Customer Relationships
Saying “No” and “Yes” With Equal Conviction
In business, most of the time it’s easier to say “yes.” We wish to serve, to solve problems and keep our customers happy. But “yes” isn’t always the right answer….
Customer Relationships
How a ‘Feeling’ Wins and Maintains Business
You have heard it a million times: We never get a second chance to make a good first impression. While initial thoughts might take us toward in-person meetings, this adage…
Read MoreManagement
Success: Finding the Right Customers and Keeping Them
A number of years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing an address by Charles Cawley. He started his business on a shoestring in an empty A&P food store. This…
Tips from the Field
Pros and Cons of Three Concrete Structure Methods
Over the years, we’ve built parking structures that employed different structural framing methods. The system chosen depended on a variety of factors including land/site constraints, design functionality and accessibility of…
Tips from the Field
Hard Knocks Site & Civil: Be Prepared
Good civil engineers are worth their weight in gold. I would suggest theirs is a discipline that, beyond all others, can make or break a project. I’ve seen civil cause…
Construction Trends
How Big is Your Lunch Table?
In the 1960s, the amount of office space allocated to an individual was a direct indicator of your status at a company. Bigger was better, with CEOS working in sprawling…
Management
How Trust Affects Business
This week, we were finalizing a contract with a first-time customer when a breakout number of the total contract value changed by a relatively small amount. Our project manager felt the…
Construction Trends
Downtown Cousins: Brownfields, Urban Redevelopment and Adaptive Reuse
Growing up, I often visited South Georgia, where my father told me what it was like in the early days of a cotton farmer. As I recall, they would plant…
Leadership
To Achieve Collaboration, Create “Teams of One”
Over the last few days, unusually high winds and a lot of rain overtaxed the storm water controls of a recently completed building in Kansas. Water infiltrated the first level…
Customer Relationships
On the Road to Simplicity
This week, we were finalizing a contract with a new customer. The process of the last few days did not go as I had expected. Confusion from too many details…