MANAGING RISK IS THE NOBLEST SCIENCE IN BUSINESS

摘要

I remember the call coming at the end of the day. "Congratulations on winning the M40," said the dry voice down the line. "Is your chief estimator there?" "No, he's away from his desk." "Well, when he comes back, ask him if he has found the mistake that has won you the contract!" Our competitor hungup. In those days, the chief estimators of all the major contracting firms would ring each other with such messages, and this giant government contract to build a large section of the new motorway between London and Birmingham was no different. The call was chilling. I knew in my heart that our rival was going to be right. "Okay," I said. "No one is going home until we work out our mistake." Our competitor was quite right - it turned out with the M40 job we'd miscalculated how much the capping on the road would compact, so had underestimated the amount of materials we would need. Pricing construction work was - and is - a big part ofbusiness success. And a major element of the construction estimating process is the key ability to calculate risk.