How to Impress this $8 Billion Digital Delivery Director

BIM may be the talk of the town these days in construction, but Ronan Collins , Digital Delivery Director at the $8 Billion Red Sea Development project in Saudi Arabia, wants you to remember that it's nothing new. Ronan was building 3D models from 2D images as far as 20 years ago. In fact, he evangelized BIM on Bloomberg back in 2008!?

He delivered MASSIVE projects like the redevelopment of the Hung Hom railway terminal, ten underground MRT stations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the new international airport terminal in Hong Kong. He had a lot to share in our latest podcast, and spoke specifically about how his experiences on these project helped influence his view on BIM and construction technology in general.?

So how can you impress a guy like that?

The answer may be in the 3 things we’ve learned from the “BIM guy”:

#1 What Metaverse? Ace the basics first.

If you've ever heard coaches talk to their athletes, they constantly lecture the fundamentals. And while football players roll their eyes at being preached about their ball control for the umpteenth time, they eventually learn the value. Everything in a given profession relies upon doing the basics right. Besides, that's the foundation which all remarkable feats are built upon.?

This is how Ronan became successful. It's also why he almost has an allergic reaction to consultants talking about building for the Metaverse, when, clearly, most of them are far away from making fully detailed, fully coordinated, fully buildable designs.?

Lesson #1: Dream big, by all means. Learn about the flashy, futuristic, riveting stuff, but don’t lose sight of the practical, imminent challenges our industry is facing, now.

#2 Construction companies might not have an R&D budget, but they have a budget for solving problems.

The startup graveyard is full of ideas looking for a problem. And while some of the big, crunchy, obvious ones have been solved by the tech Goliaths of the industry there are plenty of cracks and gaps to be filled. "You don't have to take on the big guns," Ronan says, but what you can do is take on one of the many unsolved problems. Undoubtedly, the industry has a budget for solving them.?

#3 Build trust. Literally.

We often think of trust as something intangible. Yet, in a project,? trust needs to be designed, engineered, and built into the system of communication, the system of incentives, and the system of management between the Owner, Consultants, Contractor, Subcontractors, and Suppliers.?

According to Ronan, we haven’t really cracked the code yet. Despite our clear progress in implementing technologies, Construction leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to trust. And if your mind instinctively jumps from “trust” to “blockchain”, go back to Lesson 1: Start by solving the basics. The thinking process is perfectly summed up by the now infamous flowchart:

Whether you've got a forward-thinking mind or a skeptical-practical side to yourself there is a common denominator that’s ever-present in moving this industry forward. It’s a trait that professionals like Ronan have known and mastered all too well: hard work.?

Watch the full podcast here to hear more of what Ronan had to say.?