I had lunch with Josh (not his real name) the other day.� Josh joined a large General Contractor last year as its first BIM director because the company?s owner came to the realization that his company was falling behind in technology innovation and need to get involved ?in that BIM stuff? (my words, not his).� So, he hired Josh.
Josh is a guy that?s always looking to tinker. He finds out about new technologies, new processes, new services, and he?s the first one to start thinking about ways to adapt them to his organization. He won?t let a title like ?BIM Director? limit his scope to just BIM. So, he?s made himself the inhouse expert in IPD projects, cloud computing applications and smart phone apps. The IT department thinks Josh is a real troublemaker, because he?s pushing them constantly to change their ?old tech?/ ?we can host anything?/ ?MS Exchange Server Rules? mentality.
Guys like Josh weren?t hired by construction companies 10 years ago. But in these days of thin profit margins and hyper competitive bidding, contractors are chanting the ?innovate or die? mantra a lot more often than they used to. However, they have a lot to learn about truly embracing innovation within their organizations.
Josh has his hands full for sure. Why? Well, he?s trying to turn his oil tanker with a canoe paddle. while the captain is in the wheelhouse trying to hold the line. Rather than give Josh the authority that he needs to boldly innovate, his company has tied his hands by forcing him to work with (i.e. around) his IT organization, which, in a nod to the ?Greatest Hits? of 70?s management structure, still reports to the CFO. While Josh is committed to finding new, better ways of doing things, IT is focused on maintaining the status quo.
The owners at Josh?s company haven?t yet realized that they are in an innovation dip. It?s up to Josh to stir up enough trouble to make them wake up to the fact that innovation requires abandoning old practices in addition to introducing new ones.
Tags: construction, construction IT, construction technology, contractors, general contractor, innovation
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