Our working world is now being run by the lovely Baby Boomers.  The generation that had a little, shall we say, withdraw from society back in, what was that decade? Oh yeah, the sixties.  Then they decided to hang up the tie-dyed, burn the acoustic, cut the locks, and enter the work-force never to return to the free wheeling life they once fought so hard to justify and maintain.  And now, well, they are sitting at the top of an economy that is teetering on the brink of collapse and unemployment is sky high.  But I guess this is ok for them.

Of course the boomers, who were born between 1946 and 1964, think the Gen Xers and their younger cousins, the Millennials, are lazy and too obsessed with their Facebook pages, and cell phones to put in the hard work that got the boomers to where they are today.  However, if boomers can use the younger workers’ technological skill to their financial adavantage, by all means, put the kid in front a computer and let him have at it!

But believe it or not, this article is not about waging a war among generations, but rather about observing age specific differences and perhaps becoming more aware of these differences on both sides of the generational spectrum.  The FDU article made some significant generalizations, but they put together an interesting table charting what they see to be generational differences.

These differences among age groups will never be completely resolved, but I think we can make some significant improvement through increased awareness and understanding.  It takes work, and this work does not immediately impact the bottom line, but could result in better communication, culture, and maybe eventually, more profit.

I take that back, they don’t have to.  What they do have to do is give the job to the lowest responsible bidder.  Of course responsible is the key word there and they could make a contractor look irresponsible rather quickly if they wanted to (or if a few Benjamins were slipped into their pocket).  But the reality is that there are tax dollars at stake and all information regarding bidders is one hundred percent public.  So if a town wants to disqualify a low bid, they better have darn good reason to do it, or some villagers may get quite angry.  If a low bidder is able to produce a bid bond as well as the necessary insurance requirements, I would think that it is a very difficult sell for a town to disqualify a bid.  If they did, I wouldn’t be surprised if some rumblings began around town about councilmen with “greasy pockets”.

I used this system to my advantage by going after these public bids and bidding at rock bottom prices.  And when I say rock bottom, I mean rock bottom.  I looked high and low for the lowest sub numbers and then marked them up a meager 5% plus a few miscellaneous overhead costs.  This is honestly the climate we are in right now.  Which conveniently brings us to the ugly side of public bidding.

I have seen at least five bidders on these jobs and at most 14.  With fourteen bidders, it is nearly impossible to get the job unless you grossly underestimate the cost.  Once you start the job, don’t expect to get paid anytime soon.  Payment applications have to go through a hierarchy of bureaucracy that rivals (gulp) the federal government.  And trust me, you don’t even want to get me started on prevailing wages.

Prevailing wage is a way for unions to remain competitive on public projects.  Every county in Pennsylvania publishes a rate for every trade and requires that you show certified payroll proving you paid your employees this rate.  The paperwork required to get paid begins to turn into a novel.  And if you screw up one line item or forget to include one worker’s timesheet?  You better wait until next month.  The process of getting paid moves slower than molasses in January.

Of course some contractors cheat on this and show one thing through payroll while they are in reality paying something much lower.  I don’t know if this is even enforced, but I’m not going to find out.  However, I will say that these cheaters are very difficult to beat.  They can probably cut their labor costs in half producing bids that are consistently 25% lower than mine.

It’s a tough game, but as a new contractor, you have to take what you can get.

Ironically, the most expensive of these projects was not a facility intended to house Olympic events, but rather a building, or should I say village, intended to house Olympic athletes, coaches, and officials.  The Vancouver Olympic Village is a 600,000 square foot facility with over 600 units will accommodate about 2500 Olympic participants.  And at a price-tag of $1 billion, it provides some of the finest housing Olympic athletes have ever seen.  At least according to U.S. speedskater Chad Hedrick who was quoted in a recent Time Magazine article as saying, “It’s blown us away, to be honest.”  Of course Vancouver taxpayers had to bail out the private developers who initially funded the project, but maybe the taxpayer scorn will be alleviated by the fact that the neigborhood received LEED Platinum certification while all the buildings received LEED Gold.

Another major project in this deal was the Sea to Sky Highway which was a widening and renovation to Highway 99 which links Vancouver and Whistler mountain.  I traveled along this gnarly stretch of two-lane gristle back in the early 2000s before Vancouver was awarded the Olympics.  This was obviously one of the required improvements to British Columbia in order to facilitate an Olympics.  It was nicknamed, “Ski and Die Highway” prior to the improvements so it will most likely benefit BC well beyond the games.  The price-tag on this was $600 million.

Other projects included a $150 million renovation to the BC Place Stadium which holds the opening and closing ceremonies, the $178 million LEED certified Richmond Olympic Oval hosting speedskating, and the $40 million LEED certified Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Center hosting only curling, but will be converted into a community recreation center after the Olympics.

This year’s Olympics also got me thinking about when the next American winter games will be held.  For the past ten years my prediction has been and remains to be….Denver 2022.  I wavered for a while about whether they will go for an Olympic bid in 2018 or 2022, but from what I’ve read it looks like ‘022 is the answer – it has to.  Colorado has long been the leader in winter sports in this country and by now, tempers have settled after their little spat with the IOC back in the ’70s.

So let’s get about $10 billion queued up and get the games in Denver for 2022.

Each Proposing Team shall be led by a Landscape Architect and shall include a
nationally recognized multi-modal transportation expert. The Team should also include
expertise on cultural university landscapes; environmental ecosystems, restoration and
sustainability, and other areas as necessary to complete the elements contained in this
scope of work.

The primary purpose of the Facilities Master Plan is to establish a framework to guide
the orderly growth and development of the campus. This update, the 2011-2030
Facilities Master Plan (FMP) shall be consistent with the University’s mission,
Strategic Plan, and the President’s Climate Action Plan. The FMP is intended to be a
working document sufficiently flexible to accommodate the unexpected changes that
will occur in a dynamic environment during the next 10 years.

Please contact me at john@constructonomics.com if interested.  Thank you.

Mr. Cloutier advises to put profits above all, shock your laggard employees, and always pay yourself first.  He claims to be challenging conventional wisdom about how companies should operate, but from what I’ve gathered his strategy employs the kind of mentality that got us into this economic mess, and is nothing but conventional.

One of Cloutier’s suggestions is to, instead of paying vendors on time, pay them late to increase cash flow.  Wherever did he come up with this idea? Honestly, this is the oldest trick in the book and if a company isn’t doing it, it’s because they don’t want to screw over their vendors and damage a relationship.

Anyway, Here are a few excerpts from the article.

Q. You tell business owners to forget about being likable. Is there something wrong with employees liking you?

A. You have to treat your people with respect. If they have a personal problem, you have to help them through it. You have to follow the law. But we also need to get things done as asked. The abandonment of that principle is a large factor in the failure of small businesses to achieve real profitability.

Q. What’s your view of fear as a management tool?

A. Fear is the best motivator.

Q. You say no owner should be satisfied with his business. What dissatisfies you about yours?

A. I feel that I should triple the size of the business over the next 10 years because I’m getting old. I’m a little dissatisfied we haven’t done that. I semi-retired for about five years and that was probably something I won’t do again. They’re going to carry me out of here in my shoes.

I really hate to see this behavior encouraged by a Harvard educated management consultant like Mr. Cloutier who may hold significant credibility in professional circles.  For him to say that fear is a great motivator is absurd.  Why doesn’t he just throw guilt and shame in there to pull a trifecta of manipulative and cowardly management methods.  But was he successful?  Yes, he started a company that grew to 150 employees.  But at what price?

Not everything that Mr. Cloutier said made me cringe.  I thought he made some good points about sound financial management and not getting yourself too far into a whole.  However, his fist-pounding tyrant-like style is what we are trying to move away from and just increases anxiety among employees.  There is one thing of which I am nearly certain, anxiety leads to unhealthy, and unhappy lives.  However, fear will drive short term behavior and if you want to see short term result you can certainly use it to get some reaction.

I prefer a method that focuses on long-term sustainability and while this may not be as gratifying in the short term, it can produce a healthy, and yes, profitable organization.  Does this allow for poor financial mismanagement?  Absolutely not, but it does not require fist-pounding, and noose tightening to generate results.

So what better industry to introduce emotional intelligence than to the most alpha male of them all – construction.  Brent Darnell is a motivational speaker, personal coach, and consultant that works primarily and specifically with the construction industry.  I just finished reading his book, “The People Profit Connection”, and I found it to be an excellent introduction to emotional intelligence for anyone in the construction industry.

It’s tough to argue with the concept of emotional intelligence – treat people better, think positively, act with empathy towards others, and most would agree that this is a good way to deal with friends and family members, or even a stranger off the street.  However, conventional wisdom has long preached that in order to make money in the world of business you must be fist-pounding, cut-throat, and as Mr. Darnell puts it, “kick ass and take names”.

The truth is that this is just not the case.  Darnell associates EI with what everybody knows and loves – profit.  He gives examples and case studies of how improved emotional intelligence can help projects become more successful and organizations more profitable.  I would love to go back to the companies for which Brent Darnell did his EI training and look at their financials.  Of course it would be difficult to isolate the EI training as a cause, but it would be interesting nonetheless.

We all know that construction is a confrontational and adversarial industry.  We also know that this confrontation leads to costly delays, contract disputes, and often litigation.  With the industry going in a much more collaborative, and integrated direction (also know as Integrated Project Delivery), emotional intelligence, and overall social competence will become even more advantageous and yes, profitable, than it is now.

Perhaps we can all take a page or two out of Darnell’s book, or maybe even read the whole thing.