The turmoil in the industry at the moment tends to overshadow a lot of interesting and progressive work going on. The philosophy for many of these companies echoes Winston Churchill when he said: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.”
With output at a 20-year low and the poor state of national growth being blamed on the construction industry, it is no wonder the industry feels battered.
"We do not have the capacity to generate activity like other industries – the motor industry can stimulate demand for cars, and can control the response very accurately."
Our industry reacts to activity elsewhere in the economy so it’s unfair to point the finger at the construction industry alone. We do not have the capacity to generate activity like other industries – the motor industry can stimulate demand for cars, and can control the response very accurately. Anyone who has been in the market for a new car recently will have seen the shape of offers change as customers show interest. The strategies have been successful as car sales in the UK jumped 15% in April compared with the same time last year.
But the jump in car sales will not mean that more car factories need to be built, which is what we want. So the level of recovery from the manufacturing and services sector necessary to bring the construction industry out of recession will have to be substantial, unless the government gets on with its capital building and infrastructure programme.
But that needs money and with a government intent on reducing its debt, the burden of funding this work falls increasingly on the private sector and that has the largest hurdles of all in respect of financing. This has been demonstrated in the new PF2 schools projects where the deterioration of the long-term debt markets has been blamed for a £1bn reduction in the privately financed element of the Priority Schools Project.
In this type of environment, the most important quality that management needs is the courage to continue; success in this business is fleeting as we move from project to project barely able to reflect on what contributed to the success. Failure does not have to be fatal and, if well managed, often leads to later success. One of the biggest differences between the British and the Americans is our approach to failure. We use it as a stick to beat; they use it as a tool to learn. The result is that the attitude to risk is different; we tend to be more risk averse.
Which approach would Churchill have chosen?
