Five lessons in commercial judgement and why experience matters when the decisions carry significant financial consequences.
A construction project can look very different depending on where you're sitting.
For the client, the priority might be delivering an essential new facility within an approved budget.
For the contractor, it's managing the resources, programme and commercial risks involved in building it.
For the cost consultant, it's establishing a reliable position that allows decisions to be made with confidence.
All three are looking at the same project but they're approaching it with different responsibilities, pressures and perspectives. Understanding those differences is one of the most valuable things experience can teach you.
Ross Bellingham has spent more than 20 years working across the construction industry, with experience spanning client organisations, main contractors and consultancies, across both public and private sectors.
It's given him a perspective that goes beyond the technical disciplines of quantity surveying. He understands how commercial decisions are made, how they affect the organisations involved and why a position that makes sense from one side of the table might look very different from another.
That experience has helped shape the way Shard Stone approaches cost consultancy today. And it offers five lessons worth considering for anyone responsible for investing in, procuring or delivering construction projects.
1. A commercially reasonable price and good value aren't necessarily the same thing
Every party involved in a construction project has a legitimate commercial position.
A client needs confidence that its investment is affordable, justified and delivering value. A contractor needs a price that reflects the work required, the risks being carried and the resources needed to deliver it successfully.
Both positions matter. The challenge comes when either is considered in isolation.
A tender that looks expensive might reflect genuine complexity, programme constraints or risk allocation. A lower tender might depend on exclusions, assumptions or qualifications that change the eventual cost.
Equally, a contractor may have perfectly sound commercial reasons for a price that still doesn't represent the best available value for the client.
The job of an effective cost consultant is to understand those competing realities and establish a position supported by evidence.
That means knowing when a price warrants challenge, when a risk allowance is justified and when the apparent saving could prove more expensive over the life of the project.
The important distinction is between challenging a price and understanding it. Good commercial advice does both.
This is where experience across different sides of the industry becomes particularly valuable. It allows the adviser to recognise the pressures influencing a commercial position while remaining independent in their assessment of it.
2. The most important questions are often the ones that haven't been asked
Construction costs are influenced by decisions made long before anyone submits a final account.
The specification, the programme, the procurement route, the information available to tenderers, the way risk is allocated and the assumptions made about what will happen during construction. Each can materially influence the eventual cost and because these decisions often develop gradually, it's possible for an assumption to become accepted as fact simply because nobody has had cause to question it.
Experience changes what you notice.
An allowance that looks reasonable in a cost plan might be inadequate for the proposed specification. A programme might rely on a procurement timetable that leaves little room for delay. And a proposed saving might introduce an operational cost that outweighs the immediate benefit.
The figures themselves may be accurate but it's the thinking behind them that needs testing.
This is particularly important when projects are still developing and clients are being asked to make financial commitments based on incomplete information.
A useful commercial adviser recognises the difference between a reasonable assumption, an unresolved risk and a position that needs further evidence before it can be relied upon.
The value isn't simply in identifying what’s known. It's in recognising what still needs to be established before a decision is made.
3. Commercial courage matters most before commitment
There’s a point in every project when decisions begin to become expensive to change.
Once a design has progressed, a contract has been awarded or construction is underway, the options available to manage cost can become more limited. That's why some of the most valuable commercial interventions happen early.
They might involve challenging an optimistic budget, questioning whether the scope is sufficiently developed, recommending a different procurement approach or advising that further work is needed before an investment decision can be supported.
These conversations can be uncomfortable. Projects have momentum, stakeholders have expectations, funding deadlines, operational pressures and programme commitments can all create an understandable desire to move forward. But experience teaches you that progress and commitment aren't always the same thing.
Sometimes the most commercially responsible advice is to establish a stronger position before proceeding.
That doesn't mean scrutinising every detail indefinitely. Good judgement is also about proportion.
A relatively small uncertainty may have little influence on the decision. Another assumption, apparently minor, could materially change the project's affordability or commercial exposure.
Knowing where to concentrate attention is part of the expertise.
Commercial courage is the willingness to ask the question that matters while there's still time to act on the answer.
And it requires something more than technical knowledge: the confidence to give advice that serves the client's long-term interests, even when it challenges the direction a project is taking.
4. The best commercial advice makes the next decision clearer
Quantity surveying is a technical profession and rightly so.
Accurate measurement, cost analysis, contractual understanding and financial reporting are essential. Clients depend on that expertise to understand where their money is going and what their financial commitments mean. But the purpose of that work is ultimately to support decisions.
A project board considering whether to approve a scheme needs more than a detailed cost plan. It needs to understand whether the investment is affordable, which assumptions are critical and what financial exposure remains.
A client reviewing tenders needs more than a comparison of submitted prices - it needs to know what’s included, where the risks sit and which offer represents the strongest commercial position.
A contractor considering a change needs to understand its likely effect on cost, programme and contractual obligations.
The technical work establishes the evidence. Commercial judgement makes that evidence useful.
This distinction matters because a report can be entirely accurate and still leave the person receiving it uncertain about what to do next.
5. Experience should raise the standard of accountability
Twenty years in construction should change more than the depth of someone's technical knowledge - it should improve their judgement.
The ability to recognise commercial risk, understand the implications of a contractual position, challenge an assumption constructively or identify where further scrutiny will make a material difference is developed through experience.
So is an appreciation of the responsibility that comes with giving advice.
Clients appoint cost consultants to help them make decisions involving substantial financial commitments. They need to know that the people advising them understand the consequences of those decisions and are prepared to stand behind their recommendations.
That responsibility should influence how consultancy businesses operate.
Senior experience has a role in setting the standard of advice, supporting developing professionals, maintaining quality and ensuring accountability remains clear throughout a commission.
It also means recognising the limits of what can reasonably be concluded from the information available.
An experienced adviser should be confident enough to challenge a position but equally comfortable explaining where further evidence is needed or where uncertainty remains.
The strongest professional judgement combines expertise with the accountability to use it responsibly.
For Shard Stone, this is fundamental to the way the business is being built: experienced people, clear responsibility and consistent standards of commercial advice.
From individual experience to a consultancy standard
Ross's career has helped shape a straightforward belief about cost consultancy: clients deserve advice that is technically sound, commercially useful and delivered by people who understand the responsibility attached to it.
Since 2011, Shard Stone has built its experience supporting organisations through significant construction investment, particularly across education, leisure and healthcare capital programmes.
That experience now informs the Shard Stone Standard, a set of six commitments governing how the consultancy approaches its work.
They bring together clear communication, evidence-led thinking, proportionate scrutiny, commercial courage, accountability and independence.
But the real value of a standard is in how consistently it's applied.
It should shape the questions a consultant asks, the evidence they examine, the recommendations they make and the way they work with the people responsible for delivering a project.
And it should be reflected in the quality of advice a client receives, whoever is providing it.
That's the difference between experience belonging to an individual and experience becoming part of an organisation's capability.
After more than two decades on different sides of the construction industry, the lesson is that good cost consultancy demands more than an ability to calculate, report or challenge a figure.
It requires an understanding of the commercial realities behind the number, the judgement to recognise what matters and the confidence to advise on what happens next.
Experience changes what you see. Commercial judgement changes what you do with it.
Sharp facts. Solid ground.
Shard Stone provides independent cost and commercial consultancy to local authorities, public bodies, developers and contractors.
