2019

Some might recognize the title of this article, as it was borrowed from a book written by Jim Collins. In his book, Collins explores why certain companies that rose to become the best in their industry eventually spiraled downward. Companies like Circuit City, Kodak or Sears that once dominated their respective sectors and have faded […]

One of the really interesting things about the surety business is you get to look behind the curtain of a ton of contractors’ operations. Daily, we get to hear the opportunities and struggles that our customers face while at the same time seeing how the financial results play out.

When most of us hear the words “taking inventory”, we typically think of reviewing physical assets that a business has for sale to determine their true value and see which ones have become obsolete. A similar review can be periodically done on a company’s “intangible assets” or key operating areas like field operations, business operations

There was an eye-opening article in ENR on March 14, 2019 about Munilla Construction Management (MCM), the prime contractor involved in the bridge collapse at Florida International University that left six people dead last year. MCM recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it was unable to win new projects, lenders pulled their financing, and

When most people talk about the continuity of construction businesses, the focus is typically on the technical elements such as who the buyer will be, how the purchase will be funded, tax ramifications and how to maintain bonding and banking credit. However, successfully transitioning a business starts years before these decisions need to be made

In Jim Collins’ famous book Good to Great (Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t), he says that, “One of the dominant themes from our research is that breakthrough results come about by a series of good decisions, diligently executed and accumulated one on top of another.”

Warren Buffet has said that the true role of any Chief Executive Officer is to be the Chief Risk Officer. In no business could this be any more true than in construction. Here are three risks that Warren Buffet focuses on, which could benefit contractors too.