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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.
Click here to see the League table For Period 9
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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
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Five of the top six remain there. 'Amazing' of Atkins Asia Pacific who were first two periods ago and last period slipped to 11th bounced straight back to 2nd. The shock of slipping probably produced a lot of late nights modelling their response. Atkins Asia Pacific has a great record in MERIT and have had teams in the final several times over recent years but they haven't yet produced a Champion and their eye is on the big prize. 'Singularity' of Atkins India climb from 3rd to 1st whilst their colleagues 'Ubiquitous' of Atkins India slip from 2nd to 4th. Atkins India also have a great record and have had teams in the final too and are keen to produce the first India Champion colleagues. Arup's 'Arup Infrastructure Group II' move up one to 3rd splitting the two Atkins India teams. The Arup team has started us thinking about a prize for the slickest team name! Mott MacDonald's 'Strike whilst the iron is Mott' are down from 1st to 5th. CB&I's 'Construction Brilliant Innovation' are down one at 6th and the former 6th place 'Team 7' of Subsea 7 slip out of the top six to 9th.
The big movements are below the top six see Aurecon's 'CONSTRUCTICONS' and 'CAPITAlized' of Capita Property & Infrastructure as two examples of major movements and with a good number of teams moving more than 20 places there is still a great churning going on and the top six are by no means safe . It becomes increasingly difficult to consolidate in the leading positions, nervousness creeps in and decisions tend to become cautious resulting in more adventurous teams catching and overtaking.
The average improvement this time was 16%
There are many decisions to get right and one is the project manager. A project manager whose experience is well suited to the project will produce a more efficient project with lower costs. A project manager whose experience is not well suited to the project will manage the project less effectively. This can be exaggerated if the project is far from Head Office where there may be less direct contact. So the well experienced project managers should be on the distant projects and the less experienced closer to home.
Click here to see the League table For Period 7