If simply offering a breadth of capabilities was sufficient to sustain a firm's status as a "leading contractor," Balfour Beatty would likely be assured of an upper-echelon ranking most every year. But Layman says even large contractors are feeling the pressure to differentiate themselves by offering more than just a reasonable bid and sufficient resources to do the job.

"We have to bring a better value and service proposition to the table," he says. "Otherwise, we're just a commodity, no different from anyone else."

For that reason, Balfour Beatty has made improving the efficiency of the design and construction process something of a crusade. "It's opened doors with our clients because they want the same thing—to approach work in a far more integrated way and adopt ideas that drive out waste," Layman says.

One example is the recently completed $201.5-million Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, which Balfour Beatty turned into a "paperless project" midway through construction by making PDFs of construction documents available to city inspectors.

"We saw the opportunity to introduce the many ways that electronic access could make the inspection process more efficient," explains Sean DeMartino, president of Balfour Beatty's Florida division. Introducing these technologies to owners can have a ripple effect, opening the door to applications in other project phases, such as permit applications and reviews.

"An efficient and seamless process is a big incentive to developers who want to bring their projects to market as quickly as possible," DeMartino says.

Another critical differentiator is a contractor's presence in the community. DeMartino has helped spearhead the company's involvement in both traditional community activities and broad-based planning efforts such as the seven-county Central Florida Partnership, a collaboration of business and civic leaders focused on issues as diverse as transportation and chronic homelessness.

"It's absolutely essential to be engaged in being part of the solution," he says.

Stressing ‘Zero Harm’

Balfour Beatty has also focused on improving safety. The company reports that through June 1 of this year, its Southern region employees and project subcontractors had recorded just under 3 million work hours without a lost time injury or illness. Balfour Beatty's OSHA DART rate is also an impressive 0.12, compared with the construction industry average of 2.2, according to the company.

Steve Smithgall, senior vice president for safety, health and environment, is proud of the accomplishment, but he admits that it's simply a point in the contractor's six-year-long evolution from a compliance-focused approach to proactively working to get employees home safely.

"That requires a complete mind-set change," Smithgall says of the transition, which Balfour Beatty's parent company launched in 2009 with a comprehensive set of safety principles called Zero Harm. "You can't just flip a switch and expect everything to be different."