Innovation and the evolution of the AEC industry in India are led by individuals and talented teams from  diverse backgrounds, skills, and long-term vision in transforming the country's image to the forefront through sustainable and extraordinary appealing built environments Such an endeavour is finds its physical reality through state of the art engineering and  technical ingenuity supporting the highly disciplined profession, the industry has been significantly growing with a focus on creating building design solutions that are equipped with safe, smart, responsible, and high performance building technologies for the future. However, alike other sectors, the AEC industry has been adversely affected due to the economic slowdown brought down by the Covid 19 crisis. But, shifting its focus to digitalisation and embracing change in operation style, the industry has taken prompt decisions and prioritised automation across all stages ­ be it design development, construction administration or operation of buildings. Also, exciting to see is the increasing stride of women in this largely male-dominated industry. Redefining what it means to be free of gender disparity, past precedence and preconceived notions, women quickly rising to business leadership ranks significantly confirms their acknowledgeable success in the AEC industry.

Currently, statistic shows only 9.1 percent for women in the construction industry, but that number is rapidly increasing, and for a good reason Yangchen Dolkar, Director-Business & Operations at Andersen Bjornstad Kane Jacobs (ABKJ)- a building design and engineering services company is a determining example of the same. Armed with multifaceted experience of over 19 years working in service industry such as 5-star international hotel, Human Resource (HR) services and AEC industry, she holds Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management in Human Resources Management (HRM), Bachelor of Arts, ification in Economics Honours, and Certification in Legal Literacy by the National Law School of India (NLSU).Yangchen hails from Tibetan Settlement, Odisha and pursued her schooling from Special Frontier Force (SFF) Army School/Central Tibetan School (CST) in Herbertpur, Dehradun, India.

The Women Entrepreneur got the opportunity to sit down with Yangchen for an in-depth conversation that followed her exceptional professional journey and her inspirational thoughts.

Tell us about ABKJ and its unique selling proposition (USP)? Also, how has this company been impacting the structural engineering sector?

ABKJis a premier consulting design firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington that is dedicated in providing design solutions that combine value and cost-savings to meet the clients' needs and expectations. ABKJ launched the Asia Global Center in Bangalore, India during early 2011, named ABKJ Infrastructure & Design Solutions Private Limited. Our mission is to streamline US expertise, engineering efficiencies, and state of the art technologies to the Indian marketplace for variety types of projects. Our team includes highly experienced engineers from USA and India that collaborates to deliver all phases of design development and construction oversight to local clientele providing assured quality, performance, and ultimate value.

Service we provide are building design, structural engineering, building information modelling (BIM) Solutions and a team of sub-consultants to deliver a `one-stop-design -solutions' to our clients. We have wide range of design expertise, delivering various project types and structural systems such as structural steel, post-tensioned, precast, wood, reinforcement concrete design, top-down construction methodology, value engineering (VE) and peer review service. Market sectors such as in commercial office, residential development, aviation, data centers, healthcare, high-rises, hospitality, industrial, institutions, international, laboratories, museum & heritage, retail and mixed-use. Projects that we have delivered in India are MFarGreenheart at Manyata Tech Park, The HUB by MFar, Lulu Lucknow Shopping Mall, Samsung Flagship Store, Embassy Tech Village 7B, Tata New Haven Value Homes, SankaraNethralaya Eye Hospital (Kolkata), and Eroor Residential Development (Kochi) and more.

We continually research, develop, collaborate, and apply new technologies to designs to complement our abilities to present solutions that are best suited for client's purpose. Our unique abilities in providing cost effective alternatives, state of the art technologies, and international standard design production capabilities to our global clients looking for engineering solutions to meet their expertise needs or budgetary constraints which makes us a valuable firm in AEC industry.

Take us through your professional journey. How did the journey lead you to andersen bjornstad kane jacobs India?

Joining ABKJ, was an interesting and a great opportunity in my professional journey. It was a thrilling opportunity to drivea legacy of ABKJ (since 1956) and setting up its newly launched office in India. My initial role was establishing and formalising overall operations, recruitment, market research and its outreach to potential clients. I was fascinated to accomplish my personal and company's goals working along with team of management leaders and managers from different disciplines and external professionals from various industries for a real estate design development service. I started my career at ABKJ as HR & Client Relations Manager, I was promoted to Operations Manager and presently holding Director of Business & Operations and a Board Member, all through my exceptional performance.

“Service we provide are building design, structural engineering, building information modelling (BIM)solutions and a team of sub-consultants to deliver a `one-stop-design -solutions' to our clients”

Prior to joining ABKJ, I have worked as a Customer Relations at Le Meridien (Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc) Bangalore, and later at RSP Design Consultants India, a Singapore based firm. Service industry is an interesting field for me, but then I also developed an interest in people / talent management skills. Hence, I practiced as an Independent Human Resources Consultant before joining ABKJ. While working during the day I pursued my Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Mount Carmel Evening College and received an opportunity from different firms across different industries. I chose to join ABKJ among all because of firm's profile, mission, leadership/management style and a new business launch in India (start-ups comes-up with challenging experience) which interest me the most.

As Abkj's Director-Business & Operations, What Are Your Current Critical Roles & Responsibilities?

As Director- Business & Operations, my roles & responsibility is on overall business operations in India which includes business development, human resources management, financials, contractual management, corporate strategies, and all related interest of the company's growth. Deploying my knowledge and sheer experience I ensure that all designated professionals & disciplines are functioning at the highest standard of professionalism as per the company's policy to meet ABKJ's objectives. In short, my critical roles and responsibilities is to achieve a successful business operation of ABKJ India office.

How Do You Intend To Design The Future For Abkj And Yourself As A Business Leader?

The market is vast, challenging, and complex in all aspects, cities are becoming compact, the construction is demanding, and pandemic taught us to embrace evolving lifestyle design. ABKJ aspires to make the most of this overwhelming industry by providing an innovative design solution which embraces new ideas and technology, and willingness to achieving excellence by taking on challenges ahead on with a strong experience and talent. We are aiming to offer diverse line of design expertise under one roof providing building design, engineering, BIM service and partnered with various sub-consultants. In particularly in engineering, we have an expertise to provide various structural systems as mentioned earlier by implying innovations, optimum safety, and cost-effective solutions to meet our client's project budget.

ABKJ has a proven successful track record, and we are able to achieve our goals through our business model that we have set from the beginning of this office launch in India. ABKJ is design based firm and focused to deliver quality work, we are particular about a type of projects we undertake, with whom we are working such as client and consultants and how we can deliver at the best. We are proud of the quality & the consistency we have chosen to maintain so far. We are growing every phase and every two to three years we have been launching a more expertise and services.

We care about our employees, and they are firm's asset. Our employees stay motivated working on various design and project types from various locations in US, middle east (ME), other Asian countries and by staying connected with local practise in India as well. We offer a diverse work environment, an interactive & collaborative team that an employees can easily reach out for help whenever needed. We conduct a periodic performance review, an opportunity for self-appraisal, collect managers inputs, review meeting, provide feedback with a `'goal setting'' to achieve within given timeline and a follow-up review meeting after (three to six months) which measures the status of employee achievements. This helps to establish a very a clear understanding on expectations, provides an opportunity of learning and growth.

What would your advice be to other young women looking to foray into the field of engineering?

Never give up and strive smart to achieve your goals, it is possible if there is a willpower. Opportunities are in abundance; hence, Women in Engineering is growing day by day. However, talent acquisition isn't a gender biased, an opportunity is won by the smarter one who is ambitious and achievers who stand strong to win it. Every industry should rise above any disparity and bring for thopport unities for women in adership roles which will add a valuable contribution for a successful business operation, prosperities, and an economic growth at locally and globally.

Yangchen Dolkar, Director- Business & Operations, ABKJ, India

Yangchen is a dynamic professional with over 19 years of rich industry experience working in Hospitality, Human Resources (HR) and AEC sectors. She is also passionate about animal rights, environment and education. Hence, apart from her 9 years extensive experience in hospitality, human resources (HR) and AEC sectors. She is also passionate about animal welfare & its rights, environment and education corporate work-life, she is actively engaged in various community welfare initiatives.