Marketing analysis - industries, trends and competition Thesis

Marketing analysis - industries, trends and competition - Thesis Example (Charles, 100) Some of the services offered by contractors are professional services that have been traditionally offered by A/E consultants for a long time. A/E consultants, faced with contractors taking away a large slice of the professional service pie, must defend their market shares, and expand their service base. This expansion will require A/H consultants to add new non-traditional services specifically tailored to the front end and back ends of M. Charles. Congress Approves New Design/Build Law. (Civil Engineering 2006) Pg100. the project cycles. Services in these segments include financing assistance, permitting, regulatory assistance, life cycle cost analysis, operation and maintenance (O&M) and renovation services. Marketing professional and construction services in the new millennium is not a simple task anymore. Architects in the past have relied heavily on their reputation and name recognition to get jobs. Consulting engineers relied on the 80/20 rule (80 percent of bus iness comes from 20 percent of clients), to drum-up business, and general contractors fell back on low bids in competitive bidding. (Friednian, 173) These techniques have worked in the past. However, recent shift in the project delivery system, and advancement in communication technology, necessitate that corporations look closely at their marketing efforts in the 21st Century. As general contractors move into the professional service arena, they seize market shares from A/E consultants. A/E consultants must react in any of the following three ways. They must reinforce existing market niche (services and clients). Develop marketing plans focused on client's retention (holding to market shares). Restructure their organizations to offer flexibility in the people and services (new services). The US construction market is a sizable lucrative market, and presents unique opportunities for foreign firms to set up local subsidiaries to actively pursue work. There Friednian, W. Construction Marketing and Strategic Planning. McGraw-Hill, Inc., NY. 2004, Pg172-173. are indications that foreign firms have successfully penetrated the heavy civil and highways public works markets in California, Massachusetts, and Florida. Forensic Construction Forensic construction involves the utilization of science in making decisions for legal disputes about buildings that have been constructed; chiefly involve the kind and quality of the building material, style and labor job. (Humphreys, 02) The design/build method, at-risk construction management, and the build-operate transfer (BOT) methods, have emerged as innovative alternatives to the competitive bidding method to deliver projects on time and on budget. This has resulted in a major shift in project delivery, challenging the conventional thinking, revolutionizing procurement of projects, and redefining the construction process. Trends for the 21st century are: Paradigm shift in the project delivery system. Refocus on the front end and back ends of project cycle. The construction market is becoming a service marketplace, rather than a commodity marketplace. Emphasis on life cycle costs (LCC), and total costs of a project. K, Humphreys.K. Jelen's Cost and Optimization Engineering, McCraw Hill, Inc., NY. 2008. Pg 1-2. Emphasis on value of

Operation Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Operation Management - Essay Example The QMS shall also provide the parameters for quality service while performance monitoring of each of the processes shall be through the process’ key performance indicators. Any flaw or parameter that fails to satisfy the accepted threshold of the performance indicator shall be subject to a root cause analysis to determine a corrective or preventive solution. The QMS requires regular review to ensure that the organization remains focus and faithful to its objective. The hotel employee’s performance shall be subject to evaluation by using the key performance indicator’s root cause analysis. For QMS, the hotel guest’s or patron’s feedback, comment or opinion is accorded greater weight as it will not only change how the hotel will conduct its business but it will equally show how the hotel value their guest’s and patron’s point of view with regard to the hotel’s operation. ... The marriage of technology and human ingenuity are very much apparent in the hotel industry by deploying an Enterprise Resource Planning system. As applied to the hotel industry, it would ensure excellent customer experience from their reservation up to their next visit. The deployment of a Customer Relationship Management System would ensure that all issues are addressed and monitored and shall similarly ensure that the business is properly guided on how to become customer centric. However, technology will not work on its own as its success will be dependent on the employees who use the system and those who will execute the work instructions recommended by the system. A framework that will capitalize on the strength of the employee enabled by technology shall be the onus of this paper. The sole purpose of which is to ensure the customer focused operation of the hotel while practicing processes that feed on continual improvements to manage the bottom line. Using these strategies, Lea dership in the industry and profitability should not be far behind. METHODOLOGY The valuable discussions in Operation Management have been the inspiration by this writer to seek out more knowledge in pursuit of excellence. Thus, it led to the discovery that the concepts presented herein have been in existence for some time, and various authors not only wrote extensively on the subjects but they have exhaustively been part of its continual improvement so to speak. Capitalizing from the experiences of these management gurus and the erudite deliberation in Operations Management this author therefore recommend a more comprehensive examination of the Hotel’s Customer Service. Using the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System framework, this author