On Wednesday 29th January, the Constructing Excellence Conference 2025, ‘Delivering Excellence’, took place. The first panel of the day focused on Delivering Outcomes and Value. The panellists’ discussion focused on value-based decision making within construction- how do we do it? How do we measure it? How can we do it better?
We were also pleased to announce that Constructing Excellence is now the open distributor of the Value Toolkit – the leading government and industry-backed initiative driving a ‘value first’ approach in construction. The panellists discussed how the Value Toolkit can help change the way the industry thinks about and measures value and outcomes for the better.
We were fortunate to be joined by a range of industry professionals who shared their ideas on the theme. The session was Chaired by Jane Goddard and panellists included Tracey Tulloch, Ellie Jenkins, Ron Lang and Mike Pitts.
During the session, the audience were polled on their thoughts and experiences of delivering value and outcomes. The results demonstrated that industry does recognise the importance of this area but uptake and emphasis could be stronger. Delegates also identified a number of challenges to the implementation of value- based decision making with cost and client-related difficulties coming out on top.
Starting at the Beginning
When completing construction projects, value needs to be considered from the start, and clear objectives should be set from the beginning. Embedding value from the outset enables all stages of a project to retain a focus on value and employ value-based decision making to positively impact broader outcomes.
There needs to be a focus on incorporating a project’s DNA and vision into all phases: development, construction, and operations. All of the elements of a project must be viewed in terms of their interactions and impact on each other.
Value Vs. Cost
It’s crucial that we shift our focus from cost to value. We need to consider capital costs compared to whole-life costs—lowest capital cost doesn’t necessarily lead to the best long-term value.
We also need to change the way we view cost vs value, delivering value doesn’t always have to increase cost.
Sometimes optimizing existing assets can deliver more value than creating new ones, for example, airports with parking problems at peak times might look at scheduling rather than building new car parks to alleviate problems and deliver value to their customers.
Value is like yeast, you need to add it early – you can’t sprinkle it in as you go along and expect the bread to turn out well.
Maximising Technology
Technology is a useful tool for measuring performance during the construction and operation phases of projects. Having a good understanding of performance on the project and post-completion enables us to make better decisions for future phases and developments.
Analysis of the data can provide proxy values to help us to understand what to focus on and at what stage to deliver the required outcomes. This enables project teams to better plan for and anticipate the different needs at different stages and therefore make better decisions not only within the project phases but on future developments.
Engaging performance measurement tools, particularly in a pipeline of work, supports continuous improvement and therefore improved outcomes and values moving forward.
The Value Toolkit
Developed in partnership with over 200 experts from across industry and Government to help redefine value and how to measure it. The Value Toolkit enables value-based decision making focused on driving better social, environmental and economic outcomes, improving industry’s impact on current and future generations.
The Value Toolkit should be supported by a strong governance structure and an organisational culture focused on value-based decision-making, putting this at the heart of the organisation.
We know that people learn by doing – the Value Toolkit Community is there to move us from conceptual to experiential learning as we mutually support each other in the implementation. Join the Value Toolkit Community on LinkedIn.
What Next
Long-term thinking around infrastructure and the built environment is needed; the 10-year infrastructure strategy is a positive step. It’s the role of organisations such as Constructing Excellence and other industry institutions to push for value to be embedded into government decision-making.
Join us in our mission to deliver a better built environment, find out more about membership or explore our groups’ activities.
Thanks to Our Sponsors
Find out more about the other 2025 Conference panels here:
Read the outputs from the other sessions from the 2025 Constructing Excellence Conference:
Better for the Bottom Line
