Rob Hounsome, executive director – Europe, Middle East and Africa at SLR Consulting, discusses how contractors can responsibly and effectively scale up as their business grows
With inflation, labour shortages and shifting client expectations reshaping the market, the built environment is at a crossroads, putting unprecedented pressure on contractors and consultancies alike. For contractors, these shifts are not abstract; they translate directly into late projects, stretched budgets, and rising delivery risk. However, for consultancies, scaling to meet this demand while preserving quality, culture, and client trust has never been more critical.
Growth is not simply about adding people or offices; it is about creating scale that delivers genuine value to both clients and contractors. There are several ways to achieve this, but from a consultancy perspective, it largely falls under three categories: managing client partnerships at scale, prioritising the ‘how’ over the ‘what,’ and building regional strength. These pillars are mutually reinforcing: each one strengthens the others, and together they define what responsible, sustainable growth really looks like in today’s construction market.
Scale only adds value when it strengthens, rather than dilutes, the relationships that underpin our industry. As consultancies grow, maintaining authentic, trust-based partnerships becomes harder but no less vital. However, without deliberate care, relationships can become transactional – eventually undermining delivery and increasing friction between consultants, clients, and contractors. Maintaining that trust starts with integrity – doing what we say we will do, being transparent when scopes evolve, and always delivering the promised quality of work. Clients and contractors notice consistency, and over time, that reliability creates the stickiness that drives long-term partnerships and repeat business.
Building trust through partnerships
Structures also matter. Integrity and trust cannot rely solely on individual goodwill – they need organisational systems that allow teams to act autonomously while staying aligned with shared values. This is where elements of a regional business model come to the fore, as it allows teams to focus on two key aspects: supporting clients locally and ensuring that people embody the ‘how’ of the culture every day. By empowering leaders and teams to make decisions close to their markets, it is easier to maintain a sense of care, responsiveness, and local insight even as the business scales.
Clients often discuss personal care, which means recognising that clients are people, not just contracts. In the built environment, projects are delivered through relationships, shaped by individuals with their own pressures, goals and priorities. When consultants approach projects as human partnerships, rather than just technical exercises, delivery becomes smoother – barriers fall away, conversations open up, and projects move forward faster and with fewer disputes.
Client relationships should be based on being easy to work with, with teams removing obstacles, communicating clearly and focusing on outcomes that work for all parties. Being ‘easy to work with’ might sound simple, but it is one of the most powerful differentiators in consultancy. Teams that remove obstacles, communicate clearly and focus on outcomes that work for all parties create a ripple effect across the supply chain: quicker decisions, stronger collaboration and projects completed on time and within budget. In a sector where margins are tight and risks are high, those efficiencies matter enormously – they build confidence between all parties and turn one-off engagements into long-term partnerships founded on trust and predictability.
Focusing on the ‘how’, not just the ‘what’
In consultancy, the what is technical expertise provided, and the how is the manner in
which that expertise is brought to life. Both matter, but in today’s high-pressure environment, the ‘how’ – encompassing collaboration, communication, and cultural alignment – often determines whether a project ultimately succeeds.
Prioritising the ‘how’ means creating collaborative processes and engaging early with clients and contractors. When contractors are working under immense delivery pressure, the ability of consultants to integrate seamlessly with their workflows can be decisive. It requires proactivity, openness and an understanding that our role as consultants extends beyond technical input to partnership and problem-solving.
Two core behaviours underpin that approach: technical excellence and genuine care. Technical excellence ensures work meets the highest standards, and genuine care ensures it is delivered thoughtfully and collaboratively. These behaviours are embedded in recruitment and development. Key to this is hiring for capability and culture, looking for people who value how they work as much as what they deliver.
You can teach capability, but attitude and integrity must be lived day to day.
This focus on the ‘how’ also influences how value is perceived. The consultancy sector has long wrestled with the danger of a race to the bottom, where price eclipses quality. That approach undermines trust, erodes margins, and ultimately damages project outcomes. Clients do not benefit from a consultant who wins work solely based on cost. True value comes from insight, foresight and an ability to add something extra that helps shape solutions, not just deliver tasks.
This is where the role of digital and AI-powered solutions fits into the consultancy strategy. To be effective, early engagement is critical. By joining the conversation at the concept stage, it is easier to identify potential bottlenecks, flag regulatory issues and align client and contractor expectations before problems occur. This approach reduces risk, improves efficiency, and supports more predictable delivery, while also creating space for innovation and collaboration that benefits every part of the supply chain.
Ultimately, the ‘how’ is about behaviour. It is about being proactive, fair and constructive. It is about doing what you said you would do. And it is about caring enough to ensure the process is as strong as the outcome. When the how is right, the what follows naturally.
Regional strength as a competitive advantage
It is essential to remember that scale does not necessarily imply centralisation, especially in the UK built environment, where the structure of both the market and local government means that regional differences can be fairly entrenched. While national reach provides resilience and capability, local presence delivers understanding, and regional strength brings insight into specific markets, regulations and communities that cannot be replicated from afar.
The result of effective regional growth is not just more efficient delivery, but more joined-up delivery. Local teams can anticipate regional challenges, engage more effectively with planning authorities, and ensure that contractors have the necessary support on the ground. This combination of national capability and regional agility enables us to support developers and contractors wherever they operate, while maintaining a deep local connection.
Regional leadership also strengthens culture. Consultants are more motivated and responsive when they feel connected to their local team and empowered to make decisions, so regional business leaders need to be responsible not only for client relationships but also for staff care and development. They are the local custodians of a business’s culture, ensuring that integrity and care are consistently lived across every office.
In a market where delivery risk is high and supply chain resilience is fragile, regional strength is a genuine differentiator and gives clients confidence that their consultancy partner is both capable and close enough to respond quickly when challenges arise. It also creates a stronger pipeline of local talent, supporting diversity and community investment – key to ensuring the industry remains vibrant and relevant for the next generation.
Bringing it all together
Client partnerships at scale, the ‘how’ over the ‘what’ and regional strength are not separate ideas – they reinforce each other. Regional strength enables closer partnerships, which in turn make it easier to deliver the ‘how’ consistently across projects. Focusing on the ‘how’ builds trust, which enables client partnerships to flourish even as the business grows. Authentic partnerships create the space for local teams to thrive and add value. Those long-term partnerships that result in fruitful projects are built on reliability and transparency.
Consultants who are straightforward to work with and consistently deliver become an integral part of their clients’ ecosystem – not just service providers, but trusted advisors and collaborators.
It is that simplicity that sustains growth, but growth is not solely about size. The integration of teams requires balance, harmonising cultures, protecting local expertise and establishing leadership that can champion both client care and internal support. This is where culture truly comes into its own by driving consistency. Shared values ensure that the ‘how’ remains consistent across multiple disciplines and geographies, but the moment those values slip, quality and trust begin to erode.
Scaling responsibly is as much about people as it is about processes. Consultancy is a people business, and clients and contractors are also people businesses. The organisations that succeed will be those that build strong, human relationships, supported by structure, transparency, and a shared purpose.
For contractors, this means working with consultants who understand the realities of delivery and are committed to supporting success, not simply completing a task. For consultancies, it means building teams who are technically excellent, culturally aligned and empowered to act with integrity.
The pressures facing the built environment will not ease soon. Labour shortages, cost uncertainty and the drive for sustainability will continue to reshape how projects are planned and delivered. In this context, both contractors and consultancies will be judged not only on what they deliver but also on how they operate and collaborate. In a competitive and often normalised market, differentiation lies not just in what you deliver, but in how you behave and the insight you bring.
Scaling responsibly is not easy, but it is clear. Keep promises. Care about people. Deliver with integrity and purpose. Lead by example, communicate openly, and embed these principles in every decision. When those principles are lived every day, growth takes care of itself, creating resilient teams, trusted partnerships, and long-term success.
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