FMI Quarterly

2025 Q1

Scaling Success Through Leadership and Operational Best Practices

Featured Article: Operational Excellence Begins In Preconstruction

Preconstruction is often misunderstood. While many firms still treat it as a transactional phase — a checklist of budgets, estimates and approvals — the best-performing contractors recognize it as something far more strategic.

Why Informed Leadership Is a Must for Building Product Manufacturers Looking to Align Teams

Discover how building product manufacturers are focusing on leadership to drive alignment across teams.

Quality Assurance and Control Practices That Every Construction Project Needs

Having a strong QA/QC function and program is integral to successful projects. Here we outline several themes that will help you improve your internal QA/QC program and ensure that your efforts yield results.

2024 Q4

Innovations in Energy Transition Driving a Sustainable Built Environment

Featured Article: The Megaproject Boom: Building the Future Today

Megaprojects are at the forefront of America’s infrastructure investment resurgence, offering vast opportunities for the AEC industry to drive innovation, sustainability and socioeconomic change. By understanding the trends shaping these projects, your firm can determine how it might fit […]

Carbon Mitigation: How Innovative Business Models Are Profitably Driving Greenhouse Gas Reductions

We are witnessing a surge of entrepreneurial innovation transforming the carbon mitigation and management space, driven by cutting-edge solutions and technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the built environment. This momentum creates immense opportunities to advance […]

Beyond Hardware: Reliability and Service Drive the Next Phase of EV Infrastructure

In Q3 2024, EVs made up 8.9% of vehicle sales, an 11% increase year-over-year. This continued growth challenges the grid, demanding advanced software solutions and meaningful investment in service and maintenance. Learn how to adapt to the evolving EV infrastructure landscape.

2024 Q3

Driving Excellence: Best Practices To Create A Competitive Advantage

Featured Article: Building Your Project Executive Toolkit

The best project managers often struggle once they’re promoted to project executives (PXs). While they bring world-class project leadership skills to their jobs, project executives also need new skills in their toolkits to succeed.

Why Internal Alignment Is Key for Building Products Manufacturers

Companies that are reactive rather than proactive in aligning their operations across departments often fall behind competitors, especially when faced with nontraditional entrants offering innovative products.

Harnessing the Power of Employee Stock Ownership Plans

Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) offer companies a powerful opportunity to enhance key aspects of their operations, from increasing employee engagement to improving financial performance and fostering long-term growth.

2024 Q2

Adapting Your Business to Changing Times

Featured Article: Focus on Customers to Create a Resilient Building Products Company

Building products manufacturers focused on growth typically look to expand geographically, diversify their offerings, develop new products, invest in technology or acquire other companies to stay relevant or increase revenue. While these strategies can all improve the bottom line, they often lack a […]

Amid the Energy Transition, Focus Has Turned Upstream

Small decisions and minor wins in the beginning stages of infrastructure deployment or ahead of renovation and repowering can create heightened value later in the lifecycle (downstream), which can affect the end results across numerous infrastructure segments. This is increasing the industry’s […]

What’s Coming in the Next Five Years for Water Infrastructure Investing

Water infrastructure is crumbling while the demand for water is increasing, and many are concerned that there may not be enough water to meet the needs of people, industry and farms in the coming years. The availability of federal funds can help, but it will take additional investment in the space […]

The Four Levels of Organizational Success

Discover Bob Uhler's four levels of leadership and how executives can best manage their time to maximize their outcomes.

2024 Q1

Building Business Resilience in Uncertain Times

Featured Article: Professionalizing Preconstruction Services: The Number-One Differentiator for General Contractors

As more market share trends toward collaborative delivery methods, sophisticated preconstruction services are becoming the foremost differentiator for general contractors and construction managers. Firms with strong preconstruction functions are positioned to win a greater share of the work and […]

What’s Your Core Mission? How to Build Employee Engagement and Resilience

While many companies look to talent development and company branding to attract and retain talent, they often overlook a powerful and underrated lever to help mitigate the problem: establishing a clear and inspiring company mission.

Catalysts of Change: Exploring Megatrends Reshaping the E&C Industry

In part two of our series on megatrends, we discuss continued urbanization, rising income inequality, increased political polarization and further globalization.

2023 Q4

Building Tomorrow: The Evolving Built Environment

Featured Article: Megatrends That Will Change How You Do Business

Having a long-term strategy can help your firm chart a course for the future. To assist in this strategic focus, FMI has put together a two-part series on megatrends that will impact our industry’s future.

Employee Recognition and Rewards Still Matter in a Slowdown

Employers should make efforts to establish optimal environments through assessing and improving operational and labor practices to ensure that well-regarded talent stays with the firm during a slowdown.

2023 Q3

Is it Time for an Organizational Check In?

Featured Article: Prefabrication in Construction: Strategic Considerations for Building Products Manufacturers

As prefabrication continues to evolve, building products manufacturers (BPMs) must understand how to position their firms for success. This will require adjusting their approach to effectively align with changing market dynamics. BPMs have an opportunity to separate themselves from their competition […]

Why the Residential Building Products Sector Remains Attractive for Private Equity

The residential building products sector has long been a core area for private equity investment. Despite recent uncertainty, the sector has remained resilient in the short term and is expected to present a variety of investment opportunities in the medium and long term.

Don’t Waste Money Chasing Opportunities: Create a Winning Business Development Strategy

Getting smart about your go-to-market strategy, picking the right customers and positioning yourself to win will help your company gain profitable market share without overspending in the process.

2023 Q2

The Changing Landscape of Building Products

Featured Article: Data Centers: Driving Innovation in Building Products

Building products manufacturers and suppliers looking to capitalize on the money pouring into the sector will need to understand these new environmental, social and economic trends to adjust products and services to address shifting client demands.

Private Equity: Capitalizing on Supply Chain Issues in the Building Products Sector

Since niche original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been gaining market share, many are looking for capital to expand their operations into different product lines or geographies, creating opportunities for private equity investors to accelerate their growth.

Artificial Intelligence for Engineering and Construction Firms

Distinguishing between the hype and reality of AI’s capabilities can be difficult, given its prominence in today’s conversations. It’s time to cut through the noise and discuss how AI is truly changing the construction industry – without invoking images of autonomous humanoid robots capable […]

Using the Built Environment to Further Impact Investing Goals

The number of fund vehicles with stated environmental, social or governance (ESG) or impact mandates doubled from 2016 to 2021. As more companies look for ESG investment opportunities, it’s important to partner with a firm that understands the nuances of the built environment and that can find […]

2023 Q1

Trends Shaping Today's Built Environment

Featured Article: Beyond the Buzz: Harnessing the Power of Data Analytics in Construction

Data analytics continues to be a hot topic, and construction is no exception to this trend. As the engineering and construction (E&C) industry becomes increasingly technology-driven, companies are turning to data analytics to improve operations and gain a competitive edge.

Improving Your Post-Job Processes to Become an Operationally Superior Construction Firm

Operationally superior companies continuously review and update their processes, and that discipline extends to post-job procedures as well. Here we talk about post-job process improvements and how you can leverage insights from one job to better your entire organization.

Now is the Time to Prepare for Transferring Ownership of Your Company

The generational shift from baby boomers to their successors is underway across the built environment, with 41% of the current U.S. construction workforce expected to retire by 2031. This article dives into the steps owners and executives can take now to start the ownership transfer process.

2022 Q4

Placing Your Bets for 2023

Featured Article: Project Delays Are Coming: Develop a Strategy Now

As the economy becomes more uncertain, engineering and construction firms are beginning to see more project delays and cancellations. It's not enough to have a strategy in this environment. You need to execute, integrate and constantly reassess your plans to optimize your market position. Learn how […]

Quiet Quitting: The New Leadership Challenge

Many are talking about quiet quitting. Yet, quiet quitting is not laziness, but a symptom of poor management. Discover ways to motivate your people.

Closing the Gender Pay Gap: Why Women May Be the Key to Solving E&C Labor Challenges

Companies that make efforts to diversify their workforces and recruit employees from various backgrounds will be better able to compete in a continuously evolving market. As the labor shortage continues to be a problem across roles in construction, think about how you can create an environment that […]

Creating a Process Playbook That Drives Operational Excellence

Operationally superior organizations are constantly evolving and adapting to changing conditions with clear goals and ways to measure progress. The easiest place to start on continuous process improvement is developing a playbook or standard set of practices. Once those have been implemented for a […]

2023 M&A Outlook for Construction Services

Signs of a coming recession indicate challenges for some portions of the economy, but certain construction services segments will continue to see strong growth despite economic headwinds. This article dives into those sectors most ripe for consolidation in 2023.