What’s Really Keeping E&C Leaders Up at Night?
Welcome to the third edition of the 2019 FMI Quarterly. We dedicated this issue to a concern that’s top of mind for E&C and many other industries right now—namely, what’s keeping our leaders up at night and why.
Throughout this issue, you’ll find articles that dig into some of the leadership challenges that firms are facing in today’s market. In one, we explore the growing prevalence of megaprojects, which today account for as much as one-third of all construction put in place. That’s up from less than 3% just six years ago.
Billion-dollar megaprojects are increasingly dominating certain regions of the country and are expected to impact all industry players up and down the supply chain in the coming years. In fact, there are currently more than 670 projects that are in some phase of planning (or coming out of the ground) that represent a combined $2 trillion of anticipated construction put in place.
Given the fact that we’re all operating in an extremely tight labor market, human resources—or a lack thereof—are definitely keeping E&C leaders up at night right now. Knowing this, we included an article on how to get compensation right in a tight labor market. Authors revealed that as many as 1 out of every 2 jobs is either overcompensated or underpaid relative to the local market. That has significant implications for companies that want to remain competitive―particularly for those positions where employees are being undercompensated.
Other topics that we explore in this issue include one that looks at the three distinct leadership styles and how they play out in a bull market, and another that explores the topic of management succession. The latter article is titled “Executive Handoffs” and presents a host of new insights on the topic of leadership transition.
To wrap things up, we all know that we’re operating at the top of an economic cycle right now, and that effective leadership will go a long way in E&C companies’ present and future success. As projects increase in size and complexity, as industry dynamics start changing, and as baby boomers continue to exit the workforce, having solid industry leadership is more important now than it’s ever been.
