Discuss the following:
ICON Venue Group (ICON) is a global Owner Representative/Project Management firm that focuses solely on the Sports, Entertainment and Public Assembly industry in the development, construction and commissioning of new and renovated stadiums and arenas. More information can be found at www.iconvenue.com. I expect you will familiarize yourself with our website and understand our position in the market in advance
ICON supports the client interests in these redevelopments from inception of an idea through the opening of a venue. We devote a significant amount of time and effort from conceptual design of a new project through the construction completion. This requires the interactive work and collaboration between the Client, ICON, a CM/GC (Construction Manager/General Contractor) and an Architect.
To carry out our responsibility, in simple terms, each of the parties have different objectives:
• Client - desires the best, most prominent venue it can afford for the budget they have allocated.
• CM/GC - desires the highest fee for the least amount of risk possible which means they are also looking to generate the largest GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price).
• Architect - desires to design the most iconic venue possible (which often equates to costing more money than the project can afford) and is also looking for the largest fee possible.
• ICON - desires to deliver the best value for the Client's allocated budget in return for a fair fee while ensuring both the CM/GC and Architect make a fair fee as well. At the end of the day, all parties are at the table because of one thing: the Client.
Aligning the objectives of all the parties for the betterment of the Client is one of ICON's most difficult challenges. If you were the CEO of ICON, what approach(es) would you take to overcome the apparent incongruous objectives of the major parties during the design and construction of a new stadium or arena? Or to put it another way, how does ICON keep the Client's objectives the driving force throughout the project while adequately motivating the other parties to do their work?