Innovation is linked directly to the profit motive for business and is the key to creating and satisfying future markets for goods and services. In the construction sector, most innovation is reckoned to take place within supplier companies, yet these are often the parties most distant from the core processes of design and construction.

Suppliers - taken to include specialist contractors as well as component suppliers - need to be involved far more in the wider construction process than at present. This body, which includes a large proportion of SMEs, is essential to establishing and developing a supply chain for construction that delivers best value and satisfaction to its clients and customers. Procurement methods and policies that make little use of the expertise of suppliers stifle innovation. Specialist contractor and component supplier-led technical innovation has therefore to be encouraged. Support for, and awareness of, the needs of these firms - many of whom are SMEs - is inadequate. Until suppliers are integrated into the supply chain, innovation is unlikely to be properly enabled.

A typical complaint is that little innovation takes place in the course of designing a new building or other structure. This view is only partially true and attempts to do more are frustrated by, inter alia, uncertainty over design liability and the availability of reliable information on how materials, products and systems perform in different combinations and environments.

Public procurement policy has been accused of working against innovation. Lessons can be taken from the promotion of public-private partnership (PPP/PFI) schemes as to how one can instil a culture of innovation through methods and procedures that have been redesigned away from traditional practices. Opportunities exist for public sector customers to encourage innovative proposals without risk of compromising best value or accountability.

Procurement methods that are transparent and that lend themselves to objective assessment and comparison are more likely to lead to improved project results than those that make a mystery out of the process. Efforts to improve supply chain management are discouraged by a reluctance to address this issue. Attention needs to be directed to this area in order to activate the value chain for construction.

Improved access to the results of research and other information, knowledge and expertise would likewise improve performance in the sector. Over the longer term it would contribute directly to a reduction of costs through less rework and deliver higher levels of client and customer satisfaction. Ideas that might help are to be found in the subject on Change & Innovation (under the category of Management).

Research is needed to cover, more specifically and closely, innovation within the value chain for construction. This should examine mechanisms for identifying clients’ and customers' needs and the means for integrating design and production as a single process in which specialist contractors and component suppliers are able to lead technical innovation. Within this, there needs to be an in-depth study of the relationships between product manufacturers, designers, construction companies and specialist contractors and the ways in which these relationships can enable or impede innovation. Answers or, at least, reliable insights could help move the sector forward.

There could be many interpretations of the term ‘client management’. Many will see it in the sense of the primary relationship between the parties contracting for design and construction and the organisation commissioning or sponsoring the work. Under traditional methods of procurement, the topic might generate little discussion except, perhaps, to acknowledge the importance of the client role.

Novel forms of procurement are generally based on a relationship between the parties that is more in the nature of a partnership, association or consortium than one ‘at arm’s length’. Typical of these relationships are alliances and other forms of collaboration in which the contracting parties have significantly modified roles and responsibilities. In fact, the term contracting is somewhat out of place in arrangements where there are no sides or opposing parties as such. The aim is to create a form of partnership or shared arrangement that aligns everyone to a common purpose and set of objectives. As such, there is more to it than purely economic gain - see the section on Relationship Management (under the category of Construction).

The parties are also expected to abide by more socially-minded obligations. An obvious example is the channelling of energy away from adversarial behaviour and conflict towards the mutually acceptable resolution of problems. Some people would call this a win-win situation. Even so, client management is more than avoiding disagreement and dispute; it is about being positive, forward-looking and proactive. Sufficient empirical evidence now exists to show that projects delivered in this way are likely to perform better and arrive at more acceptable outcomes than those procured under more traditional methods. This involves the search for better solutions, usually at lower cost and in less time, in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. Certainty of performance and outcome are the main attractions.

Client management is more than an aspect of project management; it is a key factor in reaching the successful outcome of a project. Projects are about people and people have to be properly engaged and managed in the process of briefing, design, construction and facility management. All the way through, there is the potential for conflict, delay and extra cost, any of which can be triggered by a failure to manage relationships with the care they demand. Of greatest importance is managing the client relationship and this can be considered from two directions: from the client organization in the direction of those assigned with the primary responsibility for delivering the project; and from those delivering the project in the direction of the client. Needless to say, client management involves more than effective communication. There is cooperation and collaboration through which the correct decisions must be made by the parties best able to take responsibility for them. This is perhaps no more so than in the area of risk.

Sadly, some clients have become used to fighting to get what they want. Most would prefer to work with their supply partners in a more harmonious way to realise their goals. Recognising that the client relationship has to be managed means that we must present the client’s needs at the centre or to the fore of our plans. There is still a long way to go, but the journey has begun.

(Edited by Sam Smith - original submission Thursday, 19 June 2008, 10:26 PM)