A Different Take on Industry Woes

One thing I love about my job (among many) is the ability to exchange ideas with experienced professionals like Mr. Hank Harris, Managing Director with FMI. As you'll note from my previous post on the ENR Awards, Hank and I met a while back and have maintained a professional relationship.

I value his opinion given his years of experience and industry focus. As such, I was happy that Hank agreed to do a webinar with us and provide his views on some of the challenges that the construction industry continues to face - I invite you to view this presentation and hopefully gain new insights from a respected source. This link on the e-Builder site will take you to a recorded version of the webinar. http://www.e-builder.net/webinars/construction-webinar.html


I welcome your feedback on this session as well as your take on industry challenges, and more specifically, what we can do to overcome them.

Construction Industry Woes

It's been some time now since Barry LePatner published his "Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets" book on North America's construction industry woes. Interestingly enough, Barry has become somewhat of a celebrity - my marketing director reports seeing Barry deliver his presentation on "Fixing the U.S. Construction Industry" at the Construction Owner's Association of America (COAA) and the Construction Management Association of America's (CMAA) spring conferences. I also know Barry presented at FIATECH's conference earlier this year, and did a webinar with Pricewaterhouse Coopers. I mention these appearances because when I first spoke to Barry he had stirred quite a bit of controversy and upset a lot of people with his comments. From what I've heard from those people attending these conferences his message has been well received, possibly because he has started to spread responsibility amongst all stakeholders, and not just contractors as was initially perceived. Right or wrong, I think the debate he has generated is at the very least a step in the right direction. I'd appreciate any insights or opinions from those of you who have read the book. For those of you who haven't, this link will provide you with a summary article published by the Boston Globe last year.