Chairman's Message

When a child starts school, he or she needs to know roughly 6,000 different words; and over the next 12 years some 39,000 are added. For my part, over the past two years, quite a few new words have been added to my lexicon: credit crunch; collateralised debt obligation; and sub-prime – to name but three. The near collapse of the international financial system has been swift, deep and painful. Nor is it over yet; and, to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, let’s hope “we are at the end of the beginning”.

Many learned tomes will be written about the origins of the credit crunch. In my view, and I was an investment banker for many years, its genesis was in avarice, the shirking of responsibility and inadequate micro and macro supervision. For example, why lend to a high-risk borrower (i.e. sub-prime)? Answer: because you can charge him/her more. Thereafter, ownership/liability/ responsibility for the loan was sold on into the financial system (often passing through many pairs of hands) presided over by myopic governments.

At Watts, we are not superman and there is little we can do about governments. However, we eschew high-risk clients, embrace responsibility and believe that ‘the buck stops here’. Indeed, in our industry if you do not do this, you won’t be in business for long.

Looking ahead is always a difficult task and even more so this year. The credit crunch has palpably cooled the international real estate and construction markets – and we are now very much in the down swing of the economic cycle. But maturity has its benefits and Watts is a 42 year old company with enough grey hair to prove that it has seen it all before; and while the challenges are no more palatable, you deal with them better. Such travails put you on your metal and it is vital that we all continue to perform responsibly and well. This, combined with our broad spread of activities by discipline and region, means we can look forward to another year of progress.
 

Corporate Responsibility

Watts is committed to best practice in all aspects of its business. This is demonstrated not only through services to and relationships with clients but by the way in which the Group actively promotes sustainability, supports compliance with health & safety legislation and advances staff training and development through the Watts Academy.

Contact your local Watts office