Helping builders to build: faster and more profitably

In the world of commercial construction, profits are often uncertain; stories abound of large construction projects that run behind schedule and over budget. Our client, an international property company ken for larger and more stable returns, approached us with the brief to help them develop a strategy for their construction business.

Consistent with our approach of really trying to understand problems before we solve them, we worked hard with our client to understand the drivers of the market and the drivers of their performance. We found that the commercial market for construction was likely to rapidly over the five years under consideration by our client with a decline in commercial opportunities and increased competition from traditionally infrastructure based companies. Beyond the market drivers, we uncovered systemic issues with the way in which our client managed the process of asset creation, creating volatility in returns on a project by project basis.

To ensure that our conclusions were defensible, we analysed hundreds of our clients projects as well as gathering views and opinions from property and building professionals around the globe. This effort was not funded by the client and was the genesis for the first of our annual surveys.

Finally, we used techniques such as strategy mapping to ensure that whilst the analysis was complex the message wasn’t. As a result of this assignment our client was able to take appropriate strategic action to sustainably improve project performance.