Vision
“A vision without action is just a dream. Action without vision just passes
the time.
A vision with action can change the world!” Japanese Proverb
Short Term Vision
I am now throwing all my energy
into starting my own company. I want to begin a company from scratch so that
it is not prejudiced by old and traditional operating procedures and practices.
International Property Solutions (IPS)
will provide all inclusive property solutions: a vehicle to property investors
to streamline the process, reduce the challenges and facilitate effective
property investment and property development in the UK and South Africa.
Our mission is "to take
an old industry, steeped in tradition and run by many smaller, disparate and
often inefficient operators, and to redefine it through the use of web technology
to increase global reach, partnerships & efficiencies of scale, so as
to provide a ‘one stop’ enhanced and personalised service to our clients!"
We are using economies of scale
to provide the best service to our clients and this also allows myself and
my partners to build relationships with the important people in the property
and construction industry. Obviously this has huge implications in the future
for two reasons:
Ultimately this is operating
out of the UK and South Africa, but the aim is to take this global. To revolutionise
the property industry and provide the more dynamic international economic
group, which is developing, with a service that suits their needs for personal
interaction, efficiency, yet 21st century technology.
Long Term Vision
After a thorough analysis of
the market I have decided that the only way to influence the processes of
the property and construction industry are if one is at the top of the food
chain - the clients. They are the most effective drivers for change and thus
I want to adopt a top down approach. I want to start as a client, or as mentioned
above, through economies of scale, act on behalf of a significant client base
and then use this muscle to influence the practices and techniques which are
used throughout the process. I believe that only from this vantage point will
I be able to achieve the vast cost and time savings which have been touted
as possible if systems thinking is employed and IT tools are fully embraced.
This can ultimately only be to the benefits of everyone involved in the process
in the long run.
I have hundreds of ideas as
to how to materialise this idea, but they can be broken down into major categories:
o
“With all this talk about technology it is rather tempting to think that the
property and construction industry is replacing people with machines. Nothing
could be less true. Today, as always, it is the minds and creativity of the
people in the industry that make it such a rewarding industry to be in. Internet
technology will provide the tools and access to enable people to harness their
skills and reuse existing know-how. An Internet strategy without people at
the centre is doomed to fail. Understanding how it facilitates a learning
organisation is key to success.” (Finch, 2000) – People are the most important
asset to any organisation. In this industry employees are generally disillusioned,
dissatisfied and unfulfilled. I want to strive for an environment which
would allow people to strive for excellence, exude with initiative and be
rewarded for brilliance and productivity, not necessarily the hours they worked.
In the current market most companies still talk about client service and yet
they only provide what they are capable of. They only have a set of services
they provide and it is based on systems from the 20th century.
o
“The property and construction industry needs to attract the very best thinkers
to operate in one of the most demanding and complex information environments.
Hopefully we will see learning organisations emerging what are capable of
nourishing the minds of the most talented individuals.” (Finch, 2000) – The
only way I am going to be able to make this succeed is if I offer the best
people in the industry the opportunity and I pay them. Every successful company
has been one where the employees valued their worth, felt they were being
rewarded above the call of duty and it was a happy environment. This will
be revolutionary for the this industry and hopefully will ensure that we will
get a reputation which will ensure we will be able to attract the brightest
minds – innovation and imagination of the people are the keys to this company’s
success!
·
Learning Organisation –
o
“The future of firms depends on their ability to embody knowledge.” (Finch,
2000) – The current industry is based on intrinsic knowledge - “I am going
to make this decision based on what I have learnt over my years of experience!”
However I want to create a company which thrives on the knowledge of all its
people, past and present. The company as a whole learns and retains this knowledge
to enable more informed decisions in the future. This will provide the
people with the tools to be accommodating change with confidence.
·
Synergy –
o
“The considerable search costs and duplication of effort can be reduced through
the liberating effect of open standards and Internet Technology.” (Finch,
2000). Anyone who is involved within the current industry would understand
the problems of checkers, checking checkers, checking checkers! Trust, partnering
and relationships are going to be the grease which is going to lubricate this
system, enabling it to run smoothly in the future and no checking, penalties
and retentions. I want to built up trading partnerships which incorporate
the entire value chain and are built on a policy of ‘win win’ for everyone
involved.
·
Lean Construction –
o
The principles of Craft, Mass and Lean Production revolutionised the industries
of the 20th century. The property and construction industry however
has moved into the 21st century and is still undertaking many of
the principles of craft production, the oldest production method of them all.
Companies are going to have to evolve to embrace the best of these philosophies,
IT and systems thinking to derive processes which will revolutionise the industry.
o
“Lean production combines the best
feature of both craft production and mass production – the ability to reduce
costs per unit and dramatically improve quality while at the same time providing
an ever wider range of products and ever more challenging work. The hallmarks
of lean production are teamwork, communication, and efficient use of resources.”
(Womach, 1991, The Machine that Changed the World)
o
I would like to shadow the lean production philosophy and introduce it into
our industry. Some ideas:
§
Push the responsibility down to the coalface. The people on the site are the
one’s with the most knowledge about the process and this is where the knowledge
has to be captured to enhance the process. The aim is to get their buy-in
and give them the space to manage their own processes, creating an environment
where initiative thrives, innovation can be incorporated and imagination can
prosper. Ultimately this will increase peoples satisfaction with their
jobs and will ensure not only their own well being, but the prosperity of
the company.
§
The people on site should become more cross-functional. Rather than have a
individual operators for each process, like banks man, concrete gang, steel
hands and chippies – why can we not copy the Japanese and create productive
units. These units would be responsible for completing areas, rather than
completing tasks and would ensure that much of the bickering, discontent and
delays would be reduced – increasing the quality, productivity and job
satisfaction of all involved.
§
Rather than always trying to resolve problems – fire fight, I want to implement
the procedures of the “five whys” which investigates a problem back to its
source, which not only ensures that the problem is repaired, but that it doesn’t
happen again -incremental improvement process. This improves the quality
of the product and decreases the need for quality inspections.
§
The Japanese have shown that the most efficient way to manage the supply chain
is to have all parties involved and to have good trading relationships between
partners to ensure efficient operation of the process. All parties have the
understanding that they have to work together to achieve the product and thus
they derive the final price and then they work their way backwards to see
were the costs can be saved to achieve that price. The philosophy is that
they share the good times with the bad!
§
The design team needs to be based on the same principle. Rather than having
various professions of specific specialties designing jobs in a functional
sense and experiencing communication problems, design teams need to be set
up of relevant expertise and a strong leader. As Betts (Strategic Management
of IT in Construction, 1999) predicted the future of construction is going
to be the virtual teams coming together to achieve a goal. My idea is that
my company will facilitate this organisation of the groups and ensure that
the best teams are set up for various projects. This is the area IPS
is targeting, where little resources are needed, merely the expertise and
knowledge to enable these teams to be created. I am proactive and find developments,
then bring all the parties to the table – even the developers. Once I had
built up my capital base and relationships, IPS
could then start actually instigating larger and larger developments with
its own capital.
§
Finally my aim is to be productive in many different regions of the world.
The advantages of this are that the company can be protected against the regional
cyclicality, trade barriers and currency shifts, and the system can take full
advantage of product diversity.
Ultimately, like Richard Branson
has revolutionised other industries with his brash disdain for how the current
processes work – I would like to use the same philosophy for the property
and construction industry and create a company which will be the leader and
cause the industry to finally metamorphose itself for the better of all concerned.
“If there’s a better way
of doing it
...... find it!” Thomas Edison.