Construction Business Owner, November 2007 

Editor's Note: Following is part six of our eight part series called "Better Next Year," by Fred Ode, CEO, chairman and founder of Foundation Software.

Construction business owners, like a ship’s captain, must be prepared to steer their companies through the stormy waters and uncharted territory called change. To sit still amid changes happening within your market, your industry, and your competition is to risk sinking. 

Take it from the hundreds—or perhaps thousands—of books on the subject: Change in business is a given. Hard as it may be to accept and implement, the fact is that change happens. And since effective change always starts at the top, the role of leaders, among other things, is to be agents of change. 

Contractors operating within a rapidly-changing construction environment, therefore, have no choice but to implement change. Not only do they need to research and pursue the changes that will best help their company grow and prosper, but they need to manage and model those changes as well.

Change Starts at the Helm

Having worked with hundreds of construction business owners over the last twenty-seven years, I can safely say that significant organizational change does not happen within a contracting business unless the owner is willing and able to make it happen. Leaders who can effectively step outside their own comfort level and focus on the larger issues facing their company are more likely to follow through on change initiatives. What’s more, those change initiatives are more likely to succeed and help the company grow when owners commit to change.  

Unfortunately, many business owners struggle with change. They avoid it not because they are lazy or uninvolved, but because they are too busy or too fearful to move from “the way we’ve always done it” to a new program or process with unknown results.  Meanwhile, as they stay at status quo afraid of the changes that might hurt their business, their business lags behind because of inefficiency and missed opportunities.

In order to produce effective changes, contractors often must learn to change themselves.  They can’t be afraid to make change decisions, they can’t be afraid to evaluate change, and if need be, they can’t be afraid to alter those decisions. In order to guarantee that change is working, company owners need to constantly and obsessively evaluate their initiatives.

 

Title
Comment
Name
Email
Write the displayed characters
	Add Comment