Business Model Innovations in the Building Construction Industry, 2020

Technological Advancement and a Vision for Sustainability will Drive Change in Building Construction Business Models

Asia-Pacific is expected to record substantial building construction development in the next five years despite some impact from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This is mainly impacted by the rapid urbanization and heavy investment in the region.

The building construction industry is facing several challenges such as declined project productivity, workforce scarcity, the rising cost of building materials, site safety issues, and an overwhelming number of technological solutions, which complicates decision making in construction processes.

Notable building construction technologies include augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing, building information modelling (BIM), automation and robotics, and wearables and innovative materials. In addition to advances in technology, sustainability trends such as prefabrication construction, sustainable construction, and green building are likely to revolutionize the conventional building construction sector, and consequently disrupt the way business is done. Several innovative business models have emerged. Most innovative business models belong to the Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) categories. Amongst them, the vertically integrated, servitization (or XaaS) and off-site construction business models are likely to be developed in the next five years.

This study also documents several companies that have successfully adopted innovative business models. These include Doorsteps and PropertyGuru (multi-sided platforms), Plant Prefab (off-site construction), Armstrong World Industries (circular construction), Katerra (vertical integration), and Hilti and TerraDrone (Anything-as-a-Service, XaaS).

This outlook was created over the past several months based on the underlying fundamentals of the industry. While in production, the impact of COVID-19 on the market is beginning to take shape. We are working to address this using a multi-discipline process. Please stay tuned for more intelligence on how the pandemic might change the underlying assumptions and directions of the market.

Growth opportunities identified in this study:

•  To invest in building employee capability in operating advanced construction machinery and IT software
•  To re-examine the business model of construction companies for the benefits of a more systematic operation and transparent collaborations with other project participants
•  To absorb circular building projects and to establish local prefabrication plants as solutions that drive sustainability in the industry
•  To form vertical integration fusing large companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and start-up businesses and offer a one-stop construction service
•  To begin using common platforms such as building information modelling (BIM) in all construction projects

In conclusion, the building construction value-chain will shift from sequential (conventional value chain) to innovative business models, where future value-chain prospects will appear to be interconnected and performed simultaneously.

Building technology companies that provide software offerings with artificial intelligence, data analytics, or cloud capabilities as part of their business model will likely thrive in the post-COVID-19 market. The main goal would be to provide the right technical resources and monetization methods, as customers are likely to be financially troubled after the pandemic.

The logic of the value chain will transform into value networks. This means that the value will be co-created by a combination of building industry participants in the network. It is this knowledge exchange that will drive the proactive production of goods and services, thus bringing changes and innovation to business models in the industry.