Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1
1. FOUNDER

Dr. Ahmed Nabil

Dr. Nabil started his journey in engineering
design firm 14 years ago. He has been exposed to
different types and scales of projects inside and
outside Egypt during his journey. He got his
master degree in structural engineering in 2012
from Menoufia University, and then he obtained
his PhD in structural engineering through a joint
supervision program between Menoufia
University and University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign at the United States in 2017. And he
is currently enrolled in MBA program at
ESLSCA University in Egypt.
Besides working in the engineering firm; he is
doing a research in the field of using innovative materials and techniques in
structural engineering. He supervises a number of master and PhD students.

2
2. WHO THEY ARE
Struct Design Studio is a leading multi-disciplinary design and construction
firm based in Egypt, offering comprehensive and professional services in
architecture, interior design, structural design and landscape design for different
types, scales of projects and clients. Struct has been launched in 2018 in Egypt
and has been formed to respond to clients' needs and offering them professional
services. The firm started small and as time goes by, it started to gain trust and
experience in the market and continued to grow. Today, Struct Design Studio is
a group of professional structural engineers and architects offering a full range
of designs and construction services.

3. Vision
Our vision is to be one of the premier
engineering solutions providers in
Egypt offering complex projects from
vision to reality.

4. Mission
We are committed to deliver high
value,smart, professional engineering
solutions that have a bold and unique
fingerprint in the national and
international market.

5. CORE VALUES

We are aligned to a number of core

values that draw our path with our
clients which are:
 Quality
It is our top priority to deliver
competitive edge designs
fulfilling our clients' needs and
desires complying with the
highest specification,
regulations, and standards.
3
  Integrity
We have upstanding character traits & work ethics which formulate
our code of conduct including sound judgment, respect, honesty,
dependability, and loyalty .
 Reliability
We are conscientious, self-committed, professional, responsible, and
dependable in our dealing with each other and our communities .
 Innovation
We adopt new ways of thinking converting creativity into innovation
from scratch to reality.

6. What They DO

We are offering a vast range of consultancy services depending on the nature of

the projects, clients’ needs and requirements including, but not limited to:

 Architectural designs
 Interior designs
 Landscape design
 Structural designs
 Value engineering
 Construction engineering solutions
 Repair and strengthening of structures
 Full engineering supervision
 Cost estimations
 Feasibility studies
 Project management
 MEP Design Services

4
7. Projects

We take on projects with the intention of finding smart, new solutions to

problems. Our clients vary in size and scope inside and outside Egypt. These
clients ask for our technical expertise, practical experience, multi-disciplinary
capabilities, and the global reach needed to analyze their problems, and develop
and implement the most appropriate, cost-effective solutions. Our diverse
project list includes commercial buildings, manufacturing structures, medical
facilities, schools, mosques, malls, and more. We are proud of the projects we
have safely and expertly delivered for our clients and are proud of our current
roster of dynamic projects.

8. Team

We do believe in passion, talent and knowledge, not in just age, we pick

talented work colleagues regardless of their age. They are professional,
creative, knowledgeable, loyal, and committed to drive our vision forward.

5
9. Corporate Social Responsibility

We do believe that organization should have social roles; we try to extend our
services to enrich the surrounding community through free of charge unique
designs projects for charities and provide instructional and educational
seminars for engineering students and graduates.

6
1.1 Objectives of the study

1. To analyze the strategic functioning adopted by Design Struct Studio to sell its
products and services.
2. To analyze factors that influence strategic functioning of Design Struct Studio.
3. To measure the level of awareness among the consumers of Design Struct
Studio
4. To study the competitive strength of Design Struct Studio.
5. To study the profile of Design Struct Studio.
6. To analyze the marketing channels used by Design Struct Studio to
push their products and services.

7
1.2 Review of Literature

Identify our primary and support activities. All the activities (from
receiving and storing materials to marketing, selling and after sales support)
that are undertaken to produce goods or services have to be clearly identified
and separated from each other. This requires an adequate knowledge of
company’s operations because value chain activities are not organized in the
same way as the company itself. The managers who identify value chain
activities have to look into how work is done to deliver customer value.

Establish the relative importance of each activity in the total cost of the
project. The total costs must be broken down and assigned to each activity.
Activity based costing is used to calculate costs for each process. Activities that
are the major sources of cost or done inefficiently (when benchmarked against
competitors) must be addressed first.
Identify cost drivers for each activity. Only by understanding what factors
drive the costs, our managers can focus on improving them. Costs for labor-
intensive activities will be driven by work hours, work speed, wage rate, etc.
Different activities will have different cost drivers.
Identify links between activities. Reduction of costs in one activity may lead
to further cost reductions in subsequent activities. For example, fewer
components in the design may lead to lower service costs. Therefore identifying
the links between activities will lead to better understanding how cost
improvements would affect he whole value chain. Sometimes, cost reductions
in one activity lead to higher costs for other activities.

Identify opportunities for reducing costs. When we know our inefficient

activities and cost drivers, we can plan on how to improve them. Too high wage
rates can be dealt with by increasing production speed, outsourcing jobs to low
wage countries or installing more automated processes.

8
1.3 Research methodology

 PRIMARY DATA:
The primary data was collected by means of a survey. Questionnaires were prepared and
customers of the HDFC bank were approached to fill up the questionnaires. The
questionnaire contains 14 questions which reflect on the type and how effectively services
provided by the bank to the customers and how they effectively using their marketing
strategies to attract the customers. The response of the customer and this is recorded on a
grade scale of Yes or NO and also taking some suggestions and knowing any efficiency in a
services. The filled up information was later analyzed to obtain the required interpretation
and the findings
 SECONDARY DATA:
The secondary data is collected in order to have a proper understanding of the various marketing
strategies used by HDFC bank a depth study was done from the various sources such as:
 Books, magazines, journal articles.
 Official websites of the HDFC bank (www.hdfcbank.com).
 The articles from various search engines like Google, yahoo search and answers.com.
 RESEARCH DESIGN:

The research design is exploratory till identification of customer awareness and marketing tools used by
HDFC bank parameters. Later it becomes descriptive, Descriptive research answers the questions who,
what, where, when and how. Although the data description is factual, accurate and systematic, the research
cannot describe what caused a situation. Thus, descriptive research cannot be used to create a causal
relationship, where one variable affects another. In other words, descriptive research can be said to have a
low requirement for internal validity. The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical
calculations. Often the best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey
investigation. Qualitative research often has the aim of description and researchers may follow-up with
examinations of why the observations exist and what the implications of the findings are.

9
1.4 Limitation of Study

 The study is only for the STRUCT DESIGN STUDIO confined to a particular location. Hence the
findings cannot be treated as representative of the entire architectural industry.

 The data also includes secondary data which may or may not be reliable.
 Lack of prior research studies on the topic
 Self-reported data
 Language fluency
 Access to information
 Time constraints
 An intentional bias encountered during data collection.

10
 Chapter II:
Analysis and Interpretation of Data

11
2.1 SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis (also known as SWOT Matrix) is a business framework that helps
assessing a wide variety of factors that may have a profound impact on a business’s
performance. These factors may either be internal to a company or external.
Furthermore, these factors may either be favorable/helpful or unfavorable/harmful to a
company. By combining these two dimensions one can draw a 2×2-matrix consisting
of four quadrants: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This section will
cover each of these four quadrants of the SWOT analysis and will help us choosing the
right tools to assess the most important factors that may affect our business.

Strengths (SWOT Analysis)

Company’s strengths are its characteristics that give it an advantage over
others (competitors). Sometimes these strengths are also referred to as
unique selling points, firm-specific advantages or competitive
advantage. The source of these strengths are resources and capabilities that
are valuable, rare, hard-to-imitate and organization-wide supported.
Examples of valuable company resources are patents, a strong brand
reputation, a new innovative product, a talented workforce, historically
developed know-how and large financial reserves. The strengths of our
firm could by summarized as following:

 Young professionals with high experience in different types of projects

in Egypt and Gulf area.
 Application of cutting edge technology in our work.
 Good reputation of the founders and team work.
 Providing unusual and innovative solutions to engineering problems.

Weaknesses (SWOT Analysis)

Similarly, these tools are very helpful in assessing a company’s

weaknesses. These weaknesses are company characteristics that place a
company at a disadvantage relative to others. In other words: they are
harmful to a company.

Weaknesses could for example be a lack of patent protection, poor

reputation among customers, a small working capital, bad leadership and
an inefficient production process. Weaknesses are best discovered by
having enough feedback loops in place, both internally and externally.

12
 Think about sending out customer surveys and organizing monthly employee
gatherings. Together, the strengths and weaknesses form the internal side of
the organization and the SWOT analysis. The weakness of our office could
be drawn as the following:

 The firm is new, the wages and salaries of the employees is not so high.
 Number of office branches is only one till now.
 Office location a bit far away from the capital.
 Founder has large number of responsibilities as he hold a position
in academia in addition to working in industry.
 High turnover of employees.
 Relying on few number of clients
 Lack of MEP design and technical expertise
Opportunities (SWOT Analysis)
Opportunities are the external factors of the SWOT analysis that may
affect a company’s performance positively. To assess the opportunities, a
company should look for elements in the environment that could be
exploited to its own advantage. The best way to assess the external
factors is by using PESTEL analysis for the macro-environment and
Porter’s Five Forces for the industry dynamics. PESTEL looks at
political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal trends
in the macro-environment. Examples are the increasing purchasing power
of customers, governmental subsidies, more favorable international trade
policies, and general lifestyle changes among the population. Porter’s Five Forces on
the other hand looks more specifically at industry factors like the current competition,
upstream supplier power, downstream buyer power, potential new entrants and
substitute products or services. The opportunities of our office may be drawn as the
following:

 Working in multidisplinary engineering fields provides number

of opportunities in introducing different services to clients.
 Having experience in Egypt and Gulf opens new markets to
the office.
 Egypt is opening new construction markets inside and outside
Egypt which creates a lot of opportunities to engineering fields.
 Floating of currency enables the office to compete outside Egypt.
13
  Low overhead costs enables us giving competitive prices for
projects.

Threats (SWOT Analysis)

The threats on the other hand are the external factors that could cause
trouble for the company in the future. Similarly to the
opportunities, one could use a PESTEL analysis and a Porter’s Five
Forces model to assess the elements in the environment that could harm
the organization. Examples of harmful macro-environmental
developments could be an increasing unemployment rate, disruptive
technologies, protests from NGO’s and increasing government
corruption levels. In terms of industry specific threats, one could think
about new competitors entering the arena, the availability of substitute
products and increasing bargaining power from suppliers. Together, the
opportunities and threats make up the external part of the SWOT
analysis. The threats for our office may be drawn as the following:

 New Egyptian regulations in construction industry affected the

market directly and forms recession for big engineering sector.
 Large number of non-engineering firms enters the market
without any opposition from the government which makes the
completion unfair.
 Raw materials price increase decreases the wheel of
construction industry.
 Army intervention in the industry
 Economic conditions fluctuations in Egypt.
 COVID-19 pandemic.

14
2.2 PESTEL Analysis
PESTLE analysis sometimes referred to as PEST analysis, is a concept in
marketing principles. This concept is used as a tool by organizations to keep a
track of the external factors impacting the organization. PESTLE is a
mnemonic which in its expanded form denotes P for Political, E for Economic,
S for Social, T for Technological, L for Legal, and E for Environmental. On the
basis of the organization, it can be reduced to PEST or additional areas can be
added (such as Ethical).

PESTLE analysis forms a much more comprehensive version of the SWOT

analysis. This form of analysis is then compared with the company’s internal
strengths and weaknesses via a SWOT analysis. This aids in determining the
future scope of action and in developing measures for strategic management.

Each of the factors mentioned above, from Political, Economic, Social,

Technological, Legal to Environmental, have an impact on an organization. Yet
the significance of each of these factors may differ based on the different kinds
of industries.

A. Political Factors

Political factors include tax policy, environmental regulations, trade restrictions

and reform, tariffs, and also political stability. These factors determine the
15
extent

16
to which a government may influence an industry or a company. For example,
the government may bring new tax reforms that might change the whole
revenue- generating system of a company. Some tariff trade barriers that can
prove to be a hindrance in the way we run our business operations include
customs policy and export subsidies. Non-tariff trade barriers meanwhile
include determining minimum import prices as well as bans and restrictions on
exports. The political factors affecting our firms may be summarized in the
following points:

 Government housing projects and mega projects pushes the construction

industry to new limits.
 Government new projects goes directly to number of large firms only
which affect the small firms

B. Environmental Factors

These factors are mainly concerned with the effect of the surrounding
environment and the influence of ecological aspects. These include waste
disposal laws, environmental protection laws, and energy consumption
regulation. The environmental factors affecting our firms may be summarized
in the following points:

 Using good structural designs will save a lot of raw materials which
consequently save tonnage of Co2 emissions.
 Using recycled construction materials will be very sustainable.
 Introducing nice façade designs will provide very comfortable
environment for inhabitants.
 Applying smart architectural design and interior design will help people
living comfortable and healthy life.
 Using new sustainable construction materials will save the environment

C. Social Factors

Social factors include cultural norms and expectations, health consciousness,

population growth rates, age distribution, career attitudes, health, and safety.
These factors are helpful for our company to better plan our marketing analytics
and strategy. The social factors affecting our firms may be summarized in the
following points:

17
  Young couples tend to ask for the help of interior designers to establish
their new homes.
 Properties new owners is wishing to have very nice facades for their new
homes.
 Society untruly think that hiring interior designers is so expensive.
 Properties owners untruly think that hiring engineers to design and
implement their projects will cost them a lot of money.

D. Technological Factors

Technological factors mean the innovations and developments in technologies.

These factors impact an organization’s operations. Several new developments
like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, are being
made in the technology field and if a company fails to match up the trend it
may lose its position in the market .A few of the technological factors which
are included in the PESTLE analysis include the rate of technological change,
the evolution of infrastructure, and any government or institutional research.
The technological factors affecting our firms may be summarized in the
following points:

 Applying BIM technology facilitate coordination between all

engineering aspects like architectural, structural, MEP.
 New technology help customers to imagine their new homes before
implementation to save time and money and end up with satisfying
results.
 Using new software and hardware help engineers to compress the time
needed for designs and increase accuracy.
 New machinery in construction industry helps engineers to reach higher
results in less time.
 Using smart home technology provide customers with very pleasant
experience.

E. Economic Factors

Economic factors include economic growth/decline, interest, exchange,

inflation and wage rates, minimum wage, working hours, unemployment (local
and national), credit availability, and cost of living. These factors are
determinants to an economy’s performance that directly impacts a company
and also have resonating long term effects. The economic factors affecting our
18
firms may be summarized in the following points:

19
 Currency floating affected directly the construction and real estate
market. Price increase in construction materials decrease directly the
investment in that sector.

F. Legal Factor

Legal factors include changes to legislation impacting employment, access to

materials, quotas, resources, imports/exports, and taxation. These factors have
both external and internal sides. Certain laws have an impact on the business
environment in a country. The legal factors affecting our firms may be
summarized in the following points:

 Government new laws regarding building permits freezes the

construction market completely for more than one year.
 New high taxation rates on construction projects will freeze the market.

20
2.3 Internal Analysis

Resources
The organization uses resources to provide products or services to its customers. A
resource is any asset, process, skill or item of knowledge that is controlled by them,
including but not limited to.

Human Resources
All employees inside the organization with their soft and technical skills. As a company
in the construction sector, there are employees, casual and permanent all over the projects
and the head office premises, ranging from office boys to engineers, , accountants,
marketers, finance, HR, IT, etc...

Physical Resources
These are the tangible assets of the organization, and include property, plant and
equipment.

Technological Resources
These are information, tools or devices that the organization possesses.

Financial Resources
These are the financial assets, and the ability to acquire additional finance if this is
required.

Intellectual Capital
It includes the acquired knowledge and ‘know-how’ of the organization. The brand name
is well- known in the region as one of the leading designers in the construction sector.
Capabilities
These capabilities, the collective skills, abilities, and expertise of an organization are the
outcome of investments in staffing, training, compensation, communication, and other
human resources management areas. They represent the way that people and resources
are brought together to result in value. They’re responsible for the identity and
personality of the organization by defining what we are good at doing and, in the end,
what it is. They are stable over time and

21
 more difficult for competitors to copy than capital market access, product
strategy, or technology.

Competency
A broader definition of organizational competencies focuses on the first word that is
“organizational”. It is the organization as a whole that must perform and not just an
individual employee. Generally, but not always, the organization will have more than one
competency, but not many of them. Competency can be defined as the combination of
required skills, capabilities, necessary information, appropriate performance measures
and the right corporate culture that the company requires to achieve its mission.
Competencies are not just skills; however, they include the information, performance, and
culture. The cross functional integration and coordination of capabilities across the
division to achieve the goal. Our competencies include;
 Technical competencies – the people are demonstrating knowledge in
codes, regulations and standards, materials, design constraints and
analyzing risks.
 Team effectiveness – teams work respectfully and work to resolve
differences.
 Communication - orally, the team communicates in a simple and
concise manner, providing presentations to technical and non-technical
groups and expressing both technical and nontechnical issues to anyone,
presentations to the public. In writing, they tailor communications to the
intended audience, use drawings and sketches to clarify, demonstrate
using written reports, and take training in technical reports writings.
Moreover, they take reading and comprehension training to have the
ability to review technical documents and understand the implications
and summarize key points.
 Project and financial management – team is well aware of the project
management principles, increased level of responsibility, managing
expectations in light of the available resources and understanding the
financial aspects of work and always asking for and seeking feedback
from clients.
 Professional accountability and ethics – people work with integrity,
ethically and within professional standards, understand how their practice
conflict of interests affect, understand their own scope and limitations,
and are well aware of professional accountability.
 Social, Economic, Environmental and Sustainability

22
 Understanding the relationship between the engineering activities
and the public, demonstrate understanding of the safeguards required to
protect the public and the methods of mitigating adverse impacts.
 Professional continuity and development

People always demonstrate awareness that there are gaps in

knowledge and areas requiring further development, and thus develop a
professional development plan to address those gaps and maintain the
position in the field of practice as market leaders.

23
2.4 Application of Value Chain Analysis

Value chain analysis (VCA)

It is a process where a firm identifies its primary and support activities

that add value to its final product and then analyze these activities to
reduce costs or increase differentiation.

Value chain

Represents the internal activities a firm engages in when transforming

inputs into outputs.

Value chain analysis is a strategy procedure used to analyze internal firm

activities. Its goal is to recognize, which activities are the most valuable (which
what are the source of cost or differentiation advantage) to the firm and which
ones could be improved to provide competitive advantage. In other words, by
looking into internal activities, the analysis reveals where a firm’s competitive
advantages or disadvantages are. The firm that competes through differentiation
advantage will try to perform its activities better than competitors would do. If
it competes through cost advantage, it will try to perform internal activities at
lower costs than competitors would do. When a company is capable of
producing goods at lower costs than the market price or to provide superior
products, it earns profits.

M. Porter introduced the generic value chain model in 1985. Value chain
represents all the internal activities a firm engages in to produce goods and
services. VC is formed of primary activities that add value to the final product
directly and support activities that add value indirectly.

26
There are two different approaches on how to perform the analysis, which
depend on what type of competitive advantage a company wants to create (cost
or differentiation advantage). The table below lists all the steps needed to
achieve cost or differentiation advantage using VCA.

Competitive Advantage Types

Cost advantage Differentiation advantage

This approach is used when The firms that strive to create superior
organizations try to compete on products or services use differentiation
costs and want to understand the advantage approach. (good
sources of their cost advantage or examples: Apple, Google, Samsung
disadvantage and what factors drive Electronics, Starbucks)
those costs.(good
examples: Amazon.com, Wal-
Mart, McDonald's, Ford, Toyota)

Step 1. Identify the firm’s primary Step 1. Identify the customers’ value-
and support activities. creating activities.
Step 2. Establish the relative Step 2. Evaluate the differentiation
importance of each activity in the strategies for improving customer value.
total cost of the product. Step 3. Identify the best sustainable
Step 3. Identify cost drivers for each differentiation.
activity.
Step 4. Identify links between
activities.
Step 5. Identify opportunities for
reducing costs.

27
Corporate Objectives
The proposed strategic management model started with defining the mission
and vision, followed by our external analysis of the opportunities, threats and
analyzing the competitors and marketplace, then the internal analysis of the
organization to define the strengths and weaknesses and defining the resources,
capabilities, competencies, core competencies to develop the distinctive
competency has now reached establishing the long term objectives of the
organization and what benefits they will achieve from the objective. Once a
strategic analysis has been completed, the next step in the strategy process is to
establish strategic objectives. At this point, we decided why the company exists
and how it will try to fulfill its mission. Strategic analysis has provided
information about customer preferences, competitors, and the firm’s resources
and capabilities and now it is time to start planning for success. Strategic
objectives are the big-picture goals for the company: they are usually some sort
of performance goal such as to launch a new product, increase profitability, or
grow market share for the company’s product, expand, diversify, etc...
In that context, Peter Drucker suggested that corporate objectives should cover
eight key areas:
Eight Key Areas
Market standing Increase market share locally and
internationally, customer satisfaction,
product range
Innovation New products, better processes, using
technology, Improving Quality of
executing activities
Productivity Optimum use of resources, focus on core
activities
Physical & financial resources business locations, finance, supplies, cost
reduction
Profitability Level of profit, rates of return on investment
Management Management structure; promotion &
development
Employees Organizational structure, gain employees
satisfaction, and improve their skills
Public responsibility Compliance with laws; social and ethical
behavior

28
Furthermore, objectives have got to be S.M.A.R.T, SMART objectives are:

• Specific, targeting a specific area for improvement.

• Measurable, quantifiable, or suggesting an indicator for progress.
• Assignable, specifying who will do what.
• Realistic, stating what results can realistically be achieved, given
available resources.
• Time-bound, specifying when the results can be achieved.

Our main goal now is to assign a corporate objective for the organization and
specify what will be the benefits for the organization from that objective. After
specifying the vision & mission, specifying the threats and opportunities and
internal processes of the organization, we’d say that the long-term Objective of
the organization as the leader in its industry in the Middle East is to expand
globally into international markets and increase market share. Expansion into
foreign markets will really benefit our organization with various benefits
including but not limited to:

A. Revenue Growth

A core general goal during business expansion is to experience dramatic

revenue growth. According to a recent report, 45% of middle market companies
make more than half of their revenue overseas. Since business is doing well
domestically, they are already a step ahead to succeed globally. With a new
customer base, they can identify and create unique opportunities in local
markets for the business to fill in the gaps.

B. Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Thinking globally is becoming less of an option and more of a requirement

when it comes to outpacing the competition. In fact, taking the business
international presents growth opportunities by expanding options for talent,
customers, and creating cost-savings for imports and manufacturing.

C. New Customers
We have been in the local market for a while, it is tough to find new customers.
They are used to the products that they’re offering and the competitors, and
new sales can be a battle hard-fought. An international expansion opens new
29
doors

30
 and gives access to a whole new set of customers who have never seen their
product or service before.
D. Expansion & Diversify
Keeping business in the home market is limiting their potential for profit. One
of the downsides of operating only in one country is the exposure to market
changes. Taking business international gives the opportunity to diversify
markets, so revenue is more stable. If the domestic market is slowing down,
having the advantage of a global market will help cushion the company during
slower economic times.
E. Improve Company’s Image
One of the reasons why our objective is to expand globally is to be able to
provide a reliable service to the international clients. A good global reputation
will attract new customers. Expanding abroad allows to build name brand
recognition and establish credibility internationally.

Applying The Business Strategy

The office is operating in a broad market, and has huge overheads, is far
away from being a cost leadership in the construction industry. The
Organization strategy pursuing is differentiation and low cost, offering services
with a high- end quality, high customer service, and rapid product innovation,
advanced technological features.
Differentiation involves making products or services different from the other
competitors and more attractive. In the low-cost strategy, the office must have a
thorough understanding of costs and how to continually reduce them. Struct
must be willing to standardize its offerings in order to manage the costs.
To make a success of a Low-cost/Differentiation strategy, everyone needs to
stay agile with the new product development processes. In order to implement
this strategy, the following have to be developed:
• Good research, development and innovation.
• The ability to deliver high-quality designs or services with competitive prices.
• Effective marketing, so that the market understands the benefits offered by
the differentiated offerings and Low-cost/Differentiation offerings.
31
Corporate Strategy
It is a perfect time for the leadership to operationally define each critical area of
the plan to ensure agreement and commitment.
Key stakeholders should be included within the process. Soliciting their input is
typically a valuable aide in implementation. A powerful and effective corporate
strategy is going to be successful in accelerating the growth of Struct,
increasing profits, and achieving all the office objectives and goals.
The directional strategy dictates how the business will operate and coordinate
activities to achieve the organization goals and objectives. Struct will follow a
growth strategy to develop new services, and find new ways for income
sources.
Our strategy direction is growth through alternative ways like simply step-up
existing operations through increased efficiencies to make business expansion.
A. Vertical Growth Strategy
Vertical growth is a compelling strategy for organizations that have a strong
competitive position within a popular industry. They are able to improve their
competitive position by expanding along the value chain
 Final assembly
 Marketing for our designs.
 Technical support after completing designs.
 Strong Design capabilities.
 Updated technologies.
B. Horizontal Growth Strategy
Struct can grow horizontally through internal development or externally through
acquisitions or strategic alliances with other firms in the construction designs.
 Adding new locations - expansion into new regions, locations,
cities, or countries.
 Growth in employee headcount.
C. International Entry Strategy
Joint Venture - Forming a JV between a foreign corporation and a domestic
organization is the most popular strategy used to enter a new country.
32
Acquisitions - purchasing another office already operating within the same area.

33
D. Proposed Corporate Strategy
 Flatten Hierarchy with Open Communication Channels
Struct to adopt the flat organizational structure instead of the hierarchal
structure. With this type of structure in place, communication is clearer and less
susceptible to degradation, innovation can happen informally and more quickly,
employees often have more responsibility and are more involved in important
decisions.
Transparency is also a big advantage when using a flat organizational structure
thanks to the limited bureaucracy. Having fewer levels of management also
simplifies internal communication and enables fast decision-making, and
because the layers of middle management are removed, power and
responsibility are divided evenly throughout the organization.
 Global Strategy for Expansion
Struct planning to expand their presence in our core markets in Egypt and the
UAE through several avenues, namely strengthening activities in their key
engineers’ international trainings, searching for smart projects that make
revolutionary changes in architecture.
 Innovation and Technologies
Using autonomous construction vehicles, adopting green construction
techniques, using digital technologies to improve quality of designs, and using
advanced building materials such as fiber concrete, nanomaterial it will enables
our organization to have a competitive edge.

 Digital Engineering
Building Information Modelling (BIM), it involves binding truth potential of
the construction designs. This state-of-the-art digital technology enables us to
integrate data related to building’s design, construction and in-use functions
into the project plan to make sure that most efficient delivery methods are used.
BIM also allows us for an early-stage multi-disciplinary clash detection,
ensuring a seamless site execution and handover.

34
Implementation Phase

A. Top Management’s Strategy

The role of the top management here is very important to take strategic
decisions with support from other departments as shown below:
• Develop a new design department to compete or join foreign offices and offer
superior services to the clients.
• Looking for new strategies to ease the effect of the pandemic on the
headquarter employees and investing in safety equipment on sites to avoid
shutdown and all following specific processes that everyone has to stand by
with support from the HR department.
• Developing IT tools to flatten the organization to allow for a better chance to
form JV with foreign companies and learn more from them with support from
the IT department.
• Acquiring a strong workforce through experienced human resources staff with
support from the HR department.
• Utilizing equipment and using experience in the local market and being a
process organized organization to acquire foreign investments with support
from sales and finance.
• Forming Joint Ventures with foreign companies, using experience in the local
market and reputation as a process-driven organization.
B. Marketing Department’s Strategy
Marketing management plays a vital role in the success of a business and
directly influences profitability and customer satisfaction. Similarly, Struct can
achieve several benefits from effective marketing, including an increase in
profits, sales, and client satisfaction, developing a brand identity, creating,
improving customer loyalty, status, and overall quality. Developing a strong
comprehensive marketing plan for our business is probably the right place to
start.
We will begin with conducting a marketing research in order to understand
more the target segment and their demands, study the latest best practices and
study competitors to know how their services differ from Struct. The main
35
messages behind the campaigns will focus on highlighting the unique selling
points and communicating them across different channels. The entire marketing
team will work together to excel the below tactics:

• Develop a traditional and digital marketing campaign that highlights the

unique selling points, the strong status and history of Struct in shining
complicated projects over the years.
• Partner with the sales team by setting complementary goals to achieve and set
realistic lead generation strategies along with customer relationship
management ones.
C. Finance Department’s Strategy
Construction firms should standard their performance against industry
standards to ensure that job costs are aligned with the competition. Finance
department should study regional and national data, as well as indices compiled
by credible sources on performance by craft, project size, type, location and
other major project influences to achieve the below tactics:
• Lower overheads costs to compete with other offices.
• Using the strong financial position to win offers by the Army, since no one
can stand their payment terms.
• Utilizing equipment and using experience in the local market and being a
process organized organization to acquire foreign investments
• Reduce operation cost operating costs by 15% over the next two years
through improvement in the efficiency of the operational process.
D. R&D Department’s Strategy
R&D will help to both deliver and shape the corporate’s strategy, so that it
develops distinguished donations for the organization priority markets and
exposes strategic options, highlighting promising ways to relocate the business
through new stages and unsettling revolutions.

Artificial intelligence can be used at the discovery phase to identify emerging

market needs or new uses of existing technology and we can use university
researches or private sector researches to achieve the below tactics:
• Reduce costs to compete efficiently with other local companies and avoid
36
working only with the Army.

37
 • Strengthening the research and development department to always seek new
methods and technologies, human resources to hire experienced designers to
capitalize on the increased revenue and take projects as EPC.
• Direct the sales team to always look for new projects, to support the financial
position even more to resist the economic fluctuations in Egypt.
E. HR Department’s Strategy
In the construction designs, people are the most expensive. The roles and
responsibilities of HR within the best international architecture offices focus on
the happiness of its people. HR helps each worker to realize their potential
while conducive to the company’s success. Following best practices to attract,
develop, reward, and retain skilled workers is the surest way the HR team can
help the organization to become known as a place where the best workers
prefer to work. Also, accenting on the importance of healthcare, HR
departments should ensure employees understand their health benefits and
encourage workers to never ignore signs of injury or illness especially in
Covid-19 pandemic.

F. MIS Department’s Strategy

A management information system (MIS) supports management by assembling
information from various sources, collecting, operating, and presenting it
legibly. It can give managers necessary information to assist them in making
informed decisions. The ultimate aim of a MIS is to extend a business’s
efficiency, productivity, profitability then value. Information collected by an
MIS can cover technology, people, relationships, processes, purchases, sales
and so on and can be used to monitor the performance of a company, project or
program

38
Evaluation Phase
A. Evaluation and control information
Monitor performance day by day in order to correct any employee activity if
needed. Evaluation & control consists of performance data and reports. If
undesired performance results were observed because the strategic management
processes were inappropriately used, operational managers must be informed so
they can correct the employee's activities.
Each department should prepare their own evaluation of how they think their
area performed against the strategy. There are variety of advantages of doing
so:
• You will have the chance to assess your team's understanding of the strategy.
Does it match your own?
• Your team will realize how serious you are in taking the procedures of the
strategy and that you value it more as a part of their day-to-day roles.
• You will gain additional insights that you simply wouldn't have thought of
yourself.
In order to evaluate our strategy, we have answered the following questions
first:
• How have competitors responded to our strategies?
• How have competitors’ strategies changed?
• Have major competitors’ strengths and weaknesses changed?
• Why are competitors making certain strategic changes?
• Are our internal strengths still strengths?
• Have we added other internal strengths?
• Are our internal weaknesses still weaknesses?
• Are our external opportunities still opportunities?
B. Measurement of performance
The standard performance may be a benchmark with which the real performance
is to be compared. The reporting and communication tools & applications help

39
 in measuring the performance. If appropriate means are available for measuring
the performance and if the standards are set within the correct way, strategy
evaluation becomes easier.
But various factors like a manager's influence are difficult to live with.
Similarly, divisional performance is usually difficult to live as compared to
individual performance. Thus, variable objectives must be created against
which measurement of performance will be done.
The measurement must be done at the right time; else evaluation won't meet its
purpose. For measuring the performance, financial statements like the balance
sheet, profit and loss account must be prepared on an annual foundation.
• Use an assessment system in order to sense the employees grading level in
addition to using the Job Evocative Index to measure job satisfaction level to
monitor the progress in the employee holding issues.
• The state of the working capital & current ratio may be normal when
compared with industry standards, since a large portion of the balance sheet
assets is concentrated in fixed assets, ROI, EPS, and ROE.
• The organization information systems are sufficient to evaluate the
performance of the recommended strategy and to separate costs related with the
acquisitions.
• Benchmark a fast-growing market competitor in order to know how much the
company may stay in case of a pause in a safe area.
• Comparing the firm’s performance every quarter or monthly. comparing the
firm’s performance to competitors, comparing the firm’s performance to
industry averages.
C. Criteria for Evaluation
 Return on investment.
 Profit margin.
 Return on equity.
 Market share.

40
 CHAPTER – III
CONCLUSION & FINDINGS

41
Findings
"STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION"
The traditional philosophy of management in construction, both in academia
and in industry, places great emphasis on the ability to plan and execute
projects. In contrast, a similar emphasis on strategic management has received
less attention in the construction industry. Although the pressures of project
performance can often obscure the broader social, economic, and professional
context in which strategic management is undertaken, it is these broad
contextual areas that make strategic management an essential issue for
construction organizations. Rapidly changing social and technological issues
are creating a professional environment that will look very different in the
coming decades than that experienced in today’s organizations. This paper
introduces a study of the current strategic management practices of construction
organizations. The paper introduces the concept of strategic management and
the areas that organizations must address to compete in the global marketplace.
A summary of an industry survey is documented together with the background
research that prompted the investigation of these topics.

A. The Current Study

The development of a survey to obtain data from construction organizations on
strategic management processes is an extension of a larger study overseen by
the author. In the larger effort, an attempt is being made to identify the areas of
strategic concern for civil engineering organizations and to develop
an appropriate strategic management process for these organizations to
implement and measure. In response to the first component, a three-year study
was conducted to determine what topics were identified by researchers and
executives as the key strategic elements for the civil engineering industry. In
this process, a content analysis methodology was employed on 574 papers from
management and civil engineering journals to initially identify topics of
common concern. Concurrently, over 50 personal interviews were conducted
with civil engineering executives (vice-president level and above) to correlate
the research data with actual experiences. Combining the input from these
studies provided the basis for the seven strategic management areas identified
in the previous section.
The identification of the strategic management concerns provided a basis on
42
which to formally survey a segment of the industry. The segment selected for
the initial survey effort was the 1998 ENR Top 400 Contractors. This
population was selected for two reasons; 1) it is an accepted measurement and
list within the construction industry, and 2) the organizations within the list
span a significant revenue span which, it was hypothesized, should be reflected
in varied management practices. The specific individuals within the
organizations that were identified for the survey were executive-level
individuals who were responsible for organization-level concerns.
Once the topics and organizations were identified, the survey illustrated in
Appendix Awes mailed to the 400 organizations. It should be noted at this point
that the intent of this survey is not to characterize the strategic management
practices in the construction industry as a whole. A second survey effort
addressing management practices of smaller organizations will follow shortly
to obtain a broader industry perspective. However, the current study provides a
perspective on the strategic management practices in the top organizations as
ranked by revenue.

B. Response Rate
The response rate for the first 400 questionnaires was 26.5% (106 responses). A
second group of questionnaires was faxed to the organizations that did not
respond to the initial survey. From this second group, an additional 27
responses were received (9%). Together, the first and second group totaled 133
responses, or 33% of the ENR Top 400. A summary of the responses and
percentages is provided in Appendix A.
The respondents had an average length of tenure with their current
organizations of 21.3 years and an average length of time as an executive of
17.1 years.
To facilitate the analysis of the survey data, the 400 organizations were divided
into five quintiles of 80 organizations each. This division provided the
opportunity to group organizations with similar revenue streams into a single
category. Once these groupings were created, the five groups could be analyzed
to determine if the size of the organization has statistical significance in terms
of differences in survey response. Table 1 illustrates the survey groups
established for this study and the corresponding response rates obtained in each
category.

43
C.Analysis
The results of the strategic management survey provide a basis for analysis in
the following areas; 1) strategic areas that the industry is addressing in a
positive manner, 2) strategic areas that the industry needs to address with
greater emphasis, and 3) the impact of size on strategic management practices.
D.Positive Strategic Management Areas
The strategic management survey provides positive indications in two areas,
technology and market awareness. In technology, construction organizations in
each of the quintiles indicates that the integration of technology to support
knowledge transfer between members is an area that is receiving significant
attention. With 57% of the respondents indicating that technology integration is
either in the full implementation or measurement stage, technology integration
moves to the forefront of strategic issue awareness. This action-oriented

approach to technology integration is imperative when the impact of the latest

information technology revolution is considered. As discussed at the beginning
of this paper, the new wave of information technology capabilities is
transforming the manner in which construction organizations will conduct
business in the 21st Century. The Internet and virtual office environments will
become an accepted fact for future project environments
E. Areas for Greater Emphasis
In contrast to the positive results obtained in the strategic management survey
for the technology and market areas, the responses in two areas,
education and competitive positioning, indicate a need for greater strategic
emphasis. The first of these areas, education, demonstrates the broadest need
for greater strategic emphasis. Although it was unanimous among all
respondents that some type of education was taking place in the organization,
the majority of organizations do not incorporate the concept of lifelong
learning. With 36% of the respondents indicating that the concept is unfamiliar
44
or no plan of action is in development, lifelong learning received the lowest
focus of the strategic management issues. In contrast to the authors’
assumptions prior to the study, the size of the organization does not factor into
this response. Although organizations in the Group 1 category indicate a greater
institutional focus on craft and entry- level training.

45
 Conclusions
There were several findings that have been found in this study:
 The process of moving to a strategic management perspective is to determine
where current strengths exist, where gaps exist, and where the priorities will be
set to build upon these answers.
 An organization should not be discouraged if it finds one or more areas have
significant gaps at the present time and Every organization has room to
improve.
 The difference between the organization that is destined to succeed and the one
that is destined to ride the waves of the marketplace is the desire to fill these gaps.
At the same time, the organization needs to be realistic about its efforts to fill these gaps.
 In some instances, significant investment is required to move forward
toward strategic objectives also in these instances, the organization must set
priorities and balance available resources.
 The balancing of resources on a project, the balancing of resources at in
organization level is required to keep an organization on a continued path of
advancement. Rather than advancing an individual area, leaders must retain an
overall perspective
 Admitting that each of the seven strategic management areas are equally
important to achieving a long-term vision.
 Implementation cannot be undertaken without a focus on where the actions are
ultimately intended to lead. Similarly, strategic goals must be evaluated on a
regular basis and with the same rigor as applied to project objectives.
 Overlooked by organizations except in the context of market share or
revenue projections, strategic evaluation emphasizes the need to evaluate the
progress of each strategic management component on a regular basis
 The current emphasis on business development evaluation, strategic
management evaluation is required to determine progress toward achieving
strategic objectives. However, in contrast to the business development
evaluation, strategic management evaluation may not be quite so clear and
well defined.

46
References

1. Jörgensen, Jan J. "Michael Porter’s contribution to strategic management." BASE-Revista de

Administração e Contabilidade da Unisinos (ISSN: 1984-8196) 5.3 (2008): 236-238.
2. Pickton, David W., and Sheila Wright. "What's swot in strategic analysis?." Strategic change 7.2 (1998):
101-109.
3. Houben, Ghislain, Kwan Lenie, and Koen Vanhoof. "A knowledge-based SWOT-analysis system as an
instrument for strategic planning in small and medium sized enterprises." Decision support systems 26.2
(1999): 125-135.
4. Cooper, Arnold C. "Strategic management: New ventures and small business." Long range planning 14.5
(1981): 39-45.
5. Weihrich, Heinz. "The TOWS matrix—A tool for situational analysis." Long range planning 15.2
(1982): 54-66.
6. Ravanavar, Gomatesh M., And Poornima M. Charantimath. "Strategic formulation using tows
matrix– A Case Study." International Journal of Research and Development 1.1 (2012): 87-90.
7. Blahová, Michaela, and Adriana Knápková. "Effective strategic action: from formulation to
implementation." Economics, Business and Management 2 (2011): 61-65.
8. Dayan, Rony, Peter Heisig, and Florinda Matos. "Knowledge management as a factor for the
formulation and implementation of organization strategy." Journal of Knowledge Management (2017).
9. Oghojafor, Ben E. Akpoyomare, et al. "Enhancing Organization's Performance through Effective Vision
and Mission." Chinese Business Review 10.11 (2011).
10. Verma, Harsh V. "MISSION STATEMENTS-A STUDY OF INTENT AND INFLUENCE." Journal of
Services Research 9.2 (2009).
11. PORTER’S, VALUE CHAIN MODEL. "WHAT IS VALUE CHAIN?" (1985).
12. Anderson, Shannon W. "Managing costs and cost structure throughout the value chain: research on
strategic cost management." Handbooks of Management Accounting Research 2 (2006): 481-506.
13. Chinowsky, Paul S., and James E. Meredith. "Strategic management in construction." Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management 126.1 (2000): 2

47