Starting a new branch of our business that required sales and marketing was really daunting for
someone coming from a trade background. Shiv broke it down for us and simplified it, showing us
how to profile customers and how to target them. he created marketing literature to help get our
message out to customers. He helped us to form a strategic plan for growth going forward and
gave us the confidence to get into the marketplace and achieve our goals. I can’t say enough about
how his advice and direction has helped us.
Shivendra Kumar
Shivendra earned his stripes developing and managing business improvement programs with organisations such as Siemens and Downer. His track record is one of solid, measurable productivity improvements, process innovation and bottomline savings.
Shivendra has guided many leaders and project teams, in the real world application of best-practice methods, ensuring his insights and know-how are passed on to others.
Book your Free Strategy Session with Shivendra now!!
Have a functional growth
strategy and streamlined
business model in 12 weeks
We’ve helped construction companies locally and internationally grow their business, streamline operations and free up time for directors and managers from fighting fires and getting burnt out. Our approach has been tested several times and delivers results rapidly, giving you a competitive edge, a stable growing business with loyal customers and good profitability.
The 5 traits of tomorrow’s successful
construction business
These are traits that you need to develop now to be successful tomorrow. The construction industry is changing rapidly and focusing on these 5 points will give you the advantage you are after.
BE FOWARD LOOKING
Invest in equipment, recruit people and implement technology not based on past outcomes alone. Give consideration to the future trends and requirements that are beyond the horizon. This is a proven way to become strategic partners to clients early in the project life cycle.
BE SOLUTION ORIENTED
Go one step further and offer recommendations and assistance to solving problems with your clients. Demonstrate capability and expertise equal to theirs making complex tasks simpler. Solution oriented contractors give confidence to customers and are always preferred.
BE RESPONSIVE
Respond to customers quickly and avoid taking them on a windy road while responding to queries. Be available to provide answers when they need them, but better still, anticipate what will be asked and offer it proactively. Being responsive is a reliable way to forming long term collaborations.
BE REPUTABLE
Be attentive to your safety, quality and delivery performance, setting standards that the customer benchmarks against. Extend that further with engagement in the community and be known for making a positive difference, and deal with negative issues proactively. Reputable contractors are trusted by customers as it protects their reputation.
BE VISIBLE
You are doing great so share it with the industry. Demonstrate your people, your projects and your community initiatives. Let people become aware of your brand, hear of your company’s name and engage in conversations. Visible and known contractors are more likely to be engaged than those who are not known.
What do we do?
We provide answers to questions construction business owners, managing directors and general managers have..
- How do we grow our business and scale up our operations?
- How do we streamline our operations and add more money to the bottom line?
- How do we free up our time from fighting fires and managing customers to spending more time to grow the business?
Simply stated, we help them make more money, save more money and live the dream!
What happens currently?
- Business owners, managing directors and general managers are busy fighting fires, responding to calls from customers and staff.
- As they are busy, they don’t have the time to develop new customers and work on growing the business further, losing opportunity that potential is theirs to grab.
- And as they busy, they can’t streamline and improve their operations, losing money that could be theirs too.
- And because they can’t streamline and improve their operations, they continue to be busy fighting fires.
What it could be?
- Business owners, managing directors and general managers are focused on growing the business, considering diversification in acquisitions
- The business is well structured with streamlined processes ensuring processes are running and profitability is maximised. The team solves problems internally and manages customer issues systematically.
- And because the process is streamlined, owners in managing directors continue to grow and develop the business
WE CAN HELP! Schedule a free strategy review
How do we take businesses from what
happens currently to what it could be?
Initiate
Do a kick-off workshop with stakeholders and complete a business assessment. This will highlight pain-points and opportunities (usually loads of it!)
Intervene
Prioritise the initiatives and then form teams to tackle first few opportunities as sprints, while the business continues to maintain its usual activities.
Implement
Implement the ideas methodically, engaging with the teams and gathering feedback. Activities are tracked and wins are recognised (usually within 6 weeks!)
Inspect
Validate the value of the changes and lock them in so that the business can move to the next item on the priority list.
Throughout this program, our approach
is straight forward:
- we work with you directly
- you get direct access to me when needed – you will have my contact details
- we respond quickly and you don’t have to wait for days for a response
- we only work with construction companies, and we understand the industry well.
And it’s not only that. We go beyond that:
- we keep tab of how you are progressing
- we share our every growing bank of resources you can access anytime
- we offer an optional ongoing support after the program finishes, ensuring you achieve your goals
I worked with Shivendra on projects for quality and productivity improvements. I have been extremely impressed with how he grasped the concepts of such tools/methodologies as Statistical and Total Quality Control, Lean Manufacturing, Root Cause Analysis, Kepner Tregoe, etc., very quickly and able to effectively applied them. I enjoyed working with Shivendra because he listened well, did a great job in analysing the issues at hand and be very focused, and had always achieved great results.
Frankie Ko
Operating Partner, AEA Investors
Why our method works?
Consider Construction Company A. They have 20 big ideas and have opted to work on all of it from the start of the year. The staff are really enthusiastic about their projects and focused on it, on top of the usual business activities. Individuals are pushing their projects but are finding it hard to get others on-board as everyone is busy.
What do you think was achieved by Construction Company A at the end of the year?
Now consider Construction Company B which also has 20 big ideas, but they opted to prioritise an work on a few ideas a month as a team ensuring the ideas are implemented and benefits are realised. The team is enjoying the process as work is shared between the team and only a priority activity are worked on at same time. Usual business activities are not impacted.
What do you think was achieved by Construction Company B at the end of the year?
Ponder over these questions briefly:
– Which company do you think not only action but also reaped more benefits?
– Why do you think this was the case?
What does it cost your business?
Not implementing ideas and not executing strategy successfully costs businesses in lost revenue, lost profit, lost productivity and lost potential. More importantly you lose time which that neither you nor your business will recover again. You are losing the opportunity forever!
Why choose us?
Strategy planning and strategy execution are different in many ways. Let’s look at sports – you and I can conceive ideas and create strategies for every match we watch, we can shout, we can scream and we stand by our ideas and defend it in discussions. But what would be the case if it we were to play to that strategy ourselves. Would we play exactly as we strategized? No! So don’t you agree that strategy execution requires skill, method, teamwork and resilience? It requires fast thinking and adapting – skills that are very different to strategizing.
At Shivendra & Co, we are about practical implementation. We are about taking your ideas from paper and converting it into profit. We guarantee this through our unique IMPROVE method which makes it simple enough so anyone who can drive a car can understand it.
Implementation Plan
Enter the destination on your navigation system.Agree on your business goals and prepare a plan on how it will be achieved.
Measure
Know how fast you are going and when you will arrive at your destination. Establish measures in your business that will indicate how close you are to your goals and create boundaries and impacts to be minimised.
Process
Following the navigation system and keeping to the planned route unless needed. Establish processes in your business that allow you to keep working on the plan without losing momentum and getting side-tracked.
Risk and Opportunities
Looking out for the red parts collision in traffic delays on the way ahead or choosing the right or the left Lane whichever is going faster so that you are able to progress faster towards your destination. Always being aware of what could go wrong and what will you do about it and what opportunities may present itself
Operational Discipline
Making decisions based on road rules, facts and not getting distracted, eventually missing exits or colliding. In your business, it is the rhythm to review progress coupled with focused and disciplined decision making based on sound information.
Validate
Looking around to see road signs and location identifiers to know you are in the correct area. Validating through financial reports and indirect feedback from stakeholders that you are on the right track
Extend Further
Safely arriving at the destination and commencing the next journey on time or having time for a coffee. Meeting the goal and stretching it further or applying approach to other goals.
Tell me about Shivendra
Shivendra Kumar founded the company to help construction businesses grow, be profitable and become competitive. Being one to make things bigger and better through simplification, Shivendra decided to apply his life principles to the construction industry.
He is referred to as a master of practical implementation it is shown through his illustrious career.
- Shivendra was born and raised in Fiji Islands he became the first person in Fiji to build a robot from scratch and compete in international competitions in Japan, Thailand and South Korea.
- He worked in trenches like many of you and progressed to senior management ranks supporting executives working on complex projects, business turnarounds and customer issues.
- He was appointed to lead a global volunteer movement of over 4500 young adult members and coordinated a global event of 3000 delegates, organised by volunteers from 70 countries.
- Shivendra completed a PhD from Griffith University publishing multiple stechnical papers and doing presentations, while working full time, raising a family and being engaged in community work.
- He quit his job at age 39 to fulfil his dream of being a consultant and entrepreneur at age 40.
But in Shivendra, we see more than this. He loves to help and it shows up in what he does.
- He wrote a free e-book “From Paper to Profit”, a short story based book to as a gift for small construction company owners grasp strategy execution
- He authored The Competitive Contractor”, a book full of business improvement techniques to help contractors improve their business
- In the height of COVID-19, he formed a network called the “Infrastructure construction contractors network” to guide and support struggling contractors
- To share best practises, give the industry of voice and bring thoughts and ideas of industry leaders CEOs and experts to contractors, he launched the Competitive Contractor podcast. It has featured CEOs of industry Associations, experts including McKinsey consultants and other experts.
It now needs no explanation on how Shivendra
in his corporate life was able to:
deliver $7M savings from a project turnaround
achieve a 3x productivity improvement
turn around customer feedbacks from critics to raving fans
deliver projects on time 95% of the time
It is on these foundations is that Shivendra & Co is built on.
We can therefore help you:
- Understand your opportunities in pain points so you know where to direct your finite resources
- Prioritise growth and improvement opportunities so you can cash in results quickly
- Free up your time to pursue more business and grow, so you can win your life back
- Simplify financial processes so you control your margin and play to win
- Remove nonessential activities and fix the leaky $ tap
- Establish business development strategy and marketing process is that is targeted and converts so that you can stand out in the market
- Create methods so that you know how your projects are progressing plan the work and work the plan
APPLY TO THE COMPETITIVE CONTRACTOR PROGRAM
Establish a high performing team culture that fuels further growth which is to build people who build your great business.
What others in the industry are saying about Shivendra’s contribution to the construction industry:
John Davis
Feedback and discussions on your forum will only help us better advise those inside and outside of industry and formulate best possible advice. I know you have a great industry wide intelligence and bringing these togethers is making a real difference.
Brent Crockford
I see a lot of material and analysis you are sharing so that’s another place for construction companies and contractors to come for more information on the industry….. thanks for setting this up and you’ve got a great forum.
Le Tilahun
The wide ranging topics important for construction industry you are covering, especially topics not commonly talked about is only going to provide valuable reference points for everybody.
Andrew Sprint
Do you design, plan and execute your projects the same way as you do for your clients?
The difference between businesses that struggle and those that thrive isn’t complex to figure out.
Those who struggle do not want to change they don’t want to move the levers. They are not prepared to invest yet they want success.
The successful group are brave. They’re not interested in success – they are ultra-committed to it and they take action to invest in the thing they have control over – their business. They are driven and they are focused.
APPLY TO THE COMPETITIVE CONTRACTOR PROGRAM
Establish a high performing team culture that fuels further growth which is to build people who build your great business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of businesses join this program?
We typically work with B2B construction companies as our approach is best suited for them. We also work with businesses to supply materials, equipment and resources to the construction industry.
Who joins the program?
Our primary clients are managing directors, general managers and those who are second in charge of small to medium size construction companies. Once the program commences, their broader team is engaged, to amplify outcomes.
What type of companies do we work with?
We work with civil contractors, material suppliers, engineering consultancies, builders building construction material suppliers, traffic control companies, telecommunication infrastructure constructors, roofing companies utility installers, surveyors and architects. We also are branching out to work with construction-tech start-ups.
Can I access this from outside Australia?
The program is accessible in and outside of Australia and our experience spans Asia, US and the Pacific. The program can be deliver 100% online.
How are we different?
We only work with the construction industry and I am a business owner like yourself. Having worked in the industry in the trenches like most of you, that qualifies us to be able to understand your challenges and be able to provide solutions and work with you to implement those.
Do you have a guarantee?
Yes we are confident about our approach and hence we provide a guarantee.
How do I fund this since there is no budget for this?
Clients do not have budgets for the losses they are incurring, opportunities that are being missed and for the money that is leaking in the business. My first business advice will be work on returns on investment and from the calculator you know what you gains can be from this.
When is a good time to join?
There’s never a right time for this but maybe you should join before your competitors. The plate will never be empty nor will there be fewer fires unless you intervene strategically as we discussed earlier.
Initiatives such as this and the other good work you do to help contractors to become more productive and competitive are all important parts of making our industry become more sustainable.