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Organizations and Organizing in an Indian Context
Edited by Peter Stokes, Mitch Larson, Suram Balasubrahmanyam and Sanjay Kumar Singh
1 Introduction
Growth performance of construction companies in India has been poor as indicated by certain facts. Only three companies from India figure in the Engineering News Record (ENR ) top 225 international contractors list ([17] Reina and Tulacz, 2009). With the possible exception of these three companies namely Larsen and Tourbo Limited, Punj Lloyd Limited and Hindustan Construction Company, most companies in India have not been able to convert the huge opportunities offered currently by the infrastructure expansion projects. There is a huge gap in size and scale of operations between them and the three named above in India. In spite of having existed over a long period of time, several companies have not been able to match the performance of these companies. This gap is hypothesized to be attributed to the lack of internal capabilities as well as growth strategizing vision. As a result, the opportunities are feared to be slipping into the hands of large size international companies having greater capability and expertise of delivery. Companies in India thus, face a situation where they have to win against competitors who are stronger, both in terms of size and expertise.
In this study, an attempt has been made to understand how most construction companies in India can achieve a growth performance comparable to the leaders in the industry. This evaluation has been carried out through established tools of analysis and in depth case studies of a select group of construction companies in India.
2 Methodology
For a greater understanding of the strategy process with respect to growth, this paper traces growth in terms of few basic enablers. Enablers may be defined as those dimensions in terms of inputs and processes, which help or promote the achieving of results or performance ([2] Ambastha, 2008). The categorization of enablers internal to a company, have been adopted from a past research and literature review carried out by the authors. These enablers and their theoretical definitions are briefly presented in Table I [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] for better comprehension of the readers.
For case studies, the companies are selected on basis of their contrasting or polar...