President Corner

A team approach is a distinctive way of working that harness the collective skills, strengths, and energy of team members.  Teamwork leads to synergy and improves performance for everyone.  A team is a group of people, but not all groups are teams.  A group may be formed for administrative purposes or for achieving customers goals or for social affiliation.  A team is a group of people who work independently, who are committed to common goals, and who produce high quality results.

We consider ourselves to one another: Initiators, Encouragers, Clarifiers, Information Seekers and Givers, Harmonizers, Summarizers, Builders, and Winners. By this we conclude with constructive roles within our team.

Here is a porition of a great article that I recently read that hits the nail on the head for many customers wondering about contractor's pricing. 

Contractor's, from very small companies and individuals providing backyard type projects to multinational companies with annual revenues in the billions of dollars, all battle an image problem with our potential customers. Over many many years unbridled competition, greed and incompetence have driven too many projects to unhappy conclusions. I submit that bad projects and bad players are probably a small percentage of all projects built over time but they are the ones that seem to drive the image of our entire industry.

One of the negative drivers mentioned above is unbridled competition. When projects are awarded on the basis of price alone the life cycle value of completed projects is diminished. Low bids are often the result of incompetence in bid procedures, lack of experience, application of inaccurate or nonexistent job cost data, and taking unreasonable risks in pricing and production estimating. Only a very select small pool of good construction companies can thrive in this environment. Surely not enough to efficiently and successfully build all of the projects needed.

The solution to the image problem is the solution to the procurement procedure problem. We must move towards "best value" as the priority not lowest price. The ultimate best procurement method is "qualifications based, best value" where initial price is understood to be a lower tier driver. Quality construction and project management lead to successful projects that will endure, provide the best life cycle value, and that customers can be proud of. The image of contractors will change to the extent the prevailing procurement methods change.

To summarize the challenge of our industry is to create situations where contractors and clients build great projects at fair profit margins that reflect the risk and experience it takes to produce quality construction. Good contractors work hard to gain the trust of their clients. Good contractors are not afraid of transparency. We are all weary of a system that too often, in the short term, rewards the incompetent or untrustworthy.

At BCC we see this all the time as well.  The best thing we have found is to give a detailed bid summary with as much explanation per line item so our potential customers can see where the true costs are at.  We are as open as a book can get. and are here to add value to our customers as well as make a profit.  Consider qualifying your contractor's before selecting the "low bidder".