Construction Genius

Simple, straightforward leadership, strategy, sales, and marketing tools to build a profitable, sustainable construction company.

In this provocative account Tia DeNora reconceptualizes the notion of genius by placing the life and career of Ludwig van Beethoven in its social context. She explores the changing musical world of late eighteenth-century Vienna and follows the activities of the small circle of aristocratic patrons who paved the way for the composer's success. DeNora reconstructs the development of Beethoven's reputation as she recreates Vienna's robust musical scene through contemporary accounts, letters, magazines, and myths—a colorful picture of changing times. She explores the ways Beethoven was seen by his contemporaries and the image crafted by his supporters. Comparing Beethoven to contemporary rivals now largely forgotten, DeNora reveals a figure musically innovative and complex, as well as a keen self-promoter who adroitly managed his own celebrity. DeNora contends that the recognition Beethoven received was as much a social achievement as it was the result of his personal gifts. In contemplating the political and social implications of culture, DeNora casts many aspects of Beethoven's biography in a new and different light, enriching our understanding of his success as a performer and composer.

People problems are costing your construction company millions. Here's how to solve them.If you're a construction owner, you're looking at the current projects on the books and your financial success. And you know you could do better. You find yourself asking the same questions:Why is it that my project profit fades over the lifetime of a project?Why is it that I have these conflicts between the field and the office, or between myself and my project partners, or between the general contractors and my owners?Why is it that I can't identify the right types of people to work in the organization or the right types of projects to build?Why is it that I bid on a project and think I'm gonna win it, but my competition comes in at the last moment and takes the project away from me?The reason why is your people don't know how to lead, they don't know how to establish clear strategies, and they don't know how to sell. Every business problem you're facing is a people problem. Technical competence is not enough. It's about identifying the right client, the right project, and the right location, and attracting the right people into the right roles to build relationships with those clients and deliver the projects on time.Since 2004, Eric Anderton has worked with construction company executive teams to improve their profitability. All else being equal in terms of technical skills, the quality of a construction business comes down to the people involved. You need to be able to sell your services to the right clients with the right projects. You need to bring the right people on-site to execute those projects. And you must communicate internally and externally throughout the lifetime of a project so that you deliver that project profitably on a consistent basis. The people determine everything in construction.

Tools of the trade: twenty-six tools for effective leadershipRapidly changing demographics in the construction industry and an unpredictable economy are just two challenges that require you to lead at a higher level than ever before. This book will prepare you to meet these challenges head-on.The result of exhaustive research and in-depth interviews with construction professionals across North America, Construction Leadership provides the information, tools, and confidence to deliver the leadership required for success in today's construction industry. From ensuring quality work and learning how to have a better attitude to fostering loyalty and leading across generations, Construction Leadership shows you how to be more effective and enjoy more success.With an easy-to-use format, this book provides practical information that you can put into action immediately. Each chapter stands alone to save you time and is supported by online video, increasing your return on investment. Not reading this book puts you at a competitive disadvantage-but reading it puts you well ahead of the game.

Sam Brooks, a young superintendent with ProCon Builders, has been given responsibility for the largest and most complicated project of his career. He struggles with all of the common difficulties in construction -- lack of communication, coordination issues, and other kinds of wasteful occurrences that rob his project of time and money, while leaving him and his team frustrated and overworked. Luckily, his friend, mentor, and co-worker, Alan Phillips, brings the benefit of his experience and his knowledge of Lean Construction tools and processes to help Sam learn valuable skills for improving the operation of his project. Together, Sam and Alan discuss the merits and explore the practical applications of: Daily Huddles Visual Communication The "Eight Wastes" Managing Constraints Pull Planning The Last Planner System(TM) Percent Plan Complete

The Genius of Japanese Carpentry tells the story of the 1200-year-old Yakushiji monastery in Nara and the dedicated modern-day craftsmen who are working to restore what has been lost to the depredations of time, fire and warfare. Although the full monastery reconstruction will not be completed until 2030, one of the main temples, the Picture Hall, has been completely restored employing the same woodworking technology used to create the original building. This new edition of an architectural classic is by Azby Brown—one of the world's leading experts on Japanese architecture. It contains a new preface and many new text materials and photographs—most of them now available in color for the first time. Azby Brown chronicles the painstaking restoration of the temple through extensive interviews with the carpenters and woodworkers along with original drawings based on the plans of master carpenter Tsunekazu Nishioka. An inspiring testament to the dedication of these craftsmen and their philosophy of carpentry work as a form of personal fulfillment, The Genius of Japanese Carpentry offers detailed documentation of this singular project and a moving reminder of the unique cultural continuity found in Japan.

In early nineteenth-century Britain, there was unprecedented interest in the subject of genius, as well as in the personalities and private lives of creative artists. This was also a period in which literary magazines were powerful arbiters of taste, helping to shape the ideological consciousness of their middle-class readers. Romantic Genius and the Literary Magazine considers how these magazines debated the nature of genius and how and why they constructed particular creative artists as geniuses. Romantic writers often imagined genius to be a force that transcended the realms of politics and economics. David Higgins, however, shows in this text that representations of genius played an important role in ideological and commercial conflicts within early nineteenth-century literary culture. Furthermore, Romantic Genius and the Literary Magazine bridges the gap between Romantic and Victorian literary history by considering the ways in which Romanticism was understood and sometimes challenged by writers in the 1830s. It not only discusses a wide range of canonical and non-canonical authors, but also examines the various structures in which these authors had to operate, making it an interesting and important book for anyone working on Romantic literature.

Madness and the Romantic Poet examines the longstanding and enduringly popular idea that poetry is connected to madness and mental illness. The idea goes back to classical antiquity, but it was given new life at the turn of the nineteenth century. The book offers a new and much more complete history of its development than has previously been attempted, alongside important associated ideas about individual genius, creativity, the emotions, rationality, and the mind in extreme states or disorder - ideas that have been pervasive in modern popular culture. More specifically, the book tells the story of the initial growth and wider dissemination of the idea of the 'Romantic mad poet' in the nineteenth century, how (and why) this idea became so popular, and how it interacted with the very different fortunes in reception and reputation of Romantic poets, their poetry, and attacks on or defences of Romanticism as a cultural trend generally - again leaving a popular legacy that endured into the twentieth century. Material covered includes nineteenth-century journalism, early literary criticism, biography, medical and psychiatric literature, and poetry. A wide range of scientific (and pseudoscientific) thinkers are discussed alongside major Romantic authors, including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Hazlitt, Lamb, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Keats, Byron, and John Clare. Using this array of sources and figures, the book asks: was the Romantic mad genius just a sentimental stereotype or a romantic myth? Or does its long popularity tell us something serious about Romanticism and the role it has played, or has been given, in modern culture?