A team from Mott Macdonald's Sheffield office romped away with the trophy for the Merit management game in Loughborough last month, despite this being the most international finals ever: for the first time in the competition's 25 year history, a majority of the six finalists were from overseas.

 

merit2015 champions

ICE's senior vice president Sir John Armitt and Chartered Institute of Building past president Alan Crane presenting the ICE silver salver and a CIOB cheque to the winners of the Silver Jubilee Merit competition, a team from Mott Macdonald's Sheffield office. From left:  Alan Crane, Faustas Buskevicius,  Declan Corrigan, Will Jebb,  Klev Reodique, Matthew Catton, Sandeep Patel and Sir John Armitt.

Final-day drama was reserved for the battle for second place, with the 'Amazing' team from Atkins Asia Pacific in Hong Kong rising from fourth in the very last session to pip another Atkins team , from Bengaluru in southern India, and an Arup Americas team. The other finalists were from Atkins' office in Gurgaon near New Delhi, and from Interserve in Birmingham.

'Strike while the iron is Mott' (following a long tradition of bad puns in team names) took a strong lead into the finals, and never looked like being caught. The winners put their success down to experience (five of the six in the team had competed in a previous final), meticulous planning and quick decision making.

Participation is recognised by ICE as continuing professional development, and as ICE's vice president for membership (and Loughborough graduate) Adrian Coy told participants at the dinner on the penultimate day of the finals, the 25 years of Merit have produced 25,000 participants and some 40,000 CPD days.

Senior vice president Sir John Armitt presented the ICE silver salver to the winning team, together with a cheque from the Chartered Institute of Building. A further cheque from the Construction Industry Training Board went to the runners up, and Atkins won this year's sponsor's award.

'Self-belief is very important in business' said Armitt after presenting the prizes. 'I am getting to the end of my career, you are at the start. You'll always remember this event. I'm sure it will help you. Now you can go back to your businesses, fired up and full of self-belief!

 

amazingThe 'Amazing' team from Atkins Asia Pacific which came from fourth to second in the final round to take the runners-up prize. From left: Mandy Chea, Philippa Halton, James Wong, Robert Huang, Olivia Li and Daniel Wu.
 
Arupians take NYCDimitrius Narchos from New York (left) and Marianna Minitti from Sao Paolo (right) from Arup Americas' team, with four others competing remotely from New York (on screen, centre).

 

successThe first of the MERIT 2015 prizes, the winner of the Sponsors Award, has been decided.
Congratulations to Atkins Asia Pacific.
With a great final effort from all their teams, they surged into first place in this last round overtaking Atkins India. The Sponsors Award will be presented at the Final Dinner, and this is the first time the award has gone to Hong Kong.

The six finalists have also been decided and the top six teams held on.
Mott MacDonald's 'Strike while the iron is Mott' remain in first place and even stretch their lead over second place. Mott Mac has won two MERIT Championships and three Sponsors Awards and will arrive in the final with confidence. The Mott Mac team is based in Sheffield.
Atkins Asia Pacific's 'Amazing' moved up from third place to second. Atkins Asia Pacific has been in finals in recent years but have yet to win a Championship. Last year MTR were the first from Hong Kong to produce a MERIT Champion. Atkins Asia Pacific are keen to keep the Championship in Hong Kong and winning their first Sponsor Award will fill them with great confidence.
Atkins India's 'Singularity' from Bengaluru are now in third but only 91 points behind 'Amazing' with their colleagues 'Ubiquitous' from Gurgaon in fourth a further 60 points back. Atkins India has also been in recent finals and like their colleagues from Asia Pacific have yet to win a Championship. Atkins won a Championship in 2007 , the winner was a UK team from Wessex.
New to the finals and seeking their first Championship is Interserve with their team 'Beagle 2' from Birmingham in fifth place. The last construction company to win MERIT was Costain in 2011. Interserve could well be the next.
The final finalist is Arup's 'Arupians take NYC'. Arup are the most successful MERIT sponsor with three Championships and three Sponsors Awards. So 'Arupians take NYC' have a proud record to defend. 'Arupians take NYC' are based in Arup's New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Brazil offices.

With two teams from India, two teams from the UK, one team from Hong Kong and one team from the USA this is the most international MERIT Final ever.

There is a spread of some 20% between first and sixth with eight rounds in the final in a more competitive environment with decisions taken under the pressure of time constraints every team in the final can win. Over the years we've experienced the winner starting the final in sixth place and the team in first place at this stage frequently is not being there at the end. All we can promise is the final will be competitive with the high motivation of all six finalists.

AECOM, EMHighway Services, AURECON and Hyder narrowly missed the top six we hope they are not too disappointed having put in a fine performance We trust all the other teams who didn't make the final enjoyed the MERIT 2015 competition and the training experience in company, business and financial management. The jockeying for position went on till the end displaying a commitment from all teams.


Click here to see the League table For Period 12

 

high-wireThe top five all held their places, Mott MacDonald' 'Strike while the iron is Mott' is still in first followed by Atkins India's 'Singularity', Atkins Asia Pacific's 'Amazing', Atkins India's 'Ubiquitous' and Interserve's 'Beagle 2'. The change in the top six is that Arup's 'Arupians take NYC' come in at sixth replacing Hyder's 'Alpha Engineers' who slip to ninth. This is the first time since the seventh round that an Arup team have been in the top six. Then it was 'Arup infrastructure London Group II' who are now in tenth place.

Examining the percentage improvements we see 12% around the top level with 2% around the bottom. The difference gives the range of relative movement that we see. This would suggest that the top three are reasonably safe. Of course they could do something daft and reduce their points score and let others overtake them. The rest are more easily catchable so the final six aren't yet settled.

AECOM's '3038 Construction' have risen four places to seventh, Aurecon's 'Go Big' have risen seven places to eighth, Aurecon's 'CONSTRUCTIONS' up five to eleventh and AECOM's 'AECOM and get some' up nine places to fifteenth. These movements represent momentum and similar gains in the next round (the final round of the Early Years) would see them in the top six.

You can feel the tension in both the top teams defending their position and the chasers still chasing. The positions are likely to change but it's impossible to predict. Experience suggests that the chasers will take the biggest risks in their pursuit of a top place.


Click here to see the League table For Period 11