What It Takes To Win

Graham, one of the jurors of this year's Best Of awards program, writes that seeking solutions that the competition does not have will help in winning Texas Construction's award program just as effectively as winning a highly sought project contract. The judges of the Best Of program look for that same uniqueness in the submitted projects as they select the winning entries.

by Dr. Charles Graham

Dr. Charles Graham, AIA, FRICS, is an architect and building scientist with more than 26 years teaching and researching in higher education. He teaches in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University, College Station, where he is currently the interim department head.

Students in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University are told that construction requires as much creativity and innovation as the design of a building.
Creativity and innovation in construction come in different forms and are required at different times during the project's life than during design, but they have to be there for a firm to be competitive in the marketplace.

Having judged some 200 entries in the "Best Of" submittals to Texas Construction over the past two years, a number of winning project attributes have become obvious to this juror. These are worth sharing for future competitors to consider.

One of the realities of our industry is that people often fail to appreciate the value contractors deliver to their clients. Traditionally, people have viewed construction as a commodity like any other good purchased at retail, and contracts for construction have been awarded similarly at the lowest bid price. More recently, however, the construction industry has largely moved away from hard-bid processes of project procurement to qualification-based selection. In doing so, the trend has been towards the delivery of competency in other areas besides technical competence. That is not to say that technical competence is not important - it is. But contractors are now being chosen to deliver services on the basis of best value over a wider range of project involvement before, during and after construction. The selection process bodes well for contractors because it offers them the chance to add even more value to the project. However, to be successful in the new marketplace, something must be present in the package of services contractors offer to make their services stand out from others.

A project submitted for possible inclusion in Texas Construction awards program will be judged on the following dimensions: solutions to difficult challenges, project management, construction innovation, client service, safety and similar attributes. As the magazine is also accepting and receiving an increasing number of submittals in the design category, unity with nearby societal and environmental elements often has to be considered.

We will focus here on the construction submittals, but again, one must appreciate the requirements of a project - construction or design - to be unique and make it stand out from the competition in a group of projects. Simply stated, a firm must submit a good project. A great presentation of a weak or poorly conceived and executed building project will not be competitive. There has to be something unique about the project in the first place to give it a good chance of winning in its category. Good architectural design indeed helps here, but it is not the only attribute of a winning construction project.

So what do the judges look for? In the category "solutions to difficult challenges," we look for something that makes the project management approach stand out. Most urban projects, for example, have tight sites, and so a good site logistics plan is required. Unprecedented weather conditions can present challenges. Labor supply and material delivery problems are standard fare on almost any large project. It is not these challenges that matter, but rather how the contractor dealt with these issues. The "best" contractor was the one that found a way to manage these challenges in an effective and noticeable way that added value to the project and that was not typical for all contractors.

Examples of innovative project management might include formation of unique teams to manage the project, use of unique communications such as Internet-based technology, virtual meetings and so on. Project management involving weekly team meetings with the owner's representatives is standard practice. Meetings or information exchanges using virtual computer technologies or other unique forms of communication technology might set a project apart from the others. Explanations including examples of good pre-project planning decisions are also helpful.

In the category of construction innovation, the jury is looking for a project in which the contractor found the most innovative way to solve construction problems. Solutions to tight site conditions, poor soil conditions, heavy traffic on surrounding streets, unique construction sequencing requirements, use of special construction equipment, special green building approaches and unique project financing or phasing will catch the judges' attention. Again, something had to be done that clearly solved the owner's project requirements in a way most other contractors would not have normally done. Unique methods or sequences of construction will catch the judges' interest almost every time.

Many clients have unique service requirements, especially if they want to remain open for business during construction of adjacent facilities. Some project types, such as health-care facilities, may have unique noise and vibration limitations. Sometimes public and institutional clients have special phasing requirements. A public highway authority, for example, may need to get a revenue stream in place as soon as possible and may want the contractor to complete sections of work so tolls can be collected. An indication of the quality of client service is the number of disputes and claims during the course of the work. This kind of information should be included in the award submittal if it is good.

Stating that one's company conducts weekly safety briefings at the jobsite is really no different than what the majority of contractors do. Planning a construction sequence or method that designs safety hazards out of the project so that costs and time delays are reduced to zero might set a project apart from others. Finding ways to save time and cost of safety provisions on a tight sight would be unique because usually tight sites increase time and cost of the safety provisions. Accident rates, lost time due to accidents and insurance rates, when good, are measures that help to prove safety performance.

In summary, start with a good project. Be certain to provide text that addresses the competition requirements to the letter, and include outstanding photographs, but do not count on the photography alone to win. Put the package together in an effective graphic layout, check spelling and grammar and explain what really made the project unique to the owner. Use metrics to support claims factually. When well presented, this information will probably convince the judges that you really do have a winning project.