The 2018 Viewpoint Collaborate conference in Portland provided the opportunity to get out of the office routine and interface with clients, vendors, and peers ,which I always find worthwhile. The conference also presented the welcome opportunity to attend a session presented by FMI, the nation’s premier construction consultancy. I never pass up a chance to attend an FMI seminar when available. The session broke down into 5 main topics. Click on any of the the links below and please fill out the short form to download the slides from the session.
Why Construction Companies Fail
The last topic has always interested me especially, and Greg from FMI reiterated a lesson I learned several years ago: more contracting firms fail during strong market years, not lean times. In other words, most companies go under with too much work, rather than not enough. They’re unintentionally running a Ponzi scheme, living on cash flow and operating without sufficient internal controls in place. Setting goals for more volume and growth has taken down more than one previously successful company.
The lesson? Make sure your internal processes are robust so your company can take advantage of our strong economy. Don’t allow the strong economy to add your company to the list of failed contractors due to insufficient controls.
