Strategic Management of HS2: Decision-Making Process Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway project in the United Kingdom, evaluating the evidence for and against its continuation. It examines the economic benefits, such as job creation and infrastructural growth, alongside the significant financial investment, environmental concerns, and potential shifts in transportation demand. The report applies Clegg's theory of strategic decision-making to assess the project's efficiency and strategic planning, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and evolving global economic conditions. The analysis highlights the inefficiencies in strategic planning, the increasing costs, and the uncertainties surrounding the project's long-term viability, ultimately questioning whether the HS2 project represents a prudent allocation of resources considering the current global economic climate and the potential for changing public transportation preferences. The report concludes that the project is costly and its strategic planning is inefficient.

Strategic Management
in HS2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Evaluate the evidence for making a decision either to proceed or not proceed with the HS2
decision.......................................................................................................................................1
What does the case tell us about the processes of strategic decision making in light of the
discussion (ie Clegg, Theory and Practice second edition).........................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
The report revolves around HS2 which is a high-speed railway line in United Kingdom.
The project have its first phase under construction and its future stages are still waiting for
approval. HS2 is considered to be second largest railway line in all over Britain proceeding High
Speed 1 which connects Channel Tunnel to London and this was established in early 2000s. This
railway network is based on innovative “Y” shaped railway tracks and have the expected speed
to be around 360 kilometres per hour. This new network is gong to connect London, Manchester,
Birmingham and Leeds. The report revolves around collection and analyse the data in order to
draw reliable conclusion to whether or not the future stages of the projects should get the
approval or not. In order to do so the study will focus on the pros and the cons associated with
High Speed 2 and analyse them to reach the overall conclusion that revolves around reaching the
conclusion about future stages of the project (Wu and Chong., 2018). The report will also reflect
upon Clegg Theory in order to determine the process of strategic decision making process.
MAIN BODY
Evaluate the evidence for making a decision either to proceed or not proceed with the HS2
decision.
The benefits of high speed 2 project revolves around the great opportunities it provides
for economic growth. The project generates high levels of employment and establishes outline
for overall infrastructural growth of the areas associated with it (Mardoyan and et. al., 2019). The
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benefits of this project also includes enhanced services for passengers around 72 stations on
existing rail networks along with almost 52 stations who are not even in the direct route of high
speed 2 project. The routes undertaken by this project are mainly along routes which provides
opportunities for development o0f many new routes which further benefits in entrancement of
local as well as inter-regional services. High speed 2 project will provide almost 5,72,000 new
seats for passengers every day which will enhance the overall railway experience for the country
(Divall and Hine ., 2017). When it comes to transfer of cargo, this project will open up the
transportation opportunities for around 144 extra trains that revolves around the transportation of
freight and will enable transport over 2.5 million extra worth of lorries for transportation of
cargo. A study revealed that over the course of last 14 years the total journeys done using the
railway transportation system have increased almost by double and therefore the the benefits that
this project will have are infinite.
The supporters of this route suggests that the benefits associated with this route are way
more than the cons associated with it as the investments done on this will boost the overall
economic growth of the country along with the job employment created with it will help in
reducing the gap between 5the riches and poor and will increase the overall standards of living of
the stakeholders (Mary and et. al., 2020). Although, it is not possible to draw reliable conclusions
without focusing on the other side of the story. The arguments against the projects involve the
investment estimate of 88 billion pounds in the year 2020, along with the initial investment
estimate was around 57 billion ponds. The arguments revolve around that there are more crucial
matters to be undertaken by United Kingdom Government and undertaking this project will be a
waste of precious resources of the government of United Kingdom. The cons associated with this
project revolves around presence of alternatives to this projects such as expansion of pre-existing
routes associated with railway facilities in the country. This project can be considered beneficial
for a comparatively small group of people who will use this network between these big cities.
The environmental costs associated with this project revolves around huge damage on the
environment from this project (Yin and et. al., 2019). The locals who lives in between the
railway lines are unhappy about the harm it is causing to their trivial livelihood. In today's global
recession spending an estimate of 88 billion pounds on railway project seems impractical as the
funds can be used in many other ways for example, fixing potholes, resurfacing of roads,
acquisition of technologies, focusing o0n tourism which will generate comparatively higher
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returns. This huge amount of funds can even be used when it comes to decarbonising of
economy. One of the major field of concern is the demand for railways might now even be there
by the time the projects finishes (Chen, Jiang and Lu., 2017). In today's world where pandemic
have effected all over the globe, people tend to avoid hum,an contact and prefer travelling by
their own vehicles and the project is estimated to take even longer after 2040 for its completion
and the demand for railways might be even be there till the time this project is completed.
Considering both the aspects of the story and the uncertainty in the dynamics associated
with global economy the project seems to be a wastage of resources which can be saved in case
any uncertainty cases further recession in global economy. The project offers many advantages
but none of the overall pros of the projects are based on certainty and therefore having this big of
an investment on a project which can turn out to be a hollow investment by the time of its
completion is considerably a wrong choice as suggested by the arguments driven on the basis of
analysis of these dynamics.
What does the case tell us about the processes of strategic decision making in light of the
discussion.
This conclusion is drawn on the basis of Clegg's theory which revolves around circuits of
power which consists of organising and production of overall powers on an electrical board
which is an accumulation of three separate circuits which are dispositional, episodic and
facilitative. These circuits covers both micro and macro aspects of a project and helps in creating
a clear understanding along with reliable decisions (Hetemi, Gemünden and Meré., 2020). This
theory is applies in high speed 2 project in order to figure out the overall efficiency in the
strategic decision-making process and its efficiency. The development of this project was based
upon under developed frameworks. CPVID-19 pandemic was a uncertainty which no one would
have predicted but post pandemic phase have created many obstacles which now are threat top
overall efficiency of the project. In a place like UK where the virus have mutated itself and
developed vaccinations are ineffective as well. The demand for public transportation is going
down substantially. People prefer travelling by their own vehicles now. And this project will not
be completed even after 2040 and the total cost incurred in it will only increase by then and
therefore investment of this big fund is impractical considering recession in global economy. The
strategic planning inefficiency can be seen as the overall cost of project keeps on increasing day
by day. The implementation of the effective strategic decision will help HS2 in achieving the
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efficiency and also it will help in generating the great amount of revenues for the firm. HS2 is a
high speed train which is going to be introduced in the UK environment as it would help people
in travelling from one point to other point efficiently and it will help in saving the lot of time for
the people (Bueno, Hoyos and Capellán-Pérez, 2017). These days time is considered as one of
the precious element of life and in the everyone wants to save time as much as possible and this
train will effectively save the time of the people in travelling from one point to another point.
This project will help in increasing the connectivity of places which can't be connected due to
some technical issues in the past. This project will help in creating the opportunities of the
employment for the people and this project will help in generating a great amount of the
revenues for the country as railways is one of the sectors which contributes a large amount of
their revenues in the growth of the country and the growth of the economy (Wu, Zhang and
Huang., 2019). Employment opportunities created by this project will help in reducing the gap
between poor and rich people and this project will also help creating the infrastructure for the
UK and it is important for the development of their infrastructure because it helps in the
economic growth of the country and helps in reducing the poverty in the country.
As there are two side of everything so there are also the con side of the strategic planning and the
decision making for the investment in the high speed 2 project. Although it is very good project
but they are lagging in the strategy and the analysis portion as they are not looking into the con
section. On of the major con for the high speed project is that the investment is increasing year
by year and it is aid that the project will continue till 2040. currently the investment in this is 88
billion pounds and it is during the phase of recession and no none knows when the recession
period will end or when it will start again. Like the things are turning now it is very hard to say
or quote anything about the start of the project,with Corona virus it is very hard for them to
employ the worker and this process will take some time (Guodong, Lei and Lianchuan., 2020).
The another major con is the result, they haven't made proper strategy to cope up with the
recession, so if at the end they are able to invest in this project and start it then they still are not
having any ideas about the result. The result are unsure because due to Covid 19 the people are
skipping the public transports as much as possible in order to maintain social distance. By the
time this project finishes the it can also happen that the people will not use any public transport
by then as the technology is increasing day by day so by the time this project finishes the public
might have switched from trains to different source. So they have to develop a proper strategy
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through which they can make full use of the investment which was supposed for this source to a
different source so that it can be beneficial for them.
CONCLUSION
The report concludes that the project have extremely high costs associated with its
completion. The report also concludes that in accordance to Mintzberg, the strategic planning of
overall project is inefficient. In 2001 the most expensive railway line of France was established
with the name of GV Méditerranée, which covered a distance of around 250 Kilometres and the
total cost was expected to be around 16.9m Pounds per kilometre, and High Sped 2 is estimated
to be around six times this budget. The arguments that are in favour of this project revolves
around the quality of this project and long term benefits associated with it along with this project
being in accordance to the infrastructural needs of 21st century. The arguments against this
projects are countless and revolves around wastage of precious national resources in a project
without which the operations in any sector do not face any contingency threats. The report also
revolves around The Red Queen affect and how the Britain is affected by it. Although i5ts great
applications in day to day life as well as its completion having many benefits, if considering the
project with global economy, the conclusion can be drawn that the project is not worth against
the threats that global recession due to COVID-19 pandemic have caused.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Mardoyan, H., and et. al., 2019, September. 222-GBaud On-Off keying transmitter using ultra-
high-speed 2: 1-selector and plasmonic modulator on silicon photonics. In 45th
European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2019) (pp. 1-4). IET.
Divall, C. and Hine, J., 2017. High Speed 2 Where? A Historical Perspective on the ‘Strategic
Case’for HS2. In Transport Policy: Learning Lessons from History (pp. 113-130).
Routledge.
Mary, B., and et. al., 2020. Clean Sky 2–Project PALACE: Aeration’s Experimental Sound
Velocity Investigations for High-Speed Gerotor Simulations. International Journal of
Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. 14(9). pp.338-345.
Chen, H., Jiang, B. and Lu, N., 2017. Data-driven incipient sensor fault estimation with
application in inverter of high-speed railway. Mathematical Problems in Engineering.
2017.
Hetemi, E., Gemünden, H. G. and Meré, J. O., 2020. Embeddedness and Actors’ Behaviors in
Large-Scale Project Life Cycle: Lessons Learned from a High-Speed Rail Project in
Spain. Journal of Management in Engineering. 36(6). pp.05020014.
Bueno, G., Hoyos, D. and Capellán-Pérez, I., 2017. Evaluating the environmental performance of
the high speed rail project in the Basque Country, Spain. Research in Transportation
Economics. 62. pp.44-56.
Guodong, W., Lei, Y. and Lianchuan, M., 2020, October. Model-based Simulation and
Verification on Typical Function Scenes of High-Speed Maglev Vehicle Operation
Control System. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1654, No. 1, p.
012079). IOP Publishing.
Yin, Y., and et. al., 2019. High‐Speed and High‐Responsivity Hybrid Silicon/Black‐Phosphorus
Waveguide Photodetectors at 2 μm. Laser & Photonics Reviews. 13(6). pp.1900032.
Wu, S. S. and Chong, A., 2018. Developmental Railpolitics: The Political Economy of China’s
High-Speed Rail Projects in Thailand and Indonesia. Contemporary Southeast Asia.
40(3). pp.503-526.
Wu, B., Zhang, Z. and Huang, W., 2019, May. Comparison and Selection of Reinforcement
Schemes for Shield Tunnelling Close Crossing High-speed Railway Viaduct Group. In
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 267, No. 4, p. 042119).
IOP Publishing.
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