Management Challenges and Solutions for Aurecon Singapore Report

This report examines the management challenges faced by Aurecon Singapore, a global engineering and construction firm. It begins with an introduction outlining the challenges in today's fast-paced business environment and defines the research question: How can Aurecon Singapore enhance its organizational structure and processes to align with its vision and mission? The report then uses PESTLE and SWOT analyses to identify gaps and assess the firm's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the Singaporean context. Key challenges include increasing competition, labor shortages, and rising costs. The report proposes solutions, including the Blue Ocean Strategy, to create new market spaces and enhance the firm's competitive position. It analyzes the challenges of raising, training, and sustaining a workforce in Singapore's cost-conscious environment and the importance of developing business-level perspectives. The report references various management theories and provides a comprehensive analysis of Aurecon's operations and strategic recommendations.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
University Name
Student Name
Authors’ Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Research Question......................................................................................................................3
Problem definition......................................................................................................................3
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Feedback Response..................................................................................................................11
Reference:................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
There are several challenges encountered by firms in today’s fast paced business
environment, globally oriented markets of today’s world. In this connection it can be said that
one of the major challenges as well as one of the hardest challenges to solve is necessarily the
way to effectively handle varied functions of a specific business without micro managing and
creating excessive delays else wise conflicts within the business environment of the
corporation. The current study intends to identify the management challenges with special
orientation to the operations of the corporation Aurecon Singapore, problems and gaps, and
the effect of organization structure, processes to attain alignment to specific visions as well as
mission. In actual fact, Aurecon Group Pty Ltd is essentially a public corporation that is
ranked number 422 out of 2000 corporations located in Australia.
Research Question
The research questions that can be framed for the study include the following:
- How can Aurecon Singapore enhance their structure of organisation, organization
systems as well as procedures to attain alignment with company’s vision and mission?
Problem definition
Gaps: The gaps can be identified using PESTLE and SWOT analysis of the operations of the
corporation.
Political Factors: In this particular case, the political risk encountered in Singapore is
considerably low. In actual fact, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) mentions
that the nation enjoys low political risk in the entire continent. These days stability has

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transformed to peace and an improved standard of living. Furthermore, it has transformed
into enhanced business opportunities of the firm (Armstrong et al. 2015)
Economic Factors: Aurecon Group operates in a vibrant free market that is developing at an
extremely fast speed. Essentially, the nation’s per capita earning is considered to be the
highest in particularly ASEAN. This is a corruption free environment that upholds the entire
business sector and is said to be among the most competitive nations. Essentially, the
educated as well as motivated employees can help in strengthening the same (Keller and
Kotler 2016). Particularly, legal together with financial business structure also supports the
business sector. However, there are certain constraints on economic performance of the
nation Singapore, namely,
Shortages of labour
Increasing costs of labour
Decrease in overall productivity (Sheth and Sisodia 2015)
Social Factors:
Socially, the nation Singapore is just like any other Eastern nation and this follows traditional
family values. Essentially, it is true that the younger generation has the inclination to pursue
western culture along with values. Particularly, the residents of this nation also work hard and
satisfy materialism desire. Thus, it can be said that business sector such as Aurecon Group
can expect greater purchasing power level. In addition to this, reports recommend that
majority of Singaporeans abhor blue collar jobs such as construction (Chernev 2018). In
essence, overall literacy rate in the nation is extremely high. This too aids to attract
worldwide trade along with foreign investment.
Technological Factors:

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The primary reasons behind transformation in lifestyle along with quality of life are
essentially the technological development. Essentially, the internet primarily plays an
important role in the process of advancement of Singapore. This in turn help in easing
communication and enhanced overall connectivity. In actual fact, overall cost along with time
of undertaking business also lessened and this augmented the entire social networking
(Weinstein and Pohlman 2015). The IT infrastructure can be considered to be praiseworthy
where the rate of penetration for specifically broadband internet connection for household is
more than 70%. Again, e-commerce and eB2C models have thrived consequently. The
widespread IT infrastructure has inspired multinational corporations to introduce regional
operations in the nation Singapore (Hutchinson et al. 2015). Again, Singaporean government
is also moving towards an electronic government area.
Legal factors
The government of the nation is of the view that growth of electronic commerce that relies on
transparent and market favourable legislation as well as regulation. Specific legal, regulatory
as well as business settings are required for the purpose of supporting development of
industry and growth of the economy (Foxall 2014). E-commerce program was necessarily
instituted during the year 1996 with the aim of developing e-commerce services.
Furthermore, Singapore has launched certain e-commerce initiatives. Also, there are cross
border rules as well as regulations and some basic legal along with technical infrastructure to
uphold secured e-commerce regulations and norms.
Environmental Factors
The Ministry of the Environment and the Anti-Pollution Unit operates relentlessly for
maintaining quality of air as well as other environmental facets. Pollution generated from
transportation can be considered to be the main issue in urban areas of Singapore. Essentially,

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there was a time when Singapore was necessarily among nations with the highest level of
emissions of industrialized carbon dioxide (Miquel-Romero et al. 2014). In particular,
Singapore lost approximately 40% of the area of mangrove. Diverse species are necessarily in
danger of extinction. Also, the Water Pollution Control and Drainage Act also aids in
controlling quality of water. One of the primary concerns for Singaporeans is that nation does
not have adequate water to uphold their requirements. Pollution from particularly industrial
byproducts such as oil enhances the issues (Kleinaltenkamp et al. 2016). As a way out, water
can be recycled after particularly desalination. Since there is an inadequacy of resources such
as water, the nation Singapore is essentially reliant on supplied water in Malaysia. A regional
brand known as NEWater also supplies sewage water even after purifying it and using dual-
membrane. However, there are more solutions that are required for the identified problem.
SWOT analysis
Strength
- The positive business environment of
the firm enhances the operations of
the firm that in turn help in
development of business of the firm
(Baker and Saren 2016). For instance,
extraordinary rate of growth of
economy, higher rate of disposable
income and many others.
- Political factors of the firm also
boosts business growth. For example,
reports regarding restriction of
freedom of speech, specific laws for
Weakness
-The firm has lower requirement for manual
labour and higher need for individuals to work
suing technologies
-With maturity and intensification of competition,
the engineering as well as workforce for
construction also alters (Tomczak et al. 2018)
- Aurecon operating as a world class engineering
as well as construction corporation are positioned
right in the centre of changes and they therefore
need to think about the way management need to
attain growth in the hyper active competitive
business environment.

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maintenance of stability that is
political stability improves business
opportunities (Homburg et al. 2017).
Opportunity
- The company gains opportunity from
business practices, planning,
surveying, scientific, project
management services to company’s
buildings, urban development
practices as well as
telecommunication markets.
- The company has the opportunity of
serving engineering services,
management together with the
specialist technical services for both
public as well as private segment
clients in diverse nations (Leonidou et
al. 2017). The nations in which the
company serves include Asia Pacific,
New Zealand, Middle East, Africa as
well as Americas.
- The company also has formulated
various projects that include airports,
management of asset, developing
sciences, development of building,
Threat
- There is shortage of labour in this
specific market
- Increasing costs of labour also poses
then threat to the business of the
company
- Decrease in overall productivity also
poses a serious threat to the overall
business operation of the corporation
(Lambert and Enz 2017)

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building different services along with
structures, bulk material operations,
bulk water and proper infrastructure.
This can help in development of
business of the corporation. In
addition to this, projects of the
company also include land
infrastructure, facilities of
manufacturing, infrastructure of
mining, generation of power,
transmission of power and
distribution, delivery of programs and
projects, rail services, renewable
energy, roads that can help the
corporation in attaining enhanced
business operations and higher level
of profitability.
Theories that can be used for analysing management challenges faced by Aurecon
Identified Management Challenges
Analysis of the operations of the corporation reveal that the firm encounters Aurecon
encounters the issue of stiffly increasing competition in the market. However, with maturity
of the competition and intensification of competition, the workers of the engineering as well
as construction companies have the need to modify their skills and change. As such, there is

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relatively less requirement for manual labour and higher need for people to operate alongside
technologies namely AI and VR for facilitating advancement. In this case, it can be hereby
mentioned that the management of the firm Aurecon faces the challenge of raising, training
and sustaining a workforce that can help place the firm favourably in Singapore’s extremely
cost-conscious surroundings. In addition to this, management of the firm also faces the
challenge of developing appropriate business level perspective at the time of considering
various solutions to detected challenges (Visconti 2017). In case if there is a single and
simple solution to the recognized challenge then management might possibly have problem
of examine across diverse management disciplines that are faced on the way through
management degree and use all that knowledge for designing the solution.
Blue Ocean Strategies
As rightly indicated by Foroudi et al. (2017), blue ocean strategy can deliver a systematic
tactic for making competition irrelevant. Particularly, blue ocean strategy normally indicates
towards the creation by a company of a novel, uncontested market space that makes
competitors irrelevant and this in turn generates novel customer value often whilst lessening
costs. Blue ocean strategy delivers a novel perspective on formulation of strategy and
implementation. In essence, blue ocean strategy can be regarded as a marketing theory in
which corporations can succeed by generating blue oceans of uncontested market space as
against red oceans in which competitors fight for attainment of dominance and analogy is that
an ocean full of vicious competition becomes red with blood (Pasquier and Villeneuve 2017)
The four different principles of ocean strategy involves understanding the way to generate
uncontested market space by way of reconstructing several market boundaries, ways of
concentrating on the larger picture, going beyond subsisting demand as well as supply in the
newly identified market space and getting strategic sequences right. Again, the four different

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action frameworks comprises of raising questions that need to be raised within a specific
industry in terms of establishment of strategy of product, strategy of pricing else wise
standards of service (Keegan and Rowley 2017). In addition to this, the blue ocean strategy
also involve examination of areas of a firm or else industry that need to be entirely eliminated
for lessening specific costs and to generate a new market. Furthermore, actions of blue ocean
strategy also include examination of specific areas where products as well as services of a
firm are not completely obligatory although it plays a significant part in the industry. For
instance, the manufacturing cost of a specific material of a product can be lessened. Thus, it
can be decreased without completely eliminating the same (David and David 2017). In
addition to this, the need for creation prompts companies to be innovative with the products
of the company.
The blue ocean strategy can help management of the firm Aurecon to identify new and
uncontested market space for the operations of the business (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). As per
the declarations presented by the firm, Aurecon is globally operating firm with diversified
business operations namely, aviation, construction, energy and manufacturing among many
others. Therefore, it can be said that management of the firm thrives for novel and
uncontested market space for expansion into new markets for development of growth
potential of the firm. Likewise, currently the management too faces the challenge of
identification of such kind of market space for attainment of stable growth rate. In addition to
this, financial report of the firm replicates the fact that the firm has attained an average rate of
growth of 7.9% during the period 2011 to 2016. So, in a bid to attain higher revenue growth it
is important for the firm to identify the segment otherwise products/services that are
necessary as per the Blue Ocean Strategy. The blue ocean strategy can hereby help in
identification of management challenge properly detecting underperforming segments and
products/services that are holding back the rate of growth of the firm (Visconti 2017).

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Dynamic Capabilities:
7-S Framework: by McKinsey
As correctly indicated by Gupta (2017), the McKinsey Framework refers to a specific
management model that is designed for development of a strategic vision for various groups
and include business, different units of business along with teams. In actual fact, the 7s of this
specific framework comprises of structure, strategy, shared values, skills, staff as well as
systems. In particular, this model is generally utilized as a tool for organizational analysis for
the purpose of assessment and monitoring of changes in specifically the internal situation of a
corporation. As per the model, it is important for a corporation to perform well include seven
components that need to be kept in line and mutually reinforcing. Therefore, the model can
necessarily be utilized for identification of the needs that needs to be realigned for
enhancement of performance, or else to maintain alignment during other categories of change
(David and David 2017). Whatever might be the type of alteration whether be it restructuring,
new procedures, organizational merger, leadership change, the model can be utilized can be
utilized for comprehending the way the organizational components are interrelated.
The McKinsey 7S Framework can help the management in analysing super ordinate
objectives of evaluating strategy, skills, structure, systems, staff and style (Pasquier and
Villeneuve 2017). Analysis of business environment of the firm reflects that a considerable
amount of wealth is generated by means of construction as well as property segments.
Therefore, administration of the firm encounters the challenge of selection of appropriate
strategy for development of corporation that can also subsequently initiate various
government sponsored infrastructure projects (Nation Building Projects). Additionally,
management of the firm has increased the total number of employees to 6492 in 2016 from
the recorded figure of 4276 in 2012. Adoption of this framework helps the management to

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analyse the need for workforce and thereby mitigate the challenge of deciding the required
number of workers (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). Accordingly, adoption of this strategy can help
management in analysis of organization assess and at the same time monitor transformations
in the internal situational challenges.
VUCA:
VUCA is necessarily an acronym that is utilized for describing or else reflecting on
particularly volatility, uncertainty, complexity as well as ambiguity of particularly general
business conditions as well as circumstances. In this regard it can be said that the theme of
VUCA can serve for the purpose of enhancement of strategic importance of VUCA foresight
along with insight together with behaviour of different groups of a firm and individuals
(Gupta 2017). Essentially, this helps in discussing the systemic failures along with
behavioural failures that are necessarily characteristic of failure of corporation.
Essentially, V stands for volatility in VUCA model. Here volatility refers to overall nature as
well as dynamics of change together with nature and pace of change forces and change
catalysts. Again, U stands for uncertainty in the VUCA model (Gupta 2017). Here,
uncertainty indicates towards lack of predictability, areas for surprise and development of
sense of awareness and comprehension of issues along with events. Next, C stands for
complexity in this specific model. However, this stands for the multiplex of various forces,
confounding of different issues, no chain of cause and effect together with confusion related
to cause and effect (Visconti 2017). Finally, the term A stands for Ambiguity in this theme.
Ambiguity indicates towards indistinctness of reality, chances for misreads along with mixed
meanings of diverse conditions together with cause and effect confusion (David and David
2017).