How Buildings Add Value For Clients

The benefits delivered by well-designed business premises are often intangible and thus overlooked in favour of low cost solutions. Current market-based approaches to property valuations frequently neglect to take account of the costs and benefits that can accrue through 'design investment' - investment that is specifically targeted towards increasing the quality of a building so it better meets the needs of the clients. How Buildings Add Value for Clients considers a building as an economic instrument that can serve to maximise a client's return on their investment. It examines the problem of managing a building as an investment and discusses how a well-designed and constructed asset can deliver greater capital returns for the client in the form of business benefits. This book offers a clear understanding of how buildings impact on organisations and, crucially, how they can enhance client's business processes. The authors have developed an asset value matrix to assess the benefits of design investment, which can be used to identify and analyse the generic attributes of buildings that influence organisational performance. The book draws from international research, academic papers, and recent press coverage to develop a greater understanding about design quality and the influence this has on buildings in use. Endorsed by the Confederation of Construction Clients, this work will help develop a better understanding of the benefits that buildings can deliver to clients, which will lead to greater client awareness and understanding of their own requirements and a greater ability to communicate them to designers. Although the focus is on buildings, the argument also applies to many infrastructure investments and so will be essential reading for all construction clients.

Section 1: From artefact to asset - Introduction - The design quality debate - Construction as the creation of new value - Developing the new framework Section 2: The components of asset value Part 1: Financial considerations - Financial value - Valuation techniques Part 2: Buildings - the people in them and the process contained - Productivity - Indoor environment quality - Spatial quality Part 3: Buildings - their relationship with the external environment - Symbolism Section 3: Linking asset value with client's performance requirements - Applicability of the asset value matrix - From process to product - Conclusion

'How Buildings Add Value for Clients' considers a building as an economic instrument that can serve to maximise a client's return on their investment.

Sustainability is a critical issue for the construction industry. In the short term, sustainability is often seen as a 'must do' item. In the longer term, all contractors will be seeing it as a source of competitive advantage. Public sector construction, infrastructure and other large projects such as the Thames Gateway and the Olympics in 2012 are all being driven down this route by pressure from Government. Uly Ma's No Waste is an extremely practical guide to managing sustainability in construction that draws on input from all the related stakeholders: the construction industry itself, the clients, designers and architects and the trades. The book explores how the industry can transform itself from business as before to business as it should be, from the micro level of good site practices to setting the right policies that drives a company onwards. The text covers the management of sustainability and the accompanying CD ROM includes a wealth of material such as tool kits, templates and activities that can be shared throughout the organisation and used for team meetings, communication and training.

Just think for a moment. Your career. Do you feel stuck? Do you feel that others are passing you by? Do you feel that you have lost interest in your career? Do you feel that you don’t know how to embrace your workplace core values or initiatives driving at higher levels of people-focus, or how to keep up in a rapidly changing world? And what if, up until this exact moment, you were just meandering along, oblivious to your situation as time and opportunities race by you? Well, don’t worry, you can recover that situation! This Pocket Rocket handbook gives you the impetus and tools that put you in the driving seat to boost your career. It provides thoughtful, practical, specific and tangible ideas that you can quickly embrace and use at your own pace and in your own way. And do it in a way that is effective and actually works for you and the greater good, by helping others, adding value and building trust. Now think for another moment. Your career. Is it time for you to have your own epiphany, your own awakening? Is it time to take control and boost your career?

Clients have been identified as critical for building delivery but have been under-researched with only a few studies about them. This book seeks to address this gap. A deeper look into the nature of construction clients and their relation to building users exposes more fundamental questions related to the activity of building and the activity in the building. These fundamental questions include 'How do clients get what they want?', 'How do clients cope with the building process?', and 'How are clients being shaped by building(s)?'. This book on clients and users is structured around three main themes: Agency is concerned with the classical agency/structure dichotomy on actions, roles and responsibilities or, put differently, whether actors can act freely or are bound by structural constraints. Governance is related to the interplay between clients and the supply system: clients govern the supply system but are at the same time governed by the supply system through different processes and mechanisms. Innovation deals with construction innovation and what part clients and users play in this struggle between change and stability. The book includes theoretical and conceptual frameworks on what constitutes clients and users as well as case studies on R&D themes of relevance to practice.

'Business Strategy: an introduction' is an accessible textbook that provides a straightforward guide for those with little or no knowledge of the subject. It presents complex issues and concepts in a clear and compact manner, so that readers gain a clear understanding of the topics addressed. The following features are included: * A comprehensive introduction to the subjects of business strategy and strategic management * Complex issues explained in a straightforward way for students new to this topic * Student friendly learning features throughout * Case studies of varying lengths with questions included for assignment and seminar work * A discussion of both traditional theory and the most recent research in the field This second edition features new and updated case studies as well as more depth having been added to the material in the book. New chapters on business ethics, types and levels of strategy, and how to use case studies have been incorporated. A range of pedagogical features such as learning objectives, review and discussion questions, chapter summaries and further reading are included in the text resulting in it being a user-friendly, definitive guide for those new to the subject. A web-based Tutor Resource Site accompanies the book.

This book explores the different stages in the life cycle of the small firm, and ways to solve entrepreneurial dilemmas that the entrepreneur faces during and in-between these different stages of development.

This has long been the one book that students can rely on to get them thinking critically and strategically about branding. This new fourth edition is no exception. THE definitive introductory textbook for this crucial topic, it is highly illustrated and comes packed with over 50 brand-new, real examples of influential marketing campaigns. Bullets: • Summarises the latest thinking and best practice in the domain of branding • All new real marketing campaigns show how branding theories are implemented in practice • Brought right up to date with a clear European and UK focus Undergraduate business and marketing students studying brand management will find this an invaluable resource in their quest to understand how branding really works.