Burj Khalifa Essay: Critique, Risk Management, And Stakeholder Approach.

Design of Burj Khalifa

The paper mainly reflects on the Burj Khalifa design and build project, which is presently the tallest building in the world. The design of the building is a 162-storey tower that is further combined with the local cultural influences with the cutting-edge technology for achieving very much high performance in an extreme desert climate. It is identified that the design of the Burj Khalifa is a Y shaped structural based system that helps in replicating a desert flower that is mainly known as Hymenocallis (Abraham 2019). The exterior cladding or the curtain wall is identified as a proper combination of textured stainless steel, aluminium as well as glass panels. Moreover, the design of the Burj Khalifa embodies both the lyrical as well as well-proportioned structure which is a regional flower that is mainly inspired by the help of architect Adrian Smith's version of the entire iconic tower. The construction of the building has mainly used around 330,000 m3 of concrete as well as 39,000 tonnes of steel rebar.

The paper discusses the critique of the project team approach in context to the management of project risk and further analyzes the approach of stakeholder management. Additionally, the paper reviews the risk management, stakeholder management as well as success or failure of the project and further identifies the lessons that are learned from the Burj Khalifa project. The paper also showcases the way in which the lessons that are learned from the project will generally help in the profession of project managers in their careers.

 While the Burj Khalifa design and construction was undertaken, the increasing number of tall towers of the building has mainly given rise to certain types of perils. There are a number of risks as well as insurance challenges that are experienced by both the developers as well as contractors (El Gendy and El Gendy 2018). The chances of fire, as well as escape of water, generally helps in representing significant risk to the completion date of the project. It is identified that both the events generally have the probability of causing damage to the work that further creates significant delays. In addition to this, the risk gets increased in a tall tower because of a very much high concentration of value within a single structure. The challenges due to fire in a tall building would be quite challenging for mitigating the added height of Burj Khalifa reduces the probability or chances of putting off fire quite easily. Moreover, the risk related to terrorism is also enhancing globally, and thus construction sites like Burj Khalifa can be effectively targeted by the terrorists and thus, a very strong consideration needs to be provided in context to terrorism insurance for successfully reinstating the construction-related work (Onzini and Alawadi 2021).

 The project team has taken the right approach in order to handle the risks that are related to the height of the Burj Khalifa. The project team has taken the correct risk mitigation measures before as well as during the construction of the Burj Khalifa for minimizing the chances of negative impact (Barreiro-Gomez, Choutri and Tembine 2021). The team focuses on some of the important insurance coverage that is associated with the construction of tall buildings includes construction risks, third party liability risks, terrorism risk, environmental liability and more.  As different types of construction related techniques generally gets improved and a very much safer construction-based methods are generally developed then it generally ensures to be quite strong for the success of the project (Ponzini and Alawadi 2021).

Project Team Approach and Risk Management

It is identified that as the tower of Burj Khalifa crept up, proper safety measures were generally enforced on 10,000 workers who are from 59 companies. Proper health and safety precautions are mainly implemented for ensuring that the health and safety of the workers do not get compromised (Viswanathan, Tripathi and Jha 2020). Proper rules, as well as regulations, are incorporated for the health and safety laws so that health and safety of the employees does not get compromised.The power tools during work are converted to 110 volts instead of 220 volts for decreasing the chances of accidents. Additionally, fire hydrants, as well as extinguishers, are placed on every floor. Moreover, a proper mitigation approach is prepared for reducing or eliminating the long-term risk in context to the people as well as properly from hazards as well as other types of impacts.

 The project team provided the correct effort for identifying the risks that are associated with construction for further presenting, measuring as well as monitoring the challenges that are challenges that occur during construction. The construction team uses proper risk management tools for promoting safety against the risk in order to successfully come up with the right approach for managing as well as estimating the risks within the construction procedure (Barreiro-Gomez, Choutri and Tembine 2021). The project team also takes the correct initiative at the right time for managing the risks of the project. For example, the hot climate of the middle east created a condensation challenge during the construction of the Burj Khalifa. However, the project team has taken the initiative of creating a separate piping system to hold a tank within the basement for storing the water in order to either avoid or mitigate the challenge (Sotoudehnia and Rose?Redwood 2019).

The stakeholder approach is considered as the practice that the managers of Burj Khalifa generally formulate as well as implement in order to satisfy the needs of the stakeholders in order to achieve long term success. During the construction of the Burj Khalifa, the government was considered the major stakeholder of the project (Wilkins and Emik 2021). The name of the tower was mainly given based on the name of Khalifa Bin Zayed, who was the ruler of Dubai that further indicates the instrumental role that is mainly played by the government of UAE (Morad and El-Sayegh 2018). Additionally, the other major stakeholder group related to the design and build of the Burj Khalifa is the construction group named "Emaar Properties", which mainly spends around US$1.5 billion. The project was considered as one of the important flagship projects in Dubai by the organization named "Emaar Properties", which is further known as Downtown Dubai.

 Stakeholder management is considered as a process with the help of which it will be easy to organize, monitor as well as improve relationships with the stakeholders (Kotsi et al. 2018). During the project of Burj Khalifa, a stakeholder management approach was used that further focuses on the identification of stakeholders, analysis of needs and expectations as well as further planning as well as the implementation of tasks to engage the stakeholders with the project correctly. Additionally, a proper and effective stakeholder management process helps in coordinating interactions and further helps in assessing the status as well as the quality of the relationships with the project stakeholders (Abdelrazaq et al. 2020). The stakeholder analysis is done by identifying stakeholders, prioritizing them by assessing the level of influence as well as the level of interest, which is further followed by understanding the key stakeholders that will create a most important impact on the progress of the Burj Khalifa.

Stakeholder Management Approach

The Burj Khalifa design and build is considered as an example of successful project before the world. The success of the project can be successfully measured by successfully evaluating the Iron Triangle related to the project. In context to Burj Khalifa cost, it is identified that the initial cost that was planned for the Burj Khalifa project would be around $876 million dollars; however, the final cost that is needed for completing the project was around $1.5 billion dollars (Arul, Kareen and Kwon 2020). The rise in the price of the project increases due to the increase in the prices of the raw materials due to the downturn of the global economy in the year 2008. Additionally, the change in the cost also increases due to changes in the design of the Burj Khalifa (Picciotto 2020). The cost factors are associated with time that is again considered as one of the important factors of the Iron Triangle. Originally, the time that is set for the project was around 47 months which excludes the time that is required for excavation however the Burj Khalifa project generally gets accomplished after nine months.

As the success of the project was not dependent on time and budget only rather, it is seen as one of the strategic management concepts where the efforts of the project are mainly aligned with the long-term goals of the organization. The Burj Khalifa project achieves its initial objective of design, and during the progress of the project, the project does not experience any type of functional changes in context to the project (El Gendy and El Gendy 2018). Additionally, it is found that the net income of Burj Khalifa has generally increased by around 10 times compared to 2009, which is an important success factor for the project. It is found that though the project does not meet the budget and deadline, still it created a positive outcome for society (Tereso et al. 2019). Thus, it is analyzed that if the proper and successful operation is generally supported by Burj Khalifa, then the project would bring much more positive results to Dubai in the long term.

 As per the investors, the Burj Khalifa project is identified as one of the most successful projects in the Middle East as well as before the world to date. Presently, the Burj Khalifa, due to its iconic status as well as price levels, has become quite attractive for investors (Abraham 2019). Additionally, as per some of the investors, there is no correct time to move within the most iconic tower of Dubai, enjoying an enviable price tag due to its value. Whereas, as per the employees of the organization, Burj's appearance is mainly dependent on a flower that is known as Spider Lily, which is considered as one of the natives to the southern states of America, Mexico, as well as South America. According to the employees, the project is a success from the point of view of quality; however, not from the point of view of cost and time. This is because the Burj Khalifa project spends much more money as well as time than initially planned (San Cristóbal et al. 2018). Furthermore, from the perspective of the media, the final design of the building was changed, and the final construction that was done was 100 meters higher than the original design; and as a result, unexpected costs were incurred during the construction of the Burj Khalifa. Due to changes in time and budget, the earned value of the project decreases in comparison to the initial planning and cost (Hall 2018). The media also focused on other cost performance indicators and have showcased that the Burj Khalifa project was identified to be successful in context to quality and performance.

Challenges and Risks in Construction

After reviewing the risk management, stakeholder management, as well as success or failure of the project, different types of lessons are learned related to project management in order to help the project managers in the profession of project management. The information or lessons that are gathered would help the project managers in their career so that they can be able to undertake their job quite better. It is learned that while undertaking a project, it is quite necessary for the project manager as well as higher investment companies to be patient. A project like Burj Khalifa requires both times as well as patience for materializing dreams that further comes to life. Additionally, it is also learned that dream projects require a huge amount of investment, so in order to under to undertake such a big project, the first and the most crucial thing that is needed is to find the investors who are interested in investing in the project so that as a project manager, the entire work of the project can be undertaken quite successfully.

 From the project, it is also learned that proper planning regarding risk management needs to be done so that the negative consequences of risk can be minimized. It is necessary to work collaboratively with the risk managers as well as employees to make proper and smart decisions for reducing the impact of risk in the project. The project manager needs to have the proper capability of predicting risks so that the impact of the risks can be easily identified so the entire project can be undertaken quite successfully. The project manager also learned that proper planning helps in properly assessing the goal of the project, which further helps in facilitating proper and effective decision making so that a proper timeframe must be set so that project achieves the goals and objectives of the project. Additionally, it is also necessary to maintain good relationships with the stakeholders of the project for keeping the stakeholders the project on track. It is also learned that successful stakeholder management is identified to be quite a critical component for the successful delivery of the project. Furthermore, it is also learned in order to analyze the success or the failure of the project, and it is not necessary to analyze only the Iron triangle but also need to analyze other performance indicators.

 The lessons that are learned from this project will be helpful for the project manager in the future, as the project manager can be able to use those lessons in their future projects so that the mistakes that are done the Burj Khalifa project will not be repeated. This will not only help in growing the knowledge and skills of the project manager, but it will also increase the capability of the project manager to deal with any type of uncertain circumstances, and as a result, the chances of obstruction within the project will reduce. It will further allow the project managers to successfully complete the work of the project within the assumed time and budget. The project managers will also get the experience of managing stakeholders as well as risks that occurs within the project, and as a result, the chances of completing the work of the project successfully also get enhanced, which further helps in improving as well as growing their career in the future as a project manager

Safety and Health Precautions

Conclusion

 It can be concluded from the paper that in context to quality, Burj Khalifa was a successful project; however, when the project was analyzed in context to time and cost, it is identified that Burj Khalifa requires more time and cost to complete the project. The paper also critiques the project team approach to the management of project risk and further analyzes the approach to stakeholder management. Moreover, the paper reviews risk management, stakeholders' management as well as success and failure of the project and further gathers the lessons that are learned from the project. Furthermore, the lessons that are learned during the project are identified to be beneficial for the project manager in their career and for making their job much better.

Abdelrazaq, A., Travush, V., Shakhvorostov, A., Timofeevich, A., Desyatkin, M. and Jung, H., 2020. The Structural Engineering Design And Construction Of The Tallest Building In Europe Lakhta Center, St. Petersburg. Russia. International Journal of High-Rise Buildings, 9(3), pp.283-300.

Abraham, O.A., 2019. Effective Project Management in Contemporary Developments: Case Study Burj Khalifa Tower.

Arul, M., Kareem, A. and Kwon, D.K., 2020. Identification of vortex-induced vibration of tall building pinnacle using cluster analysis for fatigue evaluation: Application to Burj Khalifa. Journal of Structural Engineering, 146(11), p.04020234.

Barreiro-Gomez, J., Choutri, S.E. and Tembine, H., 2021. Risk-awareness in multi-level building evacuation with smoke: Burj Khalifa case study. Automatica, 129, p.109625.

Bazler, J., 2020. Tower Design, Build and Test as a STEAM Project: Tower Design, Build, and Test. In Cases on Models and Methods for STEAM Education (pp. 154-169). IGI Global.

El Gendy, O. and El Gendy, A., 2018. Analysis of Piled raft of Burj Khalifa in Dubai by the program ELPLA. GEOTEC Software Inc., Canada, pp.3-23.

Hall, M., 2018. Super Structures: Burj Khalifa. Children's Book and Media Review, 39(12), p.35.

Huertas, B., Yet another superlative for Dubai? Feral pigeon Columba livia on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa.

Kotsi, F., Balakrishnan, M.S., Michael, I. and Ramsøy, T.Z., 2018. Place branding: Aligning multiple stakeholder perception of visual and auditory communication elements. Journal of destination marketing & management, 7, pp.112-130.

Morad, M. and El-Sayegh, S., 2018. Critical Success Factors for Earned Value Analysis in Managing Construction Projects.

Onzini, D. and Alawadi, K., 2021. Transnational mobilities of the tallest building: origins, mobilization and urban effects of Dubai's Burj Khalifa. European Planning Studies, pp.1-19.

Picciotto, R., 2020. Towards a 'New Project Management'movement? An international development perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 38(8), pp.474-485.

Ponzini, D. and Alawadi, K., 2021. Transnational mobilities of the tallest building: origins, mobilization and urban effects of Dubai's Burj Khalifa. European Planning Studies, pp.1-19.

San Cristóbal, J.R., Carral, L., Diaz, E., Fraguela, J.A. and Iglesias, G., 2018. Complexity and project management: A general overview. Complexity, 2018.

Sotoudehnia, M. and Rose?Redwood, R., 2019. ‘I am Burj Khalifa’: Entrepreneurial Urbanism, Toponymic Commodification and the Worlding of Dubai. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(6), pp.1014-1027.

Tereso, A., Ribeiro, P., Fernandes, G., Loureiro, I. and Ferreira, M., 2019. Project management practices in private organizations. Project Management Journal, 50(1), pp.6-22.

Viswanathan, S.K., Tripathi, K.K. and Jha, K.N., 2020. Influence of risk mitigation measures on international construction project success criteria–a survey of Indian experiences. Construction Management and Economics, 38(3), pp.207-222.

Wilkins, S. and Emik, S., 2021. Explaining the success of UAE companies globally: the benefits of possessing a'can-do'culture. Middle East Journal of Management, 8(4), pp.319-343.