The New Competitiveness in Design and Construction: 12 Strategies That Will Drive the 21st-Century's Most Successful Firms - Hardcover

Powell, Joe M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470065605 ISBN 13: 9780470065600

Publisher: Wiley, 2008

Synopsis

What is it that keeps professionals in the AEC industry up at night if it is not their ability to design and build good buildings? It's their never-ending search for a competitive advantage - their ability, on a daily basis, to effectively compete for new work. The main concern of the millions of companies, large and small, engaged in creating the built environment across the world is their capacity to not only survive, but to also thrive, at a time when the global economy is dauntingly complex, constantly changing, and overwhelmingly competitive.

Drawing on a three-year research project conducted by the Rice University Building Institute, Joe M. Powell incorporates the experience and wisdom of over 80 international market leaders.

This book answers the following two questions:

1. What are the critical performance characteristics of the world's most competitive companies?

2. What will be required to join the next generation of global market leaders?

Order your copy today and discover the answers.

About this title

About the Author

Joe M Powell is the Executive Director of the Rice University Building Institute, an interdisciplinary collaboration of industry, community and academic leaders. A registered architect, he has spent his 36-year career researching the relationship between corporate strategy, human behaviour and the built environment.

From the Back Cover

What is it that keeps professionals in the AEC industry up at night if it is not their ability to design and build good buildings? It's their never-ending search for a competitive advantage - their ability, on a daily basis, to effectively compete for new work. The main concern of the millions of companies, large and small, engaged in creating the built environment across the world is their capacity to not only survive, but to also thrive, at a time when the global economy is dauntingly complex, constantly changing, and overwhelmingly competitive.

Drawing on a three-year research project conducted by the Rice University Building Institute, Joe M. Powell incorporates the experience and wisdom of over 80 international market leaders.

This book answers the following two questions:

1. What are the critical performance characteristics of the world's most competitive companies?

2. What will be required to join the next generation of global market leaders?

From the Inside Flap

What is it that keeps professionals in the AEC industry up at night if it is not their ability to design and build good buildings? It's their never-ending search for a competitive advantage - their ability, on a daily basis, to effectively compete for new work. The main concern of the millions of companies, large and small, engaged in creating the built environment across the world is their capacity to not only survive, but to also thrive, at a time when the global economy is dauntingly complex, constantly changing, and overwhelmingly competitive.

Drawing on a three-year research project conducted by the Rice University Building Institute, Joe M. Powell incorporates the experience and wisdom of over 80 international market leaders.

This book answers the following two questions:

1. What are the critical performance characteristics of the world's most competitive companies?

2. What will be required to join the next generation of global market leaders?

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The New Competitiveness in Design and Construction

12 Strategies That Will Drive the 21st-Century's Most Successful FirmsBy Joe M. Powell

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2007 Joe M. Powell
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-06560-0

Chapter One

VISION

What constitutes an effective vision statement?

How are effective vision statements developed?

What are the typical impediments to becoming vision-driven?

How does being vision-driven translate to elevated

competitiveness?

Several years ago, an international executive search firm surveyed 1500 senior corporate leaders from 20 countries.

The question: "When selecting a CEO, what performance characteristics do you consider to be the most valuable?"

The answer: "A clear vision and the ability to rally people to it."

The subject of corporate vision has gotten plenty of attention over the past 20 years and as is typically the case, it has spawned a cottage industry of consultants, authors, facilitators, and tricksters. These days, most companies, even small ones, have written vision statements, values statements, and strategic plans. Obviously, some of these documents serve as the basis for energizing and focusing superior performance, while others are nothing more than frilly window dressing at which employees snicker when the boss's back is turned.

What constitutes an effective vision statement?

The next generation of market leaders will use motivational vision statements to add bandwidth to all of their marketing and communication programs. We identified five characteristics shared by the more successful ones.

1 It addresses the future

A good vision statement is about the future. Properly formulated, it will become your group's most powerful organizing force. An effective vision is an emotionally compelling portrait of what you intend to become. It acknowledges the past, is cognizant of the present, and describes a passage to a more fulfilling tomorrow.

Our vision is simply to work with people, through architecture, to evoke the world to which we all aspire.

CHRISTOPHER RATCLIFF, PRESIDENT AND CEO

RATCLIFF ARCHITECTS

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

2 It is emotionally compelling

Business is not only a game of the intellect. Even though we spend enormous energy discussing and admiring our intellectual prowess, most business behavior has an overwhelmingly emotional component. This perhaps is due to the large number of human beings involved. Here's the good news about studying the human emotional condition: it isn't changing. Business environments change, practices change, customers change, employees change, technology changes, but there has been no measurable evolution of basic human emotional drivers in the last two million years. OK then. Here's the "so what":

Companies that emotionally engage their stakeholders can simply ask more of them-more of their customers, more of their employees, more of their consultants.

Our design consultancy is dedicated to the reintegration of architecture, landscape, and the civic arts. We are committed to a significant restoration of the storytelling qualities of architecture.

ERIC KUHNE, MANAGING DIRECTOR

ERIC R. KUHNE & ASSOCIATES

LONDON, ENGLAND

Effective leaders have always known how to exploit this reality. An emotionally compelling vision will be one of your most powerful assets for motivating employees beyond simply doing their jobs. And it may serve as an unusually powerful point of differentiation between you and your competitors.

3 It is reality based

Vision statements are intended to motivate. There is nothing quite so pitiful as a group of people who pretend they are committed to a set of goals which they know are clearly out of reach. Your vision must be aggressive yet achievable. So how do you find the sweet spot? It's clearly a matter of negotiation and one of the most important elements of your vision development process.

4 It describes a meaningful/deeper purpose

We found several companies led by owners who believe the free enterprise system supplies all of the meaning any company needs. "We're here to make money for our investors and ourselves. What else do you need to know?"

In the 1960s, when General Motors began to feel the initial indicators of what may have become its inexorable decline, its board decided that they needed a new CEO to provide a spark of creativity and energy. On his first day, James Roche held a press conference where a reporter asked, "How does it feel to be responsible for making more cars that any other company in the world?" Mr. Roche's response: "I wasn't hired to make cars. I was hired to make money." Wow. That's a pretty clear sign of the vision he intended to implement.

Here's how it typically goes: "We intend to provide our investors with a superior return, our customers with superior service, our employees with a superior place to work, while being good corporate citizens." How's that for a statement that's cool-gray, vapid, and powerless?

There are many people who believe our lives are not about a search for happiness, but a search for meaning. If that's the case, there will be many rewards for any management team that can make a clear connection between the work of their company and the personal meaningfulness for their workers.

Seventy years ago, the founders of Perkins & Will described a vision for their fledgling architectural practice. "We intend to produce ideas and buildings that honor the broader goals of society." According to Greg Hughes, Principal, "Every associate here knows that our work is not about us. It's about how we impact society."

5 It permeates everyday work

We found several examples of companies run by executives who were personally guided by a clear vision. Unfortunately, they were the only ones who knew about it. So is it better to have no vision whatsoever, or one locked between the ears of people in senior management? Who cares? The results are the same.

Meaningful visions that actually impact operations aren't hard to identify. All you have to do is spend a little time at the company. It will be readily apparent that everyone is aligned on a few salient concepts. That doesn't mean that all leaders are the same or that all employees are the same. In fact, a great deal of personal diversity can and probably should be present, but everyone needs to know why they're there and what role they play. Company visions that don't live in the hearts and minds of all key players simply can't materially impact the way things get done.

So, how do most competitive companies achieve this?

First, the bad news.

Your mouth will be your least effective instrument in communicating your company's vision.

The most effective practices that we observed were very simple. First you tell them about it (not very difficult) and then you live it (harder).

At Linbeck in Houston, every new hire spends four hours with Chairman Leo Linbeck, III, and President Chuck Greco. According to Mr. Greco, "This kind of personal attention is expensive for the firm, but it's where we begin the process of drilling our company vision and values."

We teach a wide curriculum at Jacobs College; but by far, the most valuable thing we teach is our company DNA.

ROBERT M. CLEMENTS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP INC.

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

How are effective vision statements developed?

The most effective vision development process for any particular venture clearly depends on the key relationships that exist between company owners, senior management, and key employees. In this discussion, you'll notice the repetitive use of the term "key employees". No sizeable company ever gets everyone on board at the same time, but the good news is that it's not necessary. Not everyone in your company contributes equally, so pick the most valuable players and make certain you've acquired their commitment.

It seems quite impossible to communicate my vision to all of my 120 associates individually, so I find myself spending time with those who demand it.

MASSIMILIANO FUKASAS, OWNER

MASSIMILIANO FUKSAS, ARCHITETTO

ROME

Regardless of how a vision statement is developed and communicated, one reality is perfectly clear. All owners, key managers, and key employees must absolutely buy in. The problem is: How can you tell who is committed and who isn't? Smaller firms regularly make this value judgment intuitively, which can work perfectly well. Larger firms, however, need evaluation techniques that are more formalized. The cohesive effort required to achieve market leadership can absolutely be dismantled by a few dissidents who aren't devoted to the quest.

We observed successful vision statements being developed in a variety of ways, but three specific techniques were common:

1 Announce

If the owners founded the company with a clear vision and feel strongly about it, the most efficient process is to simply announce it and live it. People who buy in can stay and those that don't should work elsewhere. Once again, letting those who don't buy in hang around is a big mistake. Get them on board or get them out of the way.

Our design philosophy and company vision were inspired by one individual. The process of translating that individual's vision into a collective one comes from breathing the same air, working closely together, and constant communication. It is not the result of slogans, posters, or vision programs.

RON KEENBERG, CHIEF ARCHITECT

IKOY

OTTAWA, CANADA

2 Consult

A consulting strategy makes sense when senior management makes it clear that they are ultimately responsible for writing the vision statement, but input from key employees is important. This requires a systematic listening process but typically takes less time than a more collaborative one.

3 Collaborate

As previously discussed, most of us have a compelling emotional need to feel that our work has meaning and that it fits into a larger purpose. Therefore, many highly competitive firms utilize a process that requires all relevant stakeholders to join together to co-create the firm's vision. While this technique can offer the greatest rewards, it is also home to the most pitfalls.

Our company is 143 years old and the substance of our vision has never changed. Every five years, however, we take our entire company through a formal visioning process, not because we're interested in rethinking our vision, but because the process is invaluable in creating emotional buy-in on the part of our key people. Our 143-year-old vision becomes their vision.

CHRIS PECK, VICE PRESIDENT

MCCARTHY BUILDING COMPANIES

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

The greatest downside to the collaborative process occurs when senior management is not prepared to listen and key employees are not prepared to meaningfully contribute. Chaos and polemics typically follow. So what's so difficult about establishing an honest idea exchange between a firm's owners and its most valuable employees? It seems like this should just naturally occur. It doesn't.

We witnessed several senior management teams produce what they considered to be an honest effort to actually connect to their people only to have the exercise end with frustration or, even worse, palpable indifference.

Honest human connection only happens in an atmosphere of intellectual and emotional safety,

a condition often missing from these kinds of proceedings. Why?

Perhaps it's because we found the ranks of senior management were often colonized by a plethora of gifted talkers-charming people who can work a room, tell a good story, and generally entertain. While this performance characteristic is highly prized by engineers, builders, and architects alike, it's useless when the goal is to stimulate powerful sharing. For that, you need active listeners-people who are genuinely interested in the ideas of others, otherwise known as consensus builders.

All previous options are preferable to an insincere co-creation attempt.

What are the typical impediments to becoming vision-driven?

Failed attempts at designing and implementing corporate visions are numerous and widespread. Why do so many good companies spend so much time and money on this topic while producing such paltry results? Interestingly enough, we found that most failures occur for very predictable reasons.

First, let's discuss what's not causing the problem. The desire to be a vision-driven company was almost universal. Next, every company we investigated was perfectly competent at generating a vision. Some were more inventive than others, but coming up with an acceptable vision was not a problem. Although most companies in the AEC industry do not hire consultants to help generate their visions, we observed a clear willingness to spend time and money to get it done. Let's recap: There is a general desire to become vision-driven, most groups do perfectly well at writing it, and almost everyone is willing to assign resources to the undertaking. So why is there such a high failure rate? Why do so few companies actually become vision-driven?

Repetitive failure occurs because a virtual firewall develops between those who create the vision and those responsible for executing it.

As we've repeatedly emphasized: the vision, no matter how well-crafted, is useless unless it lives in the hearts and minds of all key employees. Here are some typical problem areas:

1 Communication

Some companies simply don't communicate their visions repeatedly. It's not good enough to bring it up now and then. Vision- driven companies talk about it constantly.

2 Personal

Company visions lack valence when they don't fire the imagination of key workers. A vision is powerless until it becomes a personal imperative.

3 Measurable

Any management program whose performance isn't measured will remain useful for water cooler talk and little else.

4 Rewarded

Specific rewards must be given to individuals for advancing the group vision.

What about laggers?

We identified another interesting phenomenon relative to the task of integrating a coherent vision. No matter how well you communicate your vision, no matter how well you measure and reward those who actively help achieve it, there will be those who simply don't buy in. On the surface, this seems innocuous enough. The problem is that these laggers can wield enormous influence.

The question quickly becomes: Who is with us and who isn't? Small firms deal with this intuitively, which is usually fine. Large ventures need more formalized techniques to identify players who are not actively advancing the group's vision.

We identified six typical employee responses to any new vision initiative and offer our thoughts about how senior management should deal with each.

1 Ignore

New initiatives are inherently scary and there will be those that simply hope it goes away. These people will act as if nothing new or important is happening.

Response: Leadership must quickly identify the laggers and either bring them on board or get them out of the way.

2 Sabotage

Fear often causes some people to feel uncomfortable with the honest expression of opposition and they may choose to work behind the scenes to derail the vision. While being overtly supportive, they will secretly attempt to damage the effort. This response is unhealthy for the company as well as for the individual.

Response: These people must be identified and quickly put on a short leash. Try getting them involved. If that is not immediately successful, remove them. It won't take many of these people to keep a coherent vision from taking hold.

3 Overt opposition

There will always be perfectly rational reasons for an individual not to support any new vision. While sabotage is an unhealthy response to a proposed change, overt opposition is the honest expression of disapproval.

Response: Leadership should deal with these individuals with dignity and respect. Sell them on the reasons for the new vision, involve them in communicating it, and reward them for their support. Monitor them closely. If rapid 'buy-in' is not achieved, they must be replaced.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The New Competitiveness in Design and Constructionby Joe M. Powell Copyright © 2007 by Joe M. Powell . Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470065605
• ISBN 13: 9780470065600
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216