Building Leaders from Within: How B&I Contractors Turns Field Experience into Enterprise Leadership
B&I Contractors, a $300 million employee-owned specialty contractor, has built FMI's training programs into a structured leadership development path, supporting employees as they move from early management roles into broader project, leadership and executive responsibilities. COO Mike Novo traces his own career from pipefitter foreman to company leadership through a sequence of FMI programs, demonstrating how intentional development supports both individual growth and organizational scale.
How Growth by Expansion Creates a Leadership Development Challenge
When Mike Novo joined B&I Contractors in 2000, the company had about 174 employees and was rooted in the Fort Myers market. Today, B&I has grown to more than $300 million in revenue, more than 1,400 employees and four offices across Florida.
That growth came from expansion, not acquisition.
For an employee-owned company with a strong promote-from-within culture, growth by expansion creates a specific leadership challenge. The people who know the work best are often asked to take on broader management and executive responsibility. Their field experience gives them credibility, judgment and a practical understanding of how the business operates. But as the company scales, they also need new tools, including financial acumen, people leadership, project discipline and enterprise-level decision-making.
Mike’s own career reflects that path. He started at B&I as a pipefitter foreman, then moved through roles as trade superintendent, department manager, operations manager and now COO. His story is not about leaving the field behind. It is about carrying that field knowledge into larger leadership roles.
B&I did not approach leadership development as a one-time training need. It built FMI programs into a career path, giving rising leaders a structured way to grow as the company grew.
The Transition from Doing the Work to Leading the Work
Mike’s first FMI experience was the Emerging Managers Institute (EMI), which he attended roughly 12 years ago. He remembers it as a turning point because, at the time, formal leadership development was new to him. “It gave me a sense of purpose and structure,” he said.
It also gave him a clearer view of the transition he was making. “At that point, I wasn’t really a manager,” Mike recalled. Getting the work done and leading people who do the work are different jobs, and not everyone makes that distinction early enough.
For Mike, the early shift was learning how to see beyond the task in front of him. He had to understand the whole job, from boots on the ground through completion, and begin connecting field decisions to project outcomes, profit margins and the broader health of the company. EMI helped create that structure.
The most transformative program for Mike was the Construction Executive Institute (CEI). Its intensity forced a shift in perspective. A project was no longer only a project. It was a business unit. A field decision was no longer only a field decision. It had a financial consequence.
But what stayed with him most was the name of the program itself. When he first heard "Construction Executive Institute," he was not yet an executive. "It gave me a feeling that I'm being thought of as a future executive," he said. In an employee-owned business like B&I, that message carries weight.
How B&I Built FMI Programs into a Leadership Development Path
Today, FMI is part of how B&I thinks about leadership readiness.
The company has communicated a development path to its project management group. Project engineers and first-year manager types may begin with EMI. Project Manager Academy follows as people take on more responsibility for job performance and profitability. Leadership Institute supports those moving into broader people and customer leadership. CEI prepares future senior leaders for the decisions that come with running the business.
The relationship with FMI has also grown beyond training. B&I uses FMI to facilitate its annual strategic planning process, bringing leaders together for a multi-day session focused on financial and strategic goals.
Mike also participates in an FMI-facilitated MEP peer group with executives from similarly sized companies across the country — many in the $250 million to $300 million range. That gives him a more relevant sounding board than the smaller-company group B&I had previously been part of. "You get to feel comfortable," he said, knowing that other companies are wrestling with similar challenges.
For a growing company, that perspective can be grounding. Leaders see that they are not developing in isolation. They have peers, benchmarks and outside perspective.
Developing Field Leaders: The Next Step in B&I's Leadership Pipeline
Mike does not describe FMI as just a training provider. He sees the relationship in three parts: career path and professional training, consulting and strategic planning, and executive peer groups.
That combination has helped B&I develop leaders who understand the work and can take on responsibilities as the company expands.
Mike also sees a need for more development for foremen and field leaders, who may be coordinating apprentices, journeymen, subcontractors and jobsite meetings from early morning through the end of the workday. They need technical knowledge, but they also need support in communication, people management and leadership under pressure.
For B&I, that is the natural next step. Leadership does not begin in the C-suite. It begins wherever someone is trusted to guide the work, make decisions and bring others along.
That is the standard B&I is building toward: a company where field experience is respected, leadership growth is intentional and employees can see a path from where they are today to the roles they may hold tomorrow.
Explore how FMI's training programs can support leadership development at your organization.
FAQs
How do construction companies develop leaders internally without relying on outside hires?
The most effective approach pairs a promote-from-within culture with structured external development at each career stage. B&I Contractors sequences FMI programs so leaders receive the right development at the right time, building capability incrementally as their responsibilities grow.
What leadership development programs are designed specifically for the construction industry?
FMI offers programs built exclusively for the built environment, covering every career stage from emerging managers to senior executives. Unlike generalist leadership training, FMI's programs use construction-specific scenarios, financials, and peer cohorts, making the content immediately applicable to how contractors run their businesses.
How do employee-owned construction companies approach leadership succession?
In employee-owned firms, leadership development carries added weight, as the people being developed are also owners. B&I Contractors addresses this by investing in formal development programs early, giving rising leaders both the skills and the signal that the company sees their potential, reinforcing retention and strengthening the ownership culture.
What is the Emerging Managers Institute and who should attend?
The Emerging Managers Institute (EMI) is an FMI program designed for first-time managers and early-career leaders in construction who have proven themselves in the field and are stepping into broader management responsibility for the first time. EMI provides structure, purpose, and foundational leadership skills when they're needed most.
How do construction executives use peer groups to improve leadership and business performance?
FMI facilitates peer groups that bring together executives from similarly sized construction firms, creating a confidential forum for benchmarking, problem-solving, and perspective. Leaders like B&I's Mike Novo use these groups to pressure-test decisions and gain outside context, particularly valuable for growing companies navigating challenges without a large peer network.
