Introducing THE-D

Good After Everyone. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and that you are all ready to have an unbelievable week.

Monday morning is always the best time for me for getting some time for blogging, team meetings, admin, emails and generally preparing for the week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays are usually my days for meetings, this weekly split has come through many trial and errors when trying to run two businesses and have a work-life balance. I plan to publish some articles in the future on work-life balance, as I have lots of fantastic content to share for those who are thinking about venturing into entrepreneurship and for those who have already made the jump. Those who want to improve how they manage their time ( "I know in the first few years I was looking for all the help I could get").

Ok, so, I wanted to focus this article with you all on explaining the re-brand and re-launch of our consultancy THE D. First of all I would like to give you some history about how we got to this point 28.01.2019 ( "my dads birthday today, happy birthday dad!")

Where it all began

Having been an apprentice technical architect from the age of 17, that means I have 15 years of years of experience under my belt now in architecture, engineering and construction. (Wow time flies).

Apprenticeship

I started my career learning how buildings are put together and were spent three years learning my trade, folding drawings, doing red pen markups, surveying buildings, ammonia prints scanning (brutal) while slowly building up my confidence designing and coordinating projects. I was learning Autocad, Sketchup, 3d studio max, Photoshop... The kind of tools they used back in those days, while also learning the language, the terminology, how to collaborate with engineers, work with builders and how to manage my projects. While I was going through my practical education, I was studying construction at college 1 day per week.

Blind Ambition

I started to become very ambitions very quickly, which was the first sign of may things to come. I had a thirst for more significant projects and more responsibility, so I moved to a HUGE architecture company.

Those three months were hard and had three months of pain, (hahaha) I jumped in the deep end way too quickly and then decided to join another large organisation that was working on projects from the value of 15 million - 60 million which was still a massive jump from my first job.

When BIM was born

In my four years at DKS Architects, a recession hit and wiped out 60% of the workforce which was tough but looking back it was a key role for me. Twelve years ago an ambitious client asked us to adopt some software from the US to help us coordinate the building before the project hit the site. One of which was Revit. At this point, there was no training, no resellers in the UK and we had a book and some blogs ( Revit city being the main one ).

Learning Revit would take me away from architecture.

Learning Revit was bloody tough, 3 of us were the pioneers for the studio. We had a building each to manage on a health care project. BAM was the contractor. We needed to learn on the job while delivering the project in Revit. Again I was still studying part-time at this point my HNC in construction. We delivered the project, and I then ended up doing another 5 or 6 projects before deciding to get out of the UK and to escape the recession. A little bit of a risk for me as I should have indeed continued studying my degree but no regrets...

BIM Mastery Down Under

When I arrived in Melbourne after three months of travelling, I was a Revit expert technical architect,one of the most required skills in Australia at the time. The four years in Australia allowed me to grow into a new chapter of my career, I was project BIM Manager on some of the most significant projects in Australia at the time and was leading some "BIM Implementations for some of the top organisations in Australia"...

Those four years in Melbourne, showed me the power of real innovation and industry transformation. No mandate but a real thirst for using digital technology to give clients a new product, a new way of handing over buildings which were going to create HUGE value for all. A new sub-industry was growing in-front of my eyes and I was one of them who was leading it. It happened in the blink of an eye like everyone was sleepwalking into a revolution.

UK BIM Mandate, time to come home?

The announced the there BIM Level 2 mandate which looking back was a massive turning point for BIM globally. I was flooded with offers and request to come back to the UK, but initially, I thought I would stay in Oz for many years to come. However, at the age of 26, I was tempted by the unique challenge, London. I hadn't ever worked in London, as a Yorkshire lad, it seemed like a different planet, but at the top of my game in Melbourne, it looked a perfect time.

London Calling

So eventually AECOM gave me an offer I couldn't refuse, a BIM Level 2 delivery of a multi-discipline project in Qatar, fixed term contract. The plan was an engineering delivery, and a colossal master-plan involving roads, bridges, artwork and some fantastic architecture — a considerable challenge where I built the team, recruiting the best BIM specialists to meet this delivery. As 2013 was looming I had always had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder that I had never started a digital BIM transformation of a company from the very beginning, I had always come in after the first strategy, or I was part of a bigger digital team.

BIM Level 2 Implementation of Sheppard Robson

When I got the call from Sheppard Robson (one of the most famous UK architects) to set up and lead their four-year project on preparing the company for BIM Level 2, it was an offer I couldn't resist. In these 4 years I had the pleasure of growing a team of some of the most talented BIM specialists I have ever worked with to this date. A multi-faceted role which took me to heights I wouldn't have dreamed. Being involved in hundreds of the top projects in the UK, implementing mass digital change and leading some of the first BIM Level 2 projects in the UK. I would be here all day if I listed everything that happened in these four years but in our team we where probably five years ahead of the curve, we where testing concepts and software five years ago which are not even mainstream today.

DANBIRDSALLINC was born

My good old friend ambition came back to me after 01.04.2016, my task when I joined Sheppard Robson was to guide them to the BIM Level 2 deadline which I had completed and left a fantastic team in place. I have always known my main aim is to be a business owner, I am incredibly entrepreneurial, and I am the kind of person that has 5-10 new ideas per day on ways I can fix a problem. The time had arrived for me to set up and to grow a business.

I manage to convince my co-founder to join me on this venture of co-founding a business (whom I since married haha)... We decided the best way to launch was to use my name, so danbirdsallinc was born.

I had one week off when I left Sheppard Robson, and I had around five meetings with companies wanting my help. "Project BIM Management, Information Management, Project Delivery, BIM Level 2, BIM Level 3 (what?), Training, Change Management, Software creation, SCAN2BIM, Digital Business strategy, BIM Coordination, Model Management, software creation, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Database setup for BIM, projects support, helpdesk, dynamo definition creation, Digital Engineering support, modular offsite support, CGI, ArchViz consultancy, Unreal gaming experiences."

It seemed that I had a lot to offer the market, so we dived straight in.

Time to breath

Two years went like a flash, having setting up danbirdsallinc and having one week to set things up, we worked with around 50 clients in 2 years, and it was worldwide. Projects and clients were scattered around globally. Ale and I were learning the business while in the middle of a fast motorway... We needed support over these two years, and we needed to think very creatively about how we grew our business to help our clients. We decided that project contracts were the answer for us and we ended up having nearly 100 people come in to support us over these two years, which looking back was a great achievement. I project managed the clients and Alejandra project led the teams.

Work-life balance? You decide.

Alejandra and I ended up getting married on the 29.09.2018, and this will make you laugh, the night before our wedding we were working on a deadline for one of our biggest clients. A BIM handover on the 27th at pm. If this is not proof of how committed we are, then I do not know what is.

Lessons Learned

Throughout these two years, we have both had some incredible mentors along the way, and I have to say that I am a massive believer in mentoring and coaching, something that I want to go into myself to help the next generation of leaders find they're the way to the top.

We came to realise an essential part of owning a business. If you are not clear on what your businesses mission is, you end up having a company that is part of your client's mission, and you never really get to move forward.

Always question, Always improve, none stop innovation.

So, we decided a change was required. We resisted the offers of angel investors and acquisitions and agreed that a new brand was needed for us to grow to the next stage of establishing our business. We needed A new message, A new vision. More people to join the mission, Danbirdsallinc had served its purpose, and now it was time for THE-D to take on the task and to serve a compelling purpose to clients.

We want to champion and master our specialisms and to give our clients a level of service and value that bluntly "does not seem to exist in our industry. "

So now you can track backwards and feel how THE-D came to market. It is now time for me to introduce THE-D.

THE-D - A leading consultancy that believes in championing transformation change

THE-D represents a considerable change of mindset required in organisational culture, within all businesses working in the "built environment"...

In this boom of technology startups, we wanted to research the problems from a NONE technological perspective. 

We are humans, and it is the humans who shall be operating the technology or the machine which is helping us with our tasks. So we feel that it is imperative to look deeper than the technology. All technology is made by humans who are trying to solve a problem or to provide a solution. So it is essential to connect with the human aspects of our industries. 

As we believe that the most significant changes in our industries will be born from changes in our mindset, our language, how we communicate, how we interpret success, how we understand failure, how we collaborate, how we embrace transparency, the meaning of trust in our teams, how we interpret value, profit, legacy, our vision for the future.

All of the above needs to be reviewed, documented, potentially changed and then implemented as a social business change strategy. 98% of companies bring in new technology on top of existing business plans, existing, procedures and slot them into traditional departmental HR hierarchy. Which is not a bad thing, it's a more organic way of doing things.

However, when you go through this natural process, this needs to be stage 01 of change, as stage 02 is when you realise that a deeper change is required.

Let's call stage 02 the "ALL IN" stage, nobody ever got the full value without going all in. There are now organisations making a FULL commitment to maximising a new business model which is going to be able to survive the future of business. Industry 4.0 is on the horizon, and the key points are as follows,

1. Improved Product
2. Less Fee
3. Higher Quality
4. Shorter Time Scale
5. Waste Free Production
6. Integrated Project Delivery (full transparency)

All of the above will be the norm and the triangle of cost, quality and time will still be in place. 

The buildings which are currently here on our planet are the main reason for the global warming threat we have today, not traffic pollution and not mining coal. 

The full process of designing, construction and operating within the built environment is going to change to an efficient watertight method like never seen before.

Social Responsibility 

In 2019 I think that if you don't have social responsibility at the route of your business, then you should. We all need to use our specialisms to give back to society. 

At THE-D we want to make sure that companies continue to grow and thrive for many years to come. The last thing we want is to see businesses be unable to complete within a new age evolved built environment sector. The organisations of the future are already here, currently in small numbers, but they are here. They can work within the six parameters I named above AND STILL MAKE A PROFIT.

The advancements in automation and machine learning are allowing traditional tasks to be completed 75% quicker than traditionally.

The rise of machine learning and deep learning is going to welcome in a new wave of companies into the built environment, and they will have tools that can allow organisations to operate on an entirely different level.

Our main aim is to welcome in the new waves of innovation and digital technology but to partner up with organisations and provide them with a strategy to evolve their businesses into this modern age.

We generally work across three stages of digital technology implementation.

Stage 01

"As a business you are now ready to make the change into a full digital transformation, you are probably a little late coming to the party, but you have arrived at a time where most people have made their mistakes and are now looking to re-strategise using their lessons learned as a foundation. A great example of this would be in Spain, where their BIM mandate is arriving soon. Many organisations have not even started to change, they are still working in a very traditional way, but now they want to move over delivering all of there projects in BIM."

"Now is the perfect time to start working with THE-D, one of our many digital transformation packages can propel you to success by following our step by step process of aligning your business processes to the new way in which you will start to deliver your projects.

You will have the benefit of all of the lessons learned that the industry has from over the past 10-15 years from implementing new project delivery software WITHOUT ALIGNING THERE BUSINESS PROCESSES."

Stage 02

"As a business you started to deliver BIM projects around five years ago, you have many projects completed, you probably have had many BIM Managers, Coordinators, Digital Engineers, Information Managers pass through the doors over the past five years. You have heard all of the excitement, you have learnt your lessons on some of the projects, you have had to keep up with the list of software requirements your specialists are asking for as its essential to deliver the projects. You may have won many projects as a result of being able to flash the name of your BIM team on your project bids, OR you have delivered some BIM Level 2 projects and potentially be certified."

"My question to you would be the following, has your investment in technology changed your business to the core? Have you made a profit worthy of the investment you made? Can you honestly look your client in the face and tell him that without your team of super users and experts that the project would flow in line with what you stated in the bid?"

"I firmly believe that 90% of organisations have not integrated all of the change through every part of there organisation yet. I would not have expected you to, as transformation change can take many years. THE-D wants to work with you, we want to review everything across your business, we want to discuss your projects, we want to interview the digital experts, and we will plug the results into our tools we have created to inform us on what needs to change in order to unlock THE TRUE VALUE IN YOUR BUSINESS. "

"Most companies within stage 02 have done most the hard work, they have made 70% of the changes, and their digital champions have probably done a superb job on there yearly budget and controlled responsibilities. The next 30% is at the heart of the business, and the remaining 30% is where the gold lives."

"Our mission is to unlock the 30% of gold and help build a plan with you will allow that 30% to become the most valuable 30%."

"A real digital transformation of a company requires bold changes, changes that will open up a new way of working."

"A digital transformation can welcome in a new level of profit in the built environment like never before. Becoming an organisation of the future is going to be a huge leap, and in my opinion, you will not be able to make the jump unless you make changes to all aspects of your business"

Stage 03

"Ok, so stage 3 is rare, you could be a startup who are going through accelerated progression, you could be one of companies looking to deliver projects using new evolved tools, with smaller teams, with all of the technology working for you across all aspects of your business. You probably think that the industry is yours and it is waiting for you to change the full thing. You guys know who you are, haha. "

"THE-D wants to work with the "millennial generation" who probably have the correct mindset for the future of the industry. They are tech natives, a different bread to all of us." 

"Cracking into the market place of the built environment will not be so easy, as many organisations are going through there own changes, and you may be a little threatening and intimidating to others. "

"THE D will work with you on how to successfully enter the market and to work alongside companies at different stages of digital transformation, after all, we are all in this together, and we should all be helping each other."

"I think we can all agree, that we do not want a tech giant (from out of the industry)to come in and to implement something that is going cause a mass transformation that will hurt society and our companies. If a Google or an Amazon comes into the built environment, we want to be in a position that we are ready and that we can be in control of our businesses."

HEADLINES

Our digital transformation stages 1,2,3 are the first things we would like to asses, we want to make it clear that our focus is on the human aspects of change is primary.

We need to be loyal to our beliefs. We believe the value of being one of our clients is our commitment to lifelong change.

We are being able to structure a business that is agile and flexible enough to keep changing year after year. Making these changes needs to be the goal for all companies in the built environment, regardless if you are a subcontractor of 5 of a corporation of 5000.

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

We have a wealth of experience in our team, and we bring in the appropriate team members at the appropriate times. You can see the list of experts that we have worked as part of THE-D.

BIM consultants, Big Data consultants, FM Strategists, Information Managers, Asset Management consultancy, Virtual Reality Experts, Visualisers, Training experts, Change management experts, Project managers, Coders, Dynamo Consultants, Architects, Engineers, Data scientists, Software Developers, Digital project managers, Business coaches, Leadership coaches, Transformation coaches.

THE-D IS HERE TO SERVE

THE-D is here to serve the industry, and we want to enable change.

We offer all the services required from a modern-day BIM consultancy, BUT our mission is on organisational change. We want to tie together the projects and the organisation. IPD ( Integrated Project Delivery ) is going to be one of the significant changes to arrive soon, a subject that I have been researching for the past ten years and which I am currently writing a research paper on my MSC in Project Management Thesis.

We fully support and hail the new ISO standards; we think this a critical step for BIM, but there are much more happening within organisations that BIM currently so it's important to recognise that BIM is not everything to everyone. Prioritising your organisational change needs to be priority number 1.

Monday is going to be blog day, so keep an eye out for more content from me. Apologies for this long article one but I wanted to give everyone the full transparency from where THE-D was born.

FREE CONSULTATION

We always offer free consultations with new clients so please drop me a line if you have any questions about anything I have mentioned. We are based in WEWORK, in London and Madrid. We are native speakers in English and Spanish and can work internationally so please do not hesitate to get in touch.

The blogs come from the opinion of myself Dan Birdsall and of all involved in THE-D. We are a group whom all believe in the same mission.

Have a great week folk's. I shall see you in the future.

Dan

PS. REVOLOGY + DANBIRDSALLINC.

For those who are interested, DANBIRDSALLINC has not died and will also some back to market eventually. More focused on success coaching which will be aimed more at nurturing future leaders.

Also my latest startup involvement is RE-EVOLOGY. a super cool forward thinking team of virtual reality experts working on the cutting edge of digital visualisation. We are all setup now in London and Madrid. This company has a very specific set out skills. The team are experts in gaming and visualisation. A sector which is expected to grow and grow into the future as VR, AR, MR and XR all continue to grow in sophistication. We are creating customised technology tools for companies wanting project experiences in any form of virtual reality. I will write an article on RE-EVOLOGY next week so please stay tuned!! Victor our CTO is the champion in RE-EVOLOGY and we will be working closely bringing his team to market.

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