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...
by Simplar | Feb 6, 2025 | Built Environment, Business Development, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Leadership, Organizational Change Management, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Contracting is a risky business that works because contractors are risk takers. Every time we acquire a new project we are leaping into the unknown. No one has ever built this next project, and no one can predict its uncertain outcome. Is there uncertainty that the...
by Simplar | Jan 17, 2025 | Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Project Selection, Project Selection, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Profitability in construction begins with project selection. Ours is the only industry that signs a binding contract to sell our service for a fixed price, not knowing exactly what it will cost to provide that service. What’s worse, we bid in a highly...
by Simplar | Jan 25, 2024 | Project Selection, Project Selection, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
I have railed against low bid contracting for many years as the root cause of shrinking contractor profit margins and increasing contractor failure. In principle, it is an insane way to do business (selling a product for the lowest price rather than the highest price...
by Simplar | Dec 14, 2023 | Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Every bet has a winner and a loser. The bookie always wins a little, but the bettor often loses a lot. What’s the difference? The Recognition and Management of Risk. Risk Recognition Both the bookie and the bettor recognize that every bet has a winner and a loser....
by Simplar | Sep 21, 2023 | Business Failure, Business Failure, Risk Management, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
If you say “contracting” to anyone they immediately think of “construction”. The “building” industry has become identified with the signing of a contract at the point of sale. “Builders” have become “contractors” in the eyes of the public. This misidentification has...
