Corruption is like a virus that continues to spread throughout the developed and developing nations of the world. Corrupt practices in the construction industry include bribery and fraud throughout all phases of a project.
In an industry as important as construction, with a local and increasingly global reach, the impact of corruption is significant.
Corruption is bad for the economies of developed and developing countries. It can result in projects that are unnecessary, unsuitable and defective. Commonly important development work is over-priced, severely delayed and are bad for the reputation of their owners/clients, sponsors, contractors, consultants, suppliers and sub-contractors.
Corruption disadvantages those that finance and insure projects such as commercial banks, surety companies, guarantors etc. Corruption results in losses, false claims and reputational risk.
For the construction supply chain, corruption results in wasted tender expenses, increased project costs, economic damage, blackmail, criminal proceedings etc.
Individual directors, partners and managers within the project supply chain businesses, may face criminal prosecutions and loss of professional status.
Twitter Updates
Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts
Some cause for optimism?
As the World continues to deal with probably the worst economic depression in history, has a battle on it's hands with the H1N1 pandemic and is engaged in various on-going military conflicts, a review of the international economies in terms of construction opportunities may give some cause to be optimistic.
According to David Smith's article in the International Construction Review, and quoting research by IHS Global Insight, some sectors are proving to be more resistent to the spreading crisis.
Australia has huge natural resources and has benefited from demand from China. As China grows so does Australia. Even so, construction spending decelerated at the end of 2008 and business conditions are "subdued" and investors and banks are "cautious". The situtation in New Zealand is similar although the National Government has pledged to increase borrowing to fund major infrastructure projects.
According to David Smith's article in the International Construction Review, and quoting research by IHS Global Insight, some sectors are proving to be more resistent to the spreading crisis.
Australia has huge natural resources and has benefited from demand from China. As China grows so does Australia. Even so, construction spending decelerated at the end of 2008 and business conditions are "subdued" and investors and banks are "cautious". The situtation in New Zealand is similar although the National Government has pledged to increase borrowing to fund major infrastructure projects.
Why are people talking about me?
Who is talking about me? What are they saying? Who are they talking to? Where are they talking? Perhaps people are saying nice things? But what if they are not? Am I getting paranoid? If people are not talking about me, why not?
As a construction business, whether small, medium or large, domestic or international, consultant, contractor or manufacturer, if people aren't talking about you then you have a problem.
Word-of-mouth marketing is the key marketing tool for construction professionals in the business-to-business marketplace. You can spend your hard earned profits on so-called traditional marketing techniques, but at the end of the day, you are as good as your last job. Reputation building IS brand building in the construction industry. Word-of-mouth marketing is a challenge to manage. But manage it we must.
According to wikipedia, "word-of-mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. Originally the term referred specifically to oral communication,(literally words from the mouth), but now includes any type of human communication, such as face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging".
There are many types of word-of-mouth techniques being applied today including "buzz", "blog", "viral", "grassroots", "cause influencers" and "social media marketing". If you are skeptical about the impact of all this, consider why politicians in particular, have got increasingly concerned about a shift away from traditional broadcasting, towards this form of communication. People are able to get information from a whole range of different traditional and online sources. They no longer rely on "official" or "controlled" media.
The same applies in the business/commercial world. Consumers and other key stakeholders are looking for testimony and reviews of products and companies before they buy or invest.
So what is the "buzz" about your company? Have you stopped to consider how your company is perceived by your clients and other key stakeholders? In times of economic slow down perhaps its time to take a good look at ourselves in readiness for better days ahead. The opportunity and challenge is to start to influence the "buzz".
Some useful references on the impact of word-of-mouth marketing include -
Renée Dye, 'The Buzz on Buzz,' Harvard Business Review, November-December, 2000.
Rajdeep Grewal, Thomas W. Cline, and Antony Davies, 'Early-Entrant Advantage, Word-of-Mouth Communication, Brand Similarity, and the Consumer Decision-Making Process,' Journal of Consumer Psychology, October, 2003.
Frederick F. Reichheld, 'The One Number You Need to Grow,' Harvard Business Review, December, 2003.
Yubo Chen and Jinhong Xie, 'Online Consumer Review: A New Element of Marketing Communications Mix,' http://ssrn.com/abstract=618782, July, 2004.
Florian v Wangenheim and Tomás Bayón, 'The effect of word of mouth on services switching: Measurement and moderating variables,' European Journal of Marketing, September, 2004.
Paul Marsden, Alain Samson, and Neville Upton, 'Advocacy Drives Growth,' Brand Strategy, December, 2005
As a construction business, whether small, medium or large, domestic or international, consultant, contractor or manufacturer, if people aren't talking about you then you have a problem.
Word-of-mouth marketing is the key marketing tool for construction professionals in the business-to-business marketplace. You can spend your hard earned profits on so-called traditional marketing techniques, but at the end of the day, you are as good as your last job. Reputation building IS brand building in the construction industry. Word-of-mouth marketing is a challenge to manage. But manage it we must.
According to wikipedia, "word-of-mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. Originally the term referred specifically to oral communication,(literally words from the mouth), but now includes any type of human communication, such as face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging".
There are many types of word-of-mouth techniques being applied today including "buzz", "blog", "viral", "grassroots", "cause influencers" and "social media marketing". If you are skeptical about the impact of all this, consider why politicians in particular, have got increasingly concerned about a shift away from traditional broadcasting, towards this form of communication. People are able to get information from a whole range of different traditional and online sources. They no longer rely on "official" or "controlled" media.
The same applies in the business/commercial world. Consumers and other key stakeholders are looking for testimony and reviews of products and companies before they buy or invest.
So what is the "buzz" about your company? Have you stopped to consider how your company is perceived by your clients and other key stakeholders? In times of economic slow down perhaps its time to take a good look at ourselves in readiness for better days ahead. The opportunity and challenge is to start to influence the "buzz".
Some useful references on the impact of word-of-mouth marketing include -
Renée Dye, 'The Buzz on Buzz,' Harvard Business Review, November-December, 2000.
Rajdeep Grewal, Thomas W. Cline, and Antony Davies, 'Early-Entrant Advantage, Word-of-Mouth Communication, Brand Similarity, and the Consumer Decision-Making Process,' Journal of Consumer Psychology, October, 2003.
Frederick F. Reichheld, 'The One Number You Need to Grow,' Harvard Business Review, December, 2003.
Yubo Chen and Jinhong Xie, 'Online Consumer Review: A New Element of Marketing Communications Mix,' http://ssrn.com/abstract=618782, July, 2004.
Florian v Wangenheim and Tomás Bayón, 'The effect of word of mouth on services switching: Measurement and moderating variables,' European Journal of Marketing, September, 2004.
Paul Marsden, Alain Samson, and Neville Upton, 'Advocacy Drives Growth,' Brand Strategy, December, 2005
Construction PhD Student Group
This week I launched a new Facebook Group called Construction PhD Students. This is for anyone interested in pursuing a PhD or who is already carrying out Doctoral research. So far, over 70 people from all over the world have joined up. The idea is that PhD students can network with each other and discuss problems and ideas. I have already posted some details of good books that can be very useful in supporting students and their supervisors.
