By Dean Weston
I was recently asked for my thoughts on how Covid has impacted the construction industry and, more specifically, Progress Fire Co.
When Covid became prevalent, I was worried about how businesses like ours would survive. Little did I know that my mindset would soon change from how the industry could survive to how our business could thrive.
Taking a few minutes to think about the question, one word immediately sprung to mind: Agility. Businesses that have thrived during Covid have done so because of their ability to pivot, to be agile, to be flexible.
Covid has obviously made everything more challenging. Supply chain disruptions, shortages of building materials, an increase in costs of building materials, and labour shortages are now a part of doing business. I don’t see that changing any time soon.
As an industry, we have two choices. We embrace these challenges and find innovative solutions to our problems (aka we flex our agility muscles), or we struggle.
Dean Weston
At Progress Fire Co., we pride ourselves on our ability to problem solve, to be agile, and to ask the right questions that lead us to new and exciting solutions and outcomes.
During Covid, these skills definitely came in handy. We had to learn to navigate new supply chain issues to safeguard our business from supply chain disruptions.
While we used to wait two weeks for a particular product, we now must wait up to 12 weeks. This challenged us to become better at forecasting our needs, planning for delivery, and pre-ordering (and stockpiling) core products and materials. We also updated our terms and conditions with suppliers and clients.
Managing unexpected increases in the costs of goods also became a challenge. While these costs used to remain consistent from quoting through to delivery, suddenly, prices started to escalate. Quickly.
Our clients expect fixed pricing, so we had to refine our quoting process so we could still deliver the project for an agreed price, without losing too much profit. Not always easy as margins are already thin in the construction industry.
The issue of fixed pricing remains a challenge, but we have worked hard to keep the lines of communication open with our clients, and to be better on the forecasting and budgeting front. We remain agile.
While on the surface it appears that the construction industry is profiting from Covid with what is perceived as increased prices, that’s a fallacy.
Hutchinsons Builders chairman Scott Hutchinson coined the phrase “profitless boom” to refer to the industry’s current status. He’s spot on.
Who will survive?
Covid is here to stay, yet we are proudly looking down the barrel of our strongest year in business. In fact, next month we will celebrate seven years in the industry; something we are incredibly proud of.
Yes, we have had to improve our processes and become far more flexible, but I can confidently say that this agility helped Progress Fire Co. to quickly move from merely surviving to thriving.
Dean Weston
Director, Progress Fire Co
By Dean Weston I’ve talked a lot about Progress Fire Co.’s new company values of late – agility, professionalism, gratitude, integrity, quality, collaboration, and reliability. These values represent who we are and what we stand for. They are at the heart of every decision the company makes and help to drive all choices made in […]
We recently created a new strategic plan for Progress Fire Co., and as part of this process, we reviewed and updated our vision statement.
I’ve always been a values-driven human. I believe that values are part of the moral code that guides our actions and defines who we are. They are what we consider important, the things that matter to our well-being and happiness.
