Building for Tomorrow Global Enterprise and the U.S. Construction Industry (1988) / Chapter Skim
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3. Competition in the Global Market
3. Competition in the Global Market
Pages 38-54
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From page 38... ...
Foreign firms in many countries enjoy strong support of coordinated government policies that encourage export of services and enable these nations' firms to present a united front in competition. COMMON CHARACTERISTICS The committee's experience and review of lirn~ted available documentation reveal several common characteristics of these national policies.
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From page 39... ...
These include ramifications for using design services to gain follow-on construction, the relationship of construction to follow-on equipment sales, the relationship of construction to follow-on capital goods sales, and operations and maintenance aspects as well as replacement parts activity related to construction projects. Policies also attempt to exploit national competitive advantage, that is, in which parts of the world the national industries have the most advantageous position and what elements of the competitive package are their strongest.
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From page 40... ...
Its member firms provide primarily engineering services, but also consultant services in health, agriculture, and various development disciplines. The second organization is the Export Group for the Construction Industries, whose purpose is to encourage others to use British construction companies on international projects.
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From page 41... ...
France The international activities of the French design and construction industry are backed by a French Ministry of Construction concerned with exports, construction economics, and global development. This ministry deals with such matters as cooperation and coordination among the construction firms in obtaining foreign projects and other export matters.
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From page 42... ...
These services are not limited to technical and design services, but include organizational management and financial expertise, applied to both infrastructure and commercially oriented projects. The Italians have Tong realized that to succeed in the international arena, a basic element is successful financial engineering.
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From page 43... ...
The Council for Building Research recommended that substantial increases in research and development expenditures by the government and the private sector over the next 10 years are essential. A number of areas were singled out for attention in this research program: the development of building technology; satisfactory and economical property management; energy conservation; municipal planning; higher housing quality; and the role of the construction industry in the national economy.
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From page 44... ...
There is, therefore, a potential domestic market of rather sizable dimensions for the Japanese construction industry. The council also recommends positive efforts to ensure that foreign companies can do business in the Japanese construction market, and expansion of the General Agreement on
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From page 45... ...
As in the United States, Japan has a handful of construction companies that dominate both the domestic and international markets and literally thousands of mid-size and smaller firms whose market is strictly domestic. The Big Six construction companies increased their share of the international market from about 1980 to 1985, and then their share began to decrease significantly.
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From page 46... ...
For fundamentally simple phases of a given project, the FTO will usually depend on the local contracting abilities of the client country for basic construction. However, for heavy equipment and other more complex phases, the FTOs depend on their own sources of sum plies, supplemented surprisingly and quite frequently with Western equipment and material.
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From page 47... ...
A competitive vision that reinstates the United States sitting astride global markets is pure nostalgia. Nevertheless, the examples reviewed here illustrate that the United States has been slower than many of its competitors to develop national trade and economic policies in support of international engineering and construction.
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From page 48... ...
Trade and Development Program, Export-Import Bank, and Overseas Private Investment Corporation provide valuable but severely limited assistance to U.S. design and construction firms seeking to provide competitive financing for projects.
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From page 49... ...
Of greater Tong-term importance is the concern of industry leaders that other countries are catching up with and passing the United States.
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From page 50... ...
Shimizu is over 180 years old and one of the five largest design and construction companies in Japan with annual sales of over $6 billion. The company has offices in the United States, including a New York City location.
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From page 51... ...
The firm had a large vibration table to concinct seismic tests on structures from which it developed state-of-the-art designs. The RECD team also reviewed Shimizu management systems for planning, cost estimating, scheduling, and project control, which are very similar to those used by U.S.
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From page 52... ...
familiarity with working in the East Fish bill area. Although as of that date IBM and Shimizu had a contract for the design work only, it was the intent of both parties that Shimizu would manage the construction phase.
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From page 53... ...
this approach as it is more diflicuit to guarantee project quality.} Initially, Shimizu watt reluctant to act as a consultant because of its corporate policy not to contract for design work without act uaIly managing the construction. However, ultimately IBM and Shimizu signed a consulting agreement.
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From page 54... ...
54 BUILDING FOR TOMORRO W The value of an IBM/Walsh/Shimizu relationship during construction is that the involvement of Shimizu wild better ensure that the project is built per the plans and specifications. Shimizu wild gain vaJu able experience in the U.S.
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