7112EXQ: Strategic Management Analysis of Harringtons Builders PLC

This report provides a detailed strategic analysis of Harringtons Builders PLC, a prominent construction company in the UK. It begins with an introduction to the construction sector's significance in the economy, particularly focusing on its impact on GDP. The report then delves into the research background, outlining the company's history since its establishment in 1966 and its evolution into a PLC. It examines data and statistics related to the UK construction industry, highlighting trends, growth patterns, and economic fluctuations. The report further analyzes the strategies employed by Harringtons Builders PLC, including their approach to achieving a zero-accident construction environment by 2035, and their adoption of a safety culture. An economic analysis of the company's performance, including its contribution to the UK economy, is also presented, along with a discussion of its competitors. The report incorporates graphs and figures to illustrate key points, providing a comprehensive overview of the company's strategic positioning and operational strategies within the construction industry.

STRATEGY ANALYSIS OF HARRINGTONS BUILDERS PLC COMPANY1
STRATEGY ANALYSIS OF HARRINGTONS BUILDERS PLC COMPANY
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Introduction
Construction is the most significant sector in the economy. It is essential in different sectors with
different economic activities. Construction has an impact to the economy and thus, can be
gauged considering the size in which it plays within the sector (Danforth, Weidman, and
Farnsworth 2017). For instance, the GDP it constitutes plays a vital role in this case. In this
report, we are going to analyze in detail the chosen construction company in terms of it's a
commercial and social way of handling it's activities, residential, and infrastructure in general as
they are known to be the main sectors within the levels of the government (Ruddock, Kheir and
Ruddock). Different strategies are used in handling the operations of the company, for instance,
having experienced personnel to handle construction processes by giving quality service. In
addition, there will be involvement of other contractors who have invested in different projects in
the UK.
Considering that, there are different companies in the United Kingdom, Harringtons Builders
PLC will be our PLC contractor and main construction company for the case study. The
company has been in the field for a long time and is thriving well to deliver it's services making
sure their clients are satisfied. The company falls between the outputs of 60 % in building new
structures in UK and the refurbished infrastructure by 40 %. Construction also contains
drawbacks considering different factors that may be involved such as the risks, costs, and
performance (Danforth, Weidman, and Farnsworth 2017). There is an economic cycle for
activities carried out under construction process. This is generalized within the period in UK as
the company falls at the Centre for the analysis that was done in that particular year. The graph
below presents the trend for the year 2012 when the GDP increased due to improvement in the
construction sector.

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Figure (Ruddock, Kheir, and Ruddock)
Research Background
For this research, the aim is to find out about the strategies that were developed and adapted by
the construction firm for it to grow in the economy (Patten and Saunders, 2018). This is to help
in knowing how Harringtons Builders PLC evolved in those 50 years that it services. Harringtons
Builders PLC Construction Company was established in the year 1966. Mr C.F. Harrington is the
co-founder of the company. Later the company was registered as a private LTD company. As the
company improved in it's operations it's name was changed in 2001 to Harringtons Builders
PLC. Since 1966, the company’s reputation has increased by giving quality products and
meeting the required standards in the industry. In addition, the company has also increased the
shares in the market trying to fit in the economy as it keeps working on to achieve the targets by
giving his customers a range of services which cover most of the engineering works.

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Data and Statistics for the construction industry in the UK
For a decade, many construction companies have been trying tremendously to achieve their
targets in delivering their services in United Kingdom. This is to focus on the economic trends of
the nation and their budget to help them make sure that projects assigned are met as per the
requirements of clients (Danforth, Weidman, and Farnsworth 2017).
In this research, there is addition of gross value in the industry between the year 2006 and 2017.
The statistics done gave an illustration for construction companies with projects in UK.
Therefore, this period presents a trend of construction institutions rising in offering their
services. 2009 is the year when the gross value decreased by 14 % (Rhodes 2015). However,
there has been consistent growth in construction activities from 2017 to current. The graph below
shows the trends in the field for construction institutions in consideration with Harringtons
Builders PLC.
The output of construction process in UK was 0.5% since it averagely increased in a quarter
period in 2019. However, the companies including Harringtons Builders PLC thrived more in
reworks they worked on by 0.8 %, as it declined on the other side of refurbishing structures by

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0.1 %. Further, in 2019 the new rework of the projects assigned to the company had risen to 0.8
% due to economic growth in other sectors (Rhodes 2015). Repair and refurbishing of the
available structures had fallen by 0.1 % because of the decrease in the repair of the private
housings in UK. In the industry, the growth of construction activities increased in 2019
comparing to 2018 because of the new work that was in place for the company (Cannon et al
2015).
Additionally, for construction companies with Harringtons Builders PLC inclusive their annual
growth increased at an alarming rate by 2.5 % in the year 2019 comparing to 2018. On the other
hand, no growth was experienced in the year for the construction sector in the UK since it
remained low unlike the years between 2014 and 2017 as illustrated in the figure below. Thus,
the annual growth witnessed in the industry at it's the current state was because of the new work
the companies had undertaken to work on. However, refurbishment of the structures constructed
in the field has been low comparing to the new projects available in place, and it grew with a
percentage of 0.7 % by the year 2019 (Cannon et al 2015).
Figure illustrating the growth of construction output in the economy.

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Strategy for Harringtons main plc to become a zero accident construction company
Culture must be adopted by any company undertaking construction activity and in the process is
to minimize accidents. As discussed in this case, the company has been progressing in every
section to qualify with greater safety measures. For instance, recruiting a manager who will be
taking considerations of safety in the company by guiding all workers in the field. This is a
continuous improvement within the company and also advantageous to the client not to spend
much on accident issues or cases. Harringtons Builders PLC takes the opportunity to identify
core values of safety to make sure the company has zero accidents in it is operations. Basing on
the assumptions made that accidents can be prevented, the zero accident vision is achieved with
proper implementation of the available suggested strategies (Zwetsloot et al 2017). For example,
in 2012 companies in UK had worked on reducing accidents by 25 percent which was the best
way of promoting zero accident culture.
In 2035, Harringtons Builders PLC will have zero accidents in construction activities it
undertakes by having innovative individuals with leadership skills to transform the company.
Therefore, commitment will be needed as well good communication channels that will be used to
educate workers on safety and making the process a core structure process to the company. The
company will have some logical step known as ZAV (zero accident vision) to help in triggering
the movement towards the achieving 2035 zero action. For the process the strategies will be
involved:
 First is identifying the failures to success of implementing the process.
 Evaluating the experiences that are involved in learning safety in construction sites.
 Considering the cases involved in ZAV implementation such as in business cases.
 Learning the factors which influences ZAV to be effective like culture.

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 Developing a strategy of analyzing the incidents and accidents occurrence to be used in
learning for ZAV implementation (Zwetsloot et al 2013).
All these will help the company to become a zero accident institution by the year 2035.
Economic analysis of UK construction companies (Harringtons Builders PLC)
Economically, construction companies in the UK have been in position of delivering well to
clients and nation by considering the trend of the economy (Smith and Thoenissen 2018). For
instance, Harringtons Builders PLC was established to give a range of products technologically.
The values are considered in terms of the current economic status or at that particular time, and is
what can be generated, reflection of different strategies used in the production process such as
capital required for the project, raw materials, labour, and the required knowledge in building
construction (Vogl and Abdel-Wahab 2015). Economically Harringtons Builders PLC will
consider how it contracts the construction services in the field, professionally how it undertakes
the assigned projects and the available resources. Depending on the field of construction, many
industries are involved in companies. However, this report involves statistics that cover the
presence of Harringtons Builders PLC Company to it's the current state.
Nationally the company contributes much to the economy. For general statistics in UK, economy
is about 6.7 per cent on the amount contributed. For contracting services, Harringtons Builders
PLC is among the largest companies and being inclusive in the industry with a total value of 70
per cent in United Kingdom. For the period in which the company has been delivering the
services it has created workplaces, which it maintains for different businesses to operate and
grow (Norman 2017). Considering the services provided in the country whether small in terms of
their sizes, still plays a huge role in performance towards the economy. For instance, in 2011

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firms that specialized in providing construction services contributed a GVA of about 4.2 billion
pounds in the economy thus Harringtons Builders PLC is working towards achieving the goal as
one (Norman 2017).
On the other hand, the industry has experienced drawbacks in different ways considering the
type of service provided. For example, the economy declined in terms of 2011 to 6.7 per cent
from 8.9 per cent in 2007. The effect swept the whole nation in almost every sector that dealt
with construction as the main PLC company (Norman 2017). According to ONS in 2012, United
Kingdom experienced a recession for five years from the previous one that had occurred. In spite
of the fall during the time, the construction industry has maintained the position of increasing it's
economic output in UK to recent considering the data collected since 1950 same to when
Harringtons Builders PLC was founded to provide construction services. Below is the graph
showing the transition in the annual income in United Kingdom for construction industry in year
1955 to 2012 (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2013).

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There was a recession in pre-2018 due to output fall in some sectors such as private buildings in
2007 by 33 %. However, other sectors like infrastructure grew as from 2007 and later it fell in
2012 (Norman 2017). Further, non-residential sectors fell consecutively in 2010. This is shown
in the graph below on how there was change output in services of construction offered within the
country.

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Construction industry is the biggest platform in UK for the current economy, which is growing
despite the downturns it's experiencing. According to Oxford Economics, this is something that
is generally expected to happen at some instances along for the services offered by Harringtons
Builders PLC. For instance, market dynamics, finances supporting the projects, and the demand
for some products (Dadhich et al 2015). The company had fallen in offering construction
services in terms of its economic output by 2.1% in the year 2013. it's because of the effects that
caused a lot of cuts in investments, however, there was an increase in productivity to about 1.9
per cent in the year 2014 and 2015 by 3.8 % because of the activities taking place in the private
sector (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2013). All this is aligned by the forecasts
made by Experian’s when the output for the companies had fallen down by 2.6 per cent in the
year 2013. Immediately, this preceded an increase in 2014 by 0.8 % and in 2015 by 3.0 per cent
(Norman 2017). Thus, the construction industry for Harringtons Builders PLC and others, in
general, will keep on experiencing challenges, which takes time for it to be rectified.
Competitors of Harringtons Builders PLC
In the construction industry, Harringtons Builders PLC Company has a strong solid base for it's
business in the United Kingdom to become more competitive. However, it has drawbacks unlike
other firms in terms of skills offered by the personnel and the technology used to deliver the
services as needed. In United Kingdom, the company is well known internationally, in
construction of structures such as in sectors of transport, oil and gas, mining, power, and building
of structures. Making it popular in the industry, however, there are other companies offering
similar services posing a very tough competition to Harringtons Builders PLC. Harringtons

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Builders PLC has the following competitors in the field: O’brien contractors’ limited company
and Rock companies.
Rock Company is a construction institution and it operates internationally in UK and outside
nation too. It serves in offering services like those of Harringtons Builders PLC which includes
transportation, mining, building, Oil $ Gas, and power. The company was established in 1991.
Apart from the above-named services, it also specializes in developing and managing properties
and commercial management around the country. The company is technologically improved to
work on projects, having well-skilled personnel, and capital that enables it to fit economically in
the industry. On the other hand, it has looked into the best strategies it uses to handle projects by
handling it's areas that stronger in delivering the services to improve on them instead of focusing
on weaker areas however all parts are handled professionally (Dadhich et al 2015).
O'Brien contractors’ limited company; works in delivering services like other companies. That
is civil works under engineering, designing and building structures as well like Harringtons
Builders PLC. The company has been in the field for 60 years in the construction industry of
UK. The company is well fashioned with technology with lots of value in engineering. It was
founded in 1958, and it contains a lot in it's body for improvement unlike Harringtons Builders
PLC (Rostami et al 2015). For instance, it becomes more competitive according to it's an
investment, skills it applies and training it offers often for it's workers (Burtonshaw-Gunn 2017).
it's the greatest competitor because it has a lot of machineries it uses to handle construction
works. Further, it gives a challenge to Harringtons Builders PLC in working global for different
projects because of their capacity.
The strategy of implementing a management system in the company

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For construction activities in UK, every company works out on different strategies in managing
the resources and so does our main PLC contractor company. Thus, Harrington builders PLC
took the opportunity of exploring the entrepreneurial knowledge involving the newly recruited
personnel in guiding the process for the company’s operations to be intact.
Strategic management is about the initiatives that are taken into account by managerial staff on
behalf of the owner of the company. Further, it involves the process of utilizing the available
resources the company owns for better performance. For the company to handle it's a process, it
considered recruiting a new individual with experience in the fields of design, planning section,
and managers with entrepreneur skills to manage the company. The implementations of the
strategy process in Harrington builders PLC Company help in maximizing the profits and have
control on costs and expenses incurred. In addition, is the only process for the company to win
over other competitively and also fitting in the economy the UK. While undertaking the process
the company needs to know gaps existing within and the weaknesses it has and parts to be given
priorities. If the strategies brought in by the new staff recruited are considered, Harrington
builders PLC will improve in future.
Companies’ history and strategy research
Considering the recent history of the company and the previous one, the company has improved
with a lot of achievements. According to the information present in it's website, the company has
invested well by buying machineries that are used in constructing and demolishing structures.
They range from bulldozers, excavators, and other tools used to conduct the activities. Unlike the
time it was established with experienced personnel to manage it, in it's current state the company
is well manned with different individuals regarding their specific skill required to deliver in
work.