Books cannot be prescriptive. The author cannot tell you what to do because he doesn?t know you and is not writing just to you. So with any great innovation, more work is needed to refine it. Many hours have to be invested by a serious leader if innovation is to be applied to a specific situation. If not, false starts will follow. Example: the disastrous lean manufacturing methodology application at General Motors. Even with many hours of tailoring, successful implementation is never certain.
My brother is a graduate of M. I. T.?s Sloan School. Mike earned his M.B.A. there some time ago and has a couple of decades of management experience to go with his stellar education. He is not bright but, brilliant in management and leadership matters. I have had more than a few enlightened conversations with Mike. Let me restate that, these weren?t really conversations. I asked and he answered. My questions are about the latest leadership and management challenges facing premier companies. There is much to learn in our industry that is common knowledge in others.
Clearly, construction contracting business research is the missing piece and thus, a potential leverage point for our industry. Since we are the largest private employer in the United States, it is unfathomable that we don?t have more fact based analysis about construction business practices. Rules of thumb and informal business practices are still common. Our firm is dedicated to change this and do more in this area. As we keep construction firms in business, it helps our country in many ways. Remember what former California Governor Pete Wilson stated, ?A job is the greatest social program ever invented?. As a further thought, we feel unemployment is a great social ill.
This is an excerpt from our recent book, The Practical Construction MBA (2011, 458 pages) for more information ? go to: http://stevensci.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=SCII&Category_Code=PCMBABook
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