Other stories by Brian Moore

  • Are You Investing in Your Most Valuable Asset?

    By choosing high quality people and building their capabilities, you will be investing in and enhancing the value of your greatest asset and the value of your company.

  • What it takes to be a good contractor (Part 2 of 2)

    Defining everything it takes to be a good contractor would be a very long list. But last month (in Part 1 of this article) we developed the following list of management skills needed by the good contractor and reviewed the first two in detail. We will cover the last three this month.

  • What It Takes To Be A Good Contractor (Part 1 of 2)

    Gauge your own level os susceptibility to each item as you read the list of problems that cause contractors to go broke.

  • Is Your Marketing Creating Value?

    In last month's column, we introduced the seven core elements of value and the importance of measuring performance in each area. Tracking performance in each of the core elements allows management to determine where value is created and where it is destroyed.

  • The Core Elements of Value

    To learn how a construction company is performing, the first place most people look is the financial statements. But the real measure of management effectiveness is whether it creates or destroys value. Some might say “sell more, work faster, be safer, and you will be successful.” But a company can...

  • Driving performance through organizational accountability

    Have you ever wondered why one contractor performs better than another? The tendency is to look at the differences as a matter of personnel, equipment, or just better luck with the weather. In fact, when two companies are facing the same uncontrollable variables, the company that performs best is...

  • Unlocking Hidden Profits

    While field managers or superintendents do not have to know specifically how your company is performing, they must understand just how low the profits are in this industry and some of the basic factors that affect profitability.

  • How customer service shapes your image

    Why would a concrete contractor care about customer service? In order to answer that question, you first must decide whether we're talking about the service you get from your suppliers or the service your customers get from your company.

  • Having Problems Motivating Employees? Look in the Mirror.

    How can we get our field managers to work as hard and care as much about the project as we do?

  • Post-project Reviews

    To improve performance over time, a contractor must continually learn from the past. One of the most important ways is through post-project reviews. The focus of a post-project review is to improve the construction process and build teamwork on future projects.