The Risks of Vision and Strong Leadership

The strongest leaders at all levels in construction have a clear vision of where they are headed and are relentlessly focused on achieving their goals. They align their teams tightly around the vision, goals, and strategy. This may introduce risks.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

 

Leadership Tools: Tunnel Vision and Strong Leadership equals Failure. Example: The 1978 United Flight 173.

This is absolutely the leadership required to bring a project out of the ground, set up a new department such as prefab, enter a new market, launch a new branch office or found a contracting business.  

As a contractor grows the leadership styles must also adapt along with the entire team dynamics. The airline industry has learned this through many failures including United Flight 173.  

It would be too easy to blame the captain, but similar incidents had occurred in the past. Root Cause Analysis pointed to deeper cultural and training issues. There hasn’t be an incident like this since.  

Our mission is to help contractors build stronger businesses for the next generation. We spend a significant amount of our time helping prepare leadership teams for succession and have learned many lessons along the way.  

Every failed succession we have seen has been a failure of talent not being properly aligned and not a failure of available capital or deal structure.  

Learn more




Private Equity and Construction
All of the trends that are changing the construction industry today require economies of scale and capital to truly take advantage of. Private Equity firms are seeing that trend and taking a bigger interest in the construction market.
5D Process for Alignment, Development, and Execution Speed
Effectively building a project and a construction business starts with getting the right people on the team and then getting them aligned. A great behavior to build into the team for alignment is a disciplined approach focusing on the 5Ds.
Succession Fact #1: Capital and Cash Flow
Succession Fact #1: No deal structure will substantially create capital or cash flow. It is only the business performance that ensures all major stakeholder groups are compensated properly for their time and capital put at risk.