PT BUKAKA TEKNIK UTAMA (A): PASSENGER BOARDING BRIDGE PROJECT

Rahmat Ismail sat in his seat on flight from Honolulu to Jakarta. His mind was racing and filled with the images of various scenes of his meetings and encounters in the past few months. As senior management of Bukaka Teknik Utama (Bukaka), the contractor awarded the contract to provide and install the passenger boarding bridges for Terminal II project at Cengkareng International Airport, Jakarta, he was very uneasy about the latest predicament concerning Bukaka’s technical partner, Jetway Systems (Jetway). Jetway provided engineering design and consultation for building forty-four passenger boarding bridges for new Terminal II at Cengkareng airport. In a recent meeting, Jetway’s and Bukaka’s management sat down to renegotiate fees and division of work between the two companies for the project. The meeting went sour, Jetway management decided to pull-out from the project, leaving Bukaka with no design and a looming deadline.

Having no partner, design, nor the experience of building passenger boarding bridges, Rahmat Ismail knew that there was no way Bukaka could meet project deliverables. Pressured by time, Rahmat Ismail realized that he had several options; including acquiring a new strategic partner or acquired the technology. The latter option of course was more rewarding for company, but more difficult and riskier due to the fact that Bukaka did not have engineering experience in building passenger boarding bridges. In his seat, Rahmat Ismail weighed his options, the credibility and future of Bukaka as an engineering company depended on his decision.