Strategic Analysis of Aurecon's Operations and Challenges in Singapore

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Aurecon's management practices and the challenges it faces in Singapore. It begins with an introduction to Aurecon, highlighting its global presence and core business activities. The report then delves into the specific challenges Aurecon encounters in the Singaporean market, considering factors such as increasing competition and technological advancements. An external organizational analysis is conducted using PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces frameworks to assess the macro-environmental factors and competitive forces shaping Aurecon's operating environment. The industry life cycle curve is examined to determine Aurecon's current stage and future trajectory. An internal environment analysis is performed, evaluating strategic capabilities through VRIO analysis and SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Finally, a confrontation matrix is used to develop strategic recommendations based on the SWOT analysis. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and suggesting strategies for Aurecon to navigate the challenges and capitalize on opportunities in Singapore. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running Head: Management in Practice
Management in Practice
Aurecon

Management in Practice
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Challenges that Aurecon Faces in Singapore............................................................................2
External Organizational Analysis..............................................................................................3
PESTLE Analysis..................................................................................................................................3
Porter’s Five Forces............................................................................................................................5
Aurecon Industry Life Cycle Curve......................................................................................................5
Internal Environment..............................................................................................................7
Strategic Capabilities..........................................................................................................................7
VRIO Analysis (Strength and Weakness).............................................................................................7
SWOT Analysis....................................................................................................................................9
Confrontation Matrix – SWOT...............................................................................................10
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................11
References.............................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Aurecon is an Australia based private company which gains profit from Engineering,
management, technical services and private business sector. Employees in this company are a
total of 6,490. It operates globally and the head office is in Victoria. It is a public company
which ranks 422 out of the top 2000 companies in Australia (World, 2016). The maximum
income is generated by this company from engineering services in Australia. It was founded in
2009 in the month of March when Africon, Ninham Shand and Connell Wagner announced
about it (Aurecon, 2017). This report focuses on the challenges Aurecon faces in Singapore as a
company. The pestle and swot analysis of Aurecon shows that it is at the growth stage and will
have to take some measures to reach at the maturity stage of the industry life cycle. Aurecon
seeks to do complex projects within Singapore and all over Asia (Khoo, 2015).
Challenges that Aurecon Faces in Singapore
By the year 2021, it is expected that Asia should generate 44% of the world’s GDP. Singapore
has added value of some $70.87B in the year 2016, according to the World Bank. The forecast is
also to be of economical growth for Singapore. There are anticipations that the competition in
the coming years will grow day by day. In this situation, the management of Aurecon might face
some challenges. There are always evidences on the construction and the engineering industries
which have significant obstacles in the way of structure of economies (MENA, 2014). As the
technologies will change, the workforce in E&C companies will also change. There might be less
need of the man force. In this hyper competitive market, Aurecon is lying in the middle of such
technologies. The solution to this situation is that Aurecon will differentiate itself by providing
the quality solutions instead of competing head to head with traditionally organized E&C firms.
With the increasing market and the technologies, there is a need to put new strategies to make the
firm grow and compete with the competitors (Babu, et al., 2016). Aurecon is already aware of
that technology is an enabler of value but only when the right people have the access to it with
the right skills. Aurecon needs to train and raise E&C workforce that helps in the positioning of
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the firm in the Singapore market. There cannot be the single solution to all these challenges.
Giving a thought of all the management disciplines to bring the knowledge together will be
helpful for taking out the solution. Appropriate skills should be developed to compete with such
challenges in Singapore market (Ali, 2015).
External Organizational Analysis
The external analysis of the industry should always be done in depth because it is very important
for the firm to know about the environmental factors or the opportunities and threats that might
harm or help the company. This can be done by doing implementing the PESTLE analysis and
by going through the porter’s five forces.
PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE is that kind of the analysis which is used in order to identify the factors which are
external from the organization but still influences it.
Environment is changing very fast these days for every organization. Now to analyze the
implications of such kind of changes and to modify them in the way that organization reacts to
them, business strategies are made.
Every organization needs to identify the external factors which comes in their environment and
could have an impact on the firm. For doing that, the popular tool called PESTLE is
implemented (Srdjevic, 2012). This analysis includes Political, Economic, Technological, Legal,
and Environmental issues.
 Political Issues: It is advised to keep the policy changes in any government alongside.
Even when the political situation is stable, there might be some changes in the policies at
the above levels and this can prove to create some serious implications. Result will
always be changes in the priorities of Government and at last there will be changes in the
regulations and taxes (Atighechian & Maleki, 2016). Ultimately, all these above factors
may include changes in the laws of employment, regulations in the environment, taxation
regulations, health and safety policies and trade restrictions.
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In case of operating the company in Middle East or in any part of Asia, the dimensions of
the political factors might prove to be the most serious consideration. The entry might not
be straight forward into the new territory could become the case of the policies that are
official.
 Economic Issues: The economic issues include inflation rate, taxation, rates of exchange,
regulations of trading and excise duties. Keeping in mind the operational efficiency, the
firm should also keep in mid a few factors like unemployment, working practices, labor
cost trends, availability of expertise and wage patterns. Such issues can be given a look
when cost of living for the target market to determine economic viability (DanielFozer,
2017).
 Social Factors: There are a few factors that have an impact on the market. These are
called as social factors. They can be population, employment levels, education trends,
and statistics of income, culture and age distribution (Athanasios & Read, 2013). These
factors play a very significant role in the international and global market and the success
depends on the research in the area.
 Technological Issues: The speed with which the technology is growing is becoming
rapid. Technological factors can be of two types: infrastructure and manufacture.
Including activities like automation, incentives, cost savings and control costs, the
company can attain strong advantage of becoming competitive. The firm which fails to
keep the technological changes gives the opportunity to the new entrants in the market.
 Legal Factors: The legal factors include current and impending legislation which may
affect industry in the areas of employment, competition and health and safety. Legislation
changes that may occur should also be investigated (Bordo & Rosseau, 2006). Singapore
is very strict with the laws so it would be good for Aurecon to stay within legal pressure
to do anything new.
 Environmental Factors: Protection of environment has become important these days.
With globalization increasing rapidly, this has become even more important. These
factors are those which are relatable to the weather and climate changes. With PESTLE
factors climate cycles and weather changing patterns can be studied. Aurecon may have
the environmental factor as a threat as they are always unknown. (Ryvicker, et al., 2012)
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Porter’s Five Forces
Development of a business plan for the future can be done by assessing the current situation of
any company. Porter’s five forces model should be considered by any company which is looking
for growth or for sustainability in the market. A non impressive company would be the one
whose profit is affected by these factors. Porter’s five forces are:
1. Buyer Power: It is actually the bargaining power of the customers. A buyer has a strong
impact on the firm if the buyer has many options in the market.
2. Supplier Power: Same as the customers, if there are less substitutes, suppliers of raw
material can raise their bars of prices for the firm.
3. Rivalry: It is important to keep all the information about the rival company or companies
as they can prove to be a threat. The buying groups allow independent practices in order
to gain advantage in competitiveness and these groups have grown to be 74% more
(Guggenhein, 2016).
4. New Entry: The Company which is at the profitable side will definitely attract the new
comers. The new entry threat of traditional practices is very low, although, opportunity
for new business with capital access makes the new entrants to high risk. Also it is
important to consider regulatory environment in future because that can analyze the
nature of new entrants.
5. Substitution: There are a lot of substitute products in the market with fewer prices.
Hence, the customers are likely to move towards them. This can be a threat to the
company. In the future, technology being astute demand for convenience will be greater.
At that time, any new company by giving new products or good services can become
important for the customers (Dobbs, 2014).
Aurecon Industry Life Cycle Curve
The industry life cycle includes 4 phases. They are introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
Introduction Phase: The emerging industries which originate from technological innovation are
changing the relationship between new customer needs, economic and social changes and
relative costs. From strategy design perspective, the characteristics of phases of life cycle have
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no rules. Elements that characterize these phases are: Technological and uncertainly, high costs,
customers who buy for the first time, subsidies, duration of the phases and new established
industries (Verreynne, 2010).
Growth Phase: Innovations in the technology always allow the emergence of the new industries.
With technology evolving, the cost of the product reduces and the quality improves, demand
increase and the industry grow with the new entry and growth in the market. All the products
now days are differentiated in terms of the technology and the performance. Reliability is the
most important factor when it comes to the complex products (BinChen, 2013). Growth phase
provides the company to transition to mass production.
Maturity Phase: Lots of industries experience the transition from high to higher growth level.
The transition from the growth to the maturity level is always critical for all the firms in the
industry. Fundamental changes take place during this phase. Number of trends also changes.
Some of these trends are:
 If the growth is slow then the competition is more for market. Managerial attention is
pointing towards attacking of competitors.
 In this phase, the product no longer remains new. The customer focuses to on buying new
product instead of the one going through maturity phase.
 In low growth, knowledge of the consumer is increasing and maturity is greater of
technology. Hence, the competition is becoming more focused on the prices and the
quality of the product.
 Global competition is rising day after day.
 Probability of the industry is falling (Karniouchina, 2013).
When the transition tales place, there are changes that follow this transition. These changes are
very possible changes in the structure of the company. Major elements of the industry structure
changes: such as intensity of the competition, mobility barriers and the specific barriers. The
approaches by which the industry should respond to the structural changes are:
1.) Leadership of cost.
2.) Differentiation of quality
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3.) By focus
Decline Phase: In terms of the strategic analysis, the company which is declining will face
decrease in the sales from the longer amount of time. The profit margins keep on falling,
production is reduced and investments are lower. The competitors are also fewer. The strategy to
be used in this phase of industry is harvesting strategy (Brookshire, 2010). It is decision for
strategic management which reduces the investment in business in the hope of reducing the costs
and improving cash flow. It eliminates all the investments and generates the maximum amount
of cash flow. This strategy works when the company is at the peak of declining and there are a
large number of competitors around to take over.
Internal Environment
The internal environment analysis of any industry is done for knowing about the difference the
company makes in the market. It includes Strategic capabilities, SWOT Analysis and VRIO.
Strategic Capabilities
Demographics changing, urbanization, technological changes and increasing customer
expectations have become new trends in the market of today. All such factors put great pressure
on the structure of both government and private sector industries (Kuratko, 2014). Aurecon aims
that it will deliver products on which the communities rely and on which the returns come for
sure. This is its organizational strategy.
Aurecon works for resolving the government challenge and work on the private projects which
drives maximum value from the investment point of view. It focuses on the problem solving. The
problems which are related with the infrastructure investment are given major focus on. They
define the service need and present a clear business case for the funds (Claudiu, 2011). It also
helps organizations in understanding the links in between asset base and outcomes of the
services. Aurecon takes the transparent and auditable approach.
VRIO Analysis (Strength and Weakness)
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The foundation of the internal analysis is done by VRIO analysis. It includes four pointers.
Valuable: This is about the resources being valuable. Only when the resource is helpful for the
organization in meeting an external threat or an opportunity, it is considered to be valuable. It
might not help the company to perform outrageously but still it will be considered as strength.
Aurecon has high profit generating revenue (Lin, 2012). The company is at the maturity stage
where it is outperforming in Asia. It works on the process of the barriers to entry. Hence, it
objectifies the new entrants or the competitors and makes the barrier to enter as its competitors.
Rarity: The resource is called rare when it is not possessed by any other competitors. Aurecon
has bigger competitors like Jurong, BBR groups etc. These are very well known names in
Singapore. Though, Aurecon has earned a good name in Singapore, still it remains as a not much
known name there. Hence, it cannot be considered as rare (David, 2016). This can be considered
as the weakness.
Inimitable: Only a resource becomes inimitable when it cannot be acquired by any other firm and
not any kind of substitute can be placed at its place (Chatzoudes, 2018). This is the toughest
criteria to examine. In a given span of time, any kind of resource becomes inimitable if it’s given
good money. Mostly no company possessed inimitable resources as it is very difficult to
maintain and the same is the case with Aurecon.
Organized: Resource is organized when it is able to help the firm by coming of some use to it.
Very rarely it is found that the company is not organized as all the organizations mostly have
organized resources. Organized resources mean good profit margin and productivity (Joy, 2012).
Aurecon’s main strength is its profit generation. Hence, this makes Aurecon an organized
company.
Valuable? Rare Difficult to
Imitate?
Organized? Result
Yes Yes No Temporary
Competitive
Advantage
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Management in Practice
No Competitive
Disadvantage
Yes No Competitive
Equality
Yes Yes Yes Yes Long term
Competitive
advantage
Yes Yes Yes No Unused
Competitive
advantage
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is helpful for the company to know about its strengths and weaknesses as well as
the threats and opportunities. The strengths and weaknesses are the internal part of the
organization while the threats and opportunities are the external one’s.
Strengths of Aurecon are:
 It has high profit generation and revenue.
 It works on the barriers to new entry feature which creates a barrier for the new entrants
to enter in this industry.
Weaknesses of Aurecon are:
 Market Size: The market size of Singapore is going to grow with the passing time. Many
engineering and construction companies are growing day by day and the economy is also
rising in Singapore (Shi, 2016). According to the growing future market size, Aurecon
will have to build a brand name till then.
 Branding: As Singapore has many famous engineering and construction companies like
Jurong, BBR groups, Yongnam etc, Aurecon is not such a bigger name in this market.
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Being an Australian company, it will have to create a good brand portfolio for the future
market.
Opportunities of Aurecon are:
 New Markets: The positive side of the future market would be that it will grow. With
growing markets come the bigger opportunities for the growing companies to grow even
more and reach their maturity industry cycle (KristinOnarheim, 2015).
 Venture Capital: Another bigger opportunity would be venture capitals. With the growing
market, if Aurecon gives the funding to the new start ups, it can earn more profit and
generate more revenue (Ng, 2015). Ultimately, the revenue is what makes the company
look good in the market and the brand name follows. Venture capital can be helpful in
creating a brand name for the company in Singapore specifically.
Threats for Aurecon are:
 Changes in Prices: Aurecon might have to make bigger changes in the prices of their
products and even in buying the raw materials. Whenever the new entrant enters the
market, it keeps its prices as low. Low prices attract all the customers in the market.
Hence, prices might be a threat to Aurecon.
 Technology Problems: Technology is very important for any organization because it
provides the wider range of opportunities to the organization to excel (Cook, 2003).
Just because of the need of producing quality products, new technologies are used in
this growing market. Technological changes are taking place in the economy of
Singapore and this industry forces the company to produce advanced and compact
machinery. This can be a threat to Aurecon.
 External Business Risks: There can be some external business risks to which can
prove to be threat for Aurecon. Political and natural factors can be risks too (Barney,
2005). The rules and regulations of Singapore are very strict for every living citizen
in that country. Hence, these factors are also threats and cannot be controlled.
Confrontation Matrix – SWOT
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