Introduction
The two locations of choice are South London and Watford. Forest Hill is at the heart of high-end urban dwellers and high-income earners. It is located closer to various key aspects of the United Kingdom’s political class. On the other hand, Watford is a profound borough that is strategically located in the renowned county of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Although separated by a 14 miles distance, the two towns remain to be major business zones with many successful business activities that are exposed to a lot of fire and other related emergencies. The two towns are strategically located in regions that are from a business or financial point of view complementary to one another and thus making it very feasible to amalgamate the two fire stations. Watford town is however, more interior and less developed compared to Forest Hill, which is the central location of the Forest Hill Fire Station. The two locations offer unique complementary standards that can be used to gain insight to the aspects of merging of any two or more fire stations. The merging of Forest Hill Fire Station, which is located in Forest Hill in South London and the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue that is located in Watford, is an undertaking that could result in a number of positive and negative results to the public. The merging of the two fire stations will have both short-term and long-term financial implications, which if well managed could lead to enhanced efficiency and cost effectiveness of the fire brigade services being offered.
Financial benefits of the amalgamation
The amalgamation of Forest Hill Fire Station in South London and Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue in Watford is a noble idea which if keenly and fully implemented could lead to better service delivery, improved efficiency and effective delivery of rescue services that are relate to fire brigade services. Financially, the merging of the businesses will act as a complementary strategy aimed at enhancing the efficiency of the two fire brigade organisations. The amalgamation will also minimize the various risk management challenges that are currently being experienced by the two fire stations as well as enhancing the level of efficiency and transparency in government related ventures. The amalgamation will also ensure that proper mechanisms aimed at ensuring that fire related emergency incidences are addressed in time are put in place. Amalgamating the two stations to form one new station is a crucial operational strategy that has numerous benefits. The increase in assets will enhance the overall financial progress the two organisations. This fact implies that the merging of the fire stations has the benefit of the concerned organizations combining their assets and thus ensuring that approaches necessary to deal with various risk threats are availed.
The achievement of expertise is another benefit associated with the merging of fire stations that are in adjacent towns. Amalgamating the two fire stations will make personnel training to be undertaken in a more cost effective manner. This fact is due to the idea that it is easier to undertake organizational training and enhance efficiency rather than having to train the employees in external institutions which would be very costly to the government. Amalgamating the fire stations companies can make it easier for them to meet their financial objectives. The expansion of the government based organization’s financial base will enhance its appeal to the public. In line with the principle of amalgamating two fire stations at adjacent towns in the county, the fire stations will bring together their assets and capital thus enabling the newly formed organization to remain relevant to the needs of the public. Financially, this implies that the merging of resources will ensure that new fire brigade facilities are purchased. The increased financial resources are likely to broaden the fire stations’ missions hence a lot of emergencies will be responded to in a cost effective manner. In the case of amalgamating Forest Hill Fire Station in South London and Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue in Watford, strategic fire station locations will be identified with the view of minimizing emergency response time while the size of fire fighting apparatus will be enhanced. The merger will ensure that the government, through the two fire stations, undertake functions such as housing, administration, stakeholder training, community awareness activities, storage of hazardous materials and management of equipment and vehicles in a better way with the view to ensure that all personnel are well equipped to render their services to the public. Amalgamation achieves this in order to lessen the burden of streamlining fire fighting strategies to individual organizations and the state or county governments. Transparency in the manner in which emergencies are addressed in the two towns will increase because the amalgamation will compel the shareholders to be critical of the way business operations are undertaken.
The newly formed bigger fire station will be more appealing to both the entire public. The positive appeal is associated with the two organizations’ increased transparency in the manner in which emergency incidences are addressed and the openness and accountability of the newly established operational mechanisms to the people in the towns. The combination of shareholders from the two companies will imply that more transparent business standards and financial management approaches will be expected. The misallocation of resources, forgery of emergency incidences and other fire brigade financial management malpractices will either be minimized or eliminated. Both internal and external auditors from the two organisations will be more interested in ensuring that the financial aspects of the newly formed organization are streamlined due to the amalgamation of Forest Hill Fire Station in South London and Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue in Watford. The enhancement of the best business practices and effective financial management are benefits that will be accrued from the amalgamation. The enhancement of sound fire brigade practices and streamlined fire brigade services are other benefits that will emanate from the amalgamation of Forest Hire Fire Station and the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue station. This fact implies that the return on investment of the companies will greatly increase because the two organisations will have a greater geographical coverage. The newly formed fire brigade will also enjoy the economies of scale and a wider operational base. More residents of the two towns will in turn lead to faster popularity should the fire stations’ objectives be more focused on enhancing the level of efficiency in their response to emergencies.
Financial risks of the amalgamation
The acquisition of the planning permission from the two fire stations is likely to be a worthwhile engagement. The overbearing processes involved in legitimizing the merger can prove to be costly and unreasonable. The legal processes followed in effecting the merger could be time consuming and financially unbearable thus making it impossible to finalise the amalgamation process. Based on the level of complexity and the financial costs involved in effecting the amalgamation of the two major organizations, it is likely that the two organizations will spend many finances in the legal process of bringing together major shareholders and ensuring that the shareholders assent to the amalgamation of the two fire stations. However, to mitigate this risk, the top level mergers of the newly formed fire station and relevant government agencies would study and keenly identify all possible solutions to the amalgamation process and means of minimising long merger processes. Another possible risk of merging the two organisations relates to the fact that the financial objectives of the final organization may not be addressed once the amalgamation of the two fire stations is undertaken. While the amalgamation has the benefit of increasing the financial pool, it has an imminent danger of increasing the administrative and vehicle maintenance costs to the government. This approach could also lead to increased incidences of unrealistic public demands. The demands could be because of difficulties in streamlining operations that relate to vehicle maintenance and support mechanisms. The expected efficiencies and benefits of amalgamating the two fire stations in Watford and Forest Hill could prove to be difficult. To counter this risk, proper planning and slow and very informative changeover process would be encouraged. High property disposal risk is a challenge that is likely to face the UK government in the event that the merging of Forest Hill Fire Station and Hertfordshire Fire brigade is done. The risk can prove to be problematic to the management of the financial logistics that relate to the disposal of an organization’s old assets. The government’s terms and conditions that govern the disposal of old assets can be difficult to determine as the two fire stations’ mechanisms of determining the value of its assets could be different to comprehend. Indeed, the disposal of the human assets of the individual fire stations can be a costly venture when the concerned assets cannot be quantified in financial terms. For example, it is likely to be very challenging to determine the level of compensation to be done to employees who are rendered jobless ones the amalgamation process is complete. Retraining of other employees so as to enable them to fit in the newly formed fire station’s operational strategy could be a very challenging issue. To legally retrench human resource personnel that will no longer be needed once the merging of the two companies is undertaken, the concerned county government need to spend a lot of money in compensating the employees for their social, economic and cultural loss caused by the job loss. The two fire stations are not located very far apart. However, the distance between them would still demand that some assets are relocated. No matter the distance to be covered in the relocation process, it is highly probable that the amalgamation process will lead to money being spent in enhancing smooth transition. Establishment of liquidity for the two organizations is a serious challenge that can have lot of financial implications to the public. Failure to accord special attention to the management of talents and new job descriptions could mean that the success, performance and talent utilization by the government-sponsored fire stations could be disregarded instead of being complimented. Worst sill, new synergies may not be created between the two fire stations. Unsuccessful combination of talents among the employees could also result into inappropriate internal competition thus leading to serious underperformance. The merger between the two fire stations could lead to internal wrangles among employees in the newly established fire station. This fact can be a major threat to team related undertakings. The rivalry also has the potential to enhance hatred, gender based discrimination in the job allocation process, negative public perception of the newly formed organisation, and misuse of resources by the management of the new organization. Effective, transparent, and very amicable communication would play a crucial role in ensuring that all stakeholders’ demands are addressed in a timely manner and that forceful job termination is not undertaken. Proper management of the new financial structure will be a major challenge to the two fire station organization. The high cost of relocating employees, training the staff assigned to very new workstations in a different town and training them could prove to be unaffordable. The chief fire officers of the two fire stations are likely to face many challenges in integrating their financial details and ensuring that different government financial fire directors and other related personnel such as risk underwriters in the fire department, rescue managers, crew managers, leading fire fighters, station financial officers, station managers, chief fire officers, and brigade commanders, have an objective, reliable and transparent means of managing finances during and after the amalgamation process. The wide scope of operation could make it difficult for the newly formed bigger fire station to effectively meet all its service objectives. Based on the actual location of both Forest Hire Fire Station and the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue, any form of amalgamation will imply that there will be a broader scope of business approaches. The situation will be worsened by the fact that the two towns have a high population rate and challenging fire and related emergency demands.
It is likely that the two organizations will face many management challenges once the merger is finalized. Specific objectives originally outlined by each of the organizations will be irrelevant, as the top managers will be more focused on enhancing unity and cooperation rather than focusing on the existing operations and fire brigade strategic differences. Once the merger is finalized, it is evident that a new formula for funding by the government will be put in place. The formula will be focused on understanding the exact manner in which government resources are utilized. However, the divergent needs in the two towns could imply that the non-operational posts, non-operational budgets, different officer posts, management of hazard units and utilization of savings during the merging process will be a major challenge to the final organization. This process is costly.
Recommendations
The merger between Forest Hill Fire Station in South London and Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue in Watford is a crucial strategy that will help in enhancing service delivery if proper planning and financial risk management strategies are implemented. Rather than to focus on the possible shortcomings of the merger, strategic mechanisms and adoption of transparent and objective mechanisms should be undertaken with in-depth management of all key players. The cultures, leadership and people from the two fire stations of the two towns should constantly be involved in the amalgamation process. Instead of amalgamating the financial aspects of the fire stations, emphasis should be laid on ensuring that the vision, mission and specific objectives of the fire brigades are clearly spelt out and that that any financial challenges or points of discord are addressed in a timely manner. Accountability in the manner in which all financial matters are addressed should also be done. In line with the orders of government department and line manager, it is crucial to undertake effective leadership that fully adhere to diverse cultural practices.