Management Science - Forming a Company

ZERHOLDINGS SDN. BHD.

TAYLOR’S UNIVERSITY | SABD | BQS | MANAGEMENT SCIENCE | MGT 60203

Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus

School of Architecture, Building, and Design

Bachelor of Quantity Surveying (Hons)

Management Science [MGT 60203]

A guide to




ZERHOLDINGS BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Chong Hui Xin 0319363

Kiing Kiu Chun 0318727

Maybelle Wang Sze Kher 0327553

Pang Khai Shuen 0318423

Wendy Teo Siew Yen 0328242

Yong Sing Yew 0318766




Nature of Business:

Property Development

Capital:

10 Mil MYR

Location:

Subang Jaya

Vision:

To be a widely recognised property developer in Central Malaysia.

Mission:

1) To build a strong network within the industry.

2) To deliver high quality, cost effective projects on schedule

Long Term Goals:

1) To achieve a capital of 500 Million MYR within 15 years.

2) To collaborate with established companies to deliver construction projects.

3) To maintain a consistently good reputation.

Short Term Goals:

1) To minimise turnover rate.

2) To deliver 4 different properties within 10 years.

3) To provide adequate training to employees.



Contents:

1.0 Company Biodata

1.1 Overview

1.2 Vision & Mission

1.3 Long Term & Short Term Goals

2.0 Organisational Design

2.1 Organisational Structure

2.2 Organisational Culture

2.3 Manager Roles:

2.3.1 Top Managers

2.3.2 Middle Manager

2.3.3 Front-Line Managers

3.0 Training and Development Programmes

3.1 Apprenticeship Programme

3.2 Team-Building Boot Camp

3.3 Professional Talks



1.0 Company Biodata

1.1 Overview

Zerholdings Sdn. Bhd. is a property development company situated at Subang

Jaya, Malaysia with RM 10 million as capital. The vision of the company is to be a

widely recognised property developer in Central Malaysia. We want to ensure projects

to be well delivered with high satisfaction from the buyers by achieving the company’s

goals.

1.2 Vision & Mission

As it is our vision is to establish brand recognition, delivering high quality and

cost effective projects on schedule is also part of our missions. Efficient project

management is required to meet the mission. Works can be organized properly with

planned project schedule. By consistently checking on the project schedule to actual

progress on site, it can ensure the works to be done according to what it is planned.

With accordance to the project schedule, the person in charged can estimate the time

to order the materials. With this, it can ensure the materials to deliver on time and

enable the work to be conducted smoothly. At the same time, quality control can also

be done by the project manager through the monitoring of works on site.



1.3 Long & Short Term Goals

The long term goal is for our company to achieve a capital of RM500 million

within 15 years. It can be achieved by establishing numerous projects with good

financial management. Through wide networking, we intent to collaborate with other

established companies to deliver construction projects. Being collaborated with stable

companies, we will be able to deliver projects that are satisfactory. It is also our goal

to maintain good reputation in this competitive industry through our well delivered

projects.

The short term goals include minimising turnover rate. It can be achieved by ensuring

a proper and comfortable working environment where they can foster personal growth.

Also, we aim to deliver 4 properties within 10 years to strengthen the foundation of our

business. Lastly, we will provide adequate training to our employees through different

methods and programmes that can help them to improve from different aspects, not

only on their professional knowledge, but also soft skills and critical thinking.



2.0 Organisational Design

2.1 Organisational Structure

Our company adopted the functional structure with a twist – the human

resources department is directly under the care of the Board of Directors, as well as

indirectly reporting to the General Manager. As our focus is to attract and retain young

talents in the industry, we believe that by doing so, we can effectively tweak our

strategies through the relevant department. Having this setting for the relevant

department also decreases the vertical distance in the hierarchy between the Board of

Directors and the employees, making top-down communication easier, besides putting

the Human Resources department in a position where it is not affected by and will not

affect other departments.

The main reason we utilised the functional department is the size of our company. We

do not have a large enough number of projects going on or such variety in the location

of the projects to prompt the use of the divisional structure, nor the complexity of

delegating company resources to use the matrix structure. Since we are a fresh

company, it is easier and more efficient to have a direct communication route between

employees and employers.

Our organisation is separated into 3 main structure, that is, the Project, Finance, and

Sales & Marketing department. These 3 departments fall under the control of the

General Manager. The departments heads need to coordinate their strategies to be in

lieu with the plans laid out by the General Manager.



BOARDOF

DIRECTORS

HEAD OFHUMAN RESOURCES

GENERALMANAGER

HEAD OFFINANCIAL

DEPARTMENT

HEAD OFPROJECT

DEPARTMENT

HEAD OFMARKETING &

SALES DEPARTMENT

ORGANISATIONAL CHART – ZERHOLDINGS

MARKETINGTEAM

SALESTEAM



2.2 Organisational Culture

In Zerholdings, we seek to promote a strong relationship between employees.

We want our employees to feel comfortable in their working environment as we believe

that through this approach, the social barrier between department members can be

lowered, and thus increasing work productivity.

To achieve this, we provide open spaces in the office without restricted cubicles. This

includes open spaces for employees to socialise during non-working hours. This

physical setting encourages our employees to make decisions through discussions,

and it is therefore vital for them to be open to ideas. Also, our company will be having

weekly sports night, where employees can compete with one another. Through these

activities, our employees, especially newcomers, will get to know their colleagues

better, indirectly enhancing their working experience.

While providing a comfortable environment for our employees, at the same time we

want to be keeping a tab on their productivity level as well. To achieve this, we will give

incentives based on group achievements instead of the traditional individual

achievement. This way, every working team will constantly check on one another to

make sure everyone is one the same page. The Heads of Departments can also set

short term goals for employees, and monitor their progress from time to time.

With this open concept, we aim to flatten the organisational structure, and lowering

and even eliminating the communication barrier between department heads and the

team members. It is easier for employees to approach employers, and similarly it is

easier for employers to monitor employees. This facilitates communication between

these two parties and information can be passed on clearly and precisely.



2.3 Manager Roles

2.3.1 Top Managers’ Roles

As a top management of Zerholdings, 6 of us focus on provide governance

leadership and strategic planning for our company. We set objectives and try to devise

ways of achieving our targets. For example: We plan for our long-term goals and short-

term goals and develop key strategic actions that can help us achieve our goals. We

also the ones who need to identify accurately the resources needed and actions to be

taken to achieve objectives. For example: We need to make decisions on how many

plots of land we need to purchase and how to add value to these by developing it with

our limited capital. We also monitor how the activities that are developed and

implemented by middle management based on our objectives (whether it matches with

our mission or not).

We also design and manage a good organizational structure for our company to

achieve a strong team. As a directors of the company we are also responsible on

building and managing relationships and communication with partners, contractors,

clients and etc. We believe that building a strong network within the industry will prove

helpful to our company in our future project. Sometimes we may also take care of our

employees and give them enough space to share their ideas and opinions directly to

us as our working culture is to be family-friendly. We will also make sure the lower

management treat our employees fairly and equitably. We believe that employees are

the most important assets of our company.

As a summary, we are responsible on deciding the future and direction of the company.

We spending more time on planning, develop strategy and leading the management

team. We also focus more on development of our conceptual skills and human skills.



2.3.2 Middle Manager’s Roles

Our general manager will focus on developing and implementing activities,

coordinating activities of first-line manager and allocating resources. As a general

manager, he needs to put plans from the top management into action. He needs to

develop and implement activities that matches with the objectives and which can be

used to achieve our goals. Our general manager will assign the tasks that needs to be

done and groups them into different department. For example: As we are a new

company, we will need a lot of advertisement. The general manager will pass this

idea/task to the marketing department and make sure they carry out the activities. They

may also set deadlines on the implemented tasks to make sure everything is on

schedule.

As a general manager, he takes responsible on requesting resources and the

allocation of resources. He will make sure our company’s resources are effectively

used. For example: He will decide how much funds are needed for the marketing

department for them to carry out the advertisement for our company. Our general

manager is also responsible on coordinating activities of first-line manager make sure

they understand everything and assigning the right activities to the employees. The

general manager of our company also gather information of recent performance and

compare it with present performance to the pre-establish standard. With this

information they can determine whether a modification is needed or not to meet our

company goal.

Last but not least, our general manager also responsible in establishing a good

communication network and patterns within the company to make sure every

department coordinating well. As a general manager of our company, conceptual skills

and human skills are equally important in order to be able to see the organization as a

whole and know how to affect and leads other departments as well.



2.3.3 Front-line Managers’ Roles

First-line managers set short term goals and distributes tasks to employees.

He then supervises the process of carrying out the tasks to make sure the goals set

are attainable. They need to have the right technical skills to do their job properly,

however human skills are also needed by these managers to lead their employees.

Project Team

The Project Team is the group responsible for planning and work out the project.

The member of project team consists of Project Manager, In house Quantity Surveyor,

Architect, Engineer, Landscape Surveyor, etc. Project Teams are in charge for the

communication of relevant and important information relative to the development,

carrying and ongoing activities of a project.

Objectives of project team

1) Specification of project objectives and plans including designing, budgeting,

scheduling, setting project performance requirements.

2) Apply of various operation through proper coordination and design, control of

planning, estimating, contracting and construction in the construction process.

3) Development of efficient communications and mechanisms for resolving conflicts

that happened during the project.



Head of Project Team/Project Manager

The Head of Project Team’s role is to make sure that team can achieve all the relevant

goals. He acts as the most important person throughout the whole construction

lifecycle as the project team is responsible for the inception, feasibility studies, design,

procurement up to the completion of a project. The head of project team will work

closely with the Superintending Officer during the whole construction process.

The project manager carries a lot of responsibilities. During the pre-tender stage,

planning & scheduling of a project is one of the most important roles of the head of

project team as he need to plan the build process and to ensure the project is

completed on time. The project manager also needs to arrange and lead on regular

team meetings with other members of the project team.

Besides that, the project manager has to coordinate with the General Manager to

ensure company resources are adequately distributed in project activities. He also has

to collaborate with other Department heads, for instance the sales and marketing head

to ensure that what is advertised is the same as what the customers are getting. This

is vital to enhance the company’s reputation among potential property buyers.

During the construction stage, he has to keep an eye on the construction progress,

whether it adheres to the quality requirements set by the project team and whether it

is on schedule.

Financial Department

The financial department is the group responsible for monitoring the company’s

profitability, while ensuring timely and accurate financial reporting and making sure

that the company has established and maintains an effective set of internal accounting

controls. The member of accounting team will be certified accountants. The accounting

team is also responsible for monitoring and accurately report company profitability.

They are also responsible in distributing the salary to employees and controlling the

inflow and outflow of cash in every department. The head of financial department

monitors the members in the team to ensure the smoothness of operations.



Sales & Marketing Department

The marketing team is the group responsible to create customers and generate income

for the company. The marketing team works to promote and establish the properties

our company offers. The aim of the marketing team is to generate revenue and to

attract customers, all marketing team activities are aimed at broadening the customer

base and finding opportunities that would create more revenue to our company. The

sales team provides feedback to the marketing team based on customers’ opinions.

They are the first line of contact between the customers and the company. They have

to synergise with the marketing team to effectively gain buyers for the company.

Human Resources Department

The human resources department is the most critical department to ensure our

company hires the right people and how we increase their values in the company. We

are looking for employees that can adapt to our company’s culture and are willing to

be part of the team. This department has to set certain criteria to be used while hiring

new employees, besides being clear on exactly what kind of employees the company

needs. This is exactly the reason why this department reports directly to the Board of

Directors, and indirectly to the General Manager.’

The human resources department is also responsible in conducting training and

development programs for our employees. The training has to be suitable and

beneficial to our employee’s future performance in the company. They are also in

charge of the welfare of employees. All information about the employees and be

reported to the Board of Directors, thus giving us first-hand information on the

wellbeing of our employees.



3.0 Training and Development

3.1 Apprenticeship Programme

Majority of the young people graduate from their alma mater accoutered with

book-learned knowledge and eagerness. Zerholdings Sdn. Bhd., have targeted to

support the employees to comprehend and thrive on the job. Through the in-house

apprenticeship programme, personnel will be able to acquire and polish their

knowledge and skills to steer and flourish in the company.

As Zerholdings Bhd. is a development company, it is vital for the personnel to be armed

with the right key skill such as communication, problem solving and teamwork. For

instance, apprenticeship programme can be utilized by the Human Resource (HR)

department in the company. The head of HR department shall identify the specific and

satisfactory training and development needed by the personnel in the company

through job analysis and deliberations with the other heads of department. From the

job analysis, HR department will be able to develop relevant and effective induction

programmes that will be well-rounded for all the subordinates to shape them to be

more of a people person and enhance their key skill. Personnel will be under the

guidance of their seniors alongside professional advice fused with organization

experience to meet daily responsibilities and also assist them to establish a strategy

to achieve their career and company’s goals.

It is normally skill-based learning programme which involves learning processes that

depend upon knowledge. Employees will be designated to learn through various

activities as well as attending classes of related technical instruction which give them

an overall understanding of the theoretical aspects of their work. Through one of the

various activities provided, the apprentices will be branched into different groups to

work together with employees from different departments and paired with senior

personnel to assist them to polish on their key skill. During the early stages of an

apprenticeship, the senior personnel may guide their subordinates by showing them

some simple tasks. These activities will also help the apprentices to solve specific

training problems as groups. For example, in-house project team members such as



the architect, engineer and quantity surveying will be able to work together and be able

to conduct meetings with contractors where the team members will be able to deliver

good explanation on any disputes that arose.

Senior employees can share their own experiences with the apprentices which will

help them to learn from mistakes of others. Apprentices can get some critical insights

to the company and understanding the events going on around which allows them to

recognize opportunities and fend off career limiting mistakes. Apprentices will also be

able to leverage some of their academic knowledge in the real world setting. With the

guidance of senior employees, they will seize exposure to areas of the company they

normally may not experience and gaining the capabilities desired to perform duties to

the required standards.

Apprenticeship is a win-win training programme for both the personnel and employers

where the personnel acquire helpful experience that will make them more ambitious in

their job while employers gain a skilled workforce that is trained to the company’s

standards.

3.2 Team-Building Boot Camp

The team building boot camp is one of the benefits that Zerholdings provide for

our employees. Participating employees will have an opportunity to go through the

intense and arduous indoor and outdoor training sessions to improve their soft-skills

while completing challenges in a fun and competitive way. Through this programme,

our employees will be developed both physically and mentally, thus achieving the

positive results desired by our company. Zerholdings is working with Fish Camp

learning and Warrior leadership & team building to make this boot camp a reality.

This training camp will be held twice a year, and all employees especially new-comers

are encouraged to join as we are offering this programme to increase the effectiveness

of every individual while working in a team. The programme will arrange different

department employees into a team to train their leadership, communication skills,

problem solving and etc. While the camp is ongoing, managers can detect apathy in

employees and the lack of involvement, permanent conflicts between team members



among other problems that might hinder their future performance in the company. The

workshop is separated into indoors and outdoors. Indoor activities include

brainstorming while outdoors features hiking and camps. For an example of indoor

activity, we will prepare an inspiration deck to participate to look beyond industry

borders. Each team will get 2-3 different cases, they need to communicate and write

down all different elements that they think is inspiring or innovative. Next, they will look

for opportunities on how to translate these insights to a new product or service idea. In

the end, participate will receive feedback on each member.

For the outdoor activity, we aim to give our employees an opportunity to experience

the nature. Through this camp, our final motive is to bring our employees through the

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing process as soon as possible. Once this is

achieved, our employees will be able to realise their full potential.

Learning Outcomes

Ability to lead and manage oneself in becoming a highly effective person.

Able to develop fundamental leadership skills to lead and manage individuals in a

team.

Able to be the leader of leaders.

Able to lead business functions as well as people to achieve overall business goals.



Trainer Profiles

Theophilus Wong 12 years experience

B.Eng, 1st Class (UK), M.Sc. (UK) and Ph.D in Management (pursuing) PBS, UPM

Formerly Senior Manager of Mind Resource Asia Pte Ltd (AUS) & General Manager of Local Consulting Firm

Master Trainer for DISC Insights, Institute of Motivational Living Inc. USA

Master Trainer for Workplace Big Five, Centre of Applied Cognitive Studies, USA

Accredited Belbin Team Roles, Belbin UK

Accredited Competency Professional, ILM UK

Accredited Team Management System, TMS AUS

Certified Habitudes Trainer, Growing Leaders, USA

Certified Strong Interest Inventory, MBTI Trust USA

Certified Coaching & Mentoring Professional, ITD M’sia

Certified Behavioural & Career Consultant, IML Inc USA

Certified Saville Wave Consultant, Saville International UK

Certified Facilitator – The Five Behavior of A Cohesive Team, USA

Certified Facilitator – Discovery Learning Inc. USA

Certificate in HR Transformation & O.D. Penn State U (USA)

Member of Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, UK

Member of American Talent Development, USA

Member of International Coaching Federation, ICF USA

PSMB Certified Trainer

Charis Yong 15 years experience

Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons)

Certified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

PPA Profiling for DISC, Thomas International

Certified Saville Wave Consultant, Saville International UK

Harrison Assessments Practitioner, and Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner

Certified Associate Coach by ICF-ACSTH Associate Certified Coach Program

Certified Professional Trainer (CPT) by Malaysian Institute of Management and Certified PSMB Trainer



3.3 Professional Talks

Zerholdings Sdn. Bhd. aims to attract young talents into the company who can

continuously sharpen their skills as providing adequate training to the employees to

equip themselves is one of the short term goals listed. The company wants the

employees to get involved in as many professional talks as possible to expose them

to different knowledge related to the construction. The talk could be held outside the

company where various speakers who have experiences in the construction industry

are invited over to share their knowledge and know-how to the younger generation.

For example, a talk series on Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act will

be beneficiary to the Quantity Surveyors (QS) in our company. Payment issue shall

always be resolved and keep to a minimum to maintain good reputation of the company.

It is insufficient for in house QS to be familiar with the payment process only. They

should also be acquainted with the methods to handle disputes related to payment

issue, where it can lead to arbitration if not solved properly. Thus, thorough

understanding of the adjudication rules is crucial.

The talk is conducted by Professor Datuk Sundra Rajoo, Director of Kuala Lumpur

Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) and also the Past President of the Asia-Pacific

Regional Arbitration Grouping (APRAG). He is experienced in contractual payment

and arbitration matter as he serves on the panel of many international arbitral

institutions and organizations. Our company will be sending 2 senior QS

representatives to attend the talk. The talk covers the Construction Industry Payment

and Adjudication Act (CIPAA) regulations and the KLRCA Adjudication Rules. At the

end of the talk, there will be Q&A session for participants to clarify their uncertainties

on payment related issues. By attending the mentioned talk, participated employees

are expected to be equipped with better ability to solve the matters related to payment

and arbitration.



After attending the talk, the 2 participants are to write a reflective journal that reflects

what they have learned. A reflective report not only encourages participants to recall

what knowledge they have gained, but also encourages them to apply their

understanding into the real practice when they face payment issues. Also, the

participants are to share what they have gained through the talk to their colleagues.

By doing so, it benefits the other employees who could not join the talk.

In today’s industry, more firms are arising where capable and competent employees

are ever-increasing at the same time. Therefore, by participating the professional talks,

employees are expected to improve their knowledge or catch up with all kind of new

technology or method that are introduced into the industry to keep up to pace. This will

lower the risk of company being substituted by the emerging firms. Also, the employees

should be able to relate pros and cons of any related matter and evaluate what impact

it brings to the company.



References:

Fish camp learning. Our Team. (Hitting the headlines article) [online]. Retrieved June 23th,

2016 http://www.fishcamp.com.my/about_team.html

Fish camp learning. What sets us apart. (Hitting the headlines article) [online]. Retrieved

June 23th, 2016 http://www.fishcamp.com.my/index.html

Hridayinee, H. (2013) .5 Life Lessons We Can Learn From Nature. (Hitting the headlines

article) [online] (Updated on 29 May 2013). Retrieved June 20th, 2016

http://www.jewelsofhappiness.com/5-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-nature/

http://www.fishcamp.com.my/about_team.html

http://www.fishcamp.com.my/index.html

http://www.jewelsofhappiness.com/5-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-nature/



Bibliography:

Apprenticeship programs information guide. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15th, 2016, from CA gov:

http://www.dir.ca.gov/databases/das/descOfAppr.html

Horwath, J. (n.d.). Management Laboratory. Retrieved June 15th, 2016, from SANS

Technology Institute: http://www.sans.edu/research/management-laboratory/article/horwath-

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Management Science - Forming a Company

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