At the AGC Annual Convention in Las Vegas, NV, the Building Division by acclimation elected Douglas Maibach as Chairman for 2017-2018. Doug is Chairman of Barton Malow Enterprises and Executive Vice President of Barton Malow Company in Southfield, Michigan. He is a very active leader in local community and industry organizations.

Christie DeLuca, AECOM Grow, increase, expand. These concepts form the foundation of a company’s strategic goals. Although not all strategies require entering new markets, at some point, firms must expand beyond existing clients or geographies to achieve significant growth. Whether you’re on the executive team or serve in the business development space, answering these questions honestly can help your team determine where your company should focus its resources to achieve realistic and meaningful growth.

Matthew Lee, Young Contracting Have you ever had to sit through a presentation where you spend the entire time checking you phone for emails and messages even though you know you haven’t received any new ones? At some point in your career, whether you are in business development, sales, marketing, management, or otherwise, most of us will have to get up in front of a group of people and make a presentation. Here are FIVE tips that may help you give a meaningful presentation.

Construction contracts can be an unholy mess with their often unique provisions that too often thwart predictability and fairness. The ConsensusDocs coalition of 40 industry groups has formed over the past nine years to counter this trend, and its latest update offers wide-ranging revisions for its 2016 Design-Bid-Build prime and subcontract agreements.

Marcia Kellogg There are just some clients that your business cannot afford to have - you know who they are: the ones who are highly commodity-based and have limited experience, whose projects result in little or no profit, and who are a drain on your firm and its resources. Instead of trying to find projects that suit the firm, client-based firms identify clients with whom they can develop and nurture a partnership over time. It’s a philosophy that is primarily interested in owning the client, not the project. Most importantly, the focus of a client-based business is maintaining the relationship at all costs. Firms that align their cultures with the business goals and objectives of their clients realize a vast improvement in performance, because they have a true belief and purpose in the project and the client with whom they are working, and this spirit resonates throughout everything they do.

Julie Huval, Beck Technology The acronym “BIM” is showing up more and more in our industry. Owners are requiring it on projects, countries are setting standards for it, and firms are touting expertise in it. But what is Building Information Modeling (BIM) and, as marketers and business developers, why should we care?

Mike Clancy, Cynthia Paul, FMI Corporation Contractors’ get work departments can be like a car with a bad alignment. While everyone is working hard to get where they want to go, some of the effort is being pulled toward the “ditch” of low hit rates, missed opportunities and undeveloped client relationships. All that is needed are a few key adjustments to win your fair share of work.

Go in depth on the troubles facing multiemployer pension plans, what is being done to address the growing problems, and what it all means for the construction industry and the economy at large on the latest episode of the ConstructorCast

<p>A new <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-05-31/pdf/2016-12494.pdf"><u>rule</u> </a>by the Small Business Administration makes several changes to small business contracting regulations. These changes, set to go into effect June 30, are aimed at increasing small-business competition and enabling small businesses to potentially obtain larger contracts without increasing compliance costs.  In April, AGC <a href="http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/agcleg/downloads/AGC%20Comments%20on%20SBA%20Performance%20of%20Work%20Prop%20Rule.pdf"><u>submitted comments</u></a> on the proposed rule.</p>

<p>The U.S. Supreme Court issued a <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/united-states-army-corps-of-engineers-v-hawkes-co-inc/"><u>ruling</u> </a>that will allow landowners to challenge a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determination that a jurisdictional “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) is present on property where they want to build.  A “jurisdictional determination” significantly impacts how land may be used, dramatically raises costs, and often reduces the feasibility of constructing critical infrastructure. AGC submitted a joint “friend of the court” brief in the case, US Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., making a strong case for why it is vital for contractors to know with certainty whether their property contains a WOTUS. The Court’s findings closely track the points AGC argued in <u><a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/15-290-bsac-American-Farm-Bureau-Federation.pdf">its joint amicus brie</a>f</u>.  AGC was the only trade association to advance the commercial construction industry’s interest in the outcome of this case and, once again, AGC has succeeded in changing facts on the ground. This decision will have a material impact on the way that the Section 404 permit program actually functions.</p>