Outcome 4: Assessment task 2Supplement to the case studyThe mergerDavid and Neil had their usual Friday meeting. This week the main area for discussion was the business’s need to re-structure. This issue had increased in priority when Neil explained that John Colbert Civil Engineering Contractors had approached him about a merger. John Colbert Senior was about to retire and the firm believed that continued success and growth could best be accomplished by creating a business that would cater fully for both the design and development of civil and structural engineering projects. One main reason behind this was that more and more clients wanted cost savings that could be derived from the synergy that would result from dealing with one organisation for design and development. Although both firms had reputations for high quality work, increasing competition and the need to make efficiency savings was making it more and more important that the two businesses looked to new possibilities for managing and developing. Over the past four years the two firms had worked together on a number of projects and they were about to start work on two major developments: the new leisure complex and the office block for the Scottish Executive, the latter of which was only secured as a result of the close working arrangement of the two firms. John and Neil were also aware that successful completion of this project could lead to more Scottish Executive projects.Currently John, a chartered civil engineer, employed two teams. Each team comprised a team leader, digger driver and three qualified builders. When working on large developments the two teams would work on site together, but be responsible for different aspects of the site development. For instance, in road development, one team would concentrate on road production whilst the other team concentrated on bridges or pathways, depending on the design specification.Neil agreed with John that, from a business perspective, a merger of the two companies could be beneficial in a number of ways:The merger would primarily be beneficial because the engineers would have the formal authority to manage the construction staff. At the moment, as designers, there was an informal acceptance that the design engineer was in charge of a given project on site. A merger would help clarify this relationship.John’s firm was based out of town and, in addition to the space for his equipment, he had a large office that would cope with the additional staff from Barbour Brown. In the past, engineering consultants had always preferred to be based in town centres. This was mainly to allow clients easy access to the engineers. As a result of new technology and computer networks, design communication tended to be done through phone calls and email. It was very rarely that clients visited the offices. When meetings were essential, these tended to take place either on site or at the client’s main office. The building that housed the offices of Barbour Brown was in a prime town location that could beredeveloped. Aware of this potential, Neil was eager to give the merger his full consideration.In addition to the re-location, John also has a small, but efficient, administration team that handles reception, secretarial support, accounts and wages. Again, savings could be made by reducing the administration costs currently incurred by having two administration sections. Neil was aware that the merger, should it go ahead, would create some redundancies.Although not always keen to make major changes, David did agree that, since their business needed re-structured, the merger would provide the ideal reason for making changes to the current method of working, and the proposal to merge should go ahead.David and Neil星期五都有例会。
本周主要要讨论的是公司重组问题。
这个问题被首先提出当Neil说,John Colbert（土木工程承包商）找过他关于合并的事情。
John Colbert年纪的了即将退休,公司认为,通过创建一个满足设计和开发的民用建筑工程项目业务，可以实现成功和发展。
这背后的一个主要原因是越来越多的客户想要的成本节约,而解决这个问题的办法可能是：协同效应,将设计和开发为一个组织。
虽然两家公司都因有高质量的工作而有声誉,但随着竞争越来越激烈并且需要节省效率，对两家公司而言可能性的管理和开发越来越重要。
在过去的四年里,这两家公司已经在许多项目中一起工作过,他们着手于两个主要发展:新休闲复杂和办公大楼为苏格兰行政院,对两家公司而言，后者只得需要保证工作安排的结果。
John and Neil也明白成功完成苏格兰行政院这项工程，可能有更多的项目。
目前约翰,一个特许土木工程师,聘用了两队。
每个团队有一个团队领导,挖掘机司机和三名合格建设者。
当有大型开发项目工作时，两队将在现场一起工作,但负责的发展项目不同。
例如,公路发展项目,一个团队将集中在道路而另一个团队根据设计的规范集中在桥梁或途径,。
Neil同意John,从商业角度来看,两家公司的合并可能是有益的方式有很多种:合并的优点主要是因为工程师们将会有正式权利来管理施工员工。
目前,作为设计师只有非正式的认可:设计工程师负责现场一个给定的项目。
合并将帮助澄清这种关系。
John的公司是建立在城外,除了设备有很大的空间,他还有一个很大的办公室,将应付额外的员工来自Barbour Brown。