I love construction

Roger Flanagan is brimming with enthusiasm for construction. From Oxford Castle and its prison-turned-hotel to prefabrication in Pittsburgh to fall simulation in Hong Kong, the CIOB’s new president plucks out success stories from around the world.

Already a kind of roving ambassador to the UK industry, Flanagan is keen to spread the good news stories from here too. “I love this country, but why are we so good at knocking ourselves?” asks Flanagan, who is professor of construction management at Reading University. “Outside the country, people want to hear about what UK construction is doing. Lets turn the corner and look at the good things!”

Easy for him to say in his ivory tower of academia, you might think. But this accusation doesn’t stick with Flanagan – he’s very much involved in the industry, having been on the board at Skanska AB in Sweden for eight years and a non-exec at Halcrow since 2001.

“If you are going to teach students about an industry you really do need to understand the industry,” he says. “The last thing you want is people who learn it from books.”

Flanagan’s worldwide experience is completed with four other positions: he’s an adviser to the engineering and construction sector of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland; a part-time professor at Chalmers University in Gothenburg; visiting professor at the University of Cape town; and guest professor at Chongqing University in China.

That’s quite a workload. How can he possibly fit in the CIOB presidency as well?

“I thought very long and hard about it,” admits Flanagan. “Do I need the work, the nuisance, the aggro? Then I thought ‘How will the industry be any different if I just walk away?’. If you believe in something passionately, I think you should engage. I believe that what we are portraying at the moment does not reflect at all what’s going on.”

Flanagan does not want to be a stuffy old president. “I look at those pictures of past presidents in the institutes and I wonder if they had a great time,” he says. “Can we focus on fun? If you cannot laugh at yourself, why do it?”

Apparently Flanagan is a highly entertaining public speaker: “If you can find an excuse to use him at an event, get him in,” says one peer who has seen him do a turn. In person he is rather more quiet and earnest than expected. “Oh dear, that sounds very pompous,” he says at one point, following his comments on sustainability and aspirations (see below).

Flanagan’s roots are in building. His father was a bricklayer and he did a construction degree. “I always wanted to be in the industry, I don’t know why,” he reveals.

He is strangely evasive about his early years in the industry. “I have been a QS, in contracting, a variety of things, very much in the background.

I am just ordinary.”

He moves the conversation quickly on to talk about his roles at Halcrow and Skanska. Perhaps he wants to emphasise that he is a here and now man, rather than a construction has-been. “I have watched Skanska grow,” he says of his eight years on Skanska’s board. “It’s been such a pleasure to watch that company, the way it grows, its global aspirations.”

Friends in high places

He exhibits the same enthusiasm when talking about his teaching. Flanagan has been at Reading for 20 years and now has a network of ex-students, some of whom are in “quite senior positions” (see box, right). “You cannot quantify the pleasure you get from teaching young people,” he says.

He says of his masters students: “There’s nothing more exciting than being with them and experiencing their enthusiasm.”

When asked about construction management degrees and whether they are turning out the standard of people the industry needs, Flanagan is predictably upbeat. “We have turned the corner now,” he says, referring to the number of students on construction courses, which have started to rise after a low spot three years ago.

Flanagan’s global perspective will be important at the CIOB. The challenges we are facing in the UK, such as increasing red tape, labour shortages and making use of off-site construction more, are shared challenges, he argues.

“We are the fifth largest construction market. Whether we like it or not, we are part of the global industry. So goods will be coming from China and we will be importing human resources. The whole industry is being driven by a similar agenda.”

Looking to the future, Flanagan predicts “more preplanning and a lot more trust”. He sees design and construction becoming more complex and reliant on prefabrication. This will mean that contracts cannot be exclusively hard bid and that there will be much more planning, even as far as bringing deliveries to the critical line.

The other big issue that construction must grapple with is its people. “Because of the nature of the way we do accounts, people don’t figure in that. It’s the value of people in the next eras which is going to be crucial.

“It’s right that we have financial targets, but at the end of the day, it’s all down to people. We are going to have to come to terms with this.”

So what does Flanagan think CIOB is about?

As you might expect from a seasoned lecturer, Flanagan has done some preparation here and comes up with the five Fs: forward-looking, focused, far-reaching, free from red tape and negativity, and fun. “The job of the institution is to enthuse people,” he concludes.

If that’s the case, Flanagan is definitely the man for the job.