Growing Pains at ABCC Construction Pvt Ltd.: Managing Vendors, Quality, and Organizational Growth in Multan

Abstract

The teaching case is about Abdullah Bhatti Construction Company (Private) Limited (ABCC), a rapidly expanding construction company based in Multan, Pakistan that has been involved in undertaking residential, commercial and small infrastructure development projects. Although the company has been enjoying the advantage of high demand and growth of business for the last 15 years, it has also experienced severe organizational challenges. The major causes of these challenges include poor management practices towards the vendors, lack of formal quality control systems as well as record-keeping mechanisms. Even when the operations of the organization got complex, the organization still used informal channels of communication, manual documentation, and the use of personal contacts with suppliers. Consequently, ABCC had high rates of material delays, quality flaws, cost increases, rework, stress among employees and customer dissatisfaction. The case brings to the fore the importance of organizational growth without corresponding development of systems, processes and people which may hurt performance. It underlines the applicability of organizational development interventions like process redesign, planned change management, and quality circles in ensuring sustainable development in construction companies that are in the developing economies.

Keywords: Organizational growth, Quality Management, Vendor Management  

Subject: Management

Difficulty level: Intermediate

Level: Undergraduate