2. Since March 2000, The London Eye has become an
iconic landmark and a symbol of modern Britain.
The London Eye is the UK’s most popular paid for
visitor attraction, visited by over 3 million people a
year.
The London Eye is the vision of David Marks and Julia
Barfield, a husband and wife architect team. The
wheel design was used as a metaphor for the end of
the 20th century, and time turning into the new
millennium.
3. A stakeholder is any individual or organisation that is
affected by the activities of a business. They may have
a direct or indirect interest in the business, and may
be in contact with the business on a daily basis, or
may just occasionally.
The project of the London Eye had many stakeholders
investing interest in the project but there were also a
lot of key stakeholders who were a subset of the
overall stakeholders who had power to prevent the
project from achieving its full set of objectives and
potentially causing the project to fail along the way.
4. Shareholders interested in their dividends and capital growth of their shares.
(British Airways)
Company Management and Employees whom may also be shareholders but
are more interested in their job security, prospects and pay.
Customers and suppliers (Tussauds Group, Mace LTD, Poma LTD, Hollandia)
Banks and other financial organisations lending money to the project.
Government & Local Councils – in particular the Inland Revenue and the
Customs and Excise who would be collecting tax from the project. (Lambeth
Council)
Trade Unions representing the interests of the workers involved with the project.
Pressure Groups – interested in whether the project was acting appropriately
towards their area of interest. (E.G Basque Environmental Groups)
5. INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS (part of the business)
- Employees
- Managers
- Directors
EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS (outside the business)
- Shareholders (who don't work in the business)
- Local community
- Customers
- Suppliers
- Government
- Press / Media Groups
- Public Authorities
6. - Managers - Project tasks completed without conflict and delays & growth and
expansion.
- Directors - Good return on investment and Profit Maximisation and good publicity
and competitive advantage over rivals.
- Employee - Fair pay and working conditions.
- Shareholder - Good return on investment
- Supplier - Regular business and prompt payment
- Customer - Fair price and safe product
- Local community - Jobs and minimum disruption
- Government - Employment for local community
- Environment / Focus Groups - Less pollution and congestion and environmental
disruption to local wildlife and habitats
7. Social responsibility for one group can conflict with other
groups, especially between shareholders and stakeholders as seen
with the London Eye.
Some of the conflicts during the project arose because the
shareholders want short-term profits, whilst the other
stakeholders’ desires tend to cost money and reduce profits.
The company (BA) owners also had to balance their own wishes
against those of the other stakeholders or risk losing their ability
to generate future profits (e.g. workers going on strike or
customers refusing to buy the company’s product or service due to
constant health fears).
8. The objective of the strikers of the Basque environmental
group were in relation to the disposal of waste safely and in
an environmentally friendly manner.
This also includes the construction of the London Eye parts –
capsules, cables, wheel rims etc without affecting the local
environment where manufactured in foreign countries and
their surrounding habitats without affecting BA’s objective to
trade fairly with developing countries.
Lambeth Councils sponsoring local charity events to ensure
community relations do not become strained.
9. To ensure a completed project – as PM one needs to
follow the following steps to ensure success:
Identify all costs and benefits using the principle of
opportunity cost.
Measure the benefits and costs using money as a unit
of account
Consider the likelihood of the cost or benefit occurring
(i.e. sensitivity analysis)
Take account of the timing of the cost and benefit.
10. Consider Private Costs e.g. construction costs, operating costs and
maintenance costs do not get beyond control.
External Costs i.e. costs incurred by non users (a) monetary e.g. loss of
profits to competitors e.g. to ferry owner for shipping construction parts
over continents and (b) non monetary e.g. noise, loss of countryside or
local environment, inconvenience to local residents and businesses.
Private benefits (a) direct the amount consumers are prepared to pay
e.g. the tolls paid, parking fees (b) indirect i.e. consumer surplus .
External benefits i.e. benefits to non users e.g. consumer surplus of
users; time savings for travellers and fewer accidents on site during and
after construction – maintain effective repairs throughout usage of
service.
11. Delivering ‘on-time and on-budget’ to
appease stakeholders, , finishing first or
achieving the planned objective; but
achievement on its own does not translate to
success.
The Project is only Successful when the
achievement is acknowledged by ones key
stakeholders and they declare it a ‘success’.
12. When the project seemed doomed to certain to
fall down because of lack of funds, it seemed
that the media publicity was, in the end, a key
part of reviving the project from failure.
British Airways stepped in, formed a partnership
with Marks Barfield, and managed to provide
the loans needed to kick-start the project into
the last stages of its eventual completion.
13. The London Eye has had its fair of problems –
even upon completion. As with all the
Millennium projects, it suffered a major
setback. One of the cables had worked itself
loose, and the raise had to be halted, leaving
the wheel at a seemingly precarious angle of
35° over the river.
14. The Project hit by crisis after crisis has over the past years ranked
not only as one of London's top attractions, but also one of
Britain's top attractions despite having until a few years ago
temporary planning permission.
But Leaving its troubled past behind it, its future is more or less
guaranteed, and its permanent status assured, which means the
London Eye is a refined, inconspicuous structure, sitting neatly on
the South Bank, next to Westminster Bridge, casting a delicate
shadow over the Houses of Parliament.
After being built in the short time span of 16 months, an almost
non-project which seemed so destined to fail miserably has
provided London with its fourth tallest structure and a brand new
landmark, which has been, to the surprise and delight of
many, accepted by the public and beaten the expectations of
many.
15. The London Eye has done for London what
the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give
it a symbol and to let people climb above the
city and look back down on it. Not just
specialists or the upper class, but everybody.
That's the beauty of it: it is public and
accessible, and it is in a great position at the
heart of London – debt free and its long term
future secured.
