Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage: an engineering firm bent on growth.

• Author: Tyson, Ray

NEARLY FOUR YEARS AGO, Alaska pioneer engineer Dennis Nottingham predicted that state spending cuts would not hurt business at Peratrovich, Nottingham Drage Inc. "We view them as an opportunity for those who take a common sense approach and rely on sound engineering and logic to come up with effective projects at the lowest prices," said the president of PN&D.

Nottingham's comment appeared in the January 1986 issue of Alaska Business Monthly, just before collapsing world oil prices sent Alaska's economy into a wild three-year tailspin. Because the recession was particularly hard on engineering firms as well as the construction industry, PN&D's success during the economic downturn was nothing less than phenomenal.

"We went into the recession with about 25 people and we now have about 45," Nottingham says. "Perhaps by default we got to be among the top 10 firms). Everyone else left town."

While the Anchorage-based engineering consulting firm kept its slide rules and adding machines busy in Alaska with such projects as the 54-mile Red Dog Mine road near Kotzebue, PN&D also opened new offices in Washington, Oregon and Hawaii. On the Big Island, for example, PN&D is designing a two-mile recreational waterway for the Mauna Lani Resort.

"We noticed that during pipeline days, everyone came to Alaska; people totally unqualified came up here and got engineering jobs," Nottingham says. He adds that now PN&D is landing work in their home towns.

Nottingham and Roy Peratrovich launched the engineering firm in 1979 as Peratrovich & Nottingham. In 1983, the firm was renamed Peratrovich Nottingham & Drage when engineer Brent Drage, who died early last year, joined the firm.

As Nottingham and Peratrovich see it, Alaska's economic slide also gave the firm an opportunity to demonstrate a business principle that has guided the company since its inception a decade ago. "There are two kinds of people," Nottingham explains. "There is the recall' person who survives by using other people's ideas. The 'logic' person figures things out for himself. Unfortunately, there are more recall people than the other kind. Therefore, the opportunity for huge cost savings is often overlooked."

Peratrovich, senior vice president, attributes some of PN&D's success during the economic recession to more aggressive marketing. "We changed our approach a few years ago," he says. "We decided to become a little more vocal in the community, making presentations and telling our story."

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