corporation. This is the reason why we believe that the risk manager
should have the prerogatives of a corporate officer and be
allowed to work in an environment that gives him or her the opportunity
to talk frankly and discuss risk with upper management as
an equal, or near equal partner that is devoted to the success of the
corporation. This internal corporate structuring will go a long way
towards establishing best internal practices for efficient risk management
activity that will allow pile driving contractors to reject
the ever increasing and seemingly infinite multitude of risks that
are being improperly thrust upon our industry. Such a successful
reassignment of risk will allow many companies to turn reverse
their unfavorable margins trend.
This article is not necessarily intended to increase the ranks of
upper management. However, our position is that the risk management
task needs to be recognized as a truly critical, separate
and independent corporate responsibility and function that can be
held by a corporation’s present officers.
Another internal aspect of risk management that is not properly
accounted for by many subcontractors occurs during the
estimating phase when risks are not properly identified and quantified.
The phrase “if we put everything in the estimate, we will
never take a job!” is spelled out every time an estimator is asked to
consider a potential risk. Unfortunately, neglected risks during the
bidding process creates lower margins and creates a disjointed pile
driving market. As an industry, we have to start generating unifying
instructive documents that detail industry risks. A good start in
this regard would be the creation of standards for the pile driving
subcontractor’s proposal and industry-wide contract recommendations.
PARKER MARINE
CONTRACTING, INC.
John Skinner
Vice President
Email: johnskinner@parkermarine.net
68 Braswell Street
Charleston, S.C. 29405
Office (843) 853-7615
Cell (843) 697-1660
Please join us in this effort. t
PDCA CONTRACTS & RISK COMMITTEE
110 | EDITION 5 2019 www.piledrivers.org
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