by Simplar | Aug 14, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
I’ve been a management consultant to the construction industry for 40 years. I have taught construction business management at some of the nation’s best construction universities. I have spoken at literally thousands of construction industry conventions. In all...
by Simplar | Aug 7, 2025 | Built Environment, Business Development, Business Failure, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Growth, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
In last week’s message I closed my eyes and dropped a bomb. Did you hear it? If not, I suggest you go back and reread last week’s message. For me to admit to my readers that construction financial accounting is, to a large degree inaccurate, is I assure...
by Simplar | Jul 11, 2025 | Business of Construction, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership
You may remember the soothsayers described in ancient history who could predict the future. When they made pronouncements, their audience was comforted by having the scary unknown future become known. Thus, the name, sooth-sayers. They soothed the audience by putting...
by Simplar | May 23, 2025 | Built Environment, Business Failure, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
Last week we established that the high failure rate in the construction industry comes down to a single cause – a shortage of working capital. Some blame failures on a whole variety of causes: labor unrest, natural disasters, economic stress, market shrinkage,...
by Simplar | Apr 10, 2025 | Business Failure, Business Failure, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
My portrayal of the start-up process of most mom-and-pop contracting firms (which represent a huge portion of the $ 2.1 trillion industry) in last week’s blog was meant to describe the natural recruiting and training process that founders engage in as firms...
by Simplar | Feb 13, 2025 | Built Environment, Business Development, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Change Management, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Growth, Growth, Labor & Labor Issues, Leadership, Leadership, Managing Subcontractors, Project Selection, Project Teams, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Designers avoid risk, owners prefer to pass it along, and contractors absorb it. Today’s construction risk environment is dramatically different than it was in the last several decades, and risk factors are mutating just enough to be almost unrecognizable. It is...
