Memo Report

To: Board of Directors Chinese contractors From: Board of Directors Leatty Date: 14 December 2011 Subject: Leatty Shanghai Rescue Strategy

Introduction

On 14 December, the Board of Directors of the Chinese contractors overseeing the project in

Shanghai and the Board of Directors of Leatty discussed construction problems and devised a

strategy to rescue this multinational project. The main problems are the costs that are estimated 16

per cent above budget and the project is two months behind schedule. We urgently need to improve

information exchange, teamwork, working practices, create a safe atmosphere and lessons should be

learned from mistakes made in the past.

Information Exchange

Firstly, the information exchange could be improved by taking appropriate actions. The first action

that was agreed to is to hold a face to face meeting between the two parties. After this meeting a

trustworthy relationship should be build and this will improve the information exchange. A

telecommunication meeting at 09:00 Toronto time should be held on a monthly basis. This is to

ensure that the project is on schedule and every participant could be updated about the progress

that is made by the different parties. For the everyday coordination an internet-based application

should be created. In this way employees are able to get knowledge of the goals and they could be

updated on the progress on the whole project. This should boost their moral. Also paperwork should

be eliminated and replaced by e-mails to maintain documents online so that they cannot be lost.

Team Moral/ Working Practices

Secondly, there are several ways to boost team moral and the working practices of the employees. A

weekly news letter should be created to inform the employees about the progress on the project.

Also this news letter should contain realistic organizational goals for that week. If these goals are

reached before the end of the week the employees should get a bonus. An example of a bonus is

that the employees could go home earlier at the end of the week. This arrangement should not

influence the quality of the work negatively and so this quality should be checked regularly.

Safe Atmosphere

Thirdly, in order to create a safe atmosphere, managers should set up several social facilities to

provide the employees services to feel secure within the company. A forum should be created with

the main problems of the employees addressed. Also an anonymous box should be hung up where

employees could address their ideas and problems. When employees have serious social problems

they should have the option to go the company counselor.

Lessons

Finally, lessons could be learned from the mistakes that have been made in the past. The first lesson

that could be learned from the first phase of the project is improving the information exchange and

the communication. By having telecommunication meetings on a monthly basis slippage and cost

overruns could be avoided, because problems in the schedule could be picked up easily and solved

much quicker. Also the architects should make time for the allocated quality design and revision of

the plans during the rest of the project. This should avoid slippage on the project in the future.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The Board of Directors of Leatty and the Board of Directors of the Chinese contractors overseeing the

project in Shanghai realizes that implementing these recommendations will probably be costly and

involve some difficult choices. However, after a discussion, we firmly believe that these

improvements in information exchange, communication, team moral, working practices and the

work environment will benefit this project greatly.

We are looking forward to your reaction.

Guido Plaizier

S2208067

Board of Directors Leatty