The idea of building business processes: the responsive housebuilder

In many market sectors there has recently been an apparent step change for the better in how companies perform their core business. The result has been increased competitive advantage for companies in the electronic products, automotive, insurance, banking and mechanical sectors. Careful research has shown that the way forward for the construction sector to similarly benefit from the new methodology is to apply well established ‘business systems engineering7rsquo; (BSE) principles. But business systems engineering is concerned with both engineering and integrating the technological, financial, organizational and cultural aspects of business processes. The responsive housebuilder is the particular example selected herein to demonstrate the power of the approach. By re-engineering the design, financing, and production processes, the housebuilder first learns to survive economic turbulence. However, second it grows by increasing market share via the exploitation of new opportunities enabled by much reduced delivery times. The outcome is therefore a welcome addition to the construction sector survivability categories originally listed by Steven Groák in The Idea of Building.