Today’s entrepreneurs find inspiration in the most unlikely places–even the digital construction tools and practices that are transforming the ways builders operate around the world.
Most entrepreneurs enjoy starting a new business with a clean slate, armed with the lessons of past successes and failures, and new ideas to attract a dedicated audience. Construction companies experience the same sense of freedom each time they begin a new project, and a growing number are recognizing the value of digital tools as they reduce costs, improve efficiency, and embrace the demand for sustainable buildings.
What Is Digital Construction?
If digital construction is a concept you are not yet familiar with, you are not alone. The term is used to describe a transforming construction industry where software and technology are rapidly replacing the manual planning, design, and building practices that have endured for centuries. Significant digital construction tools and innovations include:
- Cloud-based messaging, communication, and document control software
- Building information modeling (BIM) platforms to capture design, test, and building information in multi-dimensional digital models
- Artificial intelligence (AI) tools for forecasting, scheduling, and resource allocation
- Takeoff and estimation software to support fast and accurate bids and estimates
The pace of digitization in construction has been nothing short of remarkable, with the productivity, intelligence, and enhanced collaboration brought by these tools (and many others) finally overcoming long-standing resistance to change. Similar benefits are being experienced in industries including healthcare, transportation, and hospitality, which were also late arrivals to the digital party.
The lessons these industries took decades to learn should be absorbed by entrepreneurs from day one.
From Grit to Grid–Strategic Implications
Efficiency is the greatest benefit of digital construction, with automated workflows relieving project managers and planners of countless hours of manual work, and cloud-based, mobile-ready platforms taking the latest drawings, specifications, contracts, and schedules directly to the field. These breakthroughs help builders scale up quickly as they do more with less and focus on their next big opportunity.
Like builders, entrepreneurs begin their journey with little more than an idea, then build out the systems and infrastructure they need to stay lean and competitive. This well-worn path is a familiar one for the construction industry, as the best designers, contractors, and artisans multiply opportunities by expanding their digital portfolio.
Entrepreneurial Lessons from Digital Construction
The parallels between digital construction and entrepreneurship can also be seen in the shared principles that link these vocations in unexpected ways.
1. Real-time collaboration works best
Instant collaboration in the construction industry has empowered global design teams while connecting contractors on expansive jobsites to prevent accidents and minimize errors and delays. Collaboration is also a key ingredient for entrepreneurs as they build their sales and marketing infrastructure and use technology to be in more places at once.
2. Data minimizes guesswork
Guesswork in construction can be expensive, with building rework, material overages, and equipment issues having costly and potentially dangerous consequences. Entrepreneurs must also strive to minimize guesswork, using digital tools to collect and analyze market data, minimize risks, and develop accurate forecasts.
3. Scalable systems mean scalable business
Without the integrated design tools and workflows brought by digital construction, many businesses reach a plateau that prevents them from taking on new business or expanding into sustainable building opportunities requiring a more advanced toolkit. Entrepreneurs in every field should begin with the end in mind, ensuring their accounting, order fulfillment, ERP, and document management systems can take them where they want to go.
4. Resilience comes from integration
Construction businesses also find they become more resilient as they adopt useful new software and technology, no longer limited by project size, geography, or schedule demands. Any company seeking to stand out in the sea of competition must build their resilience from the ground up, focusing on software tools that improve flexibility, forecasting, and profit margin.
Beyond Construction–The Systemic Shift
Another important lesson for entrepreneurs looking to the construction industry for inspiration is an inherent lack of ‘superficial’ software tools. While many tech companies collect and discard software applications like they were trading cards, the slow and steady maturation of the construction industry has been accompanied by the strategic integration of each new innovation.
Just as discerning construction industry leaders carefully weighed the pros and cons of each new CAD, project management, and bid tendering software tool, entrepreneurs should establish their software portfolio with an emphasis on quality over quantity.
What Will You Break Ground on Next?
Without always realizing it, every entrepreneur is also a builder at heart. Instead of steel, concrete, and timber, they must build a solid foundation based on relationships, ideas, and forward-looking plans and objectives. The physical differences might have obscured the similarities for generations, but construction industry professionals display their entrepreneurial spirit each time they break ground on a new and exciting project.
To remain successful, leaders and pioneers in all industries must continually challenge themselves to build smarter.