Lauren Peeters - Participant 2013-2015
One of the main reasons I applied for the Prince Albert Fund programme was to sharpen my strategic skills.
Role
The main aim of Lauren Peeters’s project was to identify the potential of the Southeast Asian market for International Marine and Dredging Consultants (IMDC), a Belgium-based engineering firm.
Responsibilities
Lauren launched his project in Bangkok (Thailand) and started by conducting a market survey, after which he moved to Jakarta (Indonesia), which he identified as being the most interesting market in the region. It was also important to approach the market in a proactive manner in order to explore opportunities for the preparation of first offers and conclude contracts, with support from the Belgian head office and in cooperation with local or international partners.
His main mission consisted of understanding the market and evaluating the potential for IMDC to enter a specific one. He also started up a regional base, implementing the best strategy for the activities of the group in Southeast Asia.
How he benefited
As an engineer with a background in dredging projects, Lauren managed to further develop his technical, strategic and commercial skills. It was very important to have an adequate knowledge of the technical aspects of the projects. At the same time, he also needed to study the market strategically and have sufficient impact during negotiations with the clients. “The project I executed for IMDC exposed me to the commercial side of the infrastructure business for the first time”, Lauren explains. A bit overwhelming at first, but challenging and very rewarding once he achieved results!
The company – International Marine and Dredging Consultants (IMDC)
IMDC, an affiliate of Tractebel Engineering, is an engineering and consultancy company specializing in a vast range of water-related projects. It offers services in numerous fields such as dredging, offshore Wind & Blue Energy, flood risk, navigation or integrated Water Resources Management, and so on.
“The project executed by Lauren was of strategic importance for IMDC in the context of increased efforts to develop our business internationally. The input from his report was highly valuable to us. It informed us about marine, coastal and flood engineering in South East Asia and helped us to make decisions as to where to focus our business development efforts in this market.”