Once upon a time construction was about real men with hearts like lions, pitted against nature and the client, fighting to produce a great building which they could be proud to show their kids (when they occasionally got to see them).

Times are changing, apparently. Construction is not going to be about building things. Instead it will be about ‘servicing the end user', the child in the school or the patient in the hospital bed.

Then there's risk management, taking away all the excitement: more he who plans wins, than he who dares wins (see our special report on risk management this month). And risk management, when done properly, is all about getting to know the client and working out what he wants. Because without that, how can you work out what the biggest risks are?

This doesn't sound very sexy. (Can you imagine Tom Cruise starring in Mission Very Achievable?). And some people don't like it. Life was less fun at Carillion, according to one ex-director, after John McDonough took over as chief executive. McDonough, who came from FM giant Johnson Controls, is credited with turning Carillion from a mucky contractor into a smooth service provider, a popular move in the City. But that has meant shunning potentially risky - and exciting - projects.

All this service stuff requires a different mindset. A survey of 28 chief executives by recruiters Whitehead Mann has revealed that today's bosses don't believe that the next generation of leaders, who must tackle the industry's changing focus, are coming up through the ranks. And they don't know how to attract or develop them. Some are not even trying.

One way to bring in fresh new talent is to employ non-cognate graduates as well as construction management ones. This is an approach which CIOB is fostering through its increasingly popular non-cognate training route.

Another alternative is to wait and see what happens. That seems an altogether more risky proposition.

Source

Construction Manager

Postscript

Kristina Smith, editor