Change starts with you

Already, leading organisations are moving towards a different attitude to dealing with suppliers and clients. There aren't many of them at this point, but what they lack in numbers they make up for in influence. And at the other end of the spectrum, some relatively small companies have decided that they want to change the way they do business; that they want to be treated not as a commodity item bought on price, but as professionals with experience and knowledge to make projects more successful.

The time is coming when businesses, organisations, and individuals will have to make a decision about where they stand on the new way of working.

An adversarial culture is so deeply embedded in construction that some people find it hard to imagine it working any other way. There are a lot of seemingly good excuses to avoid changing the way things are done now. "We've always worked this way, and we're still here", "No one else is doing it, so why should we?", or "How can we get involved in partnering? We're too far down the supply chain for it to be any use to us."

But excuses aren't good enough any more. Each company needs to examine its working practices. Think your clients are unfair in their expectations of you? Want too much for too little?

It may be more productive to remember first that you are someone's client. How do you deal with them? If it were possible to deal with your suppliers on a longer term, quality-first not price-first basis, you might be able to pass on the benefits to your clients.

Whether you are a consultant, manufacturer, contractor or developer, you do have the power to start making a change to the way the entire industry works. Where you lead, others will follow because they will quickly see those out in front reaping the benefits such as lower costs, greater efficiency, better working relationships and more orders. It has to start somewhere.