LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE
E ver thought about your business as sport? Well, it’s a pretty handy analogy. As long as it’s not football. For avid rugby fan, past- time player, part-time coach and everyday pundit Steven Owens – who is also Managing Director at Pave Aways Limited in Shropshire – there are a lot of parallels between successfully running a construction business and coaching rugby. “A football team is made up of some pretty people with pretty hair and flash cars and all the rest of it, but a rugby team is made up of probably the strangest blend of 15-21 people you can get. A flyhalf might take all the glory but if the props, the hookers and second row aren’t working to win the ball, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of your team are, you're going to fail.” Finding a way to get this unusual mix of people working together as a team whilst excelling in their individual roles is how you run a successful rugby team – and the same is true at a construction business, Owen explains. He says the analogy will be very familiar to those who work with him, so fond is he of using it. Train for the skills you want Like any good sports team, every member of that team needs the right kind of training. Which is why Adrian Waters, Managing Director of A.P Waters Building Contractors Ltd in South Wales, places such high value on developing his people so they can perform effectively. “We train six or seven apprentices every year,” Waters explains. “Basically, we develop our own team. Bring up people to our standards.” The company is even extending its offices to include training rooms. “We can then develop our own apprentices into other trades. We'll have a full-blown training facility which we’ve been working on with the local college to build a skill base so we’ll have everything we need in-house.” Having trained more than 200 apprentices over the past three decades, Waters is confident in his strategy. As well as training the people he needs for the business he’s built, Waters sees value in trying to take control
of as many variables as possible. For instance, the company maintains its own workshop and employs an in- house mechanic to keep the large fleet of vehicles in top condition, and it has recently supported a quantity surveyor to complete their degree. “We’re training everybody from within. We’re looking at every avenue. We have total control of where everything goes.” As well as having an in-house mechanic, Waters employs an accountant who has helped ensure the company is “watching every penny” spent. Using a bespoke order number, every material, delivery, use of vehicle, and all personnel working hours attached to that number are tracked. Waters even prefers purchasing materials in bulk and storing them on his premises to ensure greater control over his business. “It’s very rare that the boys need to go to the builders’ merchants. Everything is bought in so we know what we're paying – for everything.” Coupled with trackers on vans and productivity metrics for team members, the company leaders are empowered to make good business decisions. Working in the construction industry, you will be familiar with the many recent struggles: Covid, a blocked Suez Canal,
rampant fuel costs, Brexit, labour and material shortages, tighter margins, rising costs of labour and materials, increasing inflation. Overcoming these seemingly endless tribulations is the hallmark of a resilient business. You’re resilient if you’re still here As Geoff Griffiths of PBM Wales Ltd points out: “In short, if you have managed to get through the last years then you have certainly shown resilience. Unfortunately, many construction companies have not been so fortunate.” What separates those who succeed from those who don’t comes down to many varied factors. But it always depends on how you respond as a business. “In 2019, we tendered a four-year framework for a registered social landlord on a schedule of rates contract,” Griffiths reveals. “We priced this keenly at the time, happy to make smaller profits for long- term benefits. However, nobody saw what was coming with regard to the above world-changing events that occurred. “With each event contributing to unprecedented cost increases, our small profits were soon losses on this contract where our prices were fixed for two years, and future CPI rate increases went nowhere near meeting the all-
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