Turner Construction Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Turner Construction Company - Essay Example Turner Construction It was founded in the year 1902 by Henry Chandlee Turner with a start-up capital of $25,000 in New York City and one of its first jobs was to build a concrete vault for the Thrift bank in Brooklyn, value of which was only $600. From those humble beginnings, it started carrying out large scale projects both in the private and government sector throughout America, only pausing during the World Wars, when it diverted its focus in the construction of military camps and other government buildings. Tuner and his family members as well as representatives managed the company for close to 90 years, until 1999, when it was acquired by the German construction company HOCHTIEF Germany for $370 million. With the takeover by Hochtief AG, Turner Construction Company got access to majority of Hochtief’s operations in geographical territories like United Kingdom, Australia, etc., as well as to the clients in the heavy construction field. Thus, it is operating as the subsidiary of HOCHTIEF in o ver 40 countries, employing around â€Å"6,000 internal employees and tens of thousands of subcontractors working on up to 1,500 job sites at any given time in 30 states and multiple countries.† (Whitney 2007).... That is, according to some experts, construction industry comes under the manufacturing sector. As Valence (2010) states, as the construction industry provides services like management, coordination and other finances related activities, it has to be classified as a service industry. However, he (2010) further adds that as it also develops and delivers products like buildings and structures, it can be constituted under the manufacturing sector. Langford and Male (2008) validates this confusion by stating that although it is commonly known as a service industry, it is a misnomer to classify so because it comes up physical products in the form of constructions. However at the same time Langford and Male (2008) provides a balanced stance by stating that given the nature and diversity of activities carried out in the construction industry, it can be classified both as a service as well as manufacturing industry. When the service and manufacturing aspect of Turner is focused, it seems tha t Turner Constructions views itself as the service industry. Because, it is stated to offer â€Å"a broad range of construction services, including general contracting, construction management, project management, design-build, multiple building programs, maintenance services, planning and preconstruction and feasibility studies.† (morgan.experience.com). Although, it offers all the above services to clients in all sectors, however, starting from the recessionary period in 2008, it has restricted itself to focusing on certain sectors. That is, the Turner Construction â€Å"learned a tough lesson in diversification during the late 1980s and 1990s, when commercial contractors suffered from the overbuilding in that sector.† (Wood 2011). So, in