Reference no: EM131900489

Please answer below questions by reading below case:-

1) What next steps would you propose for the client and consultant respectively?

2) How could the consultant have done things differently?

3) How do you think the consultant would view the outcome of the project?

Case: Dunwich Marine

Dunwich is a port on the east coast of the UK that has known better times. It once had a thriving trawling and seafood-processing industry. Many marine engineering companies were formed to service the fishing fleets and considerable commercial freight was exported and imported through Dunwich docks. With the decline in the UK fishing industry in the 1970s, Dunwich was badly hit. Unemployment rose, there was little investment and the port and dock facilities deteriorated. The fish market was used to sell catches trucked down from Scotland and a yacht marina and fishery museum were established.

Even though there was still some very limited fishing, the whole port area was decaying and seemingly neglected. The Dunwich Port Authority (DPA) was created to operate and manage the port facilities, but their ability to do so was conditioned by the availability of public funding. The fish market was revamped but much of the remaining port area was still in disrepair. Dunwich, however, has a valuable asset that other east coast ports do not: a slipway. Unlike a dry dock, this facility is not dependent on tidal movement, and 60-80 vessels of up to 850 tons are worked upon each year, the work involving welding, engine repair, pressure wash ing, painting and other routine maintenance.

However, it is in a dilapidated state. It has been largely unaltered since its construction in the 1930s and is only capable of working at 50 per cent capacity. The slipway is rented out from the DPA (at a peppercorn rent) by the Dunwich Slipway Company (DSC), a non-profit distributing company with a dozen or so members. They provide the services of slipping vessels using winches and rails located in the slipway precinct and finance the facility's maintenance and the winch operator's employment.

Another organization, Dunwich Marine Repair (DMR), consists of a similar number of independent small marine engineering companies (some of whom are also members of the DSC) who identify business opportunities for their members. Both organizations also have an equity stake in the DPA. To its great good fortune, Dunwich is in the right place at the right time. The UK govern ment has announced plans for a massive investment in offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

The vessels servicing the wind turbines will themselves need to be maintained at locations as close as possible to their bases, one of which will be Dunwich. The main European wind farm companies have already established a presence in Dunwich and others are to follow. A consultant was hired by the DPA to recommend how this potential could best be exploited. He found that the DSC were unambitious and survival-focused (perhaps unsurprising given Dunwich's recent history), that DMR were content to leave things as they are, that the slipway needs substantial investment to bring it up to standard and that both the DSC and DMR were by their very conservatism missing many business opportunities such as defense tenders by failing to market and promote themselves.

The consultant recommended that they merge to a single association, to be called Dunwich Marine, with a part-time chief executive hired to promote the slipway and its members' skills. Located in premises in the DPA, he would identify the refurbishment needs, publish a business plan, identify and project manage the work, and seek funding. He would be expected to network with investors and the major customers, represent the company on outward trade missions, subscribe to organizations with details of defense tenders and maintain efficient records. Members of the new company would retain their individual identity and autonomy, but in future a policy of one-customer-one-invoice would be introduced, rather than the complicated system currently operated where the DSC and companies working on slipped vessels invoiced the customer separately.

The consultant identified a candidate for the post and he also obtained details of a source of finance, East Finance, an organization set up to manage residual European and government money to finance local business expansion. It was therefore with some optimism that the consultant attended a meeting of the DSC and DMR members at the DPA. Copies of his report were made available and a PowerPoint presentation was given. Both the local council and the DPA supported the unthreatening proposals, but the DSC and DMR members turned them down flat. They knew their business and they were not going to be patronized by a consultant. The meeting ended with no next steps.

Reflecting on the fiasco, the DMA's chief executive commented with exasperation on the ‘history, tradition and politics' which so bedeviled any development plans put for ward for the port. He wondered aloud whether it might be better to sell the slipway for an extension to the marina (which was certainly needed) or whether to sell it to a progressive multinational marine engineering company who would have short shrift with the parochial incumbents. Five years later, the consultant happened to meet the DMA's chief executive at a fishing conference.

‘It's just what you said would happen', he told him; ‘they've just about gone bust. Most of the companies have gone out of business. Demand has gone way up, the slipway is as bad as it was and it's going to cost a couple of million to put it right. The Council is ready to contribute half the cost, yet still there is resistance from the DSC members. Despite them I'm determined to go ahead!' Perhaps, mused the consultant', I am not a prophet without honor after all'.