Warszawski, A (1996) Strategic planning in construction companies. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 122(2), pp. 133-140. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Strategic planning is an essential function of senior management in any business firm. Planning involves the firm's behavior in a competitive market and adaptation of the company's resources towards the selected market strategy. This paper presents a methodological procedure for strategic planning in a construction company. This procedure consists of the following stages. First, examine the company's mission. The mission reflects the owners' views with regard to the company's scope of activities and objectives. Second, survey the company's business environment. The environment includes both general economic factors that affect all types of business activity and additional factors, specific to the construction sector. This survey should reveal the specific "packages" of prospective project opportunities and highlight potential threats to a company's orderly activity. Third, analyze the company's main resources. The main resources in this respect include the construction capacity, the procurement system, the marketing system, the organization, personnel, finances, and knowledge. The relative strengths and weaknesses of each resource, in light of market needs, are identified. Fourth, develop a strategy. The development of a strategy is based on "mapping" of the relative attractiveness of the various possible activity areas. This strategy can follow one of several generic types that must be adapted to particular conditions of the market and company. It affects the subsequent choice of a strategy for development of the company's own resources. The choice of the optimal strategy, from several available alternatives, should follow a careful analysis of the costs and benefits inherent in the implementation of each.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | implementation, economic factor, procurement system, marketing, strategic planning, adaptation, owner, package, construction sector, mapping, construction company, survey, strategy, personnel |
| Subjects: | sociology, industry analysis, management, spatial and geospatial analysis, economic concepts, contractual arrangements, data collection methods, business, organization, user focus |
| Topics: | Procurement, Stakeholder Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Human Resources, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here