Growth or Attracting Talent

It’s not enough to just build work effectively - that is just what’s required to play in the game.

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D. Brown Management
June 12, 2018 2 minute read
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Contractors seeking sustainable growth must have aggressive and balanced strategies for acquiring work and building talent.

Leadership Tools: If you grow you need talent, if you don't grow you can't attract talent. Sustainable Growth Through Balanced Execution.

In the current economy it makes a lot of sense to selectively focus on fewer projects where you have the talent to build them profitably.  This strategy is short-term efficient and you will make a lot of money doing so. It is also long-term ineffective:  

  • Building business development capabilities takes time and deliberate practice.  The economy will experience a hiccup and you will want to have built competitive advantages through aggressive business development tactics as well as advanced preconstruction services.
  • There is no better time to improve your portfolio of customers than in a “hot” economy.  
  • If you are not growing then you will not be able to provide opportunities for your team members to grow in the long-term.  Someone else will and you will lose people over time as they take on other opportunities.  
  • Winners are attracted to other winners.  The best measure of winning in business is sustainable; profitable growth.  That will attract the right talent.    

On a scale of 0-10 how would you rate your business development capabilities?  

Your talent development capabilities?  

Observe, Hypothesize, and Experiment
Contractors would run much better, including improved field productivity, if they applied the simple lesson we all learned around middle-school science class: Stop debating and start experimenting.
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