The Biggest Problems Earn The Biggest Rewards

Solving “Big” problems earns big rewards.

How do you know how “Big” a reward is going to be for the problem you solve? (Solution Value) x (Solutions sold). Construction solves a Trillion-dollar problem every year by building physical infrastructure. Buildings, roads and bridges.

Construction also has internal problems to solve. Throughput is the largest problem. This means that the demand for construction projects outpaces supply. Supply is the ability to complete projects.

A company can only complete as many projects as they are cable. That capability comes from the quantity of people and the tools they have. The faster a project can be completed, the better for everyone.

This big problem in construction doesn't have a simple solution. Because construction is not a simple industry. There are a lot of moving parts and pieces. A lot of people. A lot of tools. A lot of movement and change. Your ability to manage this complexity is the ability to which you'll earn.

The hardest, but most effective is better project management. The best project managers know when and how to give information and organize the team. This is one of the hardest skill sets to teach. Yet, a great project manager will projects profitable.

Taking a step back to throughput for your individual firm. Projects in and projects out. There are two levers you can pull:

1.      Add people

2.      Make your current people better

I used to have a team of 8 electrical designers and technicians reporting to me. To increase throughput, I had a choice to make. I could either hire more people or make them better. Since (3) of them couldn’t use Revit, this created a bottleneck with the people who could use Revit.

I trained those three guys to use Revit. 2 of them became very proficient and the third was halfway competent. So, we went from 5/8 (62.5%) to 7/8 (87.5%) an increase of 25% which is double the capacity increase if I were to have hired another person.

Not all decisions will be this straightforward, but some of them often are.

Increasing the team's productivity by 20% with a tool is better than hiring another person. Let’s take the same team of 8 that I managed. When you add Surfboard by Kowabunga Studios to your toolkit. You'll improve each team member's efficiency by 25%. With a team of 8, this is like adding 2 people to the team. An electrical engineer's salary is $125,000 per year. When you add benefits, equipment, and office space, their total weighted cost is $200,000+.

Hiring (2) people costs $400,000 and that doesn’t include recruiting fees. Making hiring people one of your most expensive endeavors. Now, people do make the business, and in construction, people are everything. But not all people are worth this type of money, nor do all people deliver on what they say they can do.

Which is the beauty of software. When it works, it works great. It doesn't talk back, and it’ll work as hard as you need it to.

When you look to get more through your entire system, you must map it out. See what needs to be fixed and where you need help.

First, look at big chunks. Do you need help with sales or operations? If you have enough opportunities, but just need help getting it done, then focus on operations. Then within operations, where do you need help? What’s the biggest bottleneck in your operation. Is it equipment operators, foremen, laborers, engineers?

Map this out and find where you need to put your attention. Because while you might want each of these positions, only 1 is going to move the needle the most. There is one position that if you could fill it, you’d solve a ton of problems.

Maybe instead of hiring or having better tools you do something different. Maybe you start a pre-fab operation. Maybe this investment changes everything. Now, it will take years of effort and large investments, but the return can be the greatest.

Solving big problems has big rewards. Which is why it’s not easy. They have a lot of moving parts and take longer than you want them to. We solve what other people consider big problems in construction. We've gotten good at solving them, so they aren't so big anymore. It’s the problems we aren’t sure how to solve, or even what problem needs solving that gives us trouble. It’s uncomfortable and painful. We ignore the problems that would give us the best return.

Because everything you want is on the other side of solving these hard problems.