Construction and engineering

Research shows that class projects and internships reinforce a masculine culture.

The construction industry could boost productivity by 50% to 60%.

It's the ultimate bottom-of-the-pyramid challenge: How do you create a well-designed, safe, and affordable house for the world's poorest people? When...

The CFO of a global construction company disagrees with his CEO (and good friend) about the advantages of self-managed teams--particularly because lack...

Firms need to understand the people and places they affect.

Flashy automated solutions struggle to find a foothold in the trades, but there are technological advances taking place.

Architecture and the Corporation: The Creative Intersection, Thomas Walton (New York: Macmillan, 1988) 218 pages, $29.95. City: Rediscovering the Center, William H. Whyte (New York: Doubleday, 1988) 386 pages $24.95. Winston Churchill understood why architecture is our most social art. “We shape our buildings,” he observed, “and afterwards our buildings shape us.” But not all […]

A manager hears enough about another team’s project to know that it is seriously flawed—and probably destined to fail. Should he butt in or butt out?

Four strategies to find your voice.

The CFO of a global construction company disagrees with his CEO (and good friend) about the advantages of self-managed teams--particularly because lack...

Why shouldn't engineers study success? Because failures tell you so much more, civil engineering professor Henry Petroski contends.

An experiment in the American colonies goes awry.

Airstream's ability to innovate and grow depends on balancing longtime owners' expectations with new buyers' desires. In this conversation, president...

Challenged by world-class competitors, manufacturing companies in the United States have greatly improved their product development efforts as well as...

Daily frustrations add up.

Innovative technologies become commercial products in two ways: reduction to practice of scientific knowledge and incremental improvement governed by...

The most popular offshore sites for service functions are overheating. Now is the time for companies to explore a world of opportunity beyond those hot spots and to base investment decisions not just on costs but also on talent, markets, strategic aims, and appetite for risk.

Most of modern global strategy focuses on minimizing differences between countries. Perhaps it’s time to dust off approaches that exploit those differences as well.

Colossal County Hospital was coming apart at the seams. With dozens of newly hired doctors, nurses, and technicians, millions of dollars of equipment on the road, and patient appointments backed up for months, the new facility was impossible to use. For one thing, construction wasn’t finished, and much of what was complete was faulty. Worse […]

It needs better management.