Business Operating Layer

Execution is critical for contractors because we work in a highly competitive business with relatively low margins compared to the risks taken.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

Execution is the discipline of getting things done. A simple way to look at your organizational structure is in three major layers:

Contractor Business Model Business Operating Layer.
  1. Ownership & Senior Executive Leadership:  Defining what you want the business to look like over 10+ years and how the business will be setup for the next generation of leadership.  
  2. Business Operating Layer: This is the layer that ensures execution of the long-term strategy and delivers the financial returns required by the owners.
  3. Project Execution Layer:  This is where the rubber meets the road and value is added to your customers.  This layer makes up the majority of the talent, time and other resources in any contracting business.  This includes all project related people and support. This is the foundation and any weaknesses here will show up everywhere.  

How many of the problems you are having at the Project Execution Layer are due to weaknesses in the Business Operating Layer?   

Learn More




Asking Good Questions
The ability to ask good questions will improve your learning, teaching, hiring, selling projects, building projects, and growing your contracting business. The discipline of formulating good questions often answers the original question and many more.
The Teacher and the Student in All of Us
The rate a contractor can grow is the average speed the team learns and teaches at. We are all teachers and we are all students. There are many things that we can do to improve ourselves on both sides of that equation.
Cash Flow Myth 2 - Finance Manages Cash Flow
Finance people manage cash flow. The reality is that by the time the finance team gets involved in a cash flow problem there are very few levers they can pull.