Diales Compendium Issue 3 - Flipbook - Page 28
Common errors include:
• Lack of awareness of contract requirements;
• Failure to implement contract requirements:
In good time;
In right form / details;
• Defensive responses to Notices;
• Disputes regarding ‘Conditions precedent’.
In the event that a claim becomes a dispute, efficient
resolution can often suffer from:
• Exaggerated claims and counterclaims;
• Unrealistic negotiation positions;
• Attorney / advisor inexperience;
• Use of Experts:
Too late;
Poor quality;
The ‘hired gun’.
Many other examples of bad management practice have
persisted through the years and jurisdictions, causing
unnecessary delays, costs and disputes. The above is the
most common reported within the Group. It also seems to the
author that these are perennial failures that have repeated
throughout his career and that some markets seem to do
little or nothing to learn from.
The root causes of such bad management
practices can perhaps be summarised as the
following short-list:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Combinations of inexperienced parties and poor
quality advisors.
Unrealistic expectations.
An emphasis on cost rather than value for money.
Lack of training and retention of good people.
Poor communication.
A lack of personal and professional integrity.
Failure to learn lessons from past failures.
If the construction and engineering industries, through the
food chain from clients to suppliers, could all address these
broad issues, then perhaps the bad management practices
that repeatedly seem to prejudice their abilities to achieve
goals in relation to time, quality and costs would be reduced
and even avoided entirely.
John Mullen
Diales Principal and Quantum Expert
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