1.

INRODUCTION

This report will focus on the management practice pertaining to planning at Sarooj
Construction Company (SCC).

The first section of the report will focus on the introduction to the report. The second section
will focus on giving a background of the company while discussing how the company uses
one of the key functions of Management in related with planning. The vision, mission,
values & ethics and execution challenges of the organization will be provided in third
section. The fourth section will identify key strengths and shortcomings with respect to
each of the above areas in Managing in this organization, linking to internal and external
factors affecting its business. For this purpose SWOT analysis would be used.

The focus on the fifth and final section will be on each of the issues identified in the
management practices of SCC and provided with some recommendation to enhance the
shortages. Key improvements to the organization with specific outputs and outcomes will
be recommended in last section. For this purpose IRTOO analysis would be used.

2. OVERVIEW OF SAROOJ CONSTRUCTION COMPANY (SCC)

The founding members of Sarooj Construction Company (SCC) merged extensive years of
construction experience with the skills of younger highly educated engineers who have
modern outlooks on construction management techniques and tools.

Building on the experience and strength of its sister companies in ‘Al Taher’ Group, on the
intimate knowledge of the local environment and its sensitivities and needs, SCC was
formed in March 2006, in the Sultanate of Oman.

Led by a common passion to engineer, a commitment to give back to communities in the

Arab World and Oman in particular, solid financial backing, and a prevailing vision to
become the prime construction company, SCC rapidly earned a place among the top
construction companies.

Today, SCC’s diverse portfolio encompasses marine, transportation, oil & gas, general
civil, earthworks, dams, and infrastructure services.

3. PLANNING

Planning is the first out of the four functions of management and it is a way of looking
toward the future and deciding what the organization will do in the future. Planning requires

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the organization to examine what it is and the environment in which it is working. Planning
helps the organization to focus its attention on the crucial issues and challenges. It also
helps the organization's leaders decide what to do about those issues and challenges.

According to Daft (2015, p.187), the planning process begins when managers develop the
overall plan for the organization by clearly defining mission and strategic goals.

Planning is a process of defining the values, purpose, vision, mission, goals and objectives
of an organization.

3.1 Vision, Mission and Values

Vision, mission and values are key elements of an organization’s strategic

planning. Without developing a mission, vision, and values to assist in developing a
strategy, an organization cannot identify, distinguish or explain itself to its employees and
customers alike.

3.1.1 Vision

A vision is a mental picture of the result you want to achieve-a picture so clear and strong
it will help make that result real. A vision is not a vague wish or dream or hope. It’s a
picture of the real results of real efforts. It comes from the future and informs and energizes
the present. Visioning is the most powerful tool I’ve witnessed in over twenty years of
helping organizations and individuals get the results they want (Graham, 2015).

The Vision of SCC: “To become the prime construction company in the GCC”

The vision of SCC clearly focused on being the market leader as there many competitors
in GCC construction industry. This vision clearly provides a picture of what SCC intends
ultimately to become regardless to time bound.

3.1.2 Mission

A mission statement can be a forceful way to motivate a person and a team toward a
common goal. But unfortunately SCC doesn’t create any mission statement though it has
excellent construction experience with the skills of younger and highly educated engineers
who have modern outlooks on construction management techniques and tools.

One researcher found that 59 percent of the Chief Executive Officers of Business Weeks
top 1,000 firms run companies that do not have mission statements (David, 1989).

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However, Mission statements can be helpful to focus the organization on what really
matters to itself as well as to its stakeholders. Therefore SCC should develop an effective
mission statements which can contribute to increases its overall performance.

3.1.3 Values

Values and ethics are important in the workplace to help keep order, ensuring that a
company runs smoothly and remains profitable.

Across Oman and eastern UAE, on and off the oilfields, onshore and offshore, SCC
continues to deliver its projects safely, on time, and as per the contracts’ specifications.
SCC continues to differentiate itself by perpetually instigating a culture based on its four
core values:

 Integrity
 Quality
 Health, Safety & Environment (HSE)
 Human Development

SCC makes its values and ethics known almost immediately after hiring an employee, or
many times, during the interview process. In many cases, no matter how well an employee
performs, if he doesn’t follow workplace values, it can result in termination.

4. PLANNING AT SAROOJ CONSTRUCTION COMPANY (SCC)

Planning in an organization is performed in three levels: corporate level, business level and
functional level. Goal Setting at SCC in the three levels of planning are shown in Table 4.1.

4.1 Goal Setting

Table 4.1: Goal Setting at SCC

Corporate level Plan Business level Plan Functional level Plan

 To invest on  Enhance the  Human Development:
environmentally productivities & deliver Identify and nurture the
friendly solutions to the project on time talents of the human
contribute to a greener  Ensure the quality of resources
and sustainable future work & quality of life

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  To become a well of employees and their  Quality: Maintain
recommended & well being Quality levels and
reputed construction  Continuously strive to customer satisfaction
company in the GCC minimize the impact on  Monitor: Conduct
 To get good profit by the environment on the internal audits to be
utilize the resources and projects monitored the work
monitor the quality of quality in align with
deliveries company policy
 Finance: To set annual
budgets, implement
cost cutting initiatives
and identify

Source: Author

4.2 Strategy Formulation

Second level of planning is Strategy Formulation which includes analyzing and evaluating
the current situation of the organization and developing strategies. In order to determine
the direction of the organization it is necessary to have a better understanding of its current
position and the possible ways through which it can achieve its goals.

There are several methodologies that are used by organizations to analyze its current
situation, one of a most aware methodology is SWOT Analysis. It is shown in below table
to give a better understanding about SCC.

Table 4.2: SWOT Analysis of SCC

Strengths Weaknesses
 High focus on safety & quality  Lack of clearly define processes and
 Excellent construction experience with procedures for construction and its
the skills of younger and highly management
educated engineers  Contradictory personalities of directors
 Good structured national network  Disorganized nature of the company
facilitates the boom of construction  Shortage of managerial level staffs
industry  Unattractive remuneration packages,
bonuses & increments

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  Sufficient availability of raw material  Most of the projects are located in desert
and natural resources in the country is areas and people do not prefer to work
supportive for the industry  Training itself has become a challenge
 Well reputation from the previous  Huge amount of money need to be
experiences invested in this industry
 Strong financial position

Opportunities Threads
 Opportunity to diversify the business  Competitions in the industry
 Oil & Gas project experience will offer  Infrastructure safety is a challenging
opportunities to develop skills and task
capacity in GCC markets  Inefficient accessibility in planning and
 Involved in many government oriented concerning the infrastructure and signs
long term projects  Natural abnormal casualties such as
 Remote areas in the country are easily sandstorm and floods are uncertain
accessible and plenty of land is available  Current economic situation may have an
in the country adverse impact on construction industry

Source: Author

Objectives: All Objectives should be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic

and Time bound

Figure 4.1: The Strategic Planning Hierarchy

Source: Levels of Strategy

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4.3 Strategy Implementation

The third level of planning is Strategy implementation which includes the translation of the
chosen strategy into action with the purpose of achieving the goals and objectives of the
company. It involves the design and management of systems to achieve the best out of the
available resources by allocating them effectively and to make sure the formulated strategy
is properly implemented.

SCC has come up with organization structures, to facilitate the implementation of the above
strategies. It is shown in Annexure-1 & Annexure-2 to give a better understanding about
SCC.

5. ISSUES IDENTIFICATION & RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Corporate level

Since the vision of SCC has been clearly defined the mission becomes a major shortage in
the organization. Therefore, SCC should create an effective mission statement which would
lead the employees towards the ideal vision.

A systematic approach to build organizational values enables an organization to develop

an effective and strong work culture to bind the behavior of people. Therefore, SCC should
conduct & promote their values among all the employees to be well versed with
organization’s values & ethics.

5.2 Business level

SCC should focus on improving their internal departments specially HR, procurement,
planning and construction department as there are shortage of employees in these
departments. It causes many drawbacks such as delay in recruiting new employees, delay
in delivering the materials, delay in executing/ finishing the projects. The issues from each
factors are clearly defined below.

HR: The recruitment process is lengthy which results in delay in recruitment. This can be
overcome by meeting with HR on a bi-weekly basis and also require HR department to
forward weekly updates to User Department by mail. This will enable to identify the
progress and if required to tackle any bottle-necks.

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Procurement: Currently the procurement function is not fully automated. As a result there
are delays in completion of contracts which has given bad opinion to the clients. When
urgent items get delayed it is required to place urgent orders which will cost very much
more. By implementing an automated procurement system all required items can be
procured on a timely manner. The system will also have historical data which will be a
guidance when placing future orders.

Planning & Monitoring: At SCC there is a planning department which follows up and
provides progress reports only on the Key Customer Contracts. There are other contracts
which are not properly monitored. Due to the lack of planning engineers, multiple projects
are being handled by one engineer. This has resulted in the site engineers not having a
proper direction on the work required to be carried out.

5.3 Functional level

As a construction firm SCC should execute its tasks in terms of target and timeline. When
there is any deviation the reasons should be analyzed, if required the target needs to be
changed if it is not realistic. SCC is operating in an industry with high profit margin if the
resources labor, material and equipment are efficiently and effectively utilized then there
is no reason why the organization will not be profitable. This can be also shared with the
employees by way of bonuses and increment to motivate the labors. If the company
continue to prosper it will enable to the latest technology machineries to be obtained which
will indirectly enable the company to be the market leader. This will directly influence to
be the first choice to large value contract with government & multinational organizations.

Transport: The Transport Section is not properly managed. There are staff and material
which are unable to be moved to the site due to delay in transportation. This directly has an
impact on the productivity. This problem can be partially resolved if Car Pooling be
introduced. When contracts are at its peak; short term vehicle rentals instead of long term
leases should be planned in advance.

Human Factors: Most of the sites are away from the city. Therefore these site staff are
stuck in the sites which are in the dessert. The leave for office staff and site staff is the
same. All staff are entitled for one month leave per annum. To motivate and considering
human factors the site staff should be entitled for longer leave per annum as well as to split
the leave at least twice a year. An alternate solution will be to source for staff closer to the

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place of the site. Since these are remote areas without any entertainment there is not many
people in the vicinity.

The recommendations for the issues that were identified at each of the levels throughout
this report are mentioned in Table 6.1.

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Table 6.1 Issues and recommendations for key issues at SCC

# Issue Recommendation Timeline Output Outcome

1 No mission Create a mission which should clarify Short Term Mission statement will help Stay motivated and
statement the purpose and primary, measurable measure whether the strategic have higher levels of
objectives of the organization plan aligns with the overall goals productivity
of the organization

2 Vision, Mission & Display vision and mission, Intermediate Staff members will have a clear More focus on the
Values are not communicate vision and mission Term understanding on the direction of corporate goal &
communicated to through team building activities the company clear direction
the lower levels of
the company
3 Objectives are not Set specific, measurable, achievable, Intermediate Staff members will know what is Objectives will be
SMART realistic and time bound objectives Term expected of them and when they met at each level
need to complete it without ambiguity

4 Resource allocation Breakdown the main objective in to Intermediate Staff members will be clear on Effective utilization
and task allocation medium and short term tasks and Term their responsibilities and what is of resources
is weak clearly communicate each person’s expected of them
responsibility

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# Issue Recommendation Timeline Output Outcome
5 Managerial focus Training of managers to create Intermediate Managers will be focus on Client satisfaction
on profits rather awareness on quality and its strategic Term quality on the construction and repeat orders
than quality important deliveries
6 Unattractive salary Based on the performance the salary Short Term Staffs will be motivated and low Availability of
schemes / bonus can be revised and a bonus system can labor turnover experienced staff &
schemes to the be implemented to the staffs high productivity
staffs
7 Delay in material Implementation of reorder levels, Intermediate Project will not be getting Efficient & effective
deliveries economy order quantity (EOQ), lead Term delayed due to the procurement use of resources,
times in to the procurement process issue client satisfaction
8 Less concern for Be more people oriented and motivate Intermediate Increase productivity and less Motivated staff which
employees through trainings and team building Term absenteeism results in higher
workshops profit
9 Centralized Decentralized control to enable local Intermediate Faster decision making Efficient decision
management managers more authority on their area Term making & innovation
control of concern ideas
10 Transport Section is Car pooling and short term rental of Short term Availability of material & Increase productivity
not properly vehicles during peak contract period workers on time at site & efficient use of
managed resources

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6. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, there are various planning concepts highlighted here about SCC to ensure
which management aspects are strengths and which are weaknesses. This helps to identify
the problems and take the correct strategic decisions. This will ensure SCC to grow to
greater heights.

If SCC implement a strategic approach to planning then,

a. Project management team will deliver the projects on time, on budget and up to the
quality standards expected on regular basis.
b. Marketing management will ensure to stay in touch with the evolving needs of the
clients.
c. Financial management will ensure the company has a secure financial base to grow.
d. The overall management will understand what the company is trying to achieve, how
effectively it is being realized and the gaps and take the necessary corrective action.

7. REFERENCES

Daft, R. L. (2015). Understanding Management. Canada: Nelson Education, Ltd.

David, F. R. (1989). How Companies Define Their Mission,. Long Range Planning, 90-
97.

Graham, J. (2015). Life on the Edge . Retrieved from johngraham:

http://www.johngraham.org/coach/5-the-importance-of-vision

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