Investing for Sustainability - Growth Hurts

“I can’t afford to invest more in talent development or process streamlining because we have a bunch of bad projects.”

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

This may come from the different levels - for instance a crafts person who is too focused on individual productivity to train their apprentice.  It may come from the Project Manager who is too overloaded with work to train their Project Engineer.

Leadership Tools: Growth Hurts. How effectively are you investing your dollars?

The only way a contractor can truly grow sustainably is to build a culture that is focused on continuous personal-development and teaching others.  Truly great development hurts - it stretches our brains to grow the same way physical exercise stretches our muscles. Most of your team will resist this level of exertion and insist there is an easier way.  Most of your team will rationalize away performance problems and downplay the need for training.  

The management teams of growing contractors systematically lead their teams through extremely rigorous training building them to dominate tomorrow’s construction environment.


Look at your business and the stage of growth it is in.  

Is your team prepared (or preparing) for the next stage of growth?

What pain are you avoiding today that will be 10X worse in the near future?  




Ownership Transition Timelines
While it is possible for ownership transition timelines to be accelerated, that largely depends on the current condition of the company, including the management team and current owner.
Contractor Exit Strategy 4 of 6: Merger with a Similar Contractor
Contractor Exit Strategy 4 of 6: Merging with a contractor that has a complementary market position and management team can be both a great exit strategy as well as an effective growth strategy.
Building the 1000X Contractor
The craft is the foundation of the construction industry - installation delivers final value for the project owner. Aligning craft talent to build a project is difficult. Building a contracting business that consistently delivers projects is 10X harder.