An Insightful Look at Balfour Beatty's Management Structure and Strategies Case Study

An Insightful Look at Balfour Beatty's Management Structure and Strategies

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Introduction: The Multifaceted Role of Management in Achieving Corporate Goals Through Responsibility, Teamwork and Focus

Management is a skill that supports corporate goals. A crucial component of any business includes social responsibility, personnel requirements, focused goals and effective teamwork. Management is a broad aspect of life that deals in all spheres and is not just fundamental to corporations or organizations. A management structure is how a company's management hierarchy is organized. Authorities, rights and responsibilities are distributed according to the hierarchy that has been created within the company. There are various management structures present; it is solely the organization’s choice to adopt a structure depending on Board/High, Middle and Lower management. Blaffer Beatty, a 1909 company, got the biggest construction contractor rank in 2021. UK’s construction market occupant since ages is a leading international engineering, construction and services company.

Figure 1 Case Company logo

The commitment of the company to be reliable and profound is maintained till date. An international infrastructure group which is capable of providing services like ground engineering, fit-out, rail engineering, electricity networks, highway infrastructure etc. Balfour Beatty never compromised in proving their capability as a corporate reflecting their strength in the field of construction. The corporation always invested in privately funded infrastructure assets and manages public-private partnership (PPP) projects and non-PPP schemes. Financing, developing, innovating and enabling growth are the key features of the company (Laws, 2016). Rather than only organizing, management teaches more corporate skills. This essay demonstrates the engagement and learning with a key area of study on Blaffer Beatty. Starting from providing a background of the organization, the essay will lead to reflect its culture, sustainability and overview.

Moving forward in the essay, the management structure of the organization, advantages and disadvantages of the structure, 4Ps of the marketing mix and SWOT analysis will be highlighted. The essay will also provide an overview of HR functions with strategies the company implies to recruit employees and their relational schemes (Babaev, 2019).

A background of the selected organization

Established in 1909, the history of Balfour Beatty is absolutely captivating. The Fife Tramway Light and Power Company were founded by accountant Andrews Beatty and professional engineer George Balfour as a Balfour Beatty subsidiary. British Insulated Callender's Cables Limited, which later became BICC PLC in 1975, was formed in 1945 as a result of the merger of the two major cable producers in Britain, British Insulated Cables and Callender's Cable and Construction Company. While Balfour Beatty and Company Limited were initially founded with interests in the design, construction and management of electric street cars and railways, both firms pioneered their respective emerging electrical cable industries. Finally acquiring Balfour Beatty as a subsidiary in 1969, BICC was responsible for more than half of its earnings and revenues (Lawrence, 2020). BICC gave up its cable business in 1999 and began relying only on Balfour Beatty's operations. In 2000, BICC changed its name to Balfour Beatty plc.

Figure 2 Employee Accreditation

Balfour Beatty currently has three significant divisions and is a top global engineering, construction, and services corporation. The first is the engineering section, which accounts for 40% of the business's income and includes building design, construction, maintenance and management. The second division, which offers engineering services for things like hydroelectric dams, tunnels, roads and bridges, overhead transmission lines, and towers, generates 39% of the company's revenue. The rail segment, which is in charge of designing, maintaining, and overhauling rail networks, generates the remaining 15% of revenue. In addition to its primary business, Balfour Beatty invests in projects like roads, hospitals, power plants, and educational institutions that are privately funded.

The top construction and services company currently has 24,500 people worldwide and 20 offices in the UK. It operates in the UK, the US, and Hong Kong. Balfour Beatty offers services to both public and private sector businesses, focusing on sustainability from the outset. The company's three current action plans, Beyond Net Zero Carbon, Generate Zero Wate, and Positively Impact More Than 1 Million People, demonstrate its concern for the environment, resources, and communities. Balfour Beatty supports the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN wholeheartedly (SDGs) (Whitehead, 2015).

Balfour Beatty provides outstanding living experiences and has received an A for work culture. One of the ideal organizational values is relationship value and respect for every individual, regardless of position. The corporation's tireless efforts can be explained by the fact that it has consistently kept its promises while acting honestly and morally.

State the management structure of the selected organization

Balfour Beatty employs a hierarchical management structure to concentrate the company's focus on crucial infrastructure work. Starting with the board of directors, who is in charge of overall corporate management Leo Quinn, the company's CEO, is the highest-ranking executive officer and serves as the chairman of the safety and sustainability committee, the finance and general purposes committee, and the group tender and investment committee. As an executive leader, the CEO, has approval for all business initiatives and is in charge of day-to-day results. Philip Harrison, the company's CFO and member of the Finance & General-Purpose Committee and Group Tender & Investment Committee, is listed below the CEO (Lu, et.al 2016).

Under the supervision of the CEO, there comes various senior executives who lead different business segments, including CEO, Non-executive group, COO and heads of HR, IT, Marketing etc. Charles Allen, CBE, Non-executive group chair works as a chairperson for Nomination Committee. Balfour Beatty has got many committees in its structure who works as different business units. The corporation has got an executive committee having a board of CEOs for different places of operations. Leon Blodin (CEO of US operations), Mark Bullock (CEO of UK Construction Services), Michael Dyke (CEO of HS2 Major Projects), Chris Johnson (Chief Technology Officer) and many more (Farah, 2018).

The business has been using the "Build to Last" strategy for continuous improvement and delivering sustainable growth and productivity for more than a century. Balfour Beatty is on the verge of embracing diversity, inclusion and admiration to the commitment of the entire board. According to the organization's census from July 2022, its cost of revenue was 171.45 and its net income had increased by 86.79%. The development of the company was significantly aided by collaborative management. Balfour Beatty collaborates with both public and private sector businesses and authorities. The firm, a pioneer in PPP in the US and the UK, is focused on infrastructure investments by developing and funding projects (Ademolu, et.al 2021). The company now offers construction services in Hongkong in addition to the UK and US. Balfour Beatty works on maintenance and rail and road management in addition to construction. Balfour Beatty demonstrated the superiority of its management structure in the field of infrastructure and construction services by delivering significant multi disciplinary projects, track work, electrification and power supply, specialized equipment, track systems and components, and maintenance services. They become one of the top infrastructure organizations in the world thanks to its corporative, collaborative, and innovative management structure. The business founded by George Balfour and Andrew Beatty, which is now owned by Lord Allen, has built an empire of its own (Khachaturyan, 2022).

The advantages and disadvantages of the management structure

Hierarchical structure describes Balfour Beatty's management structure. Since old period, Balfour Beatty's management structure has been essential in helping the company reach various heights, but like many corporations, it also had many challenges in its early and mediaeval stages. Due to numerous market concerns, Balfour Beatty has consistently made headlines. Despite all the obstacles, Balfour Beatty was able to prevail in its industry because of its organizational management, goal-setting, and collaborative strategies (Tan, et.al 2020).

Customer and employee relationships are important to Balfour Beatty. In the modern world, investing in people is the biggest investment one can make, and the company clearly has success in this area. The most important things a business can provide to its clients are assurance of trust and fulfillment of promises. Balfour Beatty has always taken responsibility for their actions and conducted their business with the utmost honesty. Their commitment to health, safety and well-being has also been one of their defining characteristics. The company goes above and beyond to ensure the safety of both its consumers and staff. The organization speaks with pride and encouragement as they communicate with passion about their job. They have been able to forge ties and fortify bonds because the corporation's core values include collaboration (Lawrence, 2020).

Advantages:

Balfour Beatty's management structure has contributed to the development of the business in a number of ways. Some of the advantages are:

1. Setting goals for the senior management team ensures that the board and its committees run efficiently. Since its inception, the corporation has benefited from breaking the work up into numerous committees and developing an organizational framework for its management.
2. Examining potential purchases, sales and financing; upholding corporate governance, authorizing interim dividends and proposing final dividends.
3. Ensuring the appropriate human and financial resources is available to meet goals, evaluate management performance, and approve risk management and assurance policies and systems (Lamont, 2018).

Disadvantages:

In addition to becoming a global leader in business, Balfour Beatty has experienced and continues to encounter numerous difficulties, some of which are accounted to the drawbacks of its organizational structure:

1. Balfour Beatty's management once got to be incredibly complex, which resulted in terrible decisions that had an influence on strategic direction and cost containment. Additionally, because of its difficult management formation, certain contracts with poor margins were made.
2. Balfour Beatty encountered several difficulties when senior executives left the company since some of the executives in charge of the company's healthy strategy left for one reason or another. It seemed to eliminate the company's management structure's roof, causing the business to lose procedures and cut costs.
3. Prior to the challenges that were already present, the corporation's investments had started on a disadvantageous program that involved bundling and selling bundles of its operating PFI and PPP projects. This early investment decision of management proved to be the company's biggest disadvantage (Snook, 2018).

The 4Ps of the Marketing Mix in relation to the selected organization

The term "marketing mix" refers to an integrated marketing strategy with a variety of objectives. This is a cutting-edge marketing strategy that helps increase outcomes and reaches a larger audience. The four Ps of marketing—Product, Price, Place, and Promotion are included in this customer-centric plan. It is most useful aspect is that it touches on a wide range of topics rather than focusing on just one. Each component may be examined separately with the aid of this efficient marketing and is frequently dependent upon other components.

1. Product:

The company's primary service falls under the category of product. First P, Product includes the item or service delivery in the case of the product making or providing industry, but in the case of the service providing industry, Product includes the services provided by the business. The business must make its product or service distinctive and identify its complementary market in order to use marketing effectively (Santandrea, et.al 2017).

An organization that provides infrastructure and construction services, Balfour Beatty operates in three key areas:

1. Infrastructure investments are the company's main line of business, consisting of project development and finance.
2. Construction services: the company's initial work, amazing project delivery, and top-notch on-the-job performance.
3. Support services: services for managing and maintaining the infrastructure for roads, trains, and power transmission.
4. Price:

Cost-based pricing and value-based pricing are the two categories. Value-based pricing is done based on the perceived quality or value by the consumer otherwise; cost-based pricing is used.

Due to the strength of their ties with its business partners, Balfour Beatty is able to successfully lock in prices. Construction costs typically climb by 3% annually, but Balfour Beatty's prices have increased by 5% since 2014. The company kept its pricing value in line with the product while also fostering client faith in the goods. They have always reflected the company's competitive analysis approach by taking into account the market value of the services they offer (Bull, 2016).

1. Place:

Product can be placed in a variety of stores viz. store, online store, mail ordering etc depending on the company’s choice of placement of product.

A utility and service providing company like Balfour Beatty can have distribution channel in both ways of offline and online store. But being from the generation, where internet was a miracle, Balfor Beatty chose brick and motor store as their core business placement.

1. Promotion:

A company uses promotional tactics to grow its business. There are many different promotion strategies available in this modern generation, both in print and electronic media.

Being a 20th-century company, Balfor Beatty initially focused on print media for its promotion before shifting its strategy to electronic and, more recently, social media marketing. Even with a restricted promotion strategy, the company managed to dominate the building services industry.

SWOT Analysis

Overview of HR functions and present details of recruitment and selection, employee relations and talent development of the selected organization

The organization's department in charge of all operations involving employees is called human resources. Planning, creating, and managing policies and programmers intended to use human resources are all parts of human resource management. The goals of HR:

1. Maximize each person's development
2. Create a professional environment for all personnel, including executives.
3. Most effective use of human resources
4. Selections and recruitment
5. Strategic planning for human resources
6. Human resource training, development and performance evaluation (Dobrian, 2017).

Balfour Beatty is very committed to recruiting people who act in line with the organization's goals. All new hires receive a thorough and efficient induction from the organization. The company's hiring procedure is largely similar to that of other businesses. Equal opportunities are offered by the organization to both experienced and new hires. Different teams are in charge of different stages of the recruitment process, and the assessment criteria are depending on the job of the employee. Both internal references and outside approaches are accepted and evaluated on the same scale. The corporation makes sure that every person is fairly evaluated by giving them equal chance and analyzing them based on the talents and interests they develop (Ledzion, 2015). The choice is determined solely on the basis of the candidate's qualifications and success in the testing rounds.

In particular, the business employs no specific strategy. It has members of its board of managers who adhere to a set of guidelines and follow a predetermined hiring process. After the interview and a few business checks, an assessment phase based on the job role is conducted (Jones, et.al 2018). Personal interviews are taken seriously since they reveal a lot about a person's personality and character. Following that, several extra and obligatory checks are done to authenticate the individual's citizenship, employment eligibility, bank account information, credentials, credit history, and financial integrity. The talent acquisition team will then assess the person's fit with the company and, if it is favorable, will deliver an offer letter.

Balfour Beatty regularly offers jobs, internships, and apprenticeships to broaden the company's affinity network. Jobs in project management, engineering, and business are all available through the company's many committees. Through industrial internships, summer placements, apprenticeships, direct graduate recruitments, and other methods, the various sectors like transportation, power and energy, water, and social infrastructure offer chances to people (Mumford and Penny 2015). The company's mission is to solve problems and transform the world, thus it is always on the lookout for young people who are motivated and keen to learn new skills, discover the world of business, and understand practical applications.

The organization has consistently sought to preserve employee relationships, and this is reflected in the management structure of the business. This area of the business is handled by human resources with lot of care because, in the past, the resignation of numerous executives caused a significant loss for the company. Balfour Beatty has always prioritized the wellbeing of each individual and giving them the finest chance, the company can offer. Keeping the company's reputation for honesty, decency and respect for people to encourage the development of relationships between employees and with leadership (Young Women's Trust (Organization), 2017).

Conclusion

Balfour Beatty is a company that has experienced numerous ups and downs but is persistent in keeping its commitments. A multinational infrastructure organization that was founded in the 20th century and is still one of the top providers of construction services worldwide. For more than a century, the business ruled the world thanks to its standards and ideals. The "built to last" concept demonstrates the company's dedication to surviving in a harm-free world. Although it is highly vital, adopting sustainable growth and development should be required of all infrastructure groupings. The company's management structure enabled it to hold rank in the industry both then and now.

The essay summarizes all the key study areas of one of the topmost infrastructures of the world, Balfour Beatty. From presenting its background, the essay described its management structure, stated its advantages and disadvantages. The essay also had its employee, placement and revenue details. Importance of human resources and SWOT analysis are key features of the essay. Corporation's employee relationship scheme, executive board of control and fresh recruitment process are also explained in the essay. The above draft is the complete acknowledgement of the company and its management highlighting all the features involved from the beginning of its journey to its current day position.

Balfour Beatty has established a remark in infrastructure, engineering and construction field. From a basic two people start up, the company now has 25000+ employees. UK, US, and Hongkong being the major retailer countries, Balfour Beatty should look forward for extending its territory. Present day competition is very high as infrastructure business is a prominent business in emerging economies of the world. The corporation needs to work on the demands of modern generation otherwise it will lack in the field. Moreover, the management structure of the company needs to be little less complex in order to avoid the nuisances created. 

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