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.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

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.   

Learn More




Return on Working Capital (Project Level)
Reduce risk and increase returns by analyzing opportunities and selecting those that offer the highest return on working capital.
Retirement Onboarding - Transferring Your Knowledge to the Team
Knowledge transfer is hard. How do you effectively take the knowledge that one individual has accumulated over a lifetime with a company and transfer that knowledge to the next person in line?
Four Steps to Sustainable Growth (10+10=0)
Growing contractors face an overwhelming number of problems and opportunities as they move through the different stages of growth. Prioritizing these, aligning the team, then executing becomes progressively more difficult and important.