The past two years have been filled with challenges for the construction industry because of the ongoing pandemic but two leading Canadian companies have been able to not only survive but to thrive.
Graham’s president and CEO Andy Trewick said the company has been deliberate in its strategies for doing business, focusing on diversity, geography and contracting models. Following these core principles has lead to revenue growth for Graham despite all the challenges of the pandemic.
Pierre Pomerleau, president and CEO, Pomerleau, shared similar sentiments, explaining that relationships are a core value for his company from trade partners to employees. Creating new opportunities for employees that allow them to grow is an important strategy for recruitment and retention.
“A construction company is a group of talented people. Our duty is to make sure these people are challenged. When we push the organization positively …as a consequence I think we see growth,” he said.
Pomerleau and Trewick were the speakers at the CEO Roundtable hosted by the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) during its annual conference in Vancouver where they shared insights to achieving success.
Achieving success is about building an environment of trust, said Pomerleau. “One thing that we need in the industry with all the complexity is more trust. When you establish trust with your clients, your partners…you create that environment of collaboration.”
Trewick stressed whether it’s a small or big company, it’s about taking the time to think and plan and being deliberate about the vision for the company.
Both believe there is strong growth and opportunities ahead for the industry especially with the many infrastructure needs across the country. Pomerleau said the pandemic revealed that there is a lack of hospital beds, ICU units, research facilities and more.
“So I’m bullish that the industry will thrive for the next five years,” he said.
But Trewick noted there are capacity issues for taking on more work and advised that current markets change quickly so organizations need to be nimble and agile to react to changes.
“In the short to medium term, we have lots of inflation pressure,” he added. “I do see some challenges in the next 18 months – getting jobs out of the office and into the field. Getting people back to work is important. People left during the pandemic and we need to draw them back.”
Pomerleau agreed, saying hyper inflation and supply chain disruptions are the main concerns keeping him up at night. “Hyper inflation can create a halt to the whole economy. We need to be better as an industry. We need to be more efficient. We need to value engineer to death every project.”
Collaboration was cited as a key strategy to keep the industry moving forward.
“When the pandemic started, we all pulled up together…we created teams, we started to work with our trade partners, with our competition,” said Pomerleau. “We started to exchange information, data and everything. It’s amazing what we’ve done. We have tons of joint ventures. We need to collaborate more.”
Cheryl Mah is managing editor of Construction Business.
