Short And Long Of It
By as featured in Construction Today
Managing a profitable and growing business requires a balanced focus on the immediate and long-term gains.
It’s basic human nature to focus on immediate, “in-yourface” problems, and the average contractor sure gets lots of practice. Most are very good at crisis management and making important technical and project-management decisions on the spot – it just comes with the territory. The problem is that far too many owners spend years doing nothing but putting out fires and keeping projects on track, while ignoring issues related to the firm’s long-term viability (retirement and succession planning are two …
Back to Basics
as featured in Construction Today
Project management can be easy if you pay attention to three critical stages.
Sound project management can make the difference between being profitable and losing large amounts of money. If done well, it can assure the sustainability of a firm. Conversely, if done poorly, it can threaten its very existence. In fact, many professionals in the industry believe that the management of a project and the ability and skill sets of the project manager are directly proportional to the profitability of any moderate or large-scale construction project.
Project management, if done properly and injected early …
Paradigm shift
as featured in Construction Today
An owner’s mentality can drive company culture to either inhibit or stimulate innovation.
More than 400 construction company owners and various contractors who were recently surveyed were asked, “What business are you in?” Only one business owner answered the question correctly. The wrong answers went like this: “I’m in the construction business.” The right answer came from a plumbing contractor who said, “I’m in the sales business, and I just happen to be really good at plumbing installation, service and project management.” That plumbing contractor is doing very well at a time when many other …
Survivor Style
as featured in Construction Today
In tumultuous times, leadership skills could be the guiding light to steer your business out of the storm.
Just as basically healthy individuals recover more quickly from illness, so, too, do healthy businesses recover from a few bumps in the road, such as an economic downturn. Among the retrospective measures that reflect the company’s health are items on the balance sheet and income statement, including cash flow, net profit, growth rate, productivity and return on investment rates. Unfortunately, by the time such historical data indicate symptoms of trouble, it may already be too late to …