Jury meet | POWER-PACKED PANEL

<span style="font-weight: bold;">Eleven industry experts came together on August 10, 2018, in Mumbai to deliberate upon India's Fastest Growing Constrution Companies and the CW Person of the Year.</span> <p></p> <p> Arriving at the winners for the CONSTRUCTION WORLD Awards has never been an easy task. </p> <p>This year, too, a panel of 11 eminent players from the industry came together on August 10 to discuss, deliberate upon and select our honour roll. </p> <p>Akin to the process in recent years, the jury meet was initiated by pulling out a list of nominations for the CW Person of the Year 2018. Compiled by the CW editorial team, the nominations included construction heroes who have enjoyed remarkable achievements this year and, through their efforts, propelled the organisation and industry forward. </p> <p>Further, going by the rules of the game, a report with a quantitative analysis of construction companies v date sourced from published annual reports and results published by companies v was presented to the panel to allow them to assess the companies in each category (Fastest Growing v Large, Medium and Small). </p> <p>Even in the case of non-listed firms, such data was sourced from the company directly by seeking audited figures. To ensure authenticity of data during compilation, various checks and balances were put into place. </p> <p>The jury was informed that the data was further audited selectively to ensure it was error-free. This data was collated and compiled by FIRST Construction Council, a non-profit trust set up in 2003 to empower and enable the construction community through information and policy advocacy, and achieve sustainable world-class standards in construction. </p> <p>The council also engages in researching information and ranking construction and infrastructure companies.</p> <p>As a prelude to the discussion of selecting India¦s fastest growing companies, a presentation on the parameters of the model was made by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pratap Padode, Founder &amp; President, FIRST Construction Council. </span>This included the definition of large, medium and small companies, and the rationale for the choice of companies along with criteria such as cut-off levels for selecting companies in various categories. Companies not considered for the awards were those with insufficient data available; those that suffered losses in FY2017; and those whose figures were derived mainly from µin-house performance.</p> <p>In the ' Fastest Growing Construction Company v Large' category, companies that stood out in the past few years in terms of their execution bandwidth topped the charts. Other factors discussed included in-house capabilities in conjunction with liquidity or working capital profile; surge in order book; considerable equipment bank; and early completion bonus received. </p> <p>Also, companies with a diversified profile and resilient growth going forward won majority support from the jury. </p> <p>In the 'Fastest Growing Construction Company v Medium' category, construction companies with less risk, good growth and strong expansion plans were deliberated upon. Ethics played a crucial role for companies to make it to the winning list. While companies were studied for their consistent track record, safety record and internal processes were also considered. </p> <p>In the 'Fastest Growing Construction Company v Small' category, while some companies showcased a good turnaround, the jury found some not very consistent in terms of growth. Owing to this, the panel unanimously decided not to consider a third winner in this category for the year. </p> <p>This was a true brainstorming session for the panel. While deliberating upon the financial data provided for the companies, the jury discussed that shareholder returns should also be looked into and, for private companies, lender returns should be considered. Along with the rankings, the jury also discussed the track record of various construction companies, which included quality of work and industry happenings as well as softer issues and business factors. </p> <p>In all, the panel focussed on top-line and bottom-line growth; they discussed all-round performance and shared their perceptions and findings on areas of concern of some companies during the period under review. </p> <p>This certainly had an overall impact on the final winning list. Eventually, it was well worth the wait when the panel arrived at its definitive list of the winning companies for 2018: India's Fastest Growing Companies.</p>