These 7 major changes will shape construction of tomorrow
Ulrik Branner
CEO & Founder at SiteHub | Delivering Site Logistics on Mission Critical Projects
“So, are you trying to claim, that by sharing information and ensuring full accountability, you can not only save my customer millions of pounds, but I will also earn more!!??
Pretty ludicrous, if you ask me…”
This was one of the more sceptical responses I got after I attended the “Grenfell Aftermath” panel talk, at the CN Summit in London the week before last. I had the pleasure of spending the better part of the week in London attending the Summit and also meeting with a string of public and private Clients / Owners in the Construction Industry.
With this fresh in my mind I feel compelled to summarize some of my impressions. We stand at a very precarious, but positive tipping point in our industry, but as Mark Farmer also said at the CN Summit, we still risk sliding back to the current state of the construction nation, which is NOT where we want to stay.
Just to jog your memory, if you haven't seen the numbers enough, I will summarize again, the "State of Construction Nation":
Part of the panel discussion, some of the questions and a lot of the following talks revolved around my opinion that Clients/Owners must now step up and assume a higher degree of Ownership and Responsibility, and that TRANSPARENCY and ACCOUNTABILITY must become the foundation for how we write contracts, set up projects, communicate and collaborate.
Why? Well to brace ourselves for the changes that are coming as we speak. I call it the “The 7 Samurais of Construction”, because each of them will cut deeply into how we work right now.
So, with these changes in the back of people's minds, the desire to ask or challenge became pretty big last week. I have chosen to summarize the mosts asked questions, alongside my answer to these, below:
Will we become more TRANSPARENT?
YES - we have no choice. Everything that can be digitized will be digitized, and hand in hand with this and the current poor productivity, will come the demand for Transparency. Point to one other industry where this has not happened, and I will re-consider my position on this.
Will we be made ACCOUNTABLE?
YES - of course!! The digital tools to do this have been around for 10+ years, and its actually close to negligence that Clients/Owners do not demand, that they are able to track exactly who did what, where and when!
Also, we need to kill the global illusion that Clients seem to have, on being able to "outsource" risk to Contractors and Advisers. Risk will find its way back to those who pay. There will be collateral damage along the way, causing lawsuit, bankruptcy, fines and stress, but as a Client you end up with the bill anyway - either in form of delays, reduced quality or higher price.
Will we all earn more?
YES - If you are on the side of rolling up your sleeves and changing the fundamental way you communicate and collaborate towards more transparency and accountability, you will earn more. Its an common mistake, that if "someone wins, then someone musts loose". This worry, that there is only a certain value available to go around, contradicts the basis of all improvements. Sure - you will earn less, if you stay true to the current way of working, and in the end your company will die, like KODAK (digital wont come for 10-20 years ), BlockBuster (HA! Streaming?? Will never be mainstream ) or NOKIA ( hey! Our OS is better than what consumers ask for )
Will we build better?
PERHAPS, BUT NOT RELEVANT - Personally I dont think we, when the dust settles and people move in, in general deliver bad buildings around the world.
Will we be safer?
YES - Most importantly, we will all be safer when we build. More people die every year on construction sites, than in all armed conflicts around the world! Add to this, that Oilrig building and repair has lower incident lvl... So, if humans can crack it, while putting up metal platforms in high sea, while drilling for combustible materials, we should be able to do it on dry land...
Will we be prouder?
YES!! And YES AGAIN! I am sick and tired of waste, over budget and re-work. And I am embarrassed that Construction image is always associated with in-efficiency and backwards ways of doing things. I keep getting told, that that is how Construction is. It's manual, it's backward's, it's in-efficient and the client will end up paying. Well, at GenieBelt we don't think it should stay this way.
Construction is about building history and shaping Society - not just building houses or roads. It's about shaping the future we live, love and work within 95% of our lives. Its being part of bringing wonderful, beautiful, functional life changing projects to life, and we should be proud of this. So every country and company has an obligation to support this change, if only to be able to attract skilled and motivated human beings to our industry.
So, this sums up the main questions from the CN Summit. Thank you to Construction News for hosting and bringing us all together, and thank you to all of you who took the time to listen to this crazy Dane, who - together with all my fellow "Genies" are hell-bent on doing what a lot of people said could not be done: Change Construction for the better, and bring transparency and accountability into our professional lives.
Sincerely
Ulrik Branner, CEO & Partner - GenieBelt
Editor | Irish Examiner | Editorial Development, Content Editing, Leadership
7 年Agree on the sentiment here, Ulrik Branner and the debate over the two days at CN Summit had a clear trajectory towards doing things better across clients, designers, contractors and suppliers. This line very pertinent: Also, we need to kill the global illusion that Clients seem to have, on being able to "outsource" risk to Contractors and Advisers. I think some of the more informed, repeat clients are recognising a model of reducing outsourced risk and working with specialists is more appropriate. Don't think it's the end of the tier 1, but maybe a shift towards tier 1 with greater in-house capability/ CM with specialists route. Design & Build causing problems and cited in Grenfell report by Dame Hackett yesterday (and by me in my 2017 preview/ 2018 review https://bit.ly/2yVtEvY). The only point I would raise is that the 'build better' question is crucial, for me. Greater focus on whole-life performance has to be central to innovation. Construction/existing assets still largest contributor to carbon emissions, and poor-performing buildings/infra a blight. In my 7 years on CN, this is the first time I've seen a real groundswell for recognising those who do business better across public (particularly central government)/private sector and that has to be a positive in 2018!
Managing Partner at DGA consultancy LLP
7 年Thank you, some interesting comments There will always be an imbalance between the expertise needed and the expertise available, in the UK Construction and property are not always seen as glamorous professions and if we bring it to the lowest level we get the perception any one can be a builder!!! The issues need to be addressed at the highest levels to acheive clarity of understanding and expectation I get tired when issues are raised and the response is we did a risk assessment and did not......a real issue here is the competitive nature within the sector not least building control The Government, and Appoval body CICAIR ,expectations should be much more specific in respect of performance as to what should be examined and inspected - even a minimum number of inspections!!
Project Planning
7 年Very on point Ulrik, our guys are starting to get used to the app and providing feedback. With a few tweaks for current contract requirements, we’re gonna be a lot more efficient. However the point you make about owner responsibility and the way contracts are set up will breed change in the future anyway so we may not even need these in future! Glad to be at the start of this.
Growth equity investor
7 年You also need to have customers who are ready to select suppliers on more dimensions than just price, Heathrow T5's bonus pot worked well - everyone involved shared the reward for being on time and under budget. Not many customers sophisticated enough to think that way yet, that's why I think this will start with the largest projects for the most sophisticated procurers.
Director of Property, St Paul's Cathedral
7 年An interesting summary. I think we do need to build better and smarter too. We had an excellent reception at the House of Commons on Monday evening where Eddie Hughes spoke to the changes required in the industry. Change is definitely happening and professional bodies are leading strongly with good support from government. I believe it is about attitude, leadership and communication, your article definitely helps, thank you.