A Guide for Driving Sustainable Innovation Throughout a Construction Organization

There are two major types of innovation: Sustaining - smaller, incremental changes and Disruptive - game changing moves. Both types of innovation are discussed in this Construction Business Owner article. Learn what inhibits and inspires innovation in the construction field. 

Boegh, Flickr.com

The world is witnessing a new Renaissance. Just as Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo and Titian defined a generation of classical painting, sculpting, mathematics and literature, a new revolution surges in the world of business. For the last few decades, innovative business leaders have dramatically altered the landscape with groundbreaking ideas that have forever changed how the world lives.

Inventors and entrepreneurs toil tirelessly to invent the next big thing, while the iPhone, Facebook, Google, Instagram and Zynga dominate the headlines and inspire savvy businesspeople to create. Some of these creations, such as the iPhone and Facebook, have morphed from simple conveniences to necessity. What may sound frivolous—a platform people use to share every detail of their lives with their friends, for example—has managed to reshape the business world we see today. Imagine that 20 years ago someone told you that a firm such as Kodak would no longer be around.

Today’s innovative businesses managed to supplant many legacy giants that most likely had the same impact when they themselves began as fledgling start-ups. This phenomenon shows us that innovation and evolution are in some way linked.

Innovation in Construction
On the continuum of innovation, few construction firms would be confused for the likes of Apple or Google—comparing a construction firm to Apple is, well, apples and oranges.

However, the flawed thinking is not in comparing Apple and ABC Construction Inc., but rather, in failing to recognize that—regardless of the industry—every contractor can take a page out of the Google handbook. Consider the following questions.

To read the full article, follow this link.

The Evolution of the Project Manager

This Construction Business Owner article provides project managers with more real-world construction experience while teaching superintendents social and business skills. It also touches on the "then" and "now" aspects of the technical, construct-ability and business skills vital to modern and effective management.

F Devlenthal, Flickr.com

A long-standing joke has circulated in the industry that the project manager evolved as the solution to the mounds of paperwork a superintendent encounters. Today, the number of contractors who do not have some semblance of a project management corps is minimal. In fact, project managers drive the operations within many firms, replacing their past image as the replaceable paper pusher. Construction management and engineering programs throughout the world’s universities have developed curricula to educate and train future project leaders on everything from change order management to scheduling. However, what does the future of project management hold? Will the skills of today’s project manager be satisfactory as the complement to the field manager? Will firms have to adapt to a new model of project management as new business models in construction arise?

Examination
Project managers became the custodians of the “business side” of construction projects, enabling the superintendents or foremen to build. While the evolution of the project manager started as an office transition for many blue-collar supervisors, universities became fertile ground for growing future managers. Today, many trade contractors still utilize “star field leaders” as new office managers. The advent of the digital age and the computer skills of many younger managers aided the evolution.

For years, engineering and building construction programs equipped managers with a standard “toolbox” of basic knowledge to enter the world of construction. However, the largest criticism of this management group was their apparent lack of real-world construction knowledge. Many project managers could easily navigate the most sophisticated software but could scarcely find their way around the formwork of a multi-story building.

To read the full article, click here.

Hone Your Hiring Skills

This is an excerpt from an article in Construction Business Owner. The magazine conducted a survey to find the most pressing workforce management challenge that its readers are facing. 

... More than half of those surveyed stated that finding skilled employees was their greatest hurdle. Another 20 percent of readers stated that effective hiring was their top challenge.

This issue takes on even more importance considering that the need to hire employees is on the rise for most companies. According to the “SMB Hiring Outlook Survey 2013” by Sage construction software, a third of small- to mid-sized construction companies reported an increase or plan to increase the size of their workforce in 2013. With such growth comes immense pressure on business owners to make smart hires. CBO interviewed three business management experts to glean insight into how to create an effective hiring process.

Recruiting is the First Step 
The consensus among the experts is that if you wait until you have a position to fill to begin hiring, you have already failed. Jack Daly, a widely recognized sales management consultant and the author of “Real World Management Strategies that Work,” drives this point home: “Sports teams are quite frankly run better than businesses.”

Would Nick Saban or Rick Pitino ever entertain the thought of filling their roster without active recruiting years in advance? Surely no coach, even a less successful one, would consider selecting replacements only as their senior players are preparing to graduate. Yet, business owners often do just this. “There are businesses that aren’t spending any time recruiting good people to come into their company, and then they wonder why their performance is suffering or lacking,” Daly says.

He encourages business owners to act as if their companies are never fully staffed, principally because waiting until you have to find someone often puts you at the mercy of the pool of active job seekers. Stan Davis, founder of Standish Executive Search, concurs: “Active job seekers are maybe 20 to 25 percent of the people you want to attract.” Since no smart business owner would reasonably choose to ignore 75 percent of the talent pool, the need to prioritize recruiting is undeniable. “You’ve got to go where these people are, and you’ve got to dig them out. That’s what good search firms do—they build a network,” Davis says.

The full hiring and recruiting article is available on the Construction Business Owner website.