Leading a disruptor

Helen Gawor, Consultant Director at Building Strategy, sets out the leadership shifts needed to make IC 2.0 deliver.

Helen Gawor, Consultant Director at Building Strategy

Cover, 1: Images © Building Strategy

2, 4: Images © HLM Architects

3: Image © Innovate UK

Helen Gawor, Consultant Director at Building Strategy, argues that Industrialised Construction 2.0 will not scale on technology, factories and capital alone - leaders need to build culture early, lock in operational excellence and develop a product strategy that enables innovation without diluting delivery.

Industrialised construction is the ‘disruptive start-up sector’ of the built environment.

The similarities to the businesses I worked with in the tech start-up era of the early 2000s are strong:

Creating products for an industry that is only just learning how to use and trust them.
Calculating how to commercialise and operate cost-effectively, based on how the market already procures and plans work.
Building confidence in new ways of working with new skills and capabilities.
Investment that comes with aggressive stages of planned growth and a need to build value quickly.

The businesses in Industrialised Construction 2.0 enter 2026 in a market more primed than ever to accelerate MMC/offsite adoption.

But as our businesses move towards early maturity, we require a clear strategic focus to navigate the market dynamics, macroeconomic factors and regulatory landscape that have constrained the broader built environment market for decades.

Technology, factories, and capital alone are insufficient to navigate the nuances of our industry and deliver the repeatable value that converts potential into profitability.

So how do we ensure our businesses are resilient as we move through the growth cycle to early maturity? What can we learn from sectors like tech where the disruptors have thrived?

The answer is not more rhetoric about modern methods - it is leadership discipline that turns repeatability into commercial advantage.

1. Invest in building culture early.

Don’t assume that the right culture will propagate organically. Traditionally, construction has not built a healthy cultural ecosystem for learning, innovation and optimum performance.

The most successful manufacturing and technology organisations understand that all high performance and continuous improvement starts with people. Machines and processes alone will not make up for weaknesses in the cultural environment.

Some of the best research into high-performing teams came out of Google’s ‘Project Aristotle’, reinforcing Professor Amy Edmondson’s research on psychological safety - the idea that teams perform best when people can speak up, challenge and learn without fear of blame.

Silicon Valley’s ‘Fail Fast’ mantra applies here. If you don’t invest in building leadership and team dynamics that promote an ability to comfortably talk about what isn’t working, what has failed (without blame) and share ideas, you can’t learn and adapt quickly.

So, consider how you need your people to make decisions, solve problems, collaborate and adapt to change. Build this deliberately into your strategic development and how you visibly lead your teams and organisation. Because strategic growth and operational excellence become unachievable without the right cultural foundation.

2. Balance operational excellence with disciplined growth.

This sector is poised to deliver what traditional construction has long struggled to achieve: measurable productivity gains, consistent quality, and the systematic application of data and technology to drive efficiency and outcomes.

There is a risk, however, that this can be lost where there is pressure to scale quickly. As the market and demand grow, there is potential for increased consolidation and investment, which will bring inevitable operational and commercial tensions.

By building value in processes early, along with robust continuous improvement systems, you can mitigate later pressures if the business moves into a growth or diversification iteration of its strategy.

Breaking down clearly what operational excellence means for your business is paramount in ensuring that the whole organisation understands its role in delivering it. For example, ‘application of data for decision making’ requires a holistic data strategy for data collection, quality management and governance. Make these elements clear.

3. Build a product strategy that allows innovation to sit alongside operational maturity.

I worked with a modular business stuck in the product development and new market opportunity loop. Despite the Board being excited about the entrepreneurial approach, it was clear very quickly that it was diluting focus and resources, especially impacting the ability to improve factory operations.

Developing a clear product strategy was the solution to give visibility to the considerations around risk and opportunity and, therefore, calculate where effort and resource could be allocated.

This is a portfolio approach to validated growth and works in many other sectors. The simplest approach to developing this is the Ansoff Matrix - a well-established strategic framework - where you classify your current and potential products to determine risk and resource requirements - listed here from least to most risk:

Market penetration: Existing products in existing markets
Market development: Existing products in new markets
Product development: New products for existing markets
Diversification: New products in new markets

Taking this approach, you can create balance in strategic focus that does not dilute commercial and operational performance of products reaching maturity, whilst maintaining agility for innovation and new product development.

Industrialised construction sectors require a different type of leadership and approach to strategic implementation that draws on the best of manufacturing and construction processes, with the agility and entrepreneurialism of start-up and scale-up culture.

It should turn cultural strength into competitive advantage, delivering measurable productivity, quality and value where traditional methods have faltered. Industrialised construction isn't just about factories: it's about building better ways of working through people, processes and technology.

More Information:

For more on turning your industrialised construction ambition into deliverable strategy, visit buildingstrategy.co.uk

Helen Gawor joins a line-up of industrialised construction experts at the Industrialised Construction Conference at the RCP in Central London on 21 - 22 April 2026 - secure your place and hear what is working, directly from the people delivering it.

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A recovering 2026 landscape, alongside early-stage business growth, presents a real opportunity to be a catalyst for change across the whole construction industry.