Time for inspirational decisions

The top five remain in the top five but Mott MacDonald's 'Strike while the iron is Mott' jump over Atkins India's 'Singularity' to claim top spot. 'Singularity' take second place. Mott Mac have been MERIT Champions twice before and seem to be making a push to add to that. Atkins India are highly motivated looking for their first Championship having been in the final several times.

Atkins Asia Pacific's 'Amazing', Atkins India's 'Ubiquitous' and Interserve's 'Beagle 2' all retain positions 3,4 and 5. As I type this I just remembered that Beagle 2 was the Mars probe that crash landed, hopefully history won't repeat itself!

The newcomer to the top six is Hyder Consulting's 'Alpha Engineers' rising four places from tenth. From memory Hyder haven't been in recent finals so a new face might be appearing. Atkins India's 'Endeavour' have dropped out of the top six into 8th place. They join a very competitive group just outside the top six lead by Arup's 'Arupians take NYC' with teams from AECOM, Mott Mac, Cavendish Nuclear, EM Highways, Aurecon and CB &I all well within striking distance in the next two rounds. We do expect some movement. There always is.

Further down a big mover that caught the eye was Fluor's 'Fantastic Fluor' who moved up 21 places.

In the Sponsor Award league table the top three are now Atkins India, Atkins Asia Pacific and AECOM with Mott MacDonald now fourth followed by Arup, EM Highway Services, Aurecon, Interserve, Jacobs, Donaldson Associates, Fluor, Atkins UK and Bechtel. The Sponsors Award league table tends to be more stable as it is aggregating the performance of several teams.

One thing to keep an eye on is the market conditions. If the spend on marketing in the right sectors isn't adequate it will result in fewer jobs to bid for. If the market is tightening this could be significant. This is just one factor all the others need controlling as well head office staffing, estimating effort, bids, project manager selection, project staffing, company capital, borrowings, investments, dividends, retained profits. They all matter, no one said a director's job was easy. Enjoy the challenge.

Two rounds to go at this stage some successful decisions get described as heroic and inspirational other less successful ones as simply foolhardy. Good luck.

Preliminary results, subject to change.