Own The Build

In this episode of Own the Build, Paul is joined by Robson Leslie, Managing Consultant at Clearnorth, to explore one of the biggest questions facing Quantity Surveyors today:
Are you working in the right sector to maximise your salary, career progression and long-term job security?
With significant investment flowing into UK infrastructure, particularly water, power and utilities, demand for commercially experienced Quantity Surveyors continues to grow.
But what does that mean for QSs working in traditional building and residential construction?
And could moving into the world of NEC contracts and infrastructure offer a better long-term career?
Robson specialises in recruiting Quantity Surveyors, Commercial Managers and Commercial Directors, working closely with senior commercial leaders to understand the challenges facing construction businesses and the people working within them.
The conversation explores:
Why the shortage of Quantity Surveyors is continuing to drive salaries upwards across the construction industry.
How graduate QS salaries have changed dramatically in recent years, with some graduates now securing salaries approaching £40,000.
Why some Commercial Directors believe rising QS salaries are becoming unsustainable, while others argue the profession is finally being paid what it's worth.
Why flexible working has become one of the most important considerations for QSs choosing their next employer, sometimes outweighing significant salary increases.
How the outlook for residential and traditional building construction compares with the investment being made in infrastructure.
Why water, power and utilities could offer some of the strongest long-term career opportunities for commercial professionals.
Whether a QS with a background in JCT contracts can successfully transition into the NEC world.
Why changing sectors might require a sideways or even backwards move initially, but could accelerate long-term career progression.
Why employers recruiting Commercial Directors are increasingly prioritising leadership, personality and cultural fit alongside technical experience.
Whether specialist subcontracting experience, from facades to M&E and groundworks, could be just as valuable as moving into infrastructure.
Paul also reflects on his own career working on major London construction projects, including Battersea Power Station, and challenges Robson on whether he would have been better off pursuing a career in infrastructure.
After all, there's something incredibly rewarding about working on iconic buildings.
But when you consider salary, flexibility, job security and the opportunity to build a long-term career, is the balance starting to shift towards infrastructure?
Robson also shares practical advice for Quantity Surveyors considering a move, including the importance of NEC contract knowledge and why now could be an unusually good time to explore opportunities in a different sector.
Whether you're a graduate choosing your first role, a Senior QS considering your next move or a Commercial Manager aspiring to become a Commercial Director, this episode offers a fascinating insight into the changing construction employment market.
Because choosing the right career isn't just about what you earn today. It's about where that decision could take you over the next ten years.
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This episode is sponsored by:
clearnorth — The QS People: https://www.clearnorth.co.uk/
CLIC — The Commercial Leadership Collective: https://www.the-clic.co.uk/
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📥 Plus: Grab Paul’s eBook Mastering Construction Procurement — link below:
Mastering Construction Procurement Strategies for Supply Chain Integration, Tendering, and Commercial Success
Send us Fan Mail

Want to connect with Paul?

Paul is on Linkedin here and would love to talk. You can also connect with Paul at paul@c-link.com or through, C-Link. 
C-Link is software built by Quantity Surveyors for Quantity Surveyors. We save 600 hours of Quantity Surveying time per project in automation. We can make your QS’ so much more efficient.
Watch the Video to learn more; you can book a demo by clicking here.

In this episode of Own the Build Question Time, Paul is joined once again by Chris Barber, COO and Co-Founder of C-Link, to tackle five real-world commercial dilemmas submitted by Quantity Surveyors working across the construction industry.
First up, a particularly uncomfortable question:
A subcontractor has completed a significant variation. Everyone agrees the work was done, and the main contractor has already been paid by the client. But the subcontractor failed to comply with the contractual notice provisions. Would you pay them?
Paul and Chris debate the difference between contractual entitlement and commercial ethics, and whether protecting project margin should ever come at the expense of doing what is right.
The conversation also explores:
Whether you should pay a subcontractor for work completed when they have failed to follow the contractual variation procedure.
Why being contractually right doesn't always mean you're making the right commercial decision.
Whether technical competence is enough to make someone a valuable member of a commercial team.
Why some of the best people to work with aren't necessarily the strongest technical Quantity Surveyors.
What to do when your site team wants you to issue a delay notice against a subcontractor, but you believe the subcontractor may have a legitimate defence.
Why "design development" is one of the most frustrating phrases in construction, particularly for design-and-build subcontractors.
How to distinguish genuine design development from a change to the original scope.
The early warning signs that a construction project is heading towards a difficult commercial outcome.
Why the quality of relationships between clients, main contractors and subcontractors can be one of the strongest indicators of project success.
Paul also reflects on a particularly difficult project where the first variation, worth approximately £500,000, remained unresolved until the final account three years later.
Could the warning signs have been identified before the project even started?
And should commercial teams be paying more attention to relationships, rather than relying exclusively on contracts, budgets and risk registers?
Ultimately, this episode explores something that every experienced commercial professional will recognise:
Construction rarely operates in black and white. The best Quantity Surveyors know their contracts, understand the detail and have the confidence to exercise good commercial judgement.
A practical and thought-provoking Question Time episode for Quantity Surveyors, Commercial Managers and Commercial Directors navigating the realities of construction.
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This episode is sponsored by:
clearnorth — The QS People: https://www.clearnorth.co.uk/
CLIC — The Commercial Leadership Collective: https://www.the-clic.co.uk/
---------------------------------
📥 Plus: Grab Paul’s eBooks Mastering Construction Procurement — link below:
Mastering Construction Procurement Strategies for Supply Chain Integration, Tendering, and Commercial Success
Send us Fan Mail

Want to connect with Paul?

Paul is on Linkedin here and would love to talk. You can also connect with Paul at paul@c-link.com or through, C-Link. 
C-Link is software built by Quantity Surveyors for Quantity Surveyors. We save 600 hours of Quantity Surveying time per project in automation. We can make your QS’ so much more efficient.
Watch the Video to learn more; you can book a demo by clicking here.

In the tenth episode of the Own the Build Leadership Series, Paul is joined by Mark Cahill, Commercial Director at Rowland Homes, a family-owned housebuilder delivering over 400 homes annually across the North West, with a turnover exceeding £120m.
Mark's journey into construction began with a simple email.
As a student, inspired by his father who worked in commercial management, Mark contacted Wainhomes asking for two weeks of work experience. That opportunity turned into three months, then a full-time position, and ultimately a career that would take him from Commercial Trainee to Commercial Director.
Today, Mark leads a commercial team of more than 10 people at Rowland Homes, having previously held senior positions at Wainhomes and Countryside/Vistry.
The conversation explores:
How a simple email and a willingness to put himself forward helped launch Mark's career in Quantity Surveying.
Why the skills that make you a successful QS or Commercial Manager aren't necessarily the skills that make you a successful Commercial Director.
The distinction between margin protection and margin creation — and why understanding that difference is fundamental to progressing into senior leadership.
Why aspiring Commercial Directors need to get involved earlier in projects, particularly during land acquisition, investment decisions and preconstruction.
How consistently volunteering for additional responsibility can accelerate your career.
Why some of the best future commercial leaders aren't necessarily the strongest technical Quantity Surveyors.
The importance of communication, delegation and developing the next generation of commercial professionals.
How housebuilders are navigating a challenging market, skills shortages and the increasing influence of AI.
Why composure is one of the most underrated qualities in commercial leadership.
One of the strongest themes throughout the conversation is Mark's belief that you need to put yourself forward for opportunities before you're necessarily ready for them.
Whether that means volunteering to support a colleague, asking to attend an investment meeting or stepping into a leadership position unexpectedly, Mark's career demonstrates the value of taking responsibility beyond your immediate role.
Mark also shares a particularly important distinction for ambitious Quantity Surveyors:
"Margin protection gets you to management. Margin creation gets you to directorship."
The episode closes with a reflection on the importance of giving others the opportunities you were once given, and why great commercial leadership means looking beyond individual projects and short-term financial results to the long-term success of the business.
A practical and inspiring conversation for Quantity Surveyors, Commercial Managers and aspiring Commercial Directors looking to understand what it really takes to progress into senior leadership.
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This episode is sponsored by:
clearnorth — The QS People: https://www.clearnorth.co.uk/
CLIC — The Commercial Leadership Collective: https://www.the-clic.co.uk/
---------------------------------
📥 Plus: Grab Paul’s eBooks Mastering Construction Procurement — link below:
Mastering Construction Procurement Strategies for Supply Chain Integration, Tendering, and Commercial Success
Send us Fan Mail

Want to connect with Paul?

Paul is on Linkedin here and would love to talk. You can also connect with Paul at paul@c-link.com or through, C-Link. 
C-Link is software built by Quantity Surveyors for Quantity Surveyors. We save 600 hours of Quantity Surveying time per project in automation. We can make your QS’ so much more efficient.
Watch the Video to learn more; you can book a demo by clicking here.

In this episode, Paul is joined by Martin Balaam, CEO and Founder of Pimberly, to explore a problem almost every Quantity Surveyor has encountered:
You've been asked to value engineer a package and find an equivalent product. Where do you actually start?
Paul takes the conversation back to his time working on Battersea Power Station, where finding an alternative to a specified product eventually unlocked around £1.5m in commercial savings — but took months of research, conversations, technical reviews and meetings to get there.
Why should finding a genuinely equivalent product be so difficult?
Martin explains how fragmented construction product information remains, with critical data spread across specifications, manufacturers' websites, technical PDFs and different systems — often described completely differently by different suppliers.
The conversation explores:
what "or equivalent" really means when trying to value engineer a specification;
how QSs should distinguish between technical requirements and more subjective considerations such as aesthetics, carbon, origin and client preference;
why poor and inconsistent product data makes comparing alternatives so difficult;
how better structured product information could transform value engineering and procurement;
what happens when AI gets access to properly structured construction product data;
whether an AI agent could eventually search hundreds of products and identify the best alternatives based on price, programme, carbon, warranty and technical performance;
how QSs can already use AI to interrogate specifications and identify potential VE opportunities;
why the quality of the instructions and data you give AI remains critical; and
what contractors should start capturing during procurement today to make better commercial decisions tomorrow.
Martin paints a fascinating picture of where this could ultimately go.
Instead of a QS spending months researching alternatives, an AI agent could potentially interrogate the specification, search the market and return a shortlist of technically compliant products — showing the commercial and programme trade-offs of each.
Perhaps eventually it could even order the samples ahead of the design meeting.
For Quantity Surveyors and Commercial Managers, that could fundamentally change how we approach value engineering, product selection and procurement.
A practical look at a very familiar construction problem — and how data and AI could make solving it dramatically easier.
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This episode is sponsored by:
clearnorth — The QS People: https://www.clearnorth.co.uk/
CLIC — The Commercial Leadership Collective: https://www.the-clic.co.uk/
---------------------------------
📥 Plus: Grab Paul’s eBooks Mastering Construction Procurement — link below:
Mastering Construction Procurement Strategies for Supply Chain Integration, Tendering, and Commercial Success
Send us Fan Mail

Want to connect with Paul?

Paul is on Linkedin here and would love to talk. You can also connect with Paul at paul@c-link.com or through, C-Link. 
C-Link is software built by Quantity Surveyors for Quantity Surveyors. We save 600 hours of Quantity Surveying time per project in automation. We can make your QS’ so much more efficient.
Watch the Video to learn more; you can book a demo by clicking here.

In this episode, Paul is joined by Len Foster, construction professional turned communication coach and founder of The Referral Edge, to explore one of the most important — yet rarely taught — skills in commercial management: how to communicate effectively and read the room.
Len started his career on the tools as an apprentice joiner before progressing through site management, contracts management and planning, including senior roles with major contractors such as John Sisk. Today, he specialises in communication, speaking and helping professionals better understand the people sitting opposite them.
The conversation explores:
why communication isn't a soft skill for QSs — it's a commercial and financial skill;
how to establish someone's baseline behaviour before a negotiation starts;
what changes in body language, tone and behaviour can tell you during a difficult commercial meeting;
why you should never interpret a single gesture — such as folded arms — in isolation;
how to use curiosity and questions to understand what is really happening on the other side of the table;
why "Are we comfortable with that?" can be more effective than immediately asking "Are we agreed?";
how silence can become one of your most powerful tools in a negotiation;
why great listeners hear not only what somebody is saying, but what they actually mean; and
what to do when somebody raises their voice, checks their phone or suddenly goes quiet during a negotiation.
Len introduces a simple principle that commercial professionals can immediately take into their next meeting:
ABC — Always Be Curious.
Rather than trying to decode every gesture or assume you know what someone is thinking, use the signals you notice as an opportunity to discover more.
Because whether you're negotiating a variation, agreeing a final account, managing a client or sitting across the table from a subcontractor, your technical knowledge only gets you so far.
The best commercial professionals also know how to read the person sitting opposite them.
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This episode is sponsored by:
clearnorth — The QS People: https://www.clearnorth.co.uk/
CLIC — The Commercial Leadership Collective: https://www.the-clic.co.uk/
---------------------------------
📥 Plus: Grab Paul’s eBooks Mastering Construction Procurement — link below:
Mastering Construction Procurement Strategies for Supply Chain Integration, Tendering, and Commercial Success
Send us Fan Mail

Want to connect with Paul?

Paul is on Linkedin here and would love to talk. You can also connect with Paul at paul@c-link.com or through, C-Link. 
C-Link is software built by Quantity Surveyors for Quantity Surveyors. We save 600 hours of Quantity Surveying time per project in automation. We can make your QS’ so much more efficient.
Watch the Video to learn more; you can book a demo by clicking here.