May 12, 2009
Yesterday, our Sales Team allowed me to go witness them closing a significant order for our company. The background on this order is important for what I want to express.
We had been working on this significant medical research center project for about two years. Most of you know how this goes; the General Contractor needs budget pricing from VERY preliminary drawings and through two years and countless re-pricing exercises you hope you are progressing towards a favorable conclusion.
However, over the last several months this expected course of events has been altered. The pressures of the downturn in the general economy have turned this process onto its head. No matter how much work you may have done, many General Contractors have thrown the project back onto the street for multiple rounds of final pricing and all of the preliminary work done by subcontractors to aid the General Contractor to “get to the finals” is forgotten. In all fairness, General Contractors may be reacting to similar pressures from Owners.
In any case, I am pleased to report that the General Contractor of the project yesterday did not act like what I have outlined above. That certainly is “A Breath of Fresh Air.”
The Owner had pressured them to put the project back out for a whole new round of bidding. The General Contractor resisted and insisted on attempting to work out the project with the subcontractors who had already been low on the project. They did insist that these subcontractors update their numbers to reflect “current market conditions”, but they were willing to confront the Owner on the “fairness” of the process. They felt that it was not fair that the subcontractors that had enabled them to obtain the general contract to be “tossed aside” after two years in favor of just obtaining a lower price.
That sense of loyalty is refreshing and lends “A Breath of Fresh Air” to our industry at a time that it is certainly needed. If you have other stories to add to the discussion, please post your comments on the Blog.
Thanks,
Ted S. Miller