Congratulations to Atkins India, who have retained the Sponsors Award after a very close battle with KBR.
The Finalists are also now decided.
The top six from the last round remain there to be the Finalists of MERIT 2018 but the order changed. KBR's 'Highwaymen' remain at the top, with 'Not That Team' with no sponsor rising two places to second place. Atkins Chin's 'Atkins Amigos' and Atkins India's 'Regime' both drop one place to third and fouth respectively, while Jacob's 'CH2M is now Jacobs' rise one to fifth place and Atkin India's 'INSIGNIA' slip one to sixth.
With teams from India, Hong Kong, Qatar and Dubai we have for the first time in MERIT's history no UK based teams.
Lord Mair, President of the ICE and Alan Crane Past President of CIOB will attend the final to present certificates to the finalists, the Silver Salver and the cash prize.
The record shows that, more often than not, the team in first place at this stage fails to become champion, although in the last two years the leading team did go onto win. We have also experienced the winner coming through from sixth place.
Remarkably only 232 points separate the top place from the sixth place. It has never been this close. 232 points can disappear in one round and there are eight rounds in the Final. The Final is more competitive with teams competing against each other as well as the simulation, this generates more turbulence in the rankings.
Given the points score of the finalists and another eight rounds of an even more competitive competition under severe time pressure any team can win. There will be tension, there will be excitement in the battle to come. We look forward to a Final filled with high motivation from all six finalists.
Many teams put in fine performances and we trust all the teams who didn't make the final enjoyed the MERIT 2018 competition and the training experience in company, business and financial management, together with the experience of the need for team work and leadership to deliver disciplined decision making. MERIT has a record of raising aspirations and influencing future training and development as individuals think about what role in the industry they aspire too. The advice in taking part was to think like a director, act like a director. If you liked the role then set out to train to be a director. The industry needs leaders.