Crh Plc: Redefining Corporate-Level Strategy

"The physical substance of a house is a pile of materials assembled from widely scattered sources. They undergo different kinds and degrees of processing in large number of places, require many types of handling over periods that vary greatly in length, and use the services of a multitude of people organized into many different sorts of business entity." (Cox and Goodman 1956)

Those were the characteristics that shaped the construction industry 54years ago in terms of the way of its performance and functioning. And nowadays building and construction industry is experiencing a significant increase which creates so many opportunities for investors, that gives birth to competition in the market for both the construction industry as well as in the building materials industry.

This competitive market grows and became so aggressive thanks to globalization, but still, if we talk about building materials industry in the world our minds will drive us all the way to the top companies that have marked their touch in the market.

As far as for this paper, the company that has been chosen is CRH plc; an Irish building materials company which is one of the world's top building materials companies.

This paper is designed as follow; first, the identification of the strategic characteristics of the building material industry, after that, the evaluation of how well CRH plc strategy has responded to this business environment, then, a conclusion to sum up.

The empirical background of the paper is a case study of CRH plc: redefining corporate-level strategy by Mike Morony, 2007. Therefore, analyses, observations and conclusions regarding building material industry in general and mainly CRH plc will be related to this case study.

"….building materials and products are standard, similar across markets and largely stable over time. Production processes are also standard. Technology is non-proprietary and for some products, relatively unsophisticated."

Mike Moroney, 2007.

The building materials producers are defined as those companies involved in the production of basic building materials which are according to Mike Moroney, 2007 composed of primary materials: such as cement, aggregates, asphalt, ready mixed concrete, lime and magnesia, also of heavy-side building products: as example the concrete bricks, insulation, glass and security products, and the light-side building products: for example plumbing heating, electrical and lighting products, that are manufactured and distributed basically to ‘merchanting' and Do It Yourself markets (DIY), and the sectors served are divided into two parts:

 New construction work (residential, industrial, commercial and public works)

 RMI (Repair maintenance and improvement)

In the industry of basic building materials, companies