Sasha Addo
Managing Director, L&S Surveying Services
Origins of L&S Surveying Services
Based in San Fernando, south Trinidad, L&S Surveying Services Limited has steadily grown along with the developments in the country. L&S has sought to effectively combine modern techniques and equipment with experienced, well trained, and dedicated team of professionals.
In the 90’s Sasha Addo, Lenny Hanomansingh & Ian Grant were employed at Cadastral and Engineering Surveying Services Limited until its closure in December 1999, due to the unfortunate passing of the owner Mr. Seeram Kaliecharan earlier in the same year. The Kaliecharan family then offered the assets of the company for sale. Sasha Addo in consultation with his uncle Earle Bhola was encouraged to take that chance in starting a business. Sasha then encourages Lenny Hanomasingh, Dr. Dexter Davis and Ian Grant to be part of this exciting venture.
The company began with two crews and a total of 9 employees.
Now in its 20th year of operation, the company is the largest Surveying & Mapping Company in Trinidad and Tobago, has developed excellent industry relationships and continues to work to provide high quality surveying and engineering solutions.
They now offer a wide range of services including Dimension Control and Pipeline Surveying, Photogrammetric Mapping and 3D Laser Scanning, Hydrographic and Sub-Surface Surveying within the Caribbean and internationally.
L&S is now a leading surveying service provider to the energy, land development, construction, governmental and public sectors with major clients such as NGC, ALNG, BPTT, Shell, MassyWood, HDC, LSA as well as numerous private cadastral clients.
Growth opportunities for the company
According to Sasha Addo, Managing Director of L&S Surveying the company is trying to gather more international business over the next 5 years.
Looking outside of T&T
Addo said that we may be the end of the time of large infrastructural projects, for example no new large pipelines, greenfield plants etc in Trinidad. He said at times it feels like we spend too much time fighting for what’s leftover. We should be spending our energy in taking the great skillsets we have and getting it outside. We have fantastic services in T&T and we need to think more about exporting services, he said.
“When we look at the services we offer as a local company, we offer almost everything that can be offered in this spectrum”, Addo said.
“When we visit conferences abroad, there are companies that only offer one aspect of what we offer but they are able to survive because of the size of the market. So our main issue is market size. We know we have the skillsets so exporting is a big driver for us. We will take it in steps – Guyana is our first step and we have been there since 2017”, he added.
We have a team that’s still in Guyana and has started to do work there and develop the business. In Guyana we’ve worked on the construction project to support the development of its Energy Sector.
We intend to keep that team in Guyana and build on opportunities that come from Guyana. He said that this is a good way to develop proper structures to support export of services. Over the years the other areas that we have been interested is Houston – since it has a developed energy sector and we have built some alliances with companies there, he said.
He added that we provide support to the partners in the region so when they come to Trinidad, instead of sending equipment and personnel that we have, we will support them locally. In turn if we have skillsets that they don’t have, they then ask us to bid on projects that they have internationally.
Further afield, Addo has an interest in Ghana. Addo’s father was from Ghana and also lived there before coming to Trinidad. He says however it’s all about taking small steps and growing organically.
“Because we had the opportunity to develop in the energy sector, the sector can pay for the equipment and then you can apply it in bits and pieces in other sectors and that’s how we have been able to keep our competitive edge and export.” Addo drew reference to a time they used 3d scanning in a project in Dominica to map a warehouse – which is the same technology that would be used to scan an energy facility in Trinidad.
He said what we will export are services that are not there in other markets and leverage their technology.
He indicated that you can’t go into a foreign market and do regular surveys because you would never be able what’s available locally on price. So what can be done is more high tech surveys like underground surveys, aerial surveys, 3d scanning etc. He also said that the equipment for these types of services are also easy to move which makes it easy to deploy in various international markets.
Research the market
Addo said for companies that want to export, they need to do some level of research. They need to ensure that the service provided is at an international quality and standard and be able to research to find out what is there in the market. For a service he said you have to physically go to the market and meet people and get a feel for the market. He said as you go, you make better and better connections. In services it’s all about people, he said. “People meet you and like you and they give you work. But you can only build that by connecting with people one on one which takes time to build trust and focus on the areas where you add value”, said Addo.
Transferring Skills and R&D
Addo said “We transfer skills on both sides, we believe in sharing information and keeping and open hand technology. We go to conferences as much as possible to see what’s out there. We meet different people and see all kinds of technology. Once we see technology in a particular area and we see something that can add value to what we do in Trinidad we bring it back home. A lot of times we bring the trainer down and train the entire staff and then we roll it out.”
We have a R&D team at L&S, Addo said. The team looks at potential technology and they research it and finds the application and then determines how it can be implemented across the business. The Business Development team then try to promote it and market it. “What we try to do is apply it to existing projects we have”, he said
Applying the new technology to existing projects reduces the staff demand and the time taken to do the work. When the client sees this they demand more of it. Addo said that this excites us because there’s so much new technology being developed at the moment.
What new technology do you see as a game changer for you?
The new technology that excites Addo the most is 3d scanning. He explained that it essentially works like a camera that scans an area and takes a picture but in the picture it measures distances for millions of points, this allows us to recreate the space to (to millimeter accuracy). We are able to use this in the energy sector to create models of spaces and facilities. We can create 3d models which the client can use their engineers wherever they are in the world and they can all work on modifications which can then be implemented.
He said that this has obvious applications in the energy sector but the technology also has huge uses in the non-energy sector as well. This is the same type of technology being used in driverless vehicles.
The way forward during COVID-19
According to Sasha Addo, the COVID-19 virus represents an opportunity to bring out the best in the L&S family.
“While the virus has caused significant distress within the industry, for us we have seen a level of commitment from our staff to the organization and a commitment to the survival of the L&S family.”, he said.
Addo said that in their line of work, the situation presents a different way to work with some of their international partners. “In the past, a partner could come down to Trinidad to do a bit of work, now with the borders closed, those partners send equipment to us and we are then able to do the work on their behalf,” he said.
“The virus has forced us to relook how we do things in the industry and has helped us to take advantage of some opportunities we would not have had under normal circumstances. We look forward to different opportunities in the future”, he added.