CIOB President Li Shirong’s call for a debate regarding the term ‘construction manager’ and the recognition it is given is timely (CM June).

With the growing scale and complexity of projects, the narrowness of the term is a misnomer which does not reflect the broader skills now required by modern development professionals.

The prefix of ‘construction’ often leads to a perception of nothing more than an activity-led operation controlled by a site-based building manager. While such attitudes remain, the standing sought by the CIOB and its members will not be attained.

Construction professionals engage with the total process of development at various levels and stages and construction itself is but a single phase. While intense when under way, its importance to the totality of a project can be somewhat overstated.

More crucial to a development, it could be argued, is the management of inputs flowing from an increasing range of environmental, social and economic issues.

Meeting the resultant challenges of these broader, more complex long-term objectives and impacts requires dynamic management and an overall champion.

We need a single entity that focuses on the ‘project’ and brings its goals and objectives to fruition. This leads to a crucial consideration: where do we find these champions and, critically, what skills will they need?

Richard Moore FCIOB

Source

Construction Manager