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51���� of America’s Past Chair of the Lean Construction Forum Steering Committee, Jeff Esgar, Sundt Construction, was asked to contribute an article based on 51����’s Lean Construction Education Program’s Unit One course entitled: “Variation in Production Systems” for the Lean Construction Blog.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017 | 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (ET) This lively, information-packed WebEd, brought to you by the 51���� of America Business Development Forum, presents industry experts, Ken Simonson, Chief Economist, Associated General Contractors of America and Cliff Brewis, Vice President of Operations for Dodge Data Analytics as they provide construction industry leaders and Business Development professionals national and regional construction market predictions in light of a new presidential administration.

The Business Development Best Practices are an ongoing effort by the 51���� Business Development Forum Steering Committee to bring more BD resources and best practices to the 51���� membership. Written and developed by industry experts in Business Development, these best practices cover a wide range of topics, from relationship building and sales to marketing and proposals.

At the 51���� Annual Convention in Las Vegas, NV, the Building Division by acclimation elected Douglas Maibach as Chairman for 2017-2018. Doug is Chairman of Barton Malow Enterprises and Executive Vice President of Barton Malow Company in Southfield, Michigan. He is a very active leader in local community and industry organizations.

Christie DeLuca, AECOM Grow, increase, expand. These concepts form the foundation of a company’s strategic goals. Although not all strategies require entering new markets, at some point, firms must expand beyond existing clients or geographies to achieve significant growth. Whether you’re on the executive team or serve in the business development space, answering these questions honestly can help your team determine where your company should focus its resources to achieve realistic and meaningful growth.

Matthew Lee, Young Contracting Have you ever had to sit through a presentation where you spend the entire time checking you phone for emails and messages even though you know you haven’t received any new ones? At some point in your career, whether you are in business development, sales, marketing, management, or otherwise, most of us will have to get up in front of a group of people and make a presentation. Here are FIVE tips that may help you give a meaningful presentation.

Construction contracts can be an unholy mess with their often unique provisions that too often thwart predictability and fairness. The ConsensusDocs coalition of 40 industry groups has formed over the past nine years to counter this trend, and its latest update offers wide-ranging revisions for its 2016 Design-Bid-Build prime and subcontract agreements.

Marcia Kellogg There are just some clients that your business cannot afford to have - you know who they are: the ones who are highly commodity-based and have limited experience, whose projects result in little or no profit, and who are a drain on your firm and its resources. Instead of trying to find projects that suit the firm, client-based firms identify clients with whom they can develop and nurture a partnership over time. It’s a philosophy that is primarily interested in owning the client, not the project. Most importantly, the focus of a client-based business is maintaining the relationship at all costs. Firms that align their cultures with the business goals and objectives of their clients realize a vast improvement in performance, because they have a true belief and purpose in the project and the client with whom they are working, and this spirit resonates throughout everything they do.

Julie Huval, Beck Technology The acronym “BIM” is showing up more and more in our industry. Owners are requiring it on projects, countries are setting standards for it, and firms are touting expertise in it. But what is Building Information Modeling (BIM) and, as marketers and business developers, why should we care?

Mike Clancy, Cynthia Paul, FMI Corporation Contractors’ get work departments can be like a car with a bad alignment. While everyone is working hard to get where they want to go, some of the effort is being pulled toward the “ditch” of low hit rates, missed opportunities and undeveloped client relationships. All that is needed are a few key adjustments to win your fair share of work.