When the staff at my firm talks with prospective clients, two things we focus on are what you get for your insurance premium and what you get for the commission you pay your insurance agent or broker. The construction industry hasn’t evolved very much in the 30-plus years I’ve been practicing. It’s still an industry in which a company pays a premium to an insurer, and then an insurer pays a commission to the agent or broker who placed that business. It’s rare that a contractor looks at those numbers and says, “What am I getting for that money?” PHELAN
There was a time not long ago when the prevailing wisdom said going through Hong Kong was the best way to enter the Chinese market. Hong Kong, although geographically a part of China, is a modern, developed international city-state, a Special Administrative Region of China whose business people speak English, understand Western laws, processes and customs, and can act as an interpreter for any Western organization that wants to work in mainland China. Photo: Claudiozacc-Fotolia.com DOHERTY In addition, currency transfer from China’s renminbi (formally called yuan) into Hong Kong dollars is easier than any other foreign-currency exchange. The obvious decision
Fundamental shifts in airline services have pressured airports to adopt new strategies in order to survive and thrive. Already we are seeing the first signs of a new kind of airport that will replace the dated facilities operating in most cities. For decades, airline operations were a model of stability. What caused the industry to turn topsy-turvy? One major force was the appearance of a new breed of low-cost carriers, such as Southwest Airlines. Their innovative way of doing business, coupled with the advent of smaller-capacity regional jets, made airports hustle to accommodate the increased volume of passengers and rapid
If I objectively analyze the foundation of my construction career, I find that my CEO title probably can be credited to several guys in jeans and dirty boots. It was not a professor but a contractor-entrepreneur who most encouraged and inspired me by serving as my first mentor and guide. He was spare with praise but long on wisdom; he found ways to put me in the front row for life lessons. Jobsites, negotiations and even a beer at the bar all became mentor’s tools to connect me, an ambitious and raw rookie, with my potential. Simply put, he saw
For China watchers, it comes as no surprise that China is rapidly undergoing an industrial revolution. What Europe and the U.S. did in 75 to 100 years, China has done in about 25 years. Despite the global economic downturn, the economy is still booming. However, with the slowing of exports, the Chinese economy now is being driven mainly by domestic and foreign direct investment. HOENIG Companies wanting to participate in the massive growth soon realize China is a complex and often contradictory business environment for both foreign and domestic players. When they arrive and set up operations, foreign companies, in
At the end of each year, I receive a new calendar from Hoffman Construction Co., Portland, Oregon. It features simple pictures drawn by employees’ young children depicting how to work safely on construction sites. The calendar is a terrific way to communicate how the ramifications of safety and health practices extend beyond jobsites, projects and companies to families and future generations of workers. GAMBATESE Sustainability principles incorporate a similar perspective on the value of life. The World Commission on Environment and Development describes sustainable development as a project approach that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability
Reviewing and analyzing failures is a crucial element in engineering. As most experienced design professionals know, being able to identify the problem is most often more important than being able to implement well-known solutions. Fundamentally, failure analysis is the diagnosis of the root causes or underlying phenomena of results that are puzzling and costly, such as last year’s collapse of a coal-ash impoundment in Tennessee, or puzzling and tragic, such as the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis. So why are too few students being exposed to this kind of critical thinking early in their engineering education?
Just the other week I heard of two bid openings in which qualified bidders lost the opportunity to pick up work and in both cases unqualified bidders got the job. How did it happen? The low bidders “bombed” their respective jobs, meaning, they bid the work substantially lower than the other competitors for the project. SHORT The low bid on one project was 25% to 30% below the second and third low bids. The rest of the bids were slightly higher than these two. You may say, “So what? The low- bidder apparently thinks it can do the job cheaper
In an industry already in crisis—with rising jobsite deaths and injuries and now in a rush to start and complete economic stimulus projects worth many billions of dollars—where, ultimately, does responsibility for worker safety lie? Does it, as some argue, rest partly with individual workers, or should employers, project owners or even the government be held fully accountable when there is an accident on a construction site? READ AND COMMENT ONTHE DUELING VIEWPOINTS: Proposal: Accident Prevention Is Everyone's Responsibility Reply: Unrealistic Plan Poses Many Problems And Won't Do the Job Earlier this year, ENR published a Viewpoint titled, “We Need
In May, New Jersey became the third state in the nation to privatize the cleanup of contaminated sites. The Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA) established a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) program whereby LSRPs, rather than the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), primarily oversee and issue final approvals for most site remediations. With more than 19,000 sites in various stages of environmental investigation and remediation, SRRA supporters hope the privatized system will expedite site cleanup and save money. POLEVOY The new law presents a significant opportunity for clients to have a greater role in the management of their
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