by Simplar | Dec 26, 2025 | Built Environment, Business Failure, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
In my experience, construction firms do not operate under firm budget disciplines like most other industrial concerns. Contractors usually craft project budgets in advance but rarely use them as a management tool. Because of the complexity and variability of each...
by Simplar | Oct 30, 2025 | Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
I have been wrong in my criticism of contractors for ignoring financial statements in the day-to-day running of their businesses. Their instincts, as it turns out, have served them well. They saw something flawed in relying on interim financial statements that were...
by Simplar | Oct 23, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Businesses fail for any number of reasons but rarely is it a surprise to management. Only construction companies seem to experience sudden collapse when they unexpectedly run out of cash. The element of surprise expressed by most of the failed contractors I worked...
by Simplar | Sep 25, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Labor & Labor Issues, Leadership, Leadership, Organizational Change Management, Project Selection, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Construction is a risky business. Diving from the springboard of project selection into the deep end of the risk pool immerses the contractor in a virtual ocean of risk factors. Like Football games, project financial risk can only be effectively managed before...
by Simplar | Sep 18, 2025 | Leadership, Leadership, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Construction is a risky business. A wide variety of risk factors are piled one on another throughout the construction transaction making it almost impossible to manage all construction business risks. Building long term complex projects for a fixed price under the...
by Simplar | Aug 21, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Leadership, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
I introduced the concept of beliefs into my teaching about 20 years ago. I noticed during my years of research and countless interactions with contractors that there were a multitude of assumptions about the nature of the construction business out there that were...
