Strategic Planning For the Establishment of a Professional Firm in the Built Environment - Business Plan Example

Strategic Planning For the Establishment of a Professional Firm in the Built Environment Ever-Green Construction Firm The Ever-Green Construction Firm will provide construction services to the urban residents. For this purpose, the firm has established the vision and mission statement as well in which it has detailed its core strategic value and objective as well. In addition, the firm will be mainly composed of four departments: construction, finance, human resource and legal and compliance department. Each department will have its own objectives which will directly serve the strategic objectives of the firm. Introduction The firm will provide construction services to the urban residents in which commercial and residential apartments and buildings will be constructed. Before going to formally enter into the construction market, the firm has developed its vision and mission statement in which the basic foundations of the firm have been laid down. In addition, the firm will ensure that serene urban living experience will be provided to the residents in which the latest means and methods and commercial and residential facilities will be provided to the clients. In this regard, it is important to mention that globally urban living is increasing as more and more are migrating from rural areas for better living and employment opportunities in the urban parts of the world. Keeping this view in mind, the firm has put in place various departments which will manage different functions within the parameters determined and established by the core values and strategic objectives of the firm. In the following parts of this paper, first vision and mission statements have been provided. In addition, strategic objectives, core values, strategic focus and strategic goals have been included in that part. Subsequently, small description about four departments has been provided before detailing the departments and professionals working in each department. Vision Statement Our vision is to create and provide serene human-made natural environment Mission Statement Our mission is to provide beyond conventional living experience to the urban residents. Strategic Objectives Providing the most modern engineering and construction techniques and methods for developing and maintaining construction base for the urban living in the urban city is the main strategic objective. Resident-centric construction and development approach for designing and constructing modern day housing living facilities in the built environment will serve as the key objective for all types of construction projects. Core Values Complying with all the construction codes and requirements has overarching importance for the Ever-Green Construction Firm. Putting maximum quality designing and construction effort and means for meeting the residents’ expectations is of central importance for the firm. Strategic Focus The strategic focus of the company is to increase number of clients through compliance with the construction industry codes and professionalism. Strategic Goals The strategic goal is to entertain minimum 4 construction projects of minimum project cost of £1 million. The second strategic goal is to avail and retain industry profit margin per construction project. Strategic Departments (four departments) The firm will have four departments: construction, finance, human resource and legal and compliance department. Each department has been established with a specific aim and purpose which directly serve the strategic objectives, core values, strategic goals, mission and vision of the firm. As each department will be set up with particular departmental and individual objectives, it will be a part of firm’s internal strategy to evaluate the department performance by comparing them with a set of benchmarks which are developed separately for each department. In this regard, it is important to mention that departmental appraisal will be conducted annually and based on the annual appraisal, rewards, incentives and other necessary measures will be taken. Construction Department This is the backbone department of the firm. The Construction Department will provide and monitor designing, construction, development services. In which, the department will be required to work on designing of construction projects before erecting the walls on the site. In the designing aspect, the department will be required to work closely with clients and will ensure that their expectations are satisfied appropriately. Construction Department Head The Construction Department will be led by a department head. The job description of the department head is to plan and develop general and particular construction strategy in which the department head will be required to liaise with other department particularly with the Legal and Compliance Department and the Finance Department as it will enable the department head to develop a practical and workable strategy. In addition, the department head will be responsible for making and approving the key department decisions. In other words, the department head will be mainly responsible for the ultimate and prime responsibility for the mega and small construction projects Construction Manager The construction manager will be required to manage running construction projects. The job description of the construction manager is to compile and look after all construction projects which are either in under progress stage or about to complete stage. Moreover, the construction manager will be required to provide regular updated information about the construction activity undergoing in the different projects to the department head. In addition, at the project level and their compliance with the relevant building codes and other compliance requirements, the construction manager is required to coordinate with the relevant departments within the firm. In this regard, it is important to highlight that the role of construction manager is only to coordinate with other departments on individual construction projects whereas the construction department has to develop the overall general and specific construction strategy. In addition, the construction manager is required to receive information from site manager and about the projects under progress. In this regard, it is important to highlight that the construction manager will determine the different completion stages of individual construction projects. For this purpose, the construction manager is required to receive approval from the construction department head for each individual project. In addition, the construction manager is required to provide overall cost and benefit analysis of individual projects. For this objective, the construction manager is required to coordinate with the finance department officials so that they provide accurate measures of different financial figures, such as cost of borrowing, sources of financing, appropriate and cost effective means of financing. Site Managers Site manager ensures that the site work is carried out by the specialists (Forsyth, 2007). Site manager is required to manage individual projects while working on site. The role of site manager will be very essential for the successful commencement ant completion of individual construction projects. Primarily, the site manager will be given 2 to 3 construction projects and for them, the construction manager will be required to arrange field labor, technicians, and other staff members that are a part of construction projects. Moreover, it will be the prime responsibility of the site manager to coordinate with the independent contractors and enter into a contractual understanding with them. However, in this regard, it is important to mention that the site manager must arrange a meeting with the construction manager in which different aspects of contract will be discussed. After the written approval of the construction manager, the site manager will be eligible to execute the contract terms and conditions. In other words, the other contracting party will be required to read and understand terms and conditions in contract agreement. And contract is defined as agreement between two or more than two persons or institutions (Cushman and Butler, 2000; Fauvarque-Cosson and Mazeaud, 2008; DiMatteo et al., 2003). However, before going to final sign a contract agreement with the independent contractors, it is obligatory for the site manager to discuss the different terms and conditions of contract with the legal and compliance department. This coordination is highly required and a necessary step before formally entering into the contractual agreement with other parties because any subsequent mishap in the shape of physical or human loss will be appropriately considered through due diligence process. Site Assistant The role of site assistant is to provide site assistance to the site manager. In this role, the site assistant will be required to work closely with independent contractors and site labor; the site assistant will be required to note down the site work commencement time and other activities which are carried out at the site. In this coordination, the site assistant will check the material quality, work quality and building codes; in other words, the site assistant is to perform the work of compliance in which it is the responsibility of the site assistant to ensure that the actual design and other regulatory requirements are practically followed. In case, if the site assistant finds any non-compliance, the site manager should be immediately contacted and reported about the issue. Finance Department Maintaining financial matters is the key function of finance department. In this regard, it is important to mention that the finance department will provide detailed information about different sources of finances to the construction and other departments. In addition, the finance department will also implement the international financial accounting rules for carrying out its financial matters. The purpose of applying and complying with the international financial and accounting standards is that the firm has long term strategy to serve in the construction industry. And in order to obtain this objective, the firm will be required to follow the construction industry norms and other rules that are being followed by competitors. Finance Department Head The finance department head will lead the department. Main finance decisions and their subsequent maintenance will be carried out by the finance department head. It will be the prime responsibility of the finance department head to approve the strategic finance agreement with financial and non-financial local and international institutions. For this purpose, the finance department head will be required to meet with the representatives from institutions and carry out the process of financing. As the nature of finance is highly essential and sensitive as well, the finance department head will be primarily responsible for the related decisions. In addition, it is the prime responsibility of the finance department head is to construct finance strategy in which different sources of finance, their possible cost and benefit analysis, budgeting and borrowing decisions parameters will be determined by the finance department head. Moreover, the finance department head will also be required to cooperate and coordinate with the legal and compliance department, construction department and human resource department and will require department budget from them so that the finance department head become in a position to include their budgeted cost in the annual finance strategy. In addition, the finance department head will remain in active coordination with the construction department for receiving their current and future project cost and their feasibility reports and other financial requirements as this will enable the finance department head to incorporate budgetary and financial requirements in the relevant financial documents. Finance Manager Project costing, construction accounting, financial and accounting standards compliance, project fund allocation to construction manager and receiving regular actual project expenditure from the site managers are the key responsibilities of finance manager. The role of finance manager is of critical importance to the finance department as it provides and managers the overall financial matters of the firm. The finance manager will be required to carry out the process of project costing in which all project-related cash inflows and outflows will be computed and subsequently they will be provided to the finance department head, the construction department head and the construction manager and the related site manager as well. By providing the financial details of projects, all relevant individuals will be in a position to understand the financial dimension of project and make appropriate inclusion and exclusion recommendations before finally approving the project costing proposal. Construction accounting is different than traditional accounting (Jha, 2011; Halpin and Senior, 2011) and is based on the concept of job costing (Wallace, 2008). In addition, the finance manager will be required to apply the relevant financial and accounting standards for carrying out the process of construction accounting. In this process, the finance manager will be mainly performing the role of financial analyst whose work will be to develop cost and benefit analysis approach pertaining to the related projects. In addition, the finance manager will also be required to make income statement and balance sheet as well. Also, it is the responsibility of the finance manager to provide project funds to the construction manager and receive regular updates about the utilization of funds. Finance and Account Assistant Assisting the finance manager will be the main role performed by the finance and account assistant. Fundamentally, the finance and account assistant will be required to perform the services of record keeping in which all financial records will be maintained. For this purpose, the account and finance assistant will be required to coordinate with site assistants and will receive relevant financial information. However, it is important to highlight that the finance and account assistant is empowered and required to report any material and substantial discrepancies in the site accounts to the finance managers. In addition, the finance and account assistant is required to maintain and update site ledgers in which daily costs incurred on site will be maintained by following the international rules of construction accounting. Human Resource Department Appropriate ability in potential employees with motivation is of paramount importance for selection and recruitment policy (Barrett et al., 2008).Hiring policy will be mainly developed and implemented by human resource department. In this policy, certain hiring benchmarks will be set and the relevant authority or human resource department head will be required to implement the different measures pertaining to human resource. For example, relevant qualification, appropriate experience, field understanding and certain management skills are some of the important standards that will be expected from the potential employees. Human Resource Department Head The human resource department head will supervise the human resource matters in the firm. The human resource department head will be responsible for developing overall human resource policy in which different benchmarks and annual appraisal policy will also be generated and provided. In this regard, the human resource department head will be required to coordinate with other department heads and discuss the hiring issues. Collaboration generates productivity (Vogt, 2009). For example, the human resource department head will inquire from the construction department head about the number of permanent and other site staff required for the department because the firm’s main functional department is the construction department. Subsequently, legal and compliance department head will be contacted for their staff requirements. After this, the human resource department head will meet with the finance department head will receive information about the staff and about the availability of funds for allocating to the permanent and temporary staff of the firm. In addition, the human resource department head will develop an effective recruitment policy. This policy will be of central importance to the firm because it will hire only those potential employees who will become asset for the firm. In the selection and recruitment process, the human resource department head will lead the process in which interviews, screening tests and other necessary steps will be taken to ensure hiring productive workforce for the firm. Human Resource Manager Initial screening and interviews will be conducted by the human resource manager. In the screening process, the human resource manager will be required to develop a relevant screening mechanism for appropriately selecting skilled and productive employees for the firm. For this purpose, the human resource manager will b required to work on different recruitment and selection framework because there cannot be a standardized initial screening mechanism for all potential employees. For example, for hiring a site assistant, relevant qualification will be primarily focused because the work of the assistant is only to record site activities and report the activities to the site manager whereas the hiring and initial screening process for a department head will be considerably different as the relevant qualification and reasonable industry and field experience will always be required for selecting and recruiting an appropriate candidate for the firm. Human Resource Assistant Record keeping and gathering relevant information about candidates are the main functions of human resource assistant. Primarily, the role of human resource assistant is to provide assistance to the human resource manager in which the role of human resource assistant will be to gather the relevant information about candidates by verifying their background through calling to the previous employers and other contact information which is provided by candidates. In addition, the human resource assistant will contact with venue providers for carrying out screening tests. For this purpose, the human resource assistant will need to screen venue providers so that a cost-effective venue facility is obtained where screening of all candidates will be carried out. In addition, the human resource assistant will also maintain test records and provide them to the human resource manager. Subsequently, the human resource assistant will be required to maintain salaries, wages, bonuses, incentives, annual increments and other information relating to the employees working in the firm. In this regard, it is important to mention that the human resource assistant will be required to provide a separate sheet for temporary and permanent staff members as this will enable the human resource manager to conduct appraisal annually. Legal and Compliance Department This is the most important department for the firm. It will be the prime responsibility of the department to determine and establish legal and compliance aspect in every construction contract and activity as well. In addition, this department is also required to provide legal opinion and future ramifications for any agreement which the firm will be sign with other parties. In other words, this department has a considerable responsibility for not only highlighting the legal aspect but also enabling the firm to complying with the relevant building codes and other possible legislation that may directly or indirectly affect the current or future constructions projects of the firm. Legal and Compliance Department Head A legal and compliance department head will lead the department. It will be the head’s responsibility to provide a strong legal mechanism through which legal aspects of each construction project will be seen. In other words, the legal and compliance department head will be required to know the relevant national and international laws that directly or indirectly related to the firm’s construction projects; at the same time, the head must have strong and deeper understanding of such construction laws because the cost of any inefficiency in this aspect will be directly paid by the firm. In this regard, it is important to mention that the regulatory mechanism does not remain the same but new changes and amendments are constantly being incorporated to the national and international constitutions. As a result, it is highly essential for the legal and compliance department head to remain constantly updated with the relevant changes taking place in the construction laws. Moreover, the legal and compliance department head is also required to generate a compliance policy which must be developed and must be in cognizance with the local building codes and other requirements. In other words, the legal and compliance head is only required to develop a compliance policy and its implementation will be done by the other department staff. General Compliance Manager The implementation of compliance policy will be mainly monitored and supervised by the general compliance manager. For this purpose, the general compliance manager will be needed to fully understand the terms and requirements given in the compliance policy besides visiting sites for ensuring the actual and practical implementation of compliance policy. In addition, it is the prime responsibility of the general compliance manager to monitor the compliance regularly and subsequently the drafted report must be submitted to the legal and compliance department head. In the report, the general compliance manager will highlight the non-compliance and compliance areas and subsequently will highlight the reasons for the non-compliance besides providing some recommendations for tackling the problem of non-compliance. At the same time, the general compliance manager will also be required to maintain all the legal and compliance records as it will enable the department to avoid those mistakes which lead to penalties and other fines for non-complying with the relevant codes. Coordination is essential for effectively using the project-related knowledge (Zaki, 2005). Similarly, the general compliance manager is required to work closely with the site managers and site assistants because they will directly inform about any possible changes in the construction activity. Conclusion The firm has established four strategic departments: construction department, finance department, human resource department and legal and compliance department. Each department has separate set of goals and responsibilities. The construction department, which is the main department of the firm, will provide construction services to the clients; this department will have construction department head, construction manager, site managers and site assistants as well. And the finance department will be led by the finance department head and the main function of this department will be to provide financial and accounting information to the firm. The human resource department will determine and implement human resource policy whereas the legal and compliance department will cover the legal aspect of the construction activity. Bibliography Barrett, P, Sexton, M, & Lee, A, (2008), Innovation in Small Construction Firms, New York: Routledge Cushman, RF, & Butler, SD, (2000), Fifty State Construction Lien And Bond Law, 2nd edn, New York: Aspen Publishers DiMatteo, LA, Zhou, Q, Saintier, S, Rowley, K, (eds) (2003), Commercial Contract Law: Transatlantic Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 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