Strategy and Fighting the Fewest Battles

Nothing will have a bigger impact on a contractors business over the next decade than putting in a very rigorous process for strategy development and execution.

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The industry is changing rapidly due to technology, a massive shortage of management talent as well as major trends in project delivery and geographic expansion.  

Leadership Tools: Strategic Planning. A General does not plan how to win every battle; they plan how few battles they need to fight to win the war.

Strategic decisions along with the operating rhythms and the feedback mechanisms that ensure execution are the most highly leveraged decisions in the business. 

This is an area where an experienced 3rd party can add significant value.  Find someone that resonates with your team and has experience relevant to your company.  Change the facilitator every few years for fresh ideas. Unless they are really bad don’t change them every year so you have some continuity.  You might consider overlapping facilitators having the outgoing facilitator sit in on your side of the table providing additional continuity.  

Consider bringing in some of your key customers, vendors and subcontractors as part of your strategic planning process.  Whatever you do; don’t underestimate the value of this process.   

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Leveraging Precon and CMAR for Sustainable Growth
Many contractors in many markets can use this three phase strategy to achieve sustainable growth by leveraging CM at Risk and Advanced Preconstruction Services to build a competitive advantage.
TOOL: Model Your Business, Prioritize Improvements, and Execute
Contractor Business Model template you can customize to represent the current and future state of your business. Use this model to identify bottlenecks and constraints to your growth. Learning guide for your team based on The 4 Disciplines of Execution.
Definition - Standard
Level of Performance required. May relate to a job role (person), team, company, materials, equipment, facility, etc. Required by business model as part of achieving strategic objectives.