Free Report About Project Plan Description

This project will involve the formulation of a company in the construction industry. The project plan will involve a critical review of the company and its features and components. The project plan will go further to identify the business idea and the internal and external environment within which the company will operate. The main end sought by this project plan is to provide a set of recommendations for the positioning of the construction company and this will include the identification of the strength and weaknesses in the internal elements of the firm, the external opportunities and threats as well as the sources of competitive advantage for the firm.

Synopsis of the Company

The proposed company is to be called Build-It Ltd. It is to operate in the UK under the business name and brand name, “Build-It!” this will show a practical and action-oriented entity that will provide superior building services in the UK and beyond.
General Business Overview: Build-It Ltd will be focused on providing services to key players and entities in the UK construction industry. The services will include the provision of technology, economic/financial brokerage and assistance as well as legal support to construction firms in the UK. This will include the convergence of experienced professionals and other entities that can work with Build-It to achieve its goals.
Vision and Mission: The vision of Build-It is to provide the best services necessary for UK construction and engineering firms to achieve their technological, financial and legal needs. The mission is to provide efficient technology and reasonable financial services as well as sound and relevant legal advice to key players in the UK construction industry.
Products and Services: Build-It will provide a range of bespoke and general (mass-produced) packages for a wide array of construction entities in and around the UK. This will include bespoke software and hard ware products as well as mass produced software and hardware. There will also be general packages for loans and finances that will come with a fixed commission from the financial institutions as well as personally negotiated financial deals that will be based on a percentage. For legal services, there will be a commission on the payments made by construction clients to legal service providers that will be paid to Build-It.
Stakeholders: Build-It will be based on a limited liability company model. There will be stakeholders including shareholders who will act as directors and managers and a lean staff of employers (18 workers in 3 branches across the UK). The external stakeholders will include partner IT companies, legal firms and financial institutions. Consumers will also be direct stakeholders whilst city authorities and other building regulatory entities will be distant stakeholders.
Industry Analysis: The UK construction industry is worth over £64 billion and per annum and it employs over 2.2 million persons. There are over 75,000 construction firms in the UK and most of them are small entities, whilst a few hundreds of these employ over 1,000 people. All these can be consumers to the services being proposed by Build-It.
Future Goals: The future plan of Build-It will be to acquire its own construction machinery and vertically integrate into the UK construction industry as a construction firm.

Business Idea

The business idea will culminate in three main streams – a technological segment, a financial/economic segment, and a legal segment. They will all work together to complement the primary goal of keeping Build-It going. Build-It will involve three main managers who will handle each of the segments. The overall authority will be with the director who will review the work of all the subordinate managers.

Marketing Plan

The marketing plan for Build-It will include the promotion of the brand through direct sponsorship and participation in construction events. After that, there will be cold calls by the managers to various construction firms and this will include word-of-mouth promotion of the firm. There will also be mass marketing for smaller construction firms through the media.

Human Resource Management Plan

Each of the three managers (technology, legal and economic) will have three core staff members who will work with them. Aside this, there will be a specific units including marketing that will focus on promoting the brand and administrative units that will employ one staff each in all three branches. Job specification will be based on education and experience of prospective applicants and the work requirement for each of the roles.

Operational & Financial Plan

The firm will fundamentally incur labour, marketing and administrative costs as the core cost obligations. This is because operation will be centred on these three components. Revenue will be based on the commissions and fees that will be paid for their services. There will be no in-house technological, legal or financial staff who will work directly with client. These entities will be outside the firm and Build-It will connect them to prospective clients for a commission or fee. On a few occasions, they will provide bespoke services and direct processes when the risks are worth it.

External Environment Analysis

General Market Overview
The UK’s construction industry comes with a lot of resources from activities both in the UK and beyond. This includes a turnover over £64 billion and it employs over 2.2 million people per annum. There are over 75,000 firms that will need technological, legal and financial assistance in the way they do things. This provides an avenue for the making of a lot of profits as a construction industry service provider like Build-It. The market in the UK can be segmented into four main components, the large entities, medium entities, small entities and micro entities. The large entities often have bargaining power and they can keep an in-house technological, legal and financial brokerage unit that will handle procurement and financing. However, smaller and micro entities will need to outsource these functions. This is where Build-It has an opportunity. The main threat is that there are numerous units of companies in the construction industry that carry out these construction services. They are likely to go private in the next few years and become competitors.

General Environment Analysis

There are three main areas and aspects that are of importance and significance and ought to be evaluated:
Technological: The UK’s technological industry is extremely advanced. There are many well trained professionals and authorities in the field who play numerous roles in helping to deal with the activities and needs of people. Offshoring is also possible to nations like India where it can be easy to get assistance at very low prices.
Economic: The UK economy is growing and recovering from the global financial crisis. This means there will be more buildings in the UK and technology firms will need help.
Legal: There have been numerous cuts and changes in rules, hence they will need consultancy and advice in the construction industry.

Porter’s Five Forces

The Porter’s five forces present the means through which competition in a given industry is structured and is carried out. In the case of a construction service industry, the following are prominent and common:
Threats of new entrants: This is very high because it is very easy for new entities to be formed to provide assistance and service to the players in the UK construction industry since it is not very capital-intensive;
Threats of Substitutes: This is very high because there are many ways a construction entity in the UK can get technology, financial assistance and legal assistance. However, the specialised nature of such an enquiry is not really available to all firms;

Buyer Integration: The consultancy units of construction large construction firms can easily enlarge and set up their own units;

Supplier Integration: Banks, IT and legal firms in the UK can also set up specialised consultancy services to construction industry firms and find their own brokers;
Competitive Rivalry: At the moment, there are several specialised firms that are existent in the UK that provide similar services to consumers. These are usually large and concentrate on large construction entities.

Analysis of the Competitor Environment

The current entities that are existing in the UK include entities like Balfour Beatty and Amey Plc which provides services and assistance in the field Build-It seeks to operate within. These are generally large entities that cater for the need of large and huge entities in the UK and beyond. However, on the other side, the other risk comes from the ease and threat of new entrants which is very common. This is because new entrants can easily enter the market and provide the same kind of services to UK construction entities.
5. Internal Analysis of Build-It
5.1 Resources of Build-It
The managers of Build-It have a lot of experience in the provision of services in their special niches and areas of expertise. The four top-level managers have specific areas that they have proven-track records in. Therefore, they can guarantee a high degree of success. There is also a capital injection of £500,000 by the top managers that can be used as seed capital for the growth of the firm in its current state. The company has three offices across the UK, and a they have the infrastructure and connections to succeed.
5.2 Capabilities of Build-It
The fundamental capability of Build-It is the strong links it has in respective and individual sections and sectors of its operations. These competencies include strong negotiations and strong connections in specific areas that can lead to better results and proven results in the demand for better activities and services for their clients.
5.3 Four Criteria of Sustainable Competitive Advantage & Core Competencies

The core competencies of Build-It can be viewed in the following context:

Valuable: The competencies of the managers are valuable and they can be converted to British Pounds through the provision of efficient services to construction firms for a commission or a charge.
Rare: The managers of Build-It have a rare niche and only few people can operate in this end of the construction industry in the UK.
Imitable: It takes years to build experience and skills in the brokerage segments of the construction industry of the UK. Therefore, it will not be easy for anyone to easily imitate Build-It’s core competencies.
Sustainable: The UK construction industry will always exist and persist. Therefore, it is almost certain that there will be firms that will need financing, technology and legal support.
5.4 Value Chain Analysis
5.5 Summary of Results

Gaps and limits in resource competence and capabilities

-There is a lack of an opportunity to control and remain at the helm of affairs in the industry this is because the firm lacks the capital to control the niche of small construction firms’ service assistance and support services. This includes the lack of funds and capital to create a strong and perfect brand that will have an unshakable competitive posture
-Build-It is operating in a niche where there is the need for a lot of mass education and assistance to firms. This includes various forms of education and guidance that will get these smaller firms to understand the need to invest money in the use of a specialist and expert like Build-It this will come with a lot of effort and the need for more working capital.
- Build-It might need some guarantees and a dominant posture in financial negotiations if it is to remain viable and operational in the future

Recommendations for Improvement

Build-It might want to consider acquiring some more capital to be able to compete and claim a strong position on the industry. This will include getting more money and also growing the firm generically to achieve higher demand.

Competitive Advantage of Build-It

Build-It has a competitive advantage of being a leading and pioneering entity in the provision of allied and related service to small construction firms in the UK. This is a small niche, but comes with a lot of capital and high earning potentials. Build-It is providing a unique service from professional managers who have rare and unique talents that cannot be easily imitated by competitors. The company has managers who have a proven track record and they can use it as a basis to grow and expand into the market and convert many sceptical managers and directors in the small construction firm industry to outsource their service procurement from them. They have the advantage of being specialised, focused and rare in their outlook and output.

Works Cited

Office of National Statistics. Construction Statistics Annual. 2014. Web. 24 March 2015. <http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_commerce/CSA-2010/Opening%20page.pdf>.