Our conversation is with Margaret Whelan, Founder, and CEO of Whelan Advisory, a boutique investment banking firm that raises capital for clients in the building space and represents builders for sale. Margaret provides her perspective on what is driving innovation…
Clark Ellis, Principal and Co-Founder of Continuum Advisory Group sits down with Mona Haggag to discuss key concepts from his article A Fresh Take on Change Management. This podcast covers the hard work of adapting your company to your changing…
John McManus, an award-winning editorial and digital content director for the Residential Group at Hanley Wood in Washington, DC, joins Clark Ellis to discuss John’s perspective on what is most interesting and most pressing for homebuilders to consider in the…
Building information modeling – or BIM – is a powerful business platform that uses 3D visualization to convey a building’s materials, construction, and architecture. Its complexity and power have made it ideal for large-scale commercial projects…but the time is coming for its use in single family and multifamily residential applications.
Welcome to Spring. How’s it feel?
Pretty good for most of us, we’d say. Things are looking up for the building industry: this year, 73 percent of construction firms expect to hire new people to address demand. It’s a hopeful environment, a reassuring one.
And while you should stop and smell the roses, you should also look forward. An upward-trending year is the perfect time to examine your situation and plan for the year ahead. Much like how New Year’s is the perfect time to set a resolution.
And like New Year’s, such plans often fail to bear fruit. Why, and what can you do? In a new article for Builder, Clark Ellis – principal at Continuum Advisory Group – explores that dilemma.
A few weeks ago, between a series of meetings with a homebuilder client, I was asked if I wanted try out their virtual reality prototype, which involved me donning a pair of heavy goggles and clumsily shuffling around within a 10’ x 10’ open space. The open space, of course, was reality. But what I was seeing through the goggles was the living room of one of their best selling house plans. On the horizon was a beautiful, scenic mountain range, which could be easily enjoyed from the fashionable L-shaped couch that I was virtually standing beside. From a stationary position, I could rotate in a 360-degree circle to see the kitchen, covered porch, downstairs bathroom, stairs, and the entrance to the 1st floor master bedroom. From the master bedroom, I could walk around the bed, check out the master bathroom, and even take another look at that mountain range. Perhaps the coolest part of this experience came from the upstairs hallway, where I could approach the banister of the stairs, bend at the waist, and see the downstairs foyer. While not available on this particular day, the ultimate end product will include the option to change everything from the color of the walls to the structural layout of the house. You’ll be able to build your dream home and experience it, just at the small price of wearing a bulky set of goggles.
Amazon is no stranger to stirring things up, and their newest invention is no exception.
Yesterday, I read an article about their first grocery store in Seattle – a pilot for now, but it’s really happening – with no cashiers and no lines. There’s not even a self-checkout: customers are tracked via technology that senses what they take from the shelves. When they’re done, they just walk out. Payment is processed automatically.
We don’t sell groceries, but we can learn from Amazon. Their efforts are an outstanding example of the type of breakthrough thinking we need in the construction industry. Supermarkets have lines, and beeping registers, and the candy next to the conveyor belt. That’s their paradigm. But what is the one thing we all hate most in the supermarket? Standing in that very line.
Where do we find opportunity for competitive separation in an environment with such constrained resources? As a homebuilder, how do we deliver high quality homes to our customers on time with a depleted trade base and high internal turnover? As a trade contractor, how do we establish a productive relationship with the builder that’s built on trust and transparency, in turn allowing us to meet their expectations regardless of our own internal capacity? As a supplier, how do we communicate our strategic capabilities in a way that addresses a builder’s cycle time challenges?
When you think procrastination, laziness is definitely adjacent. Procrastination is a big problem in the construction industry, but for entirely different reasons. Most builders learn quickly that outright laziness is not an option in an industry driven by deadlines, high production standards and shifting customer demand. Instead, procrastination in construction is a bit more complex.
At Continuum Advisory Group, we call this phenomenon the 4th Quarter Fire Drill. It is a natural consequence of bad habits. Like any bad habits, these can be unlearned and prevented.