Introduction to Management: Balfour Beatty Case Study

This report covers the Human resource management and Marketing management in context with Balfour Beatty. It includes the overview and operations of Balfour Beatty with the description of its management structure. It covers the advantages and disadvantages of the followed management structure. The marketing mix strategy in relation with Balfour Beatty is also discussed. The report explains the overview of HR functions with the concept of recruitment and selection in context with Balfour Beatty. Further, the report highlights the employee relations and talent development with reference to the selected organisation i.e. Balfour Beatty.

Introduction to
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................4
Background of Balfour Beatty....................................................................................................4
Management Structure of Balfour Beatty...................................................................................5
Advantages and Disadvantage of Management structure of Balfour Beatty..............................6
Marketing Mix of Balfour Beatty...............................................................................................8
Overview of the Human Resource Function in Balfour Beatty.................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
According to Harold Koontz, Management is an art of getting the things or tasks done by
the individuals in a formal organization. It refers to the art of forming an environment that
individual can perform in and work with cooperation and coordination for the achievement of
overall objective of the organization with attainment of individual group goals. An effective
management in the organization facilitates division of work and reduces the under-performance
of work and extreme workload on the employees (Huber and et. al., 2022). There are different
branches of management that form the organizational structure and play a crucial role in the
overall management of activities of the business. The main branches of management consist of
Human Resource management, Marketing Management, Strategic management, financial
management, operational management and production management etc. This report will cover
the Human resource management and Marketing management in context with Balfour Beatty.
Human resource management refers to the strategic approach for effective and efficient
management of individuals in an organization so as to facilitate the business in gaining
competitive advantage in the respective industry (Baporikar, 2022). Marketing management puts
emphasis on application of marketing orientation, techniques, methods and strategies in the
organization using the marketing resources and activities etc. It is a UK based multinational
infrastructure group engaging in the construction services, support services, professional services
and infrastructure investments etc. The company operates across UK and has operations in
multiple countries like Ireland, US, Canada, South East Asia etc. The following report will cover
the overview and operations of Balfour Beatty with the description of its management structure.
It will also cover the advantages and disadvantages of the followed management structure. The
marketing mix strategy in relation with Balfour Beatty will also be discussed. The report will
also explain the overview of HR functions with the concept of recruitment and selection in
context with Balfour Beatty. Further, the report will also highlight the employee relations and
talent development with reference to the selected organisation i.e. Balfour Beatty.

TASK
Background of Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty is a UK based multinational infrastructure group and a public limited
company headquartered in London, England. The company was founded in 1909 by George
Balfour and Andrew Beatty. The company operates in the construction industry and engaging in
infrastructure, professional services, construction services, support services and infrastructure
investments etc. Basically, it was formed in 1909 with a capital of £50,000 and its founder i.e.
Georges Balfour and Andrew Beatty were Mechanical & Electrical Engineer and Accountant
respectively. In the beginning, the company focused on tramways and their first contract was to
construct the Dunfermline and District Tramways (Balfour Beatty , 2022). But subsequently, the
company acquired a portfolio of electric power and tramway companies including Carlisle,
Cheltenham, Leamington & Warwick, Luton etc.
The acquisitions of the company in UK included construction services business Mansell
plc. in 2003; construction and civils contractor Birse plc. in 2006 ; Bristol construction company
Cowlin construction in 2007and a regional contractor Deab & Dyball in 2008. The company is
also a constituent of FTSE 250 index and has operation across the UK. It is also operating in
some other countries like US, Ireland, Canada and South East Asia. On the basis of its turnover
and profit, the company has been ranked as the biggest construction contractor in UK. The
company has an employee base of over 26000 employees.
Operational Areas of Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty is engaged in designing, building and maintaining the infrastructure in
various number of areas or sectors. Some of the operational areas of company include-
 Construction Services – The company is operating in construction management in UK
and many other countries on a global basis, it is also engaging in refurbishment, and fit
out , mechanical and electrical services etc. The company also provides professional
services in civil engineering , ground engineering and rail engineering as well
(Construction Services, 2022).
 Support services – The support services of the Balfour Beatty include installation , up
gradation and maintenance of water, gas and electricity networks and rail renewals. The

company is also involved in street and public space management and its operation and
maintenance as well.
 Infrastructure investments – The company Balfour Beatty also invests in infrastructure in
UK such as it has a portfolio of long-term (Public Private Partnership i.e. PPP)
concessions in UK. It primarily invests in the infrastructures relating to education, health
and roads and street lighting sectors with a portfolio of long-term military
accommodation PPP concessions in USA as well. The company is also developing its
interests in non PPP assets in the UK. Apart from this, Balfour Beatty has a membership
of Constructing Excellence , Business service association, and in Build UK as well that
consist of the members of the Confederation of the British industry.
Management Structure of Balfour Beatty
A management structure shows how an organization is organising its management
hierarchy. There must be a proper hierarchy in every organization to facilitate the organization of
activities. A hierarchy in the organization determines the lines of authority , communications and
roles & responsibilities of the individuals in an organization (Jeżak, 2021). A good management
structure provides more clarity to the employees in clarifying their tasks and facilitates them in
managing expectations that assist the managers in decision making and also ensures consistency
in the organization. There are different types of management structures, some of them are
mentioned below -
 Divisional Structure – In this structure, the different divisions of companies have control
over their own resources in the large organization. Each division has its own marketing
team, sales team and IT team etc. It enhances decision making in large organisations
because of the independent divisions (Schuster, Heinemann and Cleary, 2021).
 Functional Structure – This management structure is similar to hierarchical structure and
starts with the roles that have highest levels of responsibilities at the top that goes to
down. In this , each department is managed independently. In this , the employees are
organised according to their specific skills.
 Flat organizational Structure – This structure contains few levels between the top
management and front-line employees. It is mostly followed by the start-up businesses
before they grow large to be build into different departments. It includes more
involvement from the part of employees.

 Hierarchical organizational structure - In this management structure, the chain of
command goes from top to down i.e. from CEO or manager to low level employees and
every employee has a foreman or supervisor. It is the most common type of
organizational structure with a hierarchy in roles.
In context with Balfour Beatty, the company follows Divisional structure with many divisions
such as infrastructure, construction services, counselling and professional services, projects and
Highways etc. All the divisions of the company ha their own head i.e. CEO or CFO with
multiple countries. The main head of all the divisions of the company is Leo Quinn who is the
Chief Executive of the company. Under the chief executive, the executives like Chief
Technology officer , Chris Johnson and Human resources Director (Paul Raby) are positioned.
The divisional heads of Balfour Beatty include Mar Bullock (CEO, UK, construction services);
Gavin Russell (CEO, Infrastructure Investments); Stephen Tarr (CEO – Major projects and
Highways); Tracey Wood (General Counsel and company secretary); Mathew Steele (Managing
Director – Rail and Utilities) etc. (Org chart, 2022).
The company's organizational chart also includes board and advisors that comprise of
non-executive directors and chairs. The divisional organizational structure organises the
activities of company across the geographical, market , product or service groups (Subroto and
et. al., 2021). The company organised on divisional lines have operation in multiple countries or
regions such as in the case of Balfour Beatty as the company has operations in US, UK, etc.
Advantages and Disadvantage of Management structure of Balfour Beatty
The company Balfour Beatty follows Divisional management structure in which the
divisions have control over their own resources and they operate like their own company in their
division. This structure empowers the different divisions to make and execute decisions without
involving any other department and the requirement of reporting is with just few executives. The
following are the advantages and disadvantages of management structure of Balfour Beatty i.e.
of Divisional structure -
Advantages
 Accountability – This structure helps in assigning responsibility for actions in a
convenient manner. The divisions of an organization are run by their own management
group that manage the operations of their group and conduct activities in the interests of

their divisions only. It helps the Balfour Beatty in staying flexible regarding its individual
divisions such as Rails and utilities, projects, infrastructure and constructions etc.
 Competition – The divisional structure provides competitive advantage to the business in
terms of a particular division. This structure is most suitable for those markets where
there is high competition in which the local regional managers of the division can cope
up with the competition by responding to the changes in the local conditions and it
thereby benefits the entire organization (Galochkina and et. al., 2021).
 Local decisions – This structure enhance decision making as it empowers the divisions of
company to make decisions without everyone having to report only to the few executives.
It promotes independence and autonomy in the organization on the part of employees as
well. This structure also promotes a customised approach by facilitating in decision
making. In context with Balfour Beatty, this structure allows decision making to be
shifted downward in the organization that improves its ability to respond to the local
market conditions of its various markets such as UK, US, Ireland etc.
 Culture – The divisional structure enhances the culture of organization as the local
managers or heads are easy to cope up with the local market conditions. The culture of
the organization meets the needs of local market. In context with Balfour Beatty, it values
the relationships of local market and serve the communities as well according to the
needs of market. It maintains integrity at all its divisions by assigning responsibilities to
their respective heads or CEOs.
Disadvantages
 Cost – This structure involves more costs due to the increased number of employees
across the organization due to the different divisions. The divisions operate as a separate
entity due to the allocation of resources to each division. The sharing of resources among
the divisions is not possible , particularly at different locations. This can be the reason for
duplication of resources that does not occur in centralised structures.
 Silos – The skills of different employees are compartmentalised with a particular
divisions making them unable to transfer to another departments. It limits the sharing of
best practices across the entire organization. It also becomes difficult to cross-sell the
products and services among the different divisions of company (Purkayastha Kumar and
Lovallo, 2022). Balfour Beatty also have to suffer from this disadvantage as the company

is following divisional structure that does not support the cross-sell of products or
services such as between the rail & utilities and projects for highway etc. due the internal
competition of divisions.
 Rivalries – This structure can result in self competition of company when the divisions
start competing with each other. The divisions start to work at cross-purposes because
some managers undercut the actions of other divisions so as to gain localised benefits or
advantages. Balfour Beatty can also face the disadvantage of competition among its
different divisions like the Infrastructure division may compete with Construction
division in terms of revenues or resources etc.
 Strategic Focus – In this structure, each division has its own strategic direction or vision,
that they work on that sometimes leads to differ from the strategic direction of the
company as a whole which results in ineffective achievement of overall objective of
company (Hastings, 2021). In context with Balfour Beatty, all the CEOs and managers of
different decisions of the construction company must have the same strategical direction
for the entire organization with their individual divisions goals to contribute to the
organization as a whole.
Marketing Mix of Balfour Beatty
Marketing is the process of researching , creating and delivering the value to customers to
meet the needs of target market and target audience as well. It is the activity or process for
communication and exchanging the offerings that create value for the customers , clients and
society as well (LUBIS, 2021). In context with Balfour Beatty, the major source of marketing its
products and services is its own website i.e. www.balfourbeatty.com that the company shows its
services through and also provides regular updates to the website. The company also promotes
its services through the social media channels. It is having its official account on Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter as well where it posts its services of infrastructure with the
public policies as well. The website of company is vast enough to make the client understand
about the service landscape of company i.e. transportation, power and energy, water and social
infrastructure.
Marketing Mix refers to the model for business organisations that is considered as a
collection of marketing tools that business utilises to attain its marketing objectives in the target
market. It includes different areas as a part of detailed and comprehensive marketing plan. It

contains the four Ps of marketing i.e. Product, Price, Place and Promotion (Šikić, 2021). In
context with Balfour Beatty, its marketing mix strategy is explained hereunder -
 Product – The offerings of Balfour Beatty include Infrastructure, professional services,
construction services, support services, infrastructure investments, etc. The company is
also engaged in the sectors like Transportation, Power & energy, water and social
infrastructure. It also takes the big projects on a global basis like Manchester engineering
campus development, Thames tideway tunnel etc. The company needs to choose its
customers who it can serve best according to the resources and capabilities.
 Price – As Balfour Beatty is a construction company , it needs to prudently decide its
pricing strategies as some large projects take years to plan , design and build. So, they
need to consider their long term costs for major scope project decisions. Balfour Beatty is
a large organization that have to contract with upper class people for delivering them
infrastructure services. So, the company follows differentiation strategy of pricing its
services in order to overcome the competitors i.e. BAM Nuttall, Clark Construction,
Granite construction etc. in the construction industry.
 Place – The distribution channels for Balfour Beatty consist of industrial customers such
as concrete producers, civil engineering, building constructionist and producers of other
materials used in the construction process. Retailers , wholesalers and government
acquisitions also support the construction companies in distribution of its services to its
target audience. The company also provides online services to the different organizations
as well as households. Apart from this, the company has almost 8000 supply chain
partners across UK.
 Promotion – The marketing strategies of Balfour Beatty include press conferences and
media briefings, news releases and media features, endorsement quotes for the suppliers
and sub contractors; external blogs; online marketing channels consisting of websites of
the company, brochures and social media channels that then company promotes its
services through via its official account.
Overview of the Human Resource Function in Balfour Beatty
Human Resource management refers to the effective management of people in an
organization so as to increase their productivity and facilitate the business in gaining competitive
advantage. The role of HR consists of recruitment, training, administering and developing the

companies' policies. The focus remains on the most essential asset of the company i.e. employees
(Zhou, 2021). The main role of HR in context with Balfour Beatty are as follows -
 Talent management – It includes the activities relating to recruitment, hiring, supporting
and retaining the skilful employees. The recruiters are responsible for posting the
positions on job boards, sourcing the candidates through job fairs and social media etc.
(Dai, 2021). the recruiters of Balfour Beatty also uses social media to attract candidates
to the organization.
 Compensation benefits – The HR practices include to establish the compensation
structures. Particularly in the construction industry like Balfour Beatty, it is essential to
provide for compensation benefits to the employees as the company also provides power
and electricity services that sometimes employees meet with minor accidents, so the
compensation policy should be there while recruiting the employees.
 Training and development – As the employees of Balfour Beatty consist of Civil
Engineers , electricians, power suppliers, contractors and subcontractors etc. it needs to
provide them training on frequent basis so as to deliver efficient services in a global basis
with skilful and professional employees.
 Workplace safety - Balfour Beatty needs to ensure workplace safety as the employees
engage in construction of large buildings and engage in large infrastructural projects that
consist of electricity and power supply etc. the company ensures to report all the unsafe
events and conditions to the company and directs to stop work if anything relating to
safety changes.
Recruitment and Selection
Balfour Beatty recruits those individuals who will act and behave in line with its values.
The company provides a systematic and effective induction to all new individuals. Through all
processes of recruitment, a candidate is dealt fairly and courteously.
Employee relationship
It refers to the organizational efforts to create a positive relationship with its employees to
keep them loyal and engaged in the work. Balfour Beatty creates value for the employees by
providing them with safe and healthy working conditions and develops integrity inside the
organization.

Talent Development
It refers to the integrated organizational HR processes that aim at attracting, developing,
motivating and retaining the productive and engaged employees (Kizi, 2021). Balfour Beatty
ensures talent development by providing raining to its construction staff, civil engineers. The
company is able to achieve its staff satisfaction in North America and Europe that is ensuring
Talent development as well.
CONCLUSION
The above report has highlighted the different branches of management i.e. general
management, marketing management and human resource management in context with an
infrastructure and construction company i.e. Balfour Beatty. The report has provided the
background of the company with its operational areas that consist of Infrastructure, construction
services and support services. It has been observed that the company conducts its operations
mainly in the countries like US, Ireland, Canada and South East Asia. The management structure
of US, Ireland, Canada and South East Asia has also been analysed and it has been concluded
that the company follows Divisional structure that includes multiple divisions in the company
such as Infrastructure, Rail and Utilities, projects and highways and construction services etc.
headed by their respective CEOs and operating with their own divisional functions such as
integration of resources. The company is being benefited by this structure in terms of Effective
decision making and competitive advantage. But simultaneously the company is suffering from
multiple disadvantages of this structure such as high costs, rivalry among its own divisions and
silos among the divisions etc. The report has also thrown a light on the marketing mix strategy of
Balfour Beatty in terms of its pricing strategy i.e. differentiation and promotion strategy i.e. press
conferences and social media channels etc. The human resource management at US, Ireland,
Canada and South East Asia has also been explained by covering its policies regarding talent
development, employee relations and recruitment & selection.

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