMEC, Foster Wheeler, and JW Holdings. AMEC, the oldest of these companies, traces its back to 1848 and Matthew Hall’s establishment of a lead work business in Lambeth, London.
Wood Group directly has its roots in Wood and Davidson, which was founded in 1912 by William Wood. Wood Group was formally established, however, in 1982, when it split away from fishing company JW Holdings.
The company subsequently made a number of acquisitions to expand its energy service business.
Wood Group completed an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in 2002.
It went on to establish itself as the UK’s leading contractor for onshore oil and gas facilities, and continued its expansion, focusing particularly on acquisitions that sought to capitalise on the US shale markets.
In 2015, the company notably acquired AMEC Foster Wheeler, itself the result of a merger between AMEC and Foster Wheeler in 2014. The acquisition was completed in 2017.
Wood Group is currently one of the largest providers of energy services in the world.
It has operations in more than 60 countries, employs approximately 55,000 workers worldwide, and generates annual revenue in excess of USD 10 billion.
The company has a market capitalisation of around GBP 4.25 billion.
Business model of John Wood Group
Customer Segments
Wood Group serves a diverse range of corporate, institutional, and industrial customers.
The company primarily provides solutions to entities operating across the following business sectors:
- Oil and Gas, including companies operating across the upstream, downstream, and midstream sectors, as well as in the chemicals industry;
- Infrastructure, including companies operating in the transportation, water transmission and treatment, utility, and environmental infrastructure sectors;
- Industrial and Manufacturing, including companies operating in the aerospace, automotive, food and beverage production, life sciences, and pulp and paper sectors;
- Mining, including companies operating in the base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, and other minerals sectors;
- Power, including companies in the conventional power, nuclear power, renewable energy, and power transmission and distribution sectors; and
- Government, including military and marine organisations, and other government agencies and public bodies.
Wood Group serves an international network of clients. The company organises its revenue figures into three geographic regions: the UK, the US, and the rest of the world, including across the Americas, Arica, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.
Value Propositions
Wood Group provides value to its customers in the following ways:
- Reputation and Industry Standing – Wood Group is an established provider of engineering and energy services with a history dating back to the nineteenth century, and a positive reputation for providing effective solutions as indicated by its ability to secure work from government bodies;
- Commitment to Innovation – Wood Group is actively engaged in research and development activities, seeking to ensure that it is able to provide unique, cutting-edge service to its clients that set it apart from its competitors;
- Safety and Reliability – Wood Group has a positive track record for providing safe and reliable services, aiming to implement solutions that display the highest standards of health and safety for the company’s employees and its clients;
- International Reach – Wood Group maintains an operational presence across more than 60 countries, ensuring that it is able to serve customers around the world efficiently from local or regional facilities;
- Varied Service Offerings – Wood Group offers a wide range of services and solutions to customers across a broad range of industries and business sectors, including maintenance, industrial, commissioning, and decommissioning services; and
- Commitment to Sustainability – Wood Group is committed to implement responsible strategies that allow the environment, society, and economy to function without restriction.
Channels
Wood Group does not provide services to its customers on a self-service basis.
It deals with its customers through dedicated sales and service teams that are organised both geographically and by operating segment.
The company’s sales and service personnel operate out of its various office locations spread across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa.
Customer Relationships
Wood Group seeks to establish longstanding relationships with its customers through its delivery of high-quality, reliable, and efficient services.
The company works closely with its customers in the negotiation of sales and service contracts, under which the company’s solutions are delivered.
These contracts can be arranged on project-by-project basis or can be multi-year agreements.
Wood Group employs sales and support personnel across its office network, including teams that are tasked with managing certain client relationships.
Wood Group’s projects are delivered in close cooperation with customers who are able to contribute to the project operations and contact relevant members of staff at all times.
Wood Group operates a website at www.woodplc.com, through which it provides information to customers on a self-service basis.
This includes information on the company’s service offerings, operating locations, and structure.
The company is additionally able to publish company updates for clients through the News and Events pages on its website.
Key Activities
Wood Group is a UK-based provider of energy services.
It provides a range of engineering, production support, maintenance management and industrial gas turbine overhaul and repair services to the oil and gas and power generation industries, among others.
The company organises its operations into two operating segments: the Wood Group Engineering segment, through which the company provides a range of engineering services, including conceptual studies, engineering, project and construction management, and control system upgrades, to the upstream, subsea and pipeline, downstream, chemical process and industrial, and clean energy sectors; and the Wood Group PSN segment, through which the company provides production services to the upstream, midstream, downstream and industrial sectors through brownfield engineering and modifications, production enhancement, operations and maintenance, facility construction and maintenance management, industrial services, training and decommissioning services, and turbine activities.
Wood Group is based in the UK, but has an operational presence across 60 countries worldwide. It employs a workforce of more than 55,000 people.
Key Partners
Wood Group works closely with a network of partners that support or are active in the energy services sector.
These partners include:
- Supplier and Vendor Partners, including suppliers of equipment and tools used in the company’s various energy service projects, and third-party providers of external services that support the company’s corporate activities more broadly;
- Technology and Industry Partners, including technology companies and other industrial enterprises that work with the company to effectively develop and implement energy service solutions on behalf of the company’s clients;
- Research and Development Partners, including various industry partners and research organisations with which Wood Group works on researching innovative strategies, technologies, and equipment that help to separate the company from its competitors and deliver effective services to customers;
- Joint Venture Partners, including other companies active in the energy services and engineering sectors with which the company jointly provides services to clients through mutually owned entities; and
- Strategic Partners, including various corporate and industrial partners with which the company collaborates on other projects, including business development, community, and marketing projects.
In 2017, Wood Group extending an existing industry partnership with Librestream Technologies. The company more recently established a research partnership with Heriot Watt University and an industry partnership with Egyptian state company Engineering for Petroleum and Process Industries in 2018.
Key Resources
Key to Wood Group’s ability to set itself apart from competitors are its intellectual properties and technologies, its research and development operations, its personnel – in particular those with extensive industry expertise and experience, its equipment and supply chain, its partnerships, and its infrastructure.
The company also depends on its broad geographic presence, including its international network of offices and facilities, including locations across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Cost Structure
Wood Group incurs costs in relation to completion of research and development activities, the procurement of materials and equipment, the payment of salaries and benefits to its personnel, the management of its supply chain and infrastructure, the management of its partnerships, and the operation of its various offices and facilities around the world – including rental and utility costs.
In 2017, Wood Group’s employee benefits expenses notably totalled USD 2.74 billion for the year.
Revenue Streams
Wood Group generates revenue through the development and delivery of energy services and solutions to customers across a range of industries and business sectors.
The company derives its revenue primarily under sales and services contracts that are agreed directly with customers.
In 2017, Wood Group generated annual revenue of USD 6.17 billion, up from USD 4.93 billion in 2016. The company reports its revenue across the following segments: Asset Solutions Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia (“EAAA”), Assets Solutions Americas (“ASA”), Specialist Technical Solutions, Environment and Infrastructure Solutions, and Investment Services.
The largest contributor to the company’s revenue in 207 was its EAAA segment, which generated USD 2.62 billion, followed by its ASA segment, which generated USD 2.39 billion.
Our team
info: Robin Watson (“Watson”) has served as Chief Executive Officer at Wood since 2016, he is also a member of the company’s Board of Directors. He is responsible for leading the company’s core strategic direction, and is the company’s chief decision maker. Prior to assuming his current role, Watson served as Wood Group’s Chief Operating Officer from 2013. He first joined the company in 2010 as Director of Wood Group PSN, following which he served as Chief Executive Officer of Wood Group PSN 2012 to 2015. Watson is a chartered mechanical engineer, and a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Energy Institute. He is an experienced engineering executive, having spent a number of years in executive positions in which he was engaged actively with various industry and governmental representative bodies, including as a director of Oil and Gas UK and the Oil and Gas Contractors Council. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer of GE Oil and Gas Pressure Control Canada Inc in 2015.
info: David Kemp (“Kemp”) has served as Chief Financial Officer at Wood Group since 2015. He leads the company’s various financial functions, including overseeing its investor relations, accounting, tax, and internal audit operations. He first joined Wood Group in 2013 as Chief Financial Officer of its Wood Group PSN business, where he was responsible for aspects of finance and administration, IT, real estate, and legal services. Kemp is an experienced oil and gas sector executive, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Prior to joining Wood Group, Kemp held a series of executive leadership positions at companies including Trap Oil Group, Technip, Simmons and Company International, and Hess Corporation, over the course of more than 20 years. These roles included working across finance, mergers and acquisitions and operations.
info: Ann Massey (“Massey”) has served as Chief Executive Officer of Environment and Infrastructure at Wood Group since joining the company in 2017. She oversees the activities of a specialised team focused on growing the company through the delivery of profitable engineering, consulting and project management services to customers across a broad global spectrum. Massey was previously employed by AMEC Foster Wheeler, joining Wood Group after the acquisition of AMEC Foster Wheeler was completed in 2017. This included spells as President of Environmental and Infrastructure Americas and President of Global Market Leader Environmental and Infrastructure. Prior to joining AMEC Wheeler Foster, Massey served as Senior Vice President and Northeast Regional Manager, and later Chief Executive Officer of MACTEC between 2001 and 2011.
