Filtra per genere

Construction Hot Takes

Construction Hot Takes

Ascent Consulting
Affari e Finanza

Hosted by Adam Cooper, CEO of Ascent Consulting, alongside Senior Consultants Gregory Gorman and Jeff Robertson, Construction Hot Takes show dives into the gritty, unfiltered realities of building a profitable construction company. With nearly 100 years of combined experience, they’ve been there—from carrying gear on job sites to leading Ascent, a consulting powerhouse that exclusively serves construction companies across North America. Each episode is packed with insights, strategies, and insider knowledge from the industry’s top consulting firm for contractors. Discover what big national contractors know about growing a business, get actionable advice on boosting efficiency, and learn how to supercharge your project pipeline. Tune in, get inspired, and gain the knowledge to take your construction business to the next level.

63 - Is Buyout Just a Nicer Word for Shorting Your Subs?
0:00 / 0:00
1x
  • 63 - Is Buyout Just a Nicer Word for Shorting Your Subs?

    Is buyout just a nicer word for shorting your subs? Sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be. Buying the work competitively is the job, and it crosses a line when a GC takes a project without enough money in it and pushes the shortfall down to the trades. If you are a subcontractor who has watched a buyout call land on your margin, or a project manager handed a fee that you cannot see a path to, this is the conversation both sides usually have separately. 
    In this episode, Greg Gorman, Adam Cooper, and Jeff Robertson react to the comments a clip on bidding drew, take the sub's side and the GC's side honestly, and get into contingency, scope, and why the worst job on your books is often the one you won and should not have. 
    Here is the TikTok video source for the comments: 
    ‘Buyout and the Subs’: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes/video/7664578504482163981
    Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/ 
    Chapters: 
    00:00 - Introduction & General Conditions Budgeting
    01:46 - Reading Online Comments on Buyout Strategies
    03:12 - Strategic Budgeting & Subcontractor Margins
    06:50 - Market Dynamics & Sustainable Bidding Practices 
    03:26 - Closing Remarks & Producer Summary
     
    Markup and Margin: The Math Matters: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/markup-and-margin 
    For strategic business planning and margin discipline: https://ascentconsults.com/strategic-business-planning/ 
     
    Greg Gorman:https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34// 
    Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/ 
    Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/ 
    Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/ 
     
    Follow Ascent Consulting on: 
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/ 
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult 
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/ 
     
    Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on: 
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/ 
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes 
    #Construction #Preconstruction #Subcontractors 

    Thu, 01 Oct 2026
  • 62 - Whose Fault Is a $25M Overrun, Estimating or Engineering?

    How do you lose $25 million on one job? By building exactly to the construction spec while a second engineering spec, signed off by your own leadership, sat unread until the systems were turned on. If you run design-build work, sit between an engineering department and an estimating department, or have ever assumed someone upstream read the owner's performance criteria, this is the failure that nobody catches on a walkthrough.


    In this episode, Adam Cooper walks through the job with Greg Gorman and Jeff Robertson, answers the comments it drew, including whether submittals should have caught it and whether the estimator deserves the blame, and gets into what it actually cost the people involved.


    Here is the TikTok video source for the comments:
    ‘$25M Spec Miss’: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes/video/7657698121111129358 


    Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/

    Chapters:

    00:00 – Cold Open and Episode Introduction
    00:24 – The Specification Mistake That Cost $25 Million
    02:02 – How Did the Error Escape the Submittal Process?
    04:33 – Why Didn’t the Owner Catch It Earlier?
    05:47 – Was It Really the Estimator’s Fault?

    5 Reasons Construction Projects Fail: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/5-reasons-construction-projects-fail
    For operational assessments and process review: https://ascentconsults.com/ops_assessment/

    Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/
    Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34/
    Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/
    Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/

    Follow Ascent Consulting on:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/

    Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes
    #Construction #DesignBuild #ConstructionManagement 

    Fri, 11 Sep 2026
  • 61 - Will AI Replace Your Superintendent?

    Will AI replace the superintendent who won't use it? Not completely, but it could help your most experienced employees perform better and share their knowledge. A superintendent who knows how to build keeps the job. The one who also uses these tools gets better information can make the same calls sooner.
    If you run the field and have been told AI is coming for the trailer, or you are deciding whether to put these tools in front of your supers at all, the hosts do not agree with each other here and that is the useful part. In this episode, Greg Gorman, Adam Cooper, and Jeff Robertson work through this issue, sort out where the tools genuinely help when expert judgment does not transfer, and get into what happens to institutional knowledge as the most experienced people age out.


    Here is the LinkedIn video source for the comments:
    ‘AI and the Superintendent’: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7483899974649409536/


    Build a business that runs without you: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/


    Chapters:
    00:00 – Cold Open and Episode Introduction
    00:45 – Will AI-Savvy Superintendents Replace Those Who Aren’t?
    02:54 – Balancing Human Expertise and AI
    07:50 – Judgment, Paperwork, and Better Decisions
    11:39 – Agentic AI vs. Basic Automation

    Procore Isn't Broken, It's Just Not Built Around You Yet: https://blog.ascentconsults.com/procore-isnt-broken-its-just-not-built-around-you-yet
    For AI in construction, in firms with clean data and disciplined process: https://ascentconsults.com/ai-for-construction-companies/

    Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-hern%C3%A1ndez-mba-115ba34/
    Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/
    Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/
    Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website!: https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/

    Follow Ascent Consulting on:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/

    Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes 
    #Construction #AIinConstruction #Superintendents 

    Fri, 04 Sep 2026
  • 60 - Job Costing Fundamentals: Are You Actually Making Money on Each Job?

    You can feel the money moving. You can't tell if any single job is making it. In this episode, Greg Gorman breaks down job cost management and why hidden jobs that quietly bleed can still occur in a profitable company. Plus the three fundamentals that make job costing work and why you can still save a job at 40 to 50 percent complete (but rarely at 75).

    Chapters:
    00:00 - Why job cost management is a top priority
    02:13 - How does company profit hide a bleeding job?
    03:45 - What actually counts as a job cost?
    09:54 - The three fundamentals of job costing
    15:51 - How do you catch profit fade in time?
    19:42 - Why acting at 40-50% beats a locked-in loss

    For fractional CFO support: https://ascentconsults.com/fractional-cfo/
    The operator's playbook for scaling construction: https://ascentconsults.com/build-it-better-ebook/

    Greg Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gorman-mba-115ba34/

    Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website! https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/

    Follow Ascent Consulting on:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/

    Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes
    #Construction #JobCosting #ConstructionFinance

    Thu, 27 Aug 2026
  • 59 - Your Data is All There. Why Can't You See It in One Place?

    In this episode, Adam Cooper and Jeff Robertson break down how contractors go from siloed systems to one source of truth for their data, why Procore is built for projects (not company management), and the three ways to actually connect your stack. Including: Off-the-shelf connectors, custom middleware, and a data lake, plus where AI is heading over the next 12 to 24 months.
    Chapters:
    00:00 - The 300-job treasure hunt
    03:35 - Why don't your systems talk to each other?
    05:54 - What is a data lake, really?
    08:03 - Connectors vs. custom middleware
    16:08 - Where is AI taking system integration?
    19:33 - How contractors end up with a messy tech stack

    See if your data's ready for AI: https://ascentconsults.com/get-your-ai-score-card
    A helping hand with AI in construction: https://ascentconsults.com/ai-for-construction-companies/

    Adam Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcooper/
    Jeff Robertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrobertson72/

    Check out all the Construction Hot Takes episodes on the Ascent website! https://ascentconsults.com/construction-hot-takes-podcast/

    Follow Ascent Consulting on:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascent-consulting-inc-/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascentconsult
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentconsults/

    Follow the Construction Hot Takes Podcast on:
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructionhottakespodcast/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@construction.hottakes
    This week, try to build one company-level view of your active jobs. Where it breaks is where your systems aren't connected.
    #Construction #ConstructionTech #ConstructionAI

    Thu, 13 Aug 2026
Mostra altri episodi

Podcast simili a <nome>