Increased Value by Lowering Variability

A construction business is capable of providing a very high return to the owners who have their capital at risk as well as the team members that work there.

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The leadership teams of contractors must constantly assess where the business is at in the growth cycle and whether their current strategy, structure, talent and management processes are ready for the next stage of growth.  

Leadership Tools: Increase Business Value by Lowering Variability. Sustainable Growth through Balanced Execution.

As a business is growing; especially with a strong leader in place it is easy to become what we call a hollow contractor.  A hollow contractor typically has performed extremely well in some years.  

What they are typically missing is a depth of talent at all levels supported by scalable processes and training that enables sustainable growth.   

  1. Get your market strategy right ensuring consistency through various economic cycles.
  2. Set up your organizational structure to support this market strategy.  Focus on the roles and capabilities that are necessary; not the people.  
  3. Know where your talent gaps are in both bodies and capabilities.  
  4. Aggressively fill those gaps through training, recruiting and when necessary by terminating.    

Only after this foundation is well under way should you focus on the next steps.  




Strategic Market Experiments
A growing contractor must systematically allocate 10-20% of their resources, including talent and capital to Strategic Market Experiments that have a probability of growing into a major market and becoming a "Strategic Choice."
Alignment from Strategy to Execution
Misalignment between how projects are estimated and how they are built creates subpar outcomes at best and sometimes results in catastrophic failure. Alignment is not a task to be completed. It is an ongoing process starting at the top.
Cranes and a Construction Business
There is a lot of intentionality around all aspects of every crane lift, including systems for double-checking and approvals. There is far less intentionality around the business equivalents for contractors and that dramatically impacts performance.