Minority Chamber: Reaching Out
Corrections or additions?
These articles were prepared for the February 21, 2001 edition of
U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Estimating, Managing Inestimable Projects
When the thousands of fans pour into Staten Island’s
new stadium on June 1 to watch the minor league Yankees toss the
horsehide
around, they can thank Brooklyn-born Marty Seigel for their
view, comfort, and safety. Seigel is the construction project manager
overseeing this $87 million complex, including the ball field,
stadium,
train station, and road and rail links. He is the man who transforms
the owner’s dreams into sod and concrete, pitcher’s mound and
bleachers
— all for a price they can probably afford.
Yet whether it’s an $87 million stadium or tiny bungalow, figuring
the right cost and the right schedule are the two initial steps that
will guide or haunt you the remainder of that long construction
journey.
Thus, for those in the trade seeking the sharpest tricks, Seigel
offers
his eight-week course, Construction Cost Estimating and Administration
beginning Wednesday, February 28, at Mercer County Community College.
This upcoming course is part of a five-course package offered by MCCC
to fulfill the requirements for the Construction Project Manager
Certification
Program. Each course, running about 8 to 10 weeks, is set in sequence
and is prerequisite for the course following. Contact the Mercer
College
registrar at 609-586-9446.
“I teach reality,” says Seigel. Since graduating from City
College of New York, he has spent 40 years in the construction trade
— 26 of them as a construction engineer for New York City. Seigel
is head project manager for Bovis Lend Lease, the Australian-based
firm dealing in all aspects of real estate.
The project manager (or construction manager) in theory solves
building’s
old inimical triangle of owner versus architect versus general
contractor.
The owner hires a project manager, notes Seigel, “to be his
representative…to
break up log jams and make the work flow easily.”
But some participants, including architects, argue that the project
manager can often turn that old inimical triangle into an unfriendly
four. The debate over whether a project manager is a hindrance or
a help rages on. Having stood on both sides, Seigel offers his two
prime directives to owners hiring project managers.
First, choose the man, not the firm. It is the specific individual
whom you must trust, who must placate the contractors and who must
fight for you. His company, however good, is doubtless off on other
projects, leaving him to his own devices.
Second, hammer out exact responsibilities beforehand. Who holds the
authority to stop a project, issue change orders, pay for a
requisition?
Make these totally understood at the outset. Relinquish too much,
and you are tempting your contractors with a license to steal.
Construction cost estimating and scheduling traditionally remain
furtive
mysteries held close by a cadre of experts ever fearful of cut throat
competition. But Seigel, displaying his “reality first”
approach,
plunges right in with a list of dos, don’ts and caveats.
Scheduling is cost, and cost is scheduling, says Seigel. They stand
inseparable. Time is money, and distance is money. (Remember those
old algebraic distance, rate, time formulas?) All three interplay
in a complex spiraling ballet that if unconsidered can flutter your
company like the Black Prince into the Hades of Chapter 11. “A
few jobs back,” Seigel says, “I needed a large sewage pump.
Seemingly simple item. Yet it turned out that it had to be made in
London, shipped by boat from Germany and would take 17 months to
arrive.
Now ask yourself: Have I set up enough alternative tasks to keep my
work force and project moving during the wait?”
Consider book price a base, no more, Seigel counsels. Textbook
formulas
may assure you that paint costs 75 cents a square foot plus the labor
cost. Fine, if your building is one story. But what if you need
scaffolding
for the third story, or a crane for the fourth? How much time is lost
in crane transport? Along the same lines, square-foot price is only
a rule of thumb, variable by a third. In the U.S. 1 area, office space
can be erected for $80 to $100 a square foot. Unless, you want wood
paneling instead of sheet rock or unless your backhoe operator
uncovers
Jimmy Hoffa while preparing the concrete slab. For all the above
reasons,
Seigel strongly urges:
Hitch your wagon to experience . If you are a young engineeror contractor seeking to move up and out on your own, first attachyourself to a veteran. The factors in cost estimation and projectscheduling are too numerous to memorize. They form a process thatmust be intuited. It is lore that only the experienced can pass on.Consider architect estimates to be written in water .”Frequently,”says Seigel, “they can be off by up to 30 percent “Architectsare hired to envision practical endings, not to foresee problems.When that $70 a yard concrete can not be pumped up, as planned, butmust be carried up by men and mixed on site, costs change. Like thesquare-foot estimate, the architect’s estimate is a useful tool, butthe owner should not bet down to his last dollar on it.Weigh the relative advantages of union and non-union labor.Unions bury a banquet of costs beyond the standard higher labor price.Seigel’s 280-person crew building the Staten Island Stadium is union,entailing both a teamster and a maintenance foreman whose sole jobis to guard union rules. They are salaried, he says, but totallyunproductive.Add in the additional lawyer fees, grievance costs, and paperworktime that come with union labor, Seigel says, and then balance thequality of worker.Be aware of hidden costs in government projects . Probablythe greatest forgotten factor in cost estimating and scheduling isprivate versus governmental projects. “This especially hurts thelittle guy,” says Seigel. “He’s got a pickup truck full oftools and his wife keeping the books in the basement. He latches ontoa municipal bid because he can count on getting paid definitely, ifnot promptly. But oh, what he doesn’t realize is that in New York,we frequently ran 35 percent over private costs.”First, the government invariably over designs. That safety factorof 1.7 built into a private office structure, rises to 3 or even 6for a public monument intended for a century of high traffic use.Complying with laws also ups the cost of government projects. Everyaspect must be doubly inspected and the inspector’s reaction timeis invariably slower than promised. You also may have to considerthe cost of the inspector’s vehicle, his phone, fax and radio costs,even his equipped on-site trailer. But the real sinker, Seigel says,is the paperwork. All the government forms can inundate a largecontractorand just bankrupt a small one. Here again is where experience willhelp make an realistic bid.”None of this, from the bidding to the last nail is donealone,” says Seigel. “Managing and estimating requires a teamattitude. It cannot be `my side versus the other side.’ It takes agreat deal of diplomacy.” Then, he adds, with a laugh, “ofcourse if that doesn’t work, it always helps to have a strong righthook.”— Bart JacksonTop Of PageMinority Chamber: Reaching OutJohn Harmon, businessman and president of theMetropolitan Trenton African American Chamber of Commerce, startedhis career as the first African American management trainee at theBowery Savings Bank in Manhattan. “I was up against 150candidates,”he recalls. “Coming from Trenton, it was somewhatintimidating.”Piloting MTAACC, an organization that was founded in 1997 and shotup from 25 members to 90 last year, Harmon draws upon his ownexperience.”Minority businesses need to get out of their comfort zones,”he says. Mainstream businesses in Central Jersey are receptive totheir minority counterparts, he finds, but it sometimes takes gentleencouragement from MTAACC to jog minority business owners to get outand reach for the opportunities.On Wednesday, February 28, at 6 p.m. MTAACC is honoring prominentminority leaders at the Princeton Hyatt. The keynote speech,”AchievingSuccess Together,” is by Charlie Allen, chairman of theAmerican Automobile Association. Cost: $75. Call 609-393-5933. Thehonorees are Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries Jr., secretaryof state; James B. Golden Jr., director of the Trenton PoliceDepartment; Larry Sheffield, Universal Consulting Group; JerriL. Morrison, Young Scholars Institute; and Rocky Peterson,an attorney with Hill Wallack.Top Of PageFor Coaches, Results CountCoaching differs from consulting in that the businesscoach sticks around, working with clients until they reach theirgoals.Helene Mazur, business coach and owner of Princeton PerformanceDynamics, says coaching is a lot like strategic planning. “Wedon’t come in and tell you what to do,” Mazur says. “We aska lot of questions so that you can crystallize your goals.”Typically working on goal setting, attitude, skills development,coachesremain with clients as they test their new resolve in the real world.Also different from training, where lessons are learned, and then”the phone rings four times and you’re back where youstarted,”coaching sets up accountability standards, Mazur says. Clients notonly set goals, but work with their coaches to measure progress towardreaching them.Mazur worked in corporate America for financial services companies,including Merrill Lynch, Bankers Trust, and Dean Witter Reynolds,for 22 years before starting her business last year. Herresponsibilitiesincluded training, sales and marketing, and running largeadministrativegroups. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the StateUniversity of New York at Albany (Class of 1979) and an MBA in financefrom New York University. A Princeton resident, and the mother ofseven-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter, Mazur is marriedto a project manager for Delsys Pharmaceutical.On Wednesday, February 28, at 7:45 a.m. Mazur speaks to the PrincetonYMCA Business/Professional Women at the Nassau Club on “WhatBusinessCoaching Can Do for You.” Cost: $22.50. Call 609-497-2100.While Mazur specializes in business coaching, Susan Levinson,founder of Results Life Coaching in Metuchen, tackles every aspectof clients’ lives, including relationships, career goals, volunteerobjectives, and the accomplishment of creative work. Levinson doespersonal coaching and trains and certifies coaches.The next training course begins on Monday, March 19, for those whowant to be trained through teleconferences and on March 20 for thosewho prefer in-person training. The fee is $2,500 for the three-month,part-time course. There is also a requirement that students becoached,before or during the course, at a cost that ranges from $900 to$1,500.Call 732-494-4494 or find information at www.resultslifecoaching.comLevinson, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brandeis anda master’s degree in computer science from Stevens Institute, hasworked for a number of telecommunications companies, including AT&T,Bellcore and, most recently, Bridgewater-based DSET. She was inAustraliaworking on a telecom project in 1998 when she met David and Lisa Rock,the couple who founded Results Life Coaching. “I was making alot of money, but I wasn’t satisfied,” Levinson says. Havingcoachedas a volunteer, she was intrigued by the idea of making a living asa coach.Two years ago Levinson opened the first American franchise of ResultsLife Coaching. Many of the coaches Levinson has trained come fromInformation Technology backgrounds. “Maybe after a while, they’renot satisfied with the work,” she says. Others taking the courseinclude the national marketing manager for a fragrance company, apharmaceutical sales rep, a retired human resources professional,a massage therapist, an accountant, and two nurses. Some graduatescoach full time and some part time. Levinson says a coach with 12clients could gross $6,000 a month working approximately 18 hoursa week.Coaches pay Results Life Coaching a license fee for which they receivemarketing assistance, an Internet presence, and instruction materials.Coaching students are taught listening skills and the art of askinggood questions, Levinson says. They use this training to help clientsclarify their goals and break them down into manageable pieces. Eachclient is asked to state three goals in his first session.A stock broker Levinson recently worked with wanted to add 33 newclients, write a non-discrimination plan for a non-profit where hevolunteered, and repair his relationship with his wife and children.At the beginning of the coaching sessions, the business goal was themost important to him, Levinson said. But as time went on, he focusedmore on his family. When his coaching session ended, the stock brokerhad finished writing up his non-discrimination plan, decided to revamphis business, and reported a vastly improved family situation.Coaching works, Levinson says, because it holds clients accountable.”We don’t let them talk themselves out of their goals,” shesays.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
