Managing a global corporation effectively takes considerable skill and expertise to ensure success. This paper is intended to identify several factors affecting global businesses, in particular those affecting Bechtel Corporation, and show how the organization has continued to be profitable while managing these controllable and uncontrollable forces.



Bechtel Corporation, founded in 1898 by Warren Bechtel, is a global engineering-construction organization, that provides premier technical, management, and directly related services to develop, manage, engineer, build, and operate installations for customers worldwide. It is the intent of the company to bring expertise to the specific markets being serviced while applying core competencies and skills to all the work accomplished. To do this effectively, Bechtel has many internal and external forces that it must contend with and overcome.

External Forces

External factors affecting Bechtel are numerous and constant. If companies like Bechtel are not armed with the tools to combat these forces to help mitigate the impact, the company can suffer greatly. Here are some examples of these forces and what Bechtel has done.

Last year, Bechtel worked some 900 jobs in nearly 60 countries and reported revenues of $11.6 billion. This represents a decrease from $13.4 billion from the previous year. The company attributes this decrease to an overall lethargic global economy last year, which led to some customers canceling, suspending or slowing down their projects. To compensate for this factor, Bechtel opted to focus on integrating the finance, development and ownership segments of the company with core processes of construction and engineering as means of protecting the business financially.

Considering the extensive amount of construction work, the environment and its protection are a key factor in how Bechtel does business. Environmental laws and regulations can apply to virtually every aspect of Bechtel's business. Construction activities often require compliance with many environmental laws and regulations. These laws should be aggressively enforced in every region in which Bechtel operates, ensuring no work is planned that contradicts these laws. Bechtel's legal department consistently strives to ensure each requirement is fully met and every employee performing work involving these regulations is responsible for adherence.

One of Bechtel's chief competitors in the construction and engineering industry includes Fluor Corporation, based in Aliso Viejo, California. This company operates at nearly the same level as Bechtel, maintaining nearly 55,000 employees and generating some $9 billion in revenues as of 2001 Also in close competition is AMEC, also a construction and engineering services company based in the UK and also employing more than 50,000 globally.

Each of these competitors represents a threat to Bechtel at any time, making this a prevalent thought in the minds of Bechtel senior management. Each time a contract is won, Bechtel has ensured that it can offer the best service, technology at the best value as compared to its competitors. With the wining of the award of the USAID contract for the rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructures after the recent war, Bechtel was among the select few given the opportunity to bid based on its reputation of performing above standard and ahead of its competitors.

The last external factor to be discussed in this paper covers the technological factors that Bechtel must face every day. To complete the enormous projects that Bechtel takes on such as the ?Chunnel? as it's fondly called in Europe, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link connecting Paris to London, it is important that the company monitor technological advances as well as be mindful of when technology may be lacking and a potential hindrance to completing work. In many cases, Bechtel's work becomes the source of technology itself by creating new ways to generate power, or even communicate. For example, Bechtel has contracted with Cingular Wireless and with AT&T Wireless on two projects meant to improve cellular communication in more than 70 markets in the US. Even while building to improve technology, Bechtel must be aware of how technology can improve their work, hinder performance or be the source for more business.

While there are many things that an organization is unable to control, there are a few factors in which the company has direct control over. In particular, the factors of production as it relates to capital, raw materials and people and the overall activities of the organization to include personnel, finance, marketing and others.