Embracing Innovation

Over recent months I have sensed a change across the construction industry in its approach to innovation and new ideas. Previously everyone seemed very focused on delivery and tasks meaning there was no time or reason for making things better.

There seems however to be a change in attitude. I think people now fall into two camps when it comes to innovation and change.

There are those who will never embrace change at all. There are lots of reasons for this ranging from fear to previous experiences. There should be no criticism of this and people who have become experts in what they do will always be sceptical of embracing alternatives.

The other group however are open to ideas and change and understand the benefits. Generally they get frustrated with the way things are done and can see there are alternative ways. There is a growing number of people and organisations who are embracing innovation. I think much of this is down to the current marketplace and the need for businesses to be able to demonstrate value without increasing cost.

At _space our purpose has always been to make life better and it has been at the core of what we do for several years. This has meant we are always looking to do things better and are never satisfied with the norm. This approach has applied to making lives better through the buildings we design but more recently our focus has been on finding better ways of doing things.

This can be a lonely and frustrating position to take at times. Some of the approaches we have been developing we have been pursuing for years. We have faced a lot of negativity when we have shared our thoughts. This however has not stopped us from pursuing our beliefs. I know that the stories of Dyson and KFC were littered with rejection in the early days.

We have been an early adopter of Building Information Modelling not because we like technology or gadgets but purely because we can see how it can improve the process of construction. It is not perfect and has lots of faults but it is always easy to find a reason not to do something. We believe however the reasons to do something far outweigh the reasons not to. We are seeing benefits every day.

There are still those who just don't have time to consider something such as BIM. They will continue to do what they do well but they are already dying a slow death and don't know it. I liken these companies to HMV and Kodak who have seen a slow demise over several decades.

BIM brings with it lots of opportunities far beyond design and build and the entrepreneurs in the property industry will see these first and embrace them. Some of them we know about now and others haven’t shown themselves yet.

It is always great to meet people who are interested in talking about a new way and we have found we are coming across more and more of these people. These people are not only in the private sector but also the public sector and include designers, contractors and clients.

We have also been looking at ways of reducing construction cost and energy use. For the past two years we have been developing our Spacehus products. Initially there was a cold response to such an approach. The feedback was that it could be built cheaper with bricks and mortar. We are now however coming across people who are talking about value and are understanding the long term benefits. I think once the momentum builds with offsite construction we will see a real change in attitude.

The quality of buildings will improve considerably along with their performance. With the further development of BIM we will see a real understanding of lifecycle cost and performance over the years ahead.

Let's hope the momentum continues!

Holiday Reading

Several times over recent years we headed off for some sun over the holiday period. This year we headed off to the Canary Islands and were lucky enough to have fantastic weather for 7 days. It as a great opportunity to truly unwind, reflect on the previous year and look forward to the year head. By having a few days off for Christmas before in the UK I found myself totally unwound with a very clear mind. It is something that I can strongly recommend.

As with most of my holidays for those who have followed my blogs in the past I usually spend the time reading what most people would consider very boring books on entrepreneurship and business. I am fascinated by the stories of people who have made a change. I often intersperse this with the more traditional business management books as well as recently getting into economics.

This holiday was no exception and I had quite an interesting mix. I previously read Steve Jobs biography but decided to re-read it on this trip. I also read Richard Branson’s latest book as well as the latest offering from Allan Leighton. To finish things off I read the book about Bernard Madoff and his £65 billion fraud.

What I should also say is that all of these books were read on my iPad which saved the usual fear of excess baggage fines at the airport.

Richard Branson’s book is an interesting read and explains his evolving view of how a business and capitalism should change for the new millennium. ‘Screw Business As Usual’ sets out his thoughts on how business should consider the environment and look to give as much back to communities and people.

This is the overarching theme of the book and once you have sussed this generally the book states lots of case studies of companies which have done good over recent years. I am a great supporter of this approach but I did find the book slightly repetitive. There is also the nagging issue at the back of my mind that Richard Branson was writing this book whilst sitting on his Necker Island with his private jet standing by. I guess he sits in a far more comfortable position than many of us who are working hard to sustain our own businesses and the livelihoods of those who work with us.

The focus of Alan Leightons book was how business leaders make decisions. I found this a very quick read and really interesting. He has snippets from leaders such as Terry Leahy of Tesco’s and Adam Crozier ex of the FA.

There is also some excellent personal insights from his time at the Royal Mail which are very interesting.

The Madoff story is an incredible one. I could not help think how did he manage to sleep at night. It was clear that Bernard Madoff was considered an upstanding member of the community whilst he was stealing millions from his friends and colleagues. The scale of the fraud is spectacular and it is hard to imagine how he managed to achieve it without assistance of others.

Over the years I must have read hundreds of books on management and business but I do think that the Steve Jobs story is the ultimate business book and nothing comes close. Not only is the book fantastically well written it tells the most amazing story of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs has several stories but his most impressive is the fact that in 1997 he returned to Apple which was very close to bankruptcy and by 2010, 13years later had turned Apple into the most valuable publically owned company in the world.

As a sideline he had also built Pixar and ended up owning 7.5% of Walt Disney.

He is clearly a very odd personality and having read many books on the best way to build businesses and manage people Steve Jobs defies every single rule. He was obnoxious and insulting with little empathy for others.

However his incredible focus on detail and quality encouraged people to achieve things they never thought they could.

In relation to business stories I think it will be a long time before there is a one that can match that of Steve Jobs and Apple.

A message for the grandchildren

We have just entered December which is traditionally the lunch, dinner and drinks month of the year. Traditionally the construction industry is very busy throughout the month out and about socialising and networking. The start of the festivities is usually the Lord Taverners lunch in the North East of England however this year we started even earlier with the Morgan Sindall evening last week.

Most consultants and contractors have an event throughout December bringing together clients and partners.

It is amazing that even in these challenging times priority is placed upon such events and that relationships are still at the centre of what we do.

However this year I am already sensing uncertainty and nervousness from everyone. A jovial festive spirit has yet to appear and often the discussion is about redundancies or individuals setting up their own organisations.

The days of companies exaggerating their overflowing order book are long gone and now people are far more realistic and honest about the challenges we all face.

Whilst times have been tough for the past few years I think this year there is realisation that it is unlikely anything is going to change soon and that we face several Christmases like this.

There is no doubt that the economy and in particular the construction industry has never faced the challenges it faces at present. The simple fact that revenue levels have drastically dropped has meant businesses have had to quickly adjust to a shrinking forward pipeline.

In the past it was possible to look to the future in relation to forward workload. However now opportunities are thin on the ground and generally appear without notice.

Despite all of this I still believe that relationships across the industry are strong and that everyone is supporting each other and looking to get through rather than break any records for profit or turnover.

What I have found particularly heartening is the commitment and energy from the people within our organisation. Whilst obviously all around us there is an environment of fear of the unknown I am constantly overwhelmed by the efforts and commitment our people are making on behalf of the team.

There is no doubt we have never faced a time as we do now however when we get to the other side hopefully we will all recognise that the greatest achievement is responding to the biggest challenge in a generation.

Im sure it is a story and a lesson we will share with our grandchildren.

Some Good Advice

A few weeks ago the time had come for me to invest in some new work shoes. Doing the typical man thing on Saturday morning I called into my local shoe shop, tried on a pair which fitted and bought them.

On the Monday morning I threw on my new shoes and headed for my first meeting in Hull with one of my colleagues. After our meeting in Hull we headed to Leeds where I was dropped off in the centre of town.

It was a rainy Monday in Leeds that day and as I stepped out of the car it was like walking on sheet ice. My new shiny shoes had a lovely polished finish on the soles making them look particularly shiny in the shop. After about ten yards of trying to stay upright my efforts failed and when putting my foot on some cobbles I did a banana skin slip and ended up landing on my elbow with a direct hit.

What followed was somewhat gruesome and it is probably not appropriate to go into details but suffice to say this was not going to be fixed with an elastoplast.

I ended up in hospital for five days after a 4 hour operation. The metal work in my arm would be worth a considerable amount in scrap.

After I got out of hospital I thought I would call in at the shoe shop where I was greeted by the usual ‘what happened to you’. I was not looking to blame anyone as I wholeheartedly believe this was my fault however I was keen to ensure that such an oversight could be prevented in the future.

We checked the manufacturers information and the packaging and nowhere did it suggest that soles needed to be rubbed before worn. It seems obvious but there are so many things on your mind such a simple thing is easily overlooked. The overlooking of this small matter has had a huge impact on both me and my family along with everyone I work with.

This accident has really knocked me for six and has taken me some time to recover. Not only did I damage my elbow at the same time I damaged my hip and knee which seem to be taking longer to repair.

On a positive note I have had confirmation from the shoe manufacturer that they are now going to include a warning with all shoes that leather soles should be rubbed down in advance to minimise the chance of this happening again.

Make sure if you buy leather soled shoes you do the same!

The departing of a genius

I was shocked earlier in the week when I heard of the passing away of Steve Jobs.  Whilst it has been obvious for some time he had been very poorly I had not anticipated that his illness was terminal.  

I have spent the last few years reading lots about Steve Jobs and Apple.  Many of the things which Apple have done has certainly influenced some of the strategic decisions we have taken at _space group and also some of the cultural developments we have made. 

I don’t say this lightly but I do think Steve Jobs had an incredible gift and could be defined as a genius. 

He had the ability to see into the future and sense markets producing unbelievable products which broke new ground every time.  There is often much debate about what the word innovation means however I think much of what Apple and Steve Jobs done can only be defined as innovative.

He built a culture and a brand in his relatively short life span with a global dominance in such a short space of time.

Whilst he is renouned for his success at Apple in recent times I also think similar successes are equally amazing. 

He started out pushing new ideas with the Mackintosh computer and maybe he was too soon or dominated by the Microsoft juggernaut.  When he fell out with the board  at Apple he put everything into 3D animation and Pixar.  Having read his biography of his time it is clear that he gambled a lot and even remortgaged his house to keep the funding going for Pixar.  Ultimately he went on to sell Pixar and become a major shareholder in Disney who are yet another major global brand. 

His success at Apple during his second tenure is probably his greatest achievement.  His legacy will come from this period, a range of products which have had a huge impact across the globe. 

I hope the culture that Steve Jobs built is maintained and that the team he leaves behind continues to be innovative themselves rather than living in the shadow of Steve himself.

I think it will be many many years if ever that one person will have such a huge impact on culture across the globe. 

The Barriers to Off Site...

Over recent weeks I have spent quite a bit of time with a number of specialists in the off site manufacturing sector. The most active group of specialists is the build off site organisation and its network of companies. Within this group we have a wide range of organisations from M&E sub contractors to suppliers through to main contractors.

The government is requesting that the construction industry reduces it costs by 20% over the next 20 years and at the same time improve energy performance of the buildings in accordance with the most recent building regulations.Clearly these two things are at odds with one another and if we continue to achieve a cost reduction by squeezing the supply chain it will soon become apparent that such an approach is unsustainable. We are already seeing early signs of a cost driven market place with many small to medium sized contractors going out of business largely due to the effect of lack of cash.

We therefore need to look at an alternative way of improving quality and reducing costs at the same time. I believe the answer is in the process of thinking more before we start building.I am keen to lose the term construction and think more intelligently about assembly.There are many tools now available to us to help us plan buildings efficiently off site and particular the use of Building Information Modelling will allow us to prototype buildings, minimising errors and time on site.

By using this approach this leads us into a far more component driven design approach where we use standardisation for things such as repetitive elements like doors, windows, bathrooms, toilets and even plant rooms.It means that the industry has to think differently about its procurement but by adopting a more standardised and component driven approach we will undoubtedly drive up quality whilst through volume reduce cost.

At _space group we have been adopting this approach in the development of several new products. Our Spacehus low energy house adopts this thinking and we have developed a digital prototype of a number of low energy houses with only 19 components. Through developing a building product using manufacturing principles we are able to assemble a building on site in less than 20 days removing a considerable amount of risk in the process. Currently our costs for a 925 sq ft house are £80,000 which includes foundations through to finishes. All that is required are the service connections and external works.

By ensuring we have quality components which are well put together we can reduce the energy costs down to £10 per week for a building of this size.

We believe such innovation is the future of the industry however we are finding that we are coming across many barriers to delivering buildings in this way. Constructors are far happier to continue to build the way they have always known where there is no continuous improvement and workmanship is inconsistent.

The big debate for us at _space group is what are the barriers preventing Spacehus as a product being adopted. I am sure there are many reasons ranging from fear of change or the belief that such as approach is a threat to an organisations future.

I have no doubt that the pressure being born by the government to reduce costs whilst improving energy performance significantly will ultimately lead to an off site solution developed through a Building Information Model. The challenge at the moment is a time frame for this realisation.

At _space group we have been banging the drum on Building Information Modelling for 11 years and it is only in June this year that such as approach has been legitimised by the broader community. I hope that the adoption of component driven design will not take as long.










 

2011 is the BIM tipping point

Will 2011 be the tipping point for BIM? Image from www.tvscoop.tv

Over the past couple of weeks there has been a growing amount of interest, discussion and debate about Building Information Modelling. The momentum was started in October 2010, with comments from Paul Morrell about the Government’s ambition to embrace BIM. The Government’s construction strategy, issued in May, formalised this view. As a company that has been evangelising about BIM for several years, it is nice that some of the views we have had are being embraced by others, views that we have been able to share with the industry, along with our learning, during our conversion to a BIM-centric organisation. There are still negative responses to the approach, however there are now a majority of individuals and organisations who accept that BIM is the future and they will have to adopt and invest moving forward.

What I have noticed over recent months is the pace of adoption. Over the past few weeks I have spent time in London and have met with a number of senior individuals from major constructors and consultancies. Many of these organisations have made rapid progress and are driving it through their companies and making it part of their forward strategies.

I believe that our professional institutions have been very slow to respond to these changes. Organisations such as the RIBA and RICS are still grappling with BIM, and this is a concern as they are seen as our industry’s representatives in the public realm. In order to adequately service us as personal and professional representatives, and highlight our position as an industry, these organisations must change their role very quickly, and embrace a position as representatives of a skill set within the whole life cycle of the design, construct and operate that our industry has.

Jack Pringle, the next present of the RIBA, made a great point in Building Magazine last week when he suggested that the Construction Industry Council was an excellent organisation to be the umbrella for the industry bringing together the complete cycle into a single organisation. The CIC has also had opportunity to influence the Government in a way which the professions have not achieved for many years, and this level of mutual respect and understanding is very important as it provides us with an intelligent, measured and coherent voice, particularly relevant at a time when the industry’s involvement public sector projects, such as BSF, have come under fire.

I am really encouraged that the life cycle of a building is now being understood and appreciated. The days of considering the design and construction of a building separate to its capital cost are starting to diminish. Progressive organisations have acknowledged that getting the requirements right in the first instance influences the process of design and construction is very important, and also has a huge impact on the operation and the revenue costs of a building during its life cycle.

_space group has embraced a ‘Big BIM’ approach with a four stage process that takes in this life cycle (www.bigbim.co.uk ), and similar models which adopt similar principles are used in other firms. There is no right or wrong approach to BIM. The important thing is that our industry understands the wider life cycle of a building.

There will still be architects, engineers and constructors who see their role in very narrow terms, rather than embracing this broad spectrum view. However at _space group, our openness to innovation and use of our skills has allowed us to get involved with a whole range of organisations throughout the whole cycle of a project. We are now providing support to sub-contractors, main contractors, other consultants and end users to deliver a more integrated approach which delivers less waste, less cost, less energy and less risk.

As the pace of adoption increases, it is clear that this year will be a BIM tipping point for our industry and those not on board will be tipped out of any meaningful work in the industry.