Construction Informer

You only have to look at main street USA to see examples of how adaptation allowed some to survive. In city after city when a Wal-Mart store was about to move in small businesses and governments would band together to try to prevent it. But the consumers voted with their wallets, as they will most often do, and in the end the giant retailer prevailed. And while local business after local business closed up, some changed their focus, adapted and thrived. The difference was refining their niche and doing it better than the big store, or anyone else could do it for that matter.

Now home building/remodeling construction companies face the challenges of a shrinking pool of customers due to more people not owning homes and fewer people purchasing them. The nation’s infrastructure builders find there is ample need, but no money or political will to tackle the necessary construction. Commercial building projects are fading and there is already a long- slow decline in the offing.

The first thing that happens in these times is the less competitive close up. Those who absolutely have to get top dollar because of their skill level, belief in the superiority of the product they deliver, and unwillingness to meet market demands, either find a niche with top-end clients who recognize and appreciate their value, or they fade away. Those who charge competitively but don’t deliver enough quality to match what they charge, move down the chain and struggle, or fade away. There is a fate allotted to every firm in the hierarchy and they all can end up out of business.

These are exactly the times when the really creative and thoughtful companies find new opportunities. These are fertile times for those people who like to walk around the edges of your business pushing on the envelope and asking questions that nobody has dared ask before. These are the times that belong to companies that actually listen to that hair-brained idea someone in accounting has been talking about for the last three years.

These are the times that test businesses and without times like these most businesses would devolve into inefficient bureaucracies that no longer adapt quickly enough for the market. If that sounds like your company it may be time to look for other work, or roll up your sleeves, and open your mind.