Willis A. Smith Construction Inc.: 40 years

EXPERIENCE AND PRICE:
The construction industry went through a significant transition roughly 15 years ago, following state legislation allowing public entities to consider experience and ability along with price. This process, known as a “soft bid,” differs from the traditional “hard bid” approach where contracts were awarded based solely on price. This change allowed Willis Smith to offer a number of new services, including design/build.
“We had to increase our modeling capabilities to be able to project not just current costs, but two years down the road,” President and CEO David Sessions says. “It was quite a moving target through the early 2000s with all the [materials and labor] escalations.”
During and following the recession, the hard-bid process has had a limited resurgence, forcing Willis Smith and its competitors to be nimble in pursuing public and private work.