One of the more interesting things that Cody explained to the class was that Andres does not bid or contract any hard bid competitive projects. He told the class that the one hundred percent of the work Andres Construction completes is all negotiated directly with the owner, while explaining that the mission statement of Andres is to foster relationships with owners in order to receive more business from them after successfully completing a project on time. I found this relationship based business model to be a very well thought out and interesting business plan, considering the majority of general contractors in the industry today are competing for competitive hard bid contracts. After showing the class some pictures of successful projects that Andres Construction Services has completed in the past, he went on to talk about why schedules are important, the common mistakes made in construction scheduling, and important advice for those getting ready to enter the industry. These three topics are discussed further in the sections …show more content…
Whittle also provided some informative advice for those getting ready to enter the industry. The first thing he told the class was to always expect the unexpected. He provided multiple stories where he had to overcome an unexpected situation in order to prevent losing significant amounts of money and time on a project. Finally, the most important piece of advice the class received from Cody was that each of us has a lot to learn. He told us to enter the industry with an open mind, as well as an attitude that is geared towards learning as much about our field as we can. Mr. Whittle told us to observe both successful and unsuccessful people in order to learn what and what not to do, in order to have the most successful career