Clement Contracting Interview and Class Discussion Notes
Thursday,
October 19, 2000
On October 19, we had the pleasure of spending some time
with Craig Clement and Tim Tidwell of Clement Contracting Group, Inc., of
Montgomery, AL., a small commercial general contracting company.
Started as Construction Consultants in 1978 as an 8(a) minority
contractor, the company was founded by Craig’s father, an Auburn University
Building Science graduate of 1966. The company was incorporated and given its current name in
1992. Craig Clement graduated from
AU in 1991 after spending summers and Christmas breaks helping his father in the
field. After spending four co-op
sessions with Clement, Tim Tidwell was hired full time when he graduated from AU
in 1998. Presently Clement employs
approximately 10 or 11 employees and estimates total sales of $20 million this
year.
The topic Craig and Tim covered was multiple project management. With the booming economy there is an increased volume of construction work taking place. This coupled with a decreased number of skilled project managers creates the need for multiple project management. Aiding PMs in this increased amount of responsibility is information technology and project superintendents. Increased capabilities of computers and communications equipment have helped the project manager consume the ever-growing amount of responsibility. Also helping to take of the additional tasks are the superintendents who have been required to assume more and more administrative and management duties. Total quality management (TQM) is of significant importance in the management of numerous projects. This requires the ability to distribute job responsibilities “down the ladder” to the lowest possible level. Such an example would be the superintendent assuming responsibilities that are generally reserved for the PM.