Tag: Consulting

Into the Unknown

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Well I finally bit the bullet and decided to go solo. I have always relished the idea of working for myself and now I am on my own away from the corporate comfort blanket and all the other nonsense that entails.

Setting up your own business is very straightforward and I have one simple goal, that is to enjoy what I do day to day. It is not about making enormous amounts of money, it is about being happy.

To date I have not canvassed anyone, cold called companies or called upon colleagues and friends in the construction sector. Simply because I have been too busy dealing with clients who have sought me out. There are a lot of distressed projects and many builders and subcontractors who simply need some assistance.

In Australian capital cities there has been a boom in high rise apartment developments. With any boom there are casualties. Developers unable to make final payments to builders because apartment sales contracts have fallen through, subcontractors being strung out by builders, everyone blaming each other for their losses on projects. When you roll your sleeves up and get into the nitty gritty of the problems it usual is caused by companies taking work on without understanding risk and then they employ staff who do not know how to manage risk.

So I get approached to “fix” a project and very quickly identify it is not the project but the way the company is organised to handle projects in the first place.  The project may never achieve its tender margin but sometimes the damage can be reduced. Fixing the business is the key and usually it all relates to the contract that was signed and the way the procurement is managed.

I was hoping to get away from the sixty hour working week in the corporate world but the potential workload may keep me even busier – if I am not careful!

Premdale Consulting 2017

Oh No, they have brought in a Quantity Surveyor

Budget Meeting

Builders hire external quantity surveyors only as a last resort. Usually after months of trying to convince themselves that the project bottom line will improve, they realize that they are in for a contractual fight with the client and any straw needs to be grasped.

Month after month of cost reports with ever diminishing margin, force them to consider the battle ahead. That means finding every conceivable error, ambiguity, inference in the contract documents or any slip by the client’s representative. Project managers think they are experts in construction law, directors look for blame, and the site based project team convince themselves they have a cas against the client. Delusion has set in.

Wonderful expressions are uttered, “global claims”, “unfair enrichment”, deceptive and misleading conduct” All are bandied about with as much abandon in the site office as in the boardroom. Sight is completely lost of the simplicity of contractual claims:

  • What did the client do or not do?
  • Did this cause us costs?
  • Is it recoverable under the contract?
  • What are those costs?

The client’s quantity surveyor has  either dismissed or taken a blow torch to variation claims and because builders are not in the quantity surveying club, they are forced to seek the services of an external professional – the QS.

by Gerry Keating

So we go through the very expensive exercise of our people talking to their people and if we are lucky end up with a compromise on the steps of the court.

The alternative is to start the process from the day the first variation is carved up by the client’s QS, not wait until the dire cost report forces the issue. Get in early, don’t get time barred, and do not put up with any nonsense from a QS who probably created the errors or ambiguities in the first place.