FMI Blog

past posts

Your Hotline: Building a Better Reporting Mechanism

A strong corporate culture and open lines of communication go a long way when it...

Three Key Ingredients of an Accurate Cost-to-Complete Estimate

Trade contractors live and die by their ability to...

10 Ways to Program Customer Loyalty into Your Work

Understanding client behavior – what makes them tick, how they make decisions, how they buy...

Six Things You Need to Know About Public-Private Partnerships

Through in-depth interviews with more than a dozen public-private...

Six Global Trade Strategies for Today’s Engineering and Construction...

A relatively new concept for many U.S....

7 Ethics Best Practices for Construction Firms

Driven in part by regulatory pressure, ethics programs are gaining prominence within firms whose leadership...

The High-Risk Business of Construction: Why Simulations Are Critical f...

Leaders in the construction industry have long...

The Data Sprint: Construction Can Catch Up!

It’s all around us. Doctors are looking at patterns of effective care; retailers are watching...

Is Your CEO Culturally Intelligent?

Whether they are large public businesses or small, family-owned startups, successful construction companies have...

Must-Have Skills for Today’s Leading CEOs

When companies go looking for a new CEO, they either turn to professional search firms...

The Four Levels of Organizational Success

Being at the top isn’t easy. CEOs don’t always have other high-level executives who they...

Your Next-Generation Leaders: Are They Ready?

Many construction leaders assume that leader development and succession issues have blown over since the...

5 Reasons Why Strategy Fails

Business strategy is a key determiner of how you will invest the limited amount...

Interpreting the Future: The Value of Strategic Thinking

While you had your nose in the numbers, your competitors were coming up with new...

Full Speed Ahead for 2016

With the Federal Reserve Board raising fund rates, fuel at historic lows, and consumer...

FMI's NRCI Executive Summary

At 64.9 for the second quarter of 2015, the NRCI score was essentially unchanged...

M&A Trends in Oil and Gas

The energy infrastructure market has gone through a period of unprecedented expansion over the...

Construction Materials

Small, strategic, bolt-on acquisition and corporate divestitures dominated M&A activity in 2014 in the...

FMI's M&A Trends: Engineering and Construction

Large, transformational deals defined M&A activity in the integrated engineering and construction (E&C) sector in...

How to Capitalize on Market Information

Most successful companies in the oil and gas engineering and construction industry are constantly...

Data-Driven Estimating

Create a fact-based filter for project selection and a data-driven mark-up policy that maximizes...

America's Energy Transformation: Petrochemical Manufacturing's 21st Ce...

Based on exciting trends for the petrochemical...

Adapting to the “New Normal” in Oil and Gas Construction

How the Market Will Endure Growing Regulatory, Labor and...

Is Copy-and-Paste Compliance Enough?

An issue that is becoming an ever-increasing challenge in the oil and gas industry...

Construction Company Ownership Exit Planning: Is Time on Your Side?

FMI all too often sees construction company owners waiting...

HR Best Practices: Paternity Leave for the Project Manager

No one would argue the point that the construction industry has a unique culture and...

Developing Your Personal Social Media Strategy

The Internet has given individuals the power to create their own personal brand. We now...

Why Strategy Matters in the Oil and Gas Industry

What separates great companies that can consistently achieve high performance over a long period of...

Six Steps to Successful Management Succession

When leadership transitions from one generation to the next, the resulting transfer of power, influence...

The Truth About What It's Like Being a Millennial in the Workplace

Millennials have once again been trending in the news,...

Three Reasons to Embrace an Offensive and Defensive Risk Management St...

Construction projects are always unique and carry...

Nonresidential Construction Index Dips in Q3

The great man of letters and champion of reason, Voltaire might have been talking about...

What I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was 25: a Note From Cynthia Paul

For those of you that do not know Cynthia...

Will Falling World LNG Prices Slow Down the U.S. LNG Boom?

The advent of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the United States has fundamentally changed...

Information Technology Drives Demand Side Management Program Improveme...

With the growing need for more electricity,...

FMI Employee Spotlight: Meet FMI's Summer Interns

Summer internships are a great opportunity for young professionals to explore different career paths, gain...

What's Your Company Worth?

Most business owners have heard of the saying, “it’s all in the details,” and,...

We Didn't See It Coming: Strategy and Scenario Planning

We all have experienced problems in the workplace where a quick decision needs to be...

Game On: Going On the Offensive Through Mergers and Sales

Acquisitions and sales have a role to play in times of robust growth and periods...

10 Key Success Strategies from the Post-2007 Construction Industry

Since the economic downturn hit the construction industry, many...

Have Oil & Gas Infrastructure Valuations Peaked?

With more than 330 billion in capital expenditures to be conducted over the next four...

Skill Shortages in a Booming Market: The Big Oil and Gas Challenge

The strains on labor capacity in oil and gas...

Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor: Trends, 2014 Q1

Each year for the first quarter edition of FMI’s Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor, we ask...

Creating the Discipline of Execution

In 2002, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan coauthored a book titled “Execution, the Discipline...

Great Construction Operations: Bridging the Silos

Done correctly, effective business leaders know that sustainable operational excellence in construction can create a...

Eight Strategies for Grooming Global Leaders

Globalization presents unique leadership development challenges for companies in the construction and engineering fields. Grooming...

FMI’s Fourth Quarter Construction Outlook, 2013

With our latest forecast and Outlook for 2014, we are seeing good reports from almost...

Peerless Executive Development

It comes to us as no surprise that in any industry, peer groups offer...

Sales is Not a Dirty Word

Ask a packed room of industry professionals who wants to be a salesperson, and...

The 2013 U.S. Construction Industry Talent Development Report: Highlig...

For more than 20 years, FMI has...

The 2013 U.S. Construction Industry Talent Development Report: Highlig...

For more than 20 years, FMI has...

Nonresidential Construction Index Fourth Quarter 2013 Highlights

After hitting its highest marks in the last two...

Capitalize on Market Information

The importance of market information and data has always been significant. However, when times...

FMI’s 2013 Prefabrication and Modularization in Construction Survey

According to FMI’s 2013 Prefabrication and Modularization in Construction Survey, only 40% of all...

Partnering for Profitability

Since the design and construction industry embraced the partnering concept almost 25 years ago,...

If You Want World Class Operations, Focus on the Foreman

What sets world-class contractors apart from average and struggling contractors? World-class contractors all have incredible...

Tenets of Transfer

FMI’s Investment Banking Group has assisted thousands of contractors in planning and executing the...

Construction Estimating Software UserView, 2013

Software Advice, a company that helps people find the right software for their companies, recently...

The Basics of Cost-to-Complete Forecasting

For the first eight months, the project manager had been telling them that it was...

Nonresidential Construction Index Third Quarter 2013 Highlights

The NRCI Index for Q3 of 2013 = 60.3....

Formulating an Acquisition Strategy

Running an effective and successful acquisition search is a major undertaking for any business....

Six Keys to Customer Service

In pursuit of a winning edge in today’s hypercompetitive construction markets, contractors have trimmed...

The 25th Annual State-of-the-Industry Report

FMI recently released The 25th Annual State-of-the-Industry Report, which covers design and construction markets for...

FMI’s Second Quarter Construction Outlook, 2013

The improvement in residential construction is the primary area of growth in our latest forecast....

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