How to reduce risk and plan, bid, and build more efficiently through the use of technology. With René Morkos and Shane Richardson

In the second episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by René Morkos, the Founder and CEO of ALICE Technologies, the world’s first construction optioneering platform and Shane Richardson, President of Lagrange, a management consulting firm providing project controls and program management services.

Episode Highlights:

• The founding story behind ALICE Technologies and the problems it was designed to solve
• The difference between the two products, ‘Alice Pre-Construction’ and ‘Alice Manage’ and their capabilities
• How René and Shane met and how they started working together
• How to use data to make better informed decisions
• The hesitancies the construction industry have around technology
• The issues they face and potential missed opportunities if they are brought in part way through a project, rather than the beginning
• Early innovators in the space and their impact on implementation and integration
• The biggest changes they have seen within the industry and what they predict over the next 20 years
• The importance of finding the right tool when trying to digitalise data to increase productivity
• Where they believe the skill gaps currently are in construction tech
• ALICE’s sustainability pledge

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews
• PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
• Bechtel
• Katerra
• Canadian Nuclear Labs
• Skanska
• Stanford University

Key Takeaways:

• What resources do you need to build to perform those tasks? That’s the kind of information you give the system, and then the system generates 6 million different ways of building the project for you. – René
• I noticed that was one of the things that wasn’t being leveraged; how can we use this data to make better informed decisions? -Shane
• A lot of times you’re already 20 plus percent complete with a project, and there’s a certain point where you can always minimise risk, minimise costs on a project, but as you progress on a project, the further you progress, you lose out on that opportunity. – Shane
• What’s happening in construction today is what happened to manufacturing in the seventies and eighties. It’s really becoming digitised. It’s becoming integrated across the supply chain. – René
• I think that’s one of the reasons why construction projects were plagued with delays, for decades and decades. It’s because how do we fix that problem of being able to translate accurate data in its schedule, maintain it, and so ALICE takes care of that.  – Shane
• The way that I perceive it is that one of the major skill gaps is that construction is getting converted into algorithmic terms. And so that’s something that’s relatively new.  – René
• McKinsey article: over the last 20 years the industry as a whole has only increased 1% in productivity. And the construction spending is about 13% of the world’s GDP. And so you think about that, it’s over 1.3 trillion in opportunity to try to leverage. – Shane

About our guests:

René Morkos

René Morkos is the founder and CEO of ALICE Technologies and teaches at Stanford University’s Ph.D program in Construction Management. The son of a civil engineer, René grew up in the construction industry. He has worked on construction projects worldwide. His professional experience ranges from working as a project manager in Afghanistan to building an underwater pipeline project in Beirut, from driving automation engineering on a $350 million gas refinery expansion project in Abu Dhabi to leading the development of a virtual design and construction model for Amsterdam’s cruise ship terminal.. René received his Ph.D in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University, his MSCE in Construction Management from USC, and his BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from American University of Beirut.

About ALICE Technologies:

ALICE Technologies is the creator of the world’s first construction optioneering platform. Founded in 2013 based on research from Stanford University, ALICE helps large contractors to reduce risk and plan, bid, and build more efficiently. The company works with large general contractors in the infrastructure and commercial construction segments, such as Bouygues, Shimizu, and Skanska. Headquartered in the U.S., ALICE also has significant operations in the Czech Republic, the U.K., and India. Learn more at www.alicetechnologies.com.

Shane Richardson

Shane Richardson is the President of Lagrange, a management consulting firm providing project controls and program management services.

Shane has a background in applying project controls solutions across varying industries including nuclear, mining, oil and gas, environmental remediation, government and commercial. He has worked in various roles supporting both the Owners and General Contractors developing robust project controls systems that leverage data to support sound decision-making.

Shane graduated from Washington State University with a BS in Electrical Engineering and attended Pepperdine University for his MBA.

About Lagrange:

We are industry experts providing cradle to grave program management and project controls advisory services. Lagrange provides a full suite of project and construction management services to increase project visibility and proactively manage risks throughout the project lifecycle to ensure successful project delivery. Learn more at https://lagrangeppm.com/ 

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast ‘The Propcast’where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

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