Strategy implementation in the construction industry

Abstract: Background: After immense criticism, the Swedish government requested an investigation concerning the construction industry. The report concludes that the inactive competition within the construction industry entail that the industry continuously delivers the same products, in the same way. Gabrielsson & Lutz (2002), states that the market condition and the long history of static competition within the construction industry has led to low productivity, high consumption of resources, large influences on the environment, higher costs and a lack of qualified labour. The construction industry is now dealing with an increasing competition and evidently decreasing subsidies from the government, that will continue to influence the construction industry, and the companies, which therefore must work hard to sustain and increase their competitive advantages. Purpose: Describe how a construction firm could integrate the strategy with the operative work on the project level in order to sustain and develop their competitive advantages in a growing competitive environment, by implementing a balanced scorecard (BSC). Method: Since the problem and the subject are complex and vast, the authors started the research by study a wide range of literature, articles and journals. Three interviews were made with a project leader working at the site, operative level, and two managers working on the strategic level, in the line organization above the project leader. With this selection the authors aimed to see whether the three experienced the organization and strategies the same way. Conclusions: The authors have concluded that NCC needs to go from being a very decentralized organization to be more of a centralized one. The centralization concerns purchase, coordination, industrialization, and project selection. The strategy has to involve all of these factors. NCC needs to coordinate the retention of knowledge and newly found solutions. They also need to have continuing processes of development and improvement concerning this retention, which in favourability should be located on a national level. This could raise NCC’s chances to achieve increased efficiency, decreased costs, better quality and environment. The authors further believe that NCC needs to strengthen their focus on industrialization on a national level, while letting the project organizations act as its own company. Every project is unique and therefore NCC needs to learn from all projects in ability to see the possibilities and enlighten the problems in all types of projects. If not, the large-scale production benefits could be missed out.