John Smith points out (12 September, page 29) that it is only in his "industry A", inhabited by the large contractors and practices, where inroads have been made by organisations such as Be in realising the vision laid out by Egan.
He argues that these organisations only operate in industry A and have "never had anything but a theoretical understanding of conditions in industry B", which is made up of the small companies that undertake the work on site.

There are two points that I would like to make. Firstly, Mr Smith ignores the progress that has been made on the change journey. In the not-too-distant past, collaborative working and whole-life costs were as alien to industry A as Mr Smith argues they now are to industry B. And in this regard, big is not necessarily beautiful - it is often the medium-sized firms with a regional or sector focus who are closest to the vision and who are in industry A.

Secondly, quite simply, I believe Mr Smith is wrong. Far from ignoring industry B, we are already working within it, as two recent examples show. Through work undertaken by our Collaborative Working Centre, we have worked on HBG Construction sites to improve collaboration between trades. And our work with the Fusion21 consortium of housing associations on Merseyside has seen us appoint local small contractors to do the work on site and "invert" the pyramid so that the rest of the team is there to support them and enable them to deliver. This has created more than 120 jobs and realised cost savings of 15-20%.

Having said all that, the thrust of Mr Smith's piece is entirely right. Unlike other "Egan self-help groups", to use his description, Be is funded by its membership of large and small organisations across the industry. Change has been driven from the top, but now Be sees the need for the supply-side to start helping itself and not relying on government funding or big clients always to point the way, which, as Mr Smith says, can only penetrate so far.

Yes, improving industry B will take a long time - just as it still will in industry A.

Postscript

Don Ward, chief executive, Be, and operations director CWC.