Data centers. Healthcare campuses. Mission-critical infrastructure.
We’re joined by Rob Harris, EVP of Business Development at JH Kelly, who breaks down how real operators evaluate high-stakes jobs before they bid: where risk actually enters a project, why execution can’t fix a bad go/no-go decision, and how preconstruction discipline protects margin long before crews mobilize.
Whether you’re bidding large commercial projects or simply trying to avoid the jobs that quietly drain your business, this session focuses on the decisions that matter most — upstream.
You’ll learn:
- Why backlog and volume are poor signals of project health
- How experienced contractors make go / no-go calls under pressure
- Where risk is actually introduced — contract structure, scope, and early design volatility
- Why “we’ll figure it out in execution” usually fails
- How early engagement and preconstruction influence protect margins
- Which disciplines apply even if you never touch a billion-dollar job
“With BuildOps, we feel like we can go after anything. The sky is the limit as far as the size of the project.”
Travis Fuksa
Project Manager at Jackson Mechanical
