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OUR
MARKET
All Commercial structures
like Shopping Centres, Car
Dealer Ships, Warehousing,
Mining Facilities,
Hospitals, Office Blocks,
Guest Houses, Hotels and
Casino’s either a Main
Contracts, Steelwork
Contractors, Shopfitting
Contractors, Design & Supply
Contractors or as any
combination of above.
OUR SHORTCOMINGS:
1. CONTINUITY OF WORK:
Because of all the greater
good elements that we
believe in and not repeating
ourselves, we are finding
ourselves regularly in a
position where we do not
have continuity of work.
The reason therefore is
that, without implementing
the all-in approach as
explained, our tenders are
evaluated against other
Contracting Companies and
sad to say, in the economic
environment currently, some
of them work below cost. By
the time that we became
aware of a tender, it is
usually too late to advise
the Client on the facts that
with a Provisional Bill on
the Main Contractor and
Provisional sums on Sub
Contracting work, (usually
much more than the work of
the Main Contractor in
value), that nobody knows
where the completed Project
costs will end up at the end
of the day.
It is always interesting to
note that before tender
adjudication Clients and
Consultants are so strict
regarding the lowest tender
appointments, but they never
do the hindsight calculation
after the Project is
completed, and usually, if
that was done, they will
note that a delay claim or
“adventurous” claims from
the Main Contractor and his
Sub- Contractors exceed the
initial bid by a team
player- Contractor by far.
The fee scale of Consultants
might be negotiated, but
also the limits of their
obligations, and without a
Contractor limiting
Consulting involvement,
these fees can fluctuate a
lot as well.
Therefore we cannot work our
magic, it is too late and
the process of lowest bidder
is irreversible.
2. THE SECOND REASON
why we sometimes run out of
work is the fact that our
biggest asset is also our
biggest crux.
Because we are so committed
to our goals and to the
Project of a Client, we are
only concentrating on that
for that period of time. By
doing so, we are
“unavailable” to the rest of
the Market and therefore
continuity of work becomes
the penalty for our
dedication to any one
Project or rather to one
Client.
No sympathy needed, we know
exactly what we are doing
and if that is the price to
pay, we are willing to do
so. We can look back to a
record of excellence and
never finishing any Project
late ever with the best
relationships between us,
fellow Contractors,
Consultants , Suppliers and
of course Clients . This
will always be our downfall
until such time that we can
change the “conventional”
way of tendering to the
“sensible” way to look at us
as a Group.
3. THE FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
AND THE RESISTANCE AGAINST
CHANGE FROM THE CONVENTIONAL
WAY OF BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
BY CLIENTS AND CONSULTANTS.
By incorporating this
approach of “the Contractor
must take the
responsibility” vs.
“Consultants must overlook a
Contractor”, we understand
that with many Contractors
this approach will not work.
We strongly suggest against
it, but this approach works
with the LEM GROUP, we are
structured for this
approach, and that is the
point.
Do we want to cut
Consultants fees?
No, we want them to be paid
for their services, like we
are getting paid for our
services. But there is
nothing more frustrating
than to see the Client lose
money and continually
transgresses contractually
because he, unaware as he
may be, is responsible for
the actions of his
Consultants.
Therefore the normal
Contractor jumps on this
transgressions and claim
delays and additional costs
because of these Consultant
actions. The Client
therefore becomes a party in
something that he did not
create (Consultants did) and
becomes enemies with a party
(The Contractor) that he
have no option but to. The
conventional way of
appointing a Contractor
might have made sense a long
time ago, but just like the
telegraph system used to
make sense communication
wise, we believe that
something like Facebook is a
much more viable option
today.
In short, we do not have
shortcomings except too care
to much, plan too much and
taking the other Parties
responsibilities into
account too much.
That is shortcomings that we
are willing to bear.
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