Savills UK: Company Description - Personal Statement Example

Savills UK Affiliation Internship review Company Savills is a UK based company, which has been the leading agency in the property industry for a long time. With a wide corporate partnership and agency network, the company has been able to maintain a high reputation in the United Kingdom and in various other countries where its services are accessible. The company has been ranked first for six consecutive years in both The Times and in Business Superbrands in the real estate’s category. It has far-reaching agency with a well-established coverage and presence in America, Europe Asia Pacific and Africa. Due to this coverage, the company has been able to provide job opportunities to more than 27,000 persons in it are over 600 offices worldwide. The company offers, in all its offices a wide range of real estate expertise ranging from residential, healthcare, leisure, offices, rural and hotel property and development schemes. The main clients, therefore, include the real estate’s entrepreneurs, private homeowners, and corporate or business entities looking for operating space (Dijkman 2008, p. 234). Besides this, the company also offers career development opportunities in the form of internship for graduates and students in all the fields where the company effect is felt. Owing to this fact, most of the employees and even the board members joined the company before or immediately after their graduation and are determined to continue this project to uplift other young minds and recruit them to the industry. This has been an important practice as it has provided the company with homegrown talents and skills that are well compatible with the company’s strategies and philosophy (Savills plc). The professionalism displayed by the company when dealing with commercial property keeps the client base expanding and customers loyalty increasing. The company offers a full range of professional and corporate housing services. This is performed effectively in a wide range of commercial property fields including hotels, leisure parks, company offices or even healthcare facilities. To these customers and the property owners, the company becomes the best choice of property management because they appear to understand the clients’ needs and are always having a solution to address these needs. The company still maintains its presence in the rural property services. From its genesis, the company still offers the land agency services in England. These beings the company’s roots, long-time clients still enjoy the agency services of the company they regard as their own. This has also attracted attention in other parts of the world; new clients with rural property are joining the client base to obtain consultancy, and management services (Savills plc). Important historical milestones The Savills family has been in London since 1066AD after the Norman Conquest. The family settled and started farming in northern Essex. The company however started in 1855, by a descendant of the family, Alfred Savills and his Son. The company was initially dealing with land lordship professional consultation. Even in 1870s when the company was moved from Essex to St. Helens Place, it retained its clients in Essex. When Alfred died in 1905, His three sons were already established in the directorship of the company. They maintained their presence especially among the agricultural landowners. The company survived first and second World Wars and remained relevant to many of its clients. Throughout the 20th century, the company expanded its scope in terms of services and geographical coverage. This has been a clear trend in business to become one of the best-managed property managers in the world. Presently the company runs a subsidiary entity Cordea Savills that specializes with funds management and consultancy. It has moved to increase its presence around the globe especially in the United States where it has acquired Studley Inc. and their nationwide and international networks. The success story is based on the mutual trust between the family directors and the ability and willingness to keep a well thought of the legacy. The company is also keen to keep its vision and strategy which to become the estate advisor of choice in all the markets where it is present and to deliver quality services to the customers. The company is committed to going the extra mile to meet the clients’ objectives rather than using the clients to meet theirs. With the core values of integrity and entrepreneurial approach to business, the company has been able to establish itself deeper and wider in the industry (Savills plc). Company structure and Shareholding The top management structure in Savills comprises of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jeremy Helsby, a legal director Chris Lee and the company CFO Simon Shaw. Under these three are the directors responsible for various regions where the company services are present. The company is listed in the London Stock Exchange with a ticket symbol “SVS." The shareholding percentages are 62.7% in United Kingdom, 20.6% in North America (United States and Canada) and 11% in other regions. The remaining 5.2% shareholding is reserved for the company’s employees and directors. Corporate Social Responsibility The company recognizes its corporate responsibility towards the society as an integral part in business success. As a trusted brand all over the world, the company engages in multiple activities. First, the company is fully involved in the reduction of environmental pollution by reducing its negative impact to the environment and creating this awareness in its employee’s population and the community. Secondly, the company is fully focused on developing a community where it is present. It does this by attracting and training the best people from the communities to be part of the company. It also trains entrepreneurs on business and property management in these areas. The client service is also friendly and cultural diversity-sensitive. This contribution to the community where the company is present enhances its reputation and improves client loyalty (Edwards & Ellison 2004, p. 276). Competencies and competitors The key competencies of Savills are what keep the company running and always ahead of others. First, the company has a well-structured management made up of professionals with experience not just in estate and property management, but also with working with a mission, philosophy and vision of the group. This is because the company depends more on homegrown professionals who are developed from graduates to become competent. This does not only ensure loyalty but also allow ethical practice and autonomy in professionalism. Secondly, the company has a broad client base which stems from the wide range of services. During client care, the company effectively demonstrates understanding of the practice. This creates confidence from among the clients and enhances loyalty and stability of the company-marketing department. Thirdly, the company can communicate effectively with the clients and within itself. This enhances the progress by ensuring that there is an identifiable channel of communication and directions. It also helps the company to remain focused and operations aligned to the vision and objectives of the company. Business planning and teamwork principles are also a strength that the company uses to improve its competencies. The main competitors of Savills in the global estates and property management industry are countrywide plc. which is one of the largest real estate agency in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1986, it already has more than 1,300 branches in the kingdom. The other competitor is KNIGHT FRANK LLP a UK based company that provides a wider coverage of real estate offerings and advisory to clients than does countrywide plc. It is available in 40 countries worldwide and has perfectly performing US-based partner Newman KNIGHT FRANK. It was founded in 1896. However, even with these competitors, Savills still maintains the lead in many parts of the world owing to the wide coverage, variety of services and broader presence (Edwards & Ellison 2004, p. 276). SWOT Analysis Savills Savills is one of the leading international real estates and property Management Company. Present in all continents and regions and with more than 27.000 employees in 600 major offices, the company must be in a position of power and influence. However, to remain in this position there is many aspects that Savills has to face as a company that determines its situation and position. SWOT analysis aims at observing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization to get an idea on where the company stands and how it is performing and can continue performing in the market (Pahl, & Richter 2007, p. 356). Strengths Savills is a well-established company with a rich history. It is widely recognized as a company that offers clients value of service and products. It, therefore, has a very secure market position in the global real estate industry. The ability of the company to provide a variety of real estate packages and management services makes it important among property owners and developers as well as the customers. The company still maintains its originality by providing rural and agricultural property agency and consultancy. This helps Savills to retain relevance among its original customers and clients who are the main source of expansion and marketing strategy. Weaknesses Savills plc is an enormous company with very wide range of real estate and property management services. They offer services such as residential homes renting and letting, business space management, hotels management and even leisure property renting and management. Nevertheless, they have its weaknesses. First, the company’s overreliance on homegrown talents prevents introduction and development of new ideas. This might be playing a role in the reduced innovativeness in the company because the ideas are just recycled. It also limits diversification. Cultural diversity is also not emphasized in the company, most of the senior management and employees, even those representing different regions tend to be Europeans. This limits the acceptance and assimilation in some parts of the world thus reducing competitiveness in these regions. Opportunities There are many opportunities for Savills. The company should stick with its original business strategy that they are still following about entering new markets with new services. Big opportunities are on the Internet as Savills is trying to connect with more people who are new in the real estate and who needs agency services. In addition, creating variety of brands that identify with a specific service or specific region customers will enhance their recognition and presence in various regions in the world. The company should take the growing real estate business in the developing countries as an opportunity. With the improved telecommunication technology, consultancy and business deals can be made everywhere with limited cost that will help the company acquire clients in many of these new regions. Threats Savills as a company also faces many threats from within the company and from outside. Being number one means that the company is the benchmark and the target of competition. One big threat that Savills faces is the rapid growing KNIGHT FRANK. The reason this is a threat is that KNIGHT FRANK is also an old and established company with vast experience. Its partnership with the US-based agency keeps the coverage of Savills Company in the United States and North America at risk. There is also the threat of losing the experienced managers and employees to the upcoming agencies who are offering increased remunerations and allowances as a means of attracting the experienced professions from large companies. This can be a big blow to the company that has invested so much on development of own experts. Based on this analysis, the situation of Savills Company seems to be stable, at least now. However, the weaknesses and the threats need to be given a better consideration to ensure that they do not interfere with the development of the company. The consideration should take place as the company tries to capitalize on its strengths and positive use of the available opportunities. PESTEL Analysis Savills Different from SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis analyzes the external environment of an organization with a focus on various issues over which the organization or the company has limited control over and which influence the operations and business of the company. The focus is usually on the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors. This analysis helps equip an organization with skills to adjust to the external environment and to plan. It is crucial to consider the external environmental forces that have considerable impact on an organisation from both a macro view, Taylor and Cooper (1988) and from an industrial point of, (Pettinger, 2004). The importance of this is that for most of these factors, the organization has little or no control. For this reason, Savills plc has to consider the external factors to ensure that required changes are made before they adversely interfere with the operations of the company (Murray-Webster & Williams 2010, p. 88). Political factors Savills Company is significantly influenced by political factors in terms of organizational variability. The political aspect of globalisation is the main consideration for Savills. Changes in the political environment of the UK favoring privatisation of many companies increased the tax rates on the private companies. Under the prevailing economic ideology of the time, a large number of public utility companies became privatised and/or broken up into smaller and more efficient companies. This was to enhance efficiency, as well as increase revenue. It, therefore, led to increased taxation rates and Savills suffered the blow more than many of its competitors who were only small firms at that time. The political environment in other countries where the company is present also affects the establishment and the expansion. In some, the foreign companies are cover a secondary attention in licensure and work permits. The taxation is also exorbitantly high, thus limiting investments. Economic factors Savills, like any other business in the world, has been significantly affected by turbulence and externalities in the global economic environment. This has been as a result of processes of industrial globalisation and economic development that has opened up more chances and brought more competition for the company. The company has overtime lost its monopoly in estate and property management as competitors in the industry increase. Increased wealth money flow, however may have increased the advantage of the company. This is because many people are now investing in real estates and reusing the services of agencies and consultant companies to manage them. Economically, globalisation has also increased the number of and size of competitors in the industry thus threatening Savills at micro and macro levels. Sociological factors The sociological factors are closely linked to the economic factors. These factors have adversely affected Savills in relation to changing demographics in terms of the clients the company has historically been targeting. Savills, being an old company whose original clients comprised mainly of old estate owners. It has been associated with the late adulthood age group especially due to its closed management and lack of technology embracing. The estate ownership is now changing to include the young entrepreneurs. This challenges the company to provide services that will be required by this cohort and also increase openness and technology use to attract more of these clients. Technological factors Technology changes, from the current analysis of the company, can be argued as being the main factor in the external environment producing operational, as well as organizational change in Savills Company. Most of the machine and equipment used as Savills are more than twenty years old, although changing this may be a costly affair; they are not a representation of technological development. The efficiency of this equipment is limited as is their application in todays practice. The management, therefore, should consider embracing technology. This will increase production and efficiency and will serve to attract more clients and skilled employees to the company. Environmental factors Savills is within an industry that requires taking consideration of environmental factors. The company and its clients are always subject to intense regulations by Environmental Protection Agencies in relation to the conduct of its service housing and estates management. Factors of influence here have made the company be fully engaged in training programs for its employees and the clients. The company also has to ensure that there is an assessment of the property to be managed to ensure that they meet the regulatory requirement and standards. The involvement of the company in environmental protection, as part of its corporate social responsibility, has however boosted the company’s position in terms of compliance to regulations and standards. Legal factors Legal considerations are direct concern for Savills. First, in terms of the regulatory environment, the company must contend with as being a service company providing services to the public. The management of property cannot be separated from the management of the environment on which the property lies. This means that effectively to manage the property, and legal issues related to the environment must also be put into consideration. Furthermore, the management of property and property ownership is always characterized by lawsuits and unsettled legal proceedings. The company must realize this and put mechanisms to ensure that its relationship with the clients does not breach any laws concerning land and property ownership or management. The company, for this reason, has in its senior management team a legal advisor who ensures that all the services offered are in line with the requirements of the law. Internship Log Date: 30th June 2014 A welcome breakfast meeting was organized for all the interns by the UK graduate recruitment team, and for the purpose of the internship, they assigned a graduate mentor for each intern. I received a friendly welcome by the Capital Allowances Consultancy The rest of my afternoon was spent reading already completed capital allowance valuation report in order to familiarise myself with its content. Date: 1st July 2014 I am alone in the office this morning. In the meantime, the team attends their regular workshop organized for the Capital Allowances Consultancy’s clients and their collaborators. I passed my morning to answer phone calls and to take messages on behalf of the team. There is not much to do this afternoon; I used the internet to familiarize myself with the Capital Allowances Act 2001 and did not hesitate to ask questions for better understanding. Close to the end of day, I had a brief meeting with my graduate mentor in order to plan our site survey for tomorrow. Date: 2nd July 2014 I am on site survey with my graduate mentor to measure, inspect and take photos of three separate commercial buildings in Greater London. It is my first on-site professional experience in the domain of capital allowances, and as such, I did not hesitate to ask questions for better understanding of how affairs are run. The rest of the afternoon was spent at a networking event in where I socialized with fellow interns from Nabarro LLP and Knight Frank. Date: 3rd July 2014 Today, my graduate mentor taught me how to use the Capital Allowances Consultancy’s software for taking off measurements and estimating the re-construction cost. This is a requirement to calculate the reasonable adjustment of the purchase price of a given commercial building. I was then allowed to work on the estimating procedure of the first commercial building we have surveyed in Richmond-Upon-Thames. Date: 4th July 2014 There is an event this morning at the City office to explore the hidden quarters of Central London. The tour lasted until mid-day when I returned to the West End office where I am an intern with the Capital Allowance Consultancy. I passed the remaining hours of the day working on the estimated re-construction cost of the already surveyed commercial in Richmond-Upon-Thames. Date: 7th July 2014 Under the supervision of my graduate mentor, I drafted the legal entitlement position of the client to claim capital allowances on the first commercial property surveyed on the 2/07/2014 I spent time to resolve some minor errors with re-construction cost figures that were identified by my graduate mentor I attended a departmental overview of the Development department and the Valuations department at the company. This was in the morning hours. Date: 8th July 2014 I passed a numerical and written test in the morning. This went well as expected. The reconstruction cost of the first commercial property agrees with my graduate mentor I started to work on the estimating procedure of the second commercial property we have surveyed on the 2nd July 2014 in Eagling. Date: 9th July 2014 I finished with the estimating procedure of the second surveyed commercial property. Under the supervision of my graduate mentor, I drafted the detailed building description of the first property surveyed. My graduate mentor taught me how to use focus net and Egi to collect comparable values of rent and yield in order to calculate land value of the surveyed property. Date: 10th July 2014 Interviewed by the Director of the Capital Allowance Consultancy about my internship experience and the progress I have made so far. This went very well. Under the supervision of my graduate mentor, I completed my first capital allowance valuation report, and the Director reviewed it. Some minor mistakes highlighted. However, in overall, my graduate mentor was pleased with the effort I have made. Date 11th July 2014 On this day, I worked with the other interns to review the ongoing internship as part of the mid-placement internship. The reviews were conducted on individual ground and on group perspective to assess the progress that each one of the interns had made. Date 14th July 2014 The mid-placement internship continued guided by the graduate mentors who assisted in the analysis and reviews. Date 15th July 2014 This was the first day of department overview. I attended the overview of the London residential development department hosted by Andrew Boyd. The overview provided an opportunity to explore various operations that take place in the company. It was conducted in the morning hours to allow a city tour in the afternoon. The city tour was done in groups, and I was in the first group to visit various buildings and properties that the company manages in the city. Date 17th July 2014 This was also a department overview day. On this day, we had an overview of the hotels department and the research department in the morning hours. We also had the opportunity to evaluate the operations and services offered in hotel and leisure property management. In the evening we attended, through invitation the graduates Social Roundels in the company. It is here that I met all the graduates working in the company and established valuable connections. Date 22nd July 2014 This was my last day of my placement. The auction department gave us an invitation to an auction happening in the city that I attended together with other interns and some graduates from various departments. I later cleared with my graduate mentor and the departments in which I had worked in the three weeks placement. Farewells were said, and I left the company. Internship Reflective Commentary My internship period at Savills started on 30th of June 2014 with the introduction to the company and a warm welcome from the team. I was assigned a graduate mentor who was to oversee my learning experience and ensure that within the three weeks period, I was able to learn as much as possible of the activities of the company and be in a position to use competently the software and various equipment used in the company. The activities that I attended in the organization as well as a direct contribution in the surveys and calculations of valuations and costs for various properties gave me a deeper insight into the profession. I was able to identify the various sources of accounting and valuation errors in estates management and in valuation. This was adequately proven by the mid-internship assessment test, which, as expected, I passed. From my experience in the company and also from the commentary I received from my mentor and the director of Capital Allowances Consultancy in the company, I demonstrated important skills in my internship that were necessary for the field and that could enhance my employability. My eagerness to learn and contribution in the operations of the company were cited as the main points of strengths that I should purpose to maintain. References Dijkman, M. (2008). Europe Real Estate Yearbook 2008: Assets, Industry Trends, Market Players. , Real Estate Publishers. Edwards, V., & Ellison, L. (2004). Corporate property management aligning real estate with business strategy. Oxford, UK, Blackwell Science. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10158511. Murray-Webster, R., & Williams, G. (2010). Management of risk: guidance for practitioners. Norwich, England, The Stationery Office. Pahl, N., & Richter, A. (2007). SWOT analysis: idea, methodology and a practical approach. [Munchen], GRIN Verlag. Pettinger, R. (2004) Contemporary Strategic Management, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke Savills plc. http://www.savills.co.uk/about-savills.aspx. Read More