To Buy or To Build
Should one buy or should one build? This question comes up in many facets of life and business. It all depends on one's appetite for risk, the specifications of the desired outcome and the culture at home or in an organization. When given the option, our company will more frequently choose to build something than to buy it. It is in our DNA to figure out how we can create something through learning and execution rather than contracting it out to another company that might have more expertise. Why can't we try something new and develop our own expertise? It is what we do every day. We are a company that takes architectural plans and finds ways to make things that have never been built before by developing our own experience and using our own physical resources in the shop. We build on our expertise and try something new in the process.
This type of mindset, while perhaps contrarian, can play out to one’s benefit as evidenced by Tesla’s ability to withstand the chip issues that plagued many of the more traditional car manufacturers. Tesla's strategy to develop its own software in-house, made it nimbler when microchips recently became unavailable. Rather than waiting for the supply-chain issues to ease up, or a third-party vendor to rewrite code, Tesla could develop its own solutions around the bottlenecks. I began to see the parallels between Tesla's approach and how we are tackling a similar question. Can we afford to allow a third party to control such a fundamental portion of our operations? While the complimentary question is, can we afford to spend the time and money to develop our own solution, especially if more of our competition is buying into the off-the-shelf solution?
If you study business, the stock market or sports you will likely notice that one day a strategy seems foolish but then the next day the same strategy proves to be brilliant. In other words, timing can make a foolish decision brilliant and a brilliant decision foolish. In the case of Tesla, its decision to build probably was made independently of specific thoughts of a microchip supply issue. But when the supply issue came, Tesla looked like a genius for designing its operations in a way that safeguarded it against unknown risk. This time it was microchips, tomorrow it might be something else that pushes this decision into a new light.
For us, the decision must go back to first principles. We are an organization that meets challenges by creating our own solution. As a result, we work on some projects that others may shy away from. In this sense, building our own digital solution to meet a business challenge is one way we live that principle. There is one piece of software that is currently causing us to take another look at where we choose to focus our creativity, but in the meantime, we are enjoying the ride that developing one's own solution provides.
p.s. If you are looking for another conversation around this topic, and are interested in construction technology in general, check out last week’s Contech Crew Podcast.