The company may have an impressive résumé. The owner still needs to know who is actually going to run the project.
Originally published October 2012. Updated September 2026 to reflect current owner-side contractor selection practices.
When owners prequalify General Contractors, previous experience is usually one of the first things they examine.
- Has the firm completed projects of similar size and complexity?
- Has it worked in occupied environments?
- Does it understand the market, trades and logistical conditions?
Those are important questions.
But they don’t tell you everything you need to know.
A contractor doesn’t deliver a project.
People do.
That leads to another question I consider just as important:
“Who is actually going to run my project?”
Start With the Company’s Track Record
Past performance matters.
Look at comparable projects, references, safety performance, financial capacity and the firm’s history delivering the type of work you’re contemplating.
But don’t stop at the company résumé.
A large contractor may have hundreds of employees and dozens of active projects. The team responsible for one successful project may have little involvement with yours.
The logo can be the same.
The project experience can be very different.
Evaluate the Proposed Team
I want to know who will actually be assigned to the project.
That may include the project executive, project manager, superintendent, preconstruction personnel and other key team members.
- Review their individual experience, not simply the firm’s.
- What comparable projects have they personally delivered?
- Have they worked together before?
- How long have they been with the company?
- What role did they actually perform on the projects listed in their résumés?
And perhaps most importantly:
Will these be the people who actually show up after the contract is awarded?
Interview the People, Not Just the Company
Contractor interviews can easily become polished presentations.
The firm’s senior leadership presents its capabilities. Marketing materials show successful projects. Everyone describes the company’s processes.
I want to hear from the people who will actually manage the work.
- Ask the proposed superintendent how the site will be organized.
- Ask the project manager how changes will be tracked.
- Ask the preconstruction lead what they see as the project’s biggest procurement or constructability risks.
Then listen to how the team interacts.
- Do they understand the project?
- Do they challenge assumptions intelligently?
- Do their answers align with one another?
The interview should help the owner understand how this particular team thinks.
Check References on the Team
References shouldn’t be limited to:
“Were you happy with the contractor?”
- Ask about the individuals being proposed.
- Did this project manager remain on the project through completion?
- How did the superintendent handle difficult field conditions?
- How did the team communicate problems?
- Were issues raised early or only after they became expensive?
- Would you work with these people again?
Those answers can tell you considerably more than a generic company reference.
Confirm Availability
A strong proposed team has limited value if those people aren’t actually available.
Ask what each person’s current assignments are and when they are expected to transition onto your project.
Understand whether key personnel are committed full time, part time or across several projects.
And address substitutions in the contract.
Owners sometimes spend considerable effort selecting a contractor based partly on the proposed team, only to discover later that key personnel have changed.
If specific individuals influenced the selection decision, their continued involvement matters.
Don’t Ignore the Superintendent
For many projects, the superintendent will have enormous influence over the owner’s construction experience.
The superintendent is close to daily field activity, trade coordination, sequencing, site logistics and emerging problems.
A strong superintendent can recognize issues while there is still time to address them.
That doesn’t diminish the importance of the project manager or project executive.
It recognizes that project performance depends on the people operating at different levels of the organization.
There Isn’t One Predictor
No single factor guarantees contractor performance.
Company experience matters.
Financial capacity matters.
Safety matters.
References matter.
The proposed team matters.
The superintendent matters.
And the project itself matters.
The objective isn’t to find a magic metric.
It is to understand whether the contractor’s organization, proposed people and demonstrated experience align with the project you are actually asking them to deliver.
Leadership takeaway: Select the company, but evaluate the people. Relevant firm experience matters only if the team assigned to your project has the capability, availability and authority to deliver it.
About the Author: Richard Neuman advises organizations on capital planning, project governance, and complex capital programs. He has overseen more than $2 billion in capital investments across commercial real estate, healthcare, utilities, industrial, broadcast, and development projects.
He writes candidly from an owner-side perspective about the executive decisions and organizational dynamics that shape capital project outcomes.
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I have also found a quick way to assess the professionalism of an on-site superintendent is to ascertain the amount of time he/she spends in the site-trailer. A professional construction manager/on-site superintendent is constantly surveying production to determine the quality of workmanship, the utilization of approved materials and the adherence to OSHA regulations. I always want and expect to “hunt down” the on-site supervision.
S A Everly
In general, I agree with most of your suggestions, however, your question: “What’s the change order record for 3 other projects similar in scope and complexity to yours.” is far more likely to be an indicator of the quality and completeness of the Contract Documents rather than a metric to judge the performance of the General Contractor.
Thank you for a very informative article. Another predictor is the history and relationship the contractor has with the major subs. If he is using a number of first timers, find out why. If it is due to price, there may be something missing that will cause problems in the future. Make sure the Scope of Work is clearly defined and understood between the contractor, owner, and architect.
Thanks Richard for sharing this information – it is very accurate. It is the first article I have seen on this website in months that was worth reading.
The best predictor of GC performance starts when (and if) they return calls! Mine NEVER have. Too many of them rely on their wives to act as secredtaries and don’t treat their jobs like a business…
Absolutely, Keith. Your comment is on target and the one issue that frustrates me. You have to remind vendors and contractors that you refuse to chase them down to give them your money. Customer Service is key; especially for the people we recommend on a project. My colleague Randi Busse who is in the customer service training business speaks of this topic often http://www.workdevgroup.com/articles.html#main
The best overall predictor is reviewing other project sites of the potential GC. The condition of construction site is the best indicator of the quality of the finished project..
Yes, a clean job site is also noticed by other trades, who can be advocates that generate leads for new business. An outside IT Consultant for one of our clients was pulling cable and took notice of how clean the landlord’s GC kept the job site and how professional the trades were. He recommended the contractor for another client of his.