Pinnell/Busch: Project Management Consultants for the Design & Construction Industry

Daily Journal of Commerce
Design & Construction - April 30, 2001
By Steven Pinnell and Jeff Davidson

With a slowing economy, contractors must find ways to maintain or improve their company’s bottom line.

Bottom Line Management is a term we’ve applied to an entire range of management functions as either a one-time effort or as part of a comprehensive package for company-wide organizational development, staff training, office systems and job site methods improvement.

Pinnell/Busch believes successful companies should focus on long-term profitability, not volume and not short-term profits, and especially not failing to invest in the future. Continue to reduce your ongoing overhead costs but also invest in your people, systems, and procedures. This will benefit your company in the long run.

This long-term approach to profitability starts with the company owner/manager spending time thinking like the chairman of the board and not the chief operating officer. Think “out of the box” and anticipate what will or may happen in the future, and then start planning for the inevitable changes that will help you be more successful in that new environment.

Think strategically, start with the more informal efforts that focus on immediate needs and then expand to a more formal methodology reducing non-productive costs after you’ve been successful with the formal efforts.

You need a board of directors – to help you examine the future and how to not just survive but prosper during times of change. This may not sound practical to small and medium-sized firms, especially as many are sole proprietorships. Yet, you can achieve the same result by meeting regularly with one or two key advisors to discuss your concerns, major problems, strategic strengths and weaknesses, and how to meet the future. This can be a monthly breakfast or lunch meeting with at least one advisor from outside your company – one who has a grasp of the industry but isn’t “caught up” looking at your company from the inside. We have participated in such meetings with our clients, in our “Quick Hits Program.” This program has greatly benefited clients and the companies that utilize it. We recommend it to every company.