Let’s face it – construction executives are feeling the pressure to do more with less.
Inflation and interest rates are up – and staying up.
Necessary materials are thousands of miles (and sometimes years) away.
And to top it off, construction workers are in high demand, but short supply.
But that doesn’t mean we have to stop building great things. If anything, we have the opportunity to build smarter. To fulfill project and profit expectations consistently – and provide fulfillment for workers themselves.
In The Construction Executive's Guide to Protecting Margins, we asked six industry leaders (and a colleague in engineering) how they’re managing profits, projects, and people. Each executive had different, dynamic takes on how their company is protecting margins, from leveraging BIM data for competitive bids to letting workers focus on the tasks they do best.
Get a glimpse of their responses below—and download the full guide for more executive insights and strategies (plus some fun facts on each expert).
“The rapid adoption and use of technical innovations and less site-intensive modes of construction, like off-site manufacturing, makes the construction industry more competitive than ever because firms can accurately forecast job requirements like materials and personnel.”
- Nancy Novak, Chief Innovation Officer, Compass Datacenters
“The earlier we can perform onsite investigations through reality capture and BIM coordination—even during early stages for early constructability review—the more we can mitigate risks and develop comprehensive cost planning throughout the project lifecycle.”
- Amr Raafat, Chief Innovation Officer, Windover Construction
“Improving the preconstruction process can help increase a construction company's profit. Estimating is essential to the preconstruction process because it allows firms to determine a project's cost accurately.”
- Cliff Cole, Director of Virtual Design and Construction, The PENTA Building Group
“In Asia-Pacific and specifically for Australia, we're missing a lot of our workforce. Digitization plays a big part in this because it's a big driver to being able to do more with the same or more with less.”
- Tim Mumford, Business Director – Digital and Innovation, Beca
“In today's construction landscape and economy, the key to safeguarding a contractor's bottom line is strategic selectivity. We're currently faced with numerous opportunities, yet our workforce is notably constrained. Thus, we must be highly discerning in the projects we undertake.”
- Luis Berumen, VP of Strategy and Innovation, Bartlett Cocke General Contractors
“Diversity in product and client type is a is a big part of protecting profit margins. As we know, construction is very cyclical. Diversity in product types and customers helps us limit those swings.”
- Todd Mercer, Senior Vice President, Webcor Builders
The Construction Executive's Guide to Protecting Margins features exclusive insights from construction leaders at Bartlett Cocke, Beca, Compass Datacenters, The PENTA Building Group, Webcor, and Windover Construction. The guide includes coverage of three industry trends putting pressure on profit margins, with helpful advice from the executives on how they are addressing these challenges.
