At some point, we all recognized that a table does not need four legs to be sturdy. Three legs properly placed under the base of a structure provide stability — think camera tripod or telescope base.
Take away one leg, however, and your items will come crashing down.
In the construction industry, the three “legs” of any project are adherence to budget, maintenance of schedule and achieving the desired level of quality.
Providing two of the three is easy if the project team is talented and dedicated. The struggle comes when one realizes that the proper balance of all three is essential for a project to be successful.
It is the fundamental responsibility of the construction manager to represent the owner in this quest for balance. Design professionals can lean too far in the direction of quality. They work hard to create a design that will produce a structure an owner can be proud of. Trade contractors have a direct financial risk in the performance of their contracts and will be persuaded by the bottom line. Even the owner may get caught up in internal pressures to complete the project in a pre-determined time frame and lose focus on the goal.
The construction manager is the only project player able to see the entire picture from pre-design through final completion, and represent the owner without conflicts or special interests at every stage.
So the next time you see a construction project , think of the simple tripod and the not so simple task of completing a project on time, within budget and with the desired level of quality.
Hopefully, there’s a construction manager on the job. Source: Welty Building Co.
