My career as an educator and consultant to the construction industry has followed an unusual path through every aspect of this amazing industry. It is from a unique background that I evaluate our industry and am inspired to share some lessons learned.
I quit high school at 17 and went to work with the tools as a carpenter apprentice. I had a hyperactive mind and couldn’t bear to stay in high school after working for two summers on my brother-in-law’s construction crew. (1) I learned that hard work was the forge that made you a man and I had made enough money to marry and begin to raise a family at 18 years old. Seems foolish today but it was not uncommon 65 years ago.
Thirty years later, after countless years of night school and after running my own companies, I earned my PHD in Construction Business Management. Many years of night school education earned a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in construction management and taught me that (2) persistence was the cement that held a career together. I was always eager to learn more about the fascinating business I found myself in. This dogged persistence, working nights and weekends cost me any free time that I might have enjoyed. After struggling the long hours for many years, I finally looked up and (3) I realized that everything has a cost. There is no free ride.
My brother and I were forced to downsize our construction business drastically during the recession and the resulting construction industry consolidation of the 1970s. There was simply no way to compete with the larger construction companies who were coming down into our local market and taking our size jobs for little or no profit just to keep their large home office and field staffs working. We decided not to resist the inevitable and fight the larger out-of-town concerns to the death because they were submitting bids so low that when they won a job, they lost money. We could see that this might be a lengthy recession and decided we had to stay solvent to enabled the company to survive to fight another day. We refused to take work below our costs. My brother opted to stick it out and I decided to seek greener pastures. I learned back then to (4) never work for nothing. Never knowingly take a losing job.
After an amicable departure from our partnership, I took a job for a short period before starting a construction consulting firm managing the completion of projects in progress abandoned by contractors who had run out of money and could no longer continue in business. Sureties that had issued performance and payment bonds on these interrupted jobs were deluged with failed projects, so I formed a consulting firm to finish the uncomplete projects for them. The firm grew quickly to become the largest international consultancy firm serving the contract surety industry. For years I had a bird’s eye view of the business management mistakes that led to the failure of otherwise competent contractors. On many projects I engaged the original contractor to complete the project while we managed the business end. After many years investigating thousands of failed construction businesses, I learned that (5) the competent management of construction projects has nothing to do with the competence required to manage a construction business.
Many years later I sold that consulting business to my key executives. In effect I had been compensated to learn all I could about how to; and how not to manage a successful construction enterprise. I had also been exposed to the risks and pitfalls in the construction business from start-ups to multinational companies. I needed to catch my breath and reorganize my life. Something my mother taught me (6) ‘if and when you made anything of yourself, it will be time to ‘give back’ was ringing in my ears when I was approached by a friend to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. I Managed the construction of a four family Habitat house which led me into becoming the Habitat for Humanity Director of Appropriate Technology for international projects. I spent a little more than a year traveling to third world countries evaluating whether everything included in our Habitat building projects was appropriate for the country and the culture they were being built in. I was in remote corners of the third world feeling my life was constantly vulnerable from; deadly contagious diseases, unsanitary living conditions, primitive transportation methods, and my utter ignorance of the cultural mores of many remote tribes. I was paid nothing but was privileged to be of service to such a noble organization.
The rest of my career has been spent teaching, consulting, and writing about everything that (7) I learned from my experiences during a lifetime in construction. Looking back, I am grateful to have had such a varied career. Much of what I learned about the business of construction I learned in the field doing the work. None of my contemporaries had the wide variety of hands-on experience that was afforded to me to combine with four years of Ph.D. level industry specific research. All my teaching comes from experience and study, and I want to share it with all of you as another way of “giving back”. There will never be any charge for this information.
For more information on the business of construction, read more at: BUSINESS
For a broader view of construction management read more at: MANAGEMENT
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