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The Business Plan
Following the review of industrial relations J Franklin, MD of Burke Engineering, decides
on immediate action. As the MD, you set about improving company policies at once. You
are determined to reform formal communications between yourself and the unions now.
You take more time in order to walk through the factory each morning to speak to
individual employees. You decide to set clearly defined job descriptions for the workforce
ensuring that shift work changes are kept to a minimum and that those concerned are
informed of alterations as soon as possible. You also set about seeking swift
improvements to company disciplinary codes.
At the same time, measures are taken for better safety. You institute fortnightly meetings
for each unit, within the company, to discuss working problems and practices. A review of
the appraisal system begins. You make an interim award of increased pay to the shop-
floor, but make plain that a major restructuring of the company will occur and future
employment and wage levels will be affected by this. The need for restructuring involves
analysis of all areas of Burke Engineering. This must be completed before you will be able
to take any decisions on the working environment and the introduction of new technology.
By this stage, you have a lengthy document containing the detailed information needed to
develop the new business plan which the local investors had appointed you to create and
implement. You start with the company's past. Burke Engineering was one of the many
firms that developed from the engineering demands of the First World War. Thomas
Burke, the founder, was a Scots engineer who had trained with Villers, the pre eminent
producer of submarines and marine products.
The company initially specialised in small diving bells, and other specialist marine
applications. The depression of the 1930s ended this work and the company diversified
into general engineering, producing tailored made piping and valve systems for
applications where great extremes of pressure and temperature were required. Because
the company had become more involved in engineering projects, the founder had bought
10 hectares of derelict land on the outskirts of Meeds and had moved the works to this
new location. Thomas Burke had always emphasised the importance of engineering and,
up to the 1980s, the company only appointed engineers to senior positions.
During the Second World War, Burke reverted to submersible design and development
and had an important role in the production of mini submarines, including those involved in
the raid on the Tirpitz and Italian harbours in the early 1940s.
Burke Engineering and The Submersible Market
After the Second World War demand for the company's expertise continued, both at home
and overseas, but especially in the development of the new oil fields in the Middle East.
The company was also involved in the steady growth of commercial diving, mainly on
wrecks, but also in construction projects such as bridges and harbours. Post war growth of
the chemical industry also created opportunities for Burke, both at home and overseas.
However, most overseas activity concentrated on historical United Kingdom markets: Third
World countries of the Commonwealth and the Middle East. There was little attempt to
develop markets in the growing Pacific basin, North America or Europe. The development
of the North Sea gave a major boost to Burke Engineering. Once again, demand came for
its submersible technology and sales steadily grew to an expanding UK market. In the last
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