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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.
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Atkins Asia Pacific's 'Amazing' and Atkins India's 'Ubiquitous' have swapped places in positions 3 and 4, but the others in the top 5 places remain where they were, with Atkins India's 'Singularity' holding onto to first pace, Mott MacDonald's 'Strike while the iron is Mott' remaining in second place and Interserve's 'Beagle 2' remaining fifth. 'AECOMplete shambles' slip three places from 6th to 9th to be replaced in 6th place by Atkins India's 'Endeavour' up one place. Amazingly this gives us three Atkins India and one Atkins Asia Pacific in the top six. Confirming the strength of the Atkins presence is the Sponsors Award league table which has in first place Atkins India and in second place Atkins Asia Pacific.
On the move are Arup's 'Arupians take NYC' up from 12th to 7th and only 45 points outside the top six. Should they make the final it will be the first time for a team from the USA. Also Arup's 'COMAP(Cardiff Office Multidisciplinary Arup People)' are up from 15th to 8th and only 97 points off the top six (No prizes for a snappy team name.) It looks like Arup are making a serious push to defend the success they've enjoyed in recent years. Arup lie third in the Sponsors league table a prize they have won twice before.
With the average movement this period being 12.5% and the top half of the table still tightly bunched it is too early to say who will be in the final. There were big movements from Mott MacDonald's 'Team Loco, Tracking success, Signalling failure EST. 2K15' (another snappy team name!) as well as Atkins India's 'The Hexaguns' and AURECON's 'CONSTRUCTICONS'. AURECON have featured in two finals in the recent past and with a final push may well do so again.
Over thirty teams had gains in excess of 15% so the top six are not yet home and clear. The psychology is interesting the leading teams tend to get a) twitchy and b) cautious this gives opportunities for those in the chasing pack with flair and courage to catch them.
If the team's strategy hasn't been reviewed this is probably the last opportunity to do so. It's time for a serious review of the strategy you've been following to determine what changes in the next three rounds will yield the biggest gains. It's time to take some decisions that earlier you might have considered as risky. This is when leadership and disciplined decision making should show its value.
The Sponsors Award league table is a tight affair the top three Atkins India, Atkins Asia Pacific and Arup are closely followed by Mott MacDonald, AECOM, AURECON, EM Highway Services and Interserve all above 3,000 points. It is important for all teams no matter where they are ranked in the main league table to improve their position as this will contribute to the ranking in the Sponsors Award.
This competition is reaching the exciting stage.
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Two new comers to the top six; 'Beagle 2' from Interserve come in at 5th place up from 11th and 'AECOMplete Shambles' from AECOM come in at 6th up from 8th. Losing out are 'Arup Infrastructure London Group II' down from 3rd to 8th and 'Construction Brilliant Innovation ' of CB&I down from 6th to 10th. The other four staying in the top six places have shuffled their places 'Singularity' of Atkins India remains 1st, 'Strike while the iron is Mott' from Mott Mac is up to 2nd from 5th 'Ubiquitous' of Atkins India is up to 3rd from 4th and 'Amazing' of Atkins Asia Pacific is down to 4th from 2nd. With the Atkins India and Atkins Asia Pacific having three in the top six the Atkins family is well represented and maintain their recent good record of getting teams to the final.
From memory Interserve and AECOM haven't had a team in the final in recent years so you can see the reason for their motivation. Arup who are currently the best performing MERIT sponsor with 3 Championships and three Sponsors Awards have their highest team at 8th so they still seem intent on defending their record. AURECON who have had three teams into the final have their highest placed team at 16 so we may well see an AURECON finalist.
The game is still on, there are still big movements see 'Savants' of Atkins India, 'AECOM and get some', 'The Brains to Pick' from WSP and 'Chicken DALfrezi from Donaldson Associates as examples. There are some 16 teams with movements of 20 or more places. A couple more surges of that scale and the top order will be challenged.
The ratio of turnover to company capital is an important indicator at a level of 9 times the company capital the questions start to be raised as to whether your company have enough assets to support its work load. But it also indicates that the company capital is working hard. If the ratio is much lower say 5 it indicates that the company capital is not working hard and your Finance Director need to consider how to respond. Grow the company's turnover, invest the capital outside the company or reduce the capital. It is not only the construction side of estimating and competing projects that determine a successful company. The financial side is equally important.
Four more rounds plenty of time.
Click here to see the League table For Period 8