After more than forty years serving cross-industry clients and constituents – as CEO, President, CFO, Board Member or Chair - combining methods, tools, and ideas from two or more distinct professional fields, my focus always included blending expertise, solving complex problems, and driving innovation – I have come to one conclusion that has shaped my perspective about executive leadership.
Successful executives do not make rational objective decisions based on who is right or wrong. They make sound, intelligent decisions, based on what is right and what is beneficial to the company and their constituents. Incorrect or uninformed decisions often lead to legal disputes. The most expensive dispute is the one that could have been prevented.
Throughout my career I have participated in projects whose combined value exceeded $2.5 billion. I have negotiated contracts, managed complex financial relationships, work with owners, business development executives, architects, engineers, subcontractors andsuppliers, sureties, attorneys, lenders and boards of directors. Like every executive across industry lines, I have experienced difficult projects, contractual disagreements, claims and litigation. In every one of those experiences, I have learned that legaldisputes rarely begin as a legal problem. They begin as a business decision making problem.
These include a misunderstood conversation, an unrecognized latency issue, an undefined or unresolved expectation, or a project decision made under duress or some form of pressure. Relationships in these situations begin to deteriorate and drive parties apart.
By the time attorneys become involved positions have hardened trust has eroded and options for conciliation have narrowed. The question often becomes one of “Who is right or wrong?” however, the more appropriate question should have been “What is the right course of action for the business that should be implemented to remedy or prevent the issue in the first place?”
That distinction is the foundational underpinning of my executive advisory practice.
I do not provide legal advice, nor do I seek to replace my client's attorneys, project executives, risk managers nor any of their leadership teams. Rather, I serve as an independent executive advisor someone you can call before a disagreement becomes a claim, before a claim becomes litigation, and before valuable business relationships are unnecessarily compromised or damaged.
My professional role is straightforward: to provide objective, experienced executive judgment when the stakes are high and the path forward seems to be uncertain. Sometimes that means helping management evaluate difficult decisions, facilitate conversations that have become strained, identify practicalbusiness solutions before legal positions become entrenched, and sometimes by simply providing experienced objective perspectives drawn from decades of executive leadership across industry.
Business executives devote enormous resources to planning, estimating, scheduling implementing quality control, safety, financial management, risk prevention, and other necessary business considerations, where history reveals that prevention is more effectiveand cost efficient than corrective action entails.
I believe business success and conflict avoidance deserve the same disciplined approach. The cost of one avoidable lawsuit can exceed many times the investment required to prevent dozens of disputes from reaching that point in the first place. More importantly, preserving trusted relationships, protecting reputation, maintaining focus on project execution,and safeguarding the company's enterprise value or strategic advantages that cannot easily be measured on a balance sheet.
My objective has always been to help companies achieve their goals and to guide them in a direction that shields them from costly and time-consuming lawsuits. I do not help companies win lawsuits; my objective is to help my clients to avoid lawsuits.
If your organization values proactive executive counsel rounded in practical leadership experience rather than theory, I would welcome the opportunity to meet and discuss with you how an independent executive advisor can become another resource available toyour leadership team whenever difficult situations arise.
Approximately 45 years ago when I began my business experiences, I wished there would be an available and affordable advisor, to whom I could rely on, and of course, one whom I could afford to hire. Fortunately for my clients, because I am not motivated by financial gain, but motivated by service in good faith to others, I am that advisor thatis affordable enough for anyone to engage while on the other hand I am also that an advisor who you may not be able to afford, not to engage.
If you're interested in talking to me, it will cost you nothing except for a bit of your time. I do look forward to hearing from you to see if there's any way I could serve you and help you to achieve your goals.
Arthur House is a nationally recognized construction industry advisor, mediator and standing construction industry mediator/neutral. Mr. House is Certified District Court mediator, a Construction Contract and Business Law Adjunct faculty member, founder and President of the Construction Management Institute of Maine and Miami, established in September of 2001. Mr. House has over 45 years of executive level experience in Construction and Engineering Management fields, with projects and clients throughout the Continental US, Hawaii, the Caribbean Islands, The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Aruba, Costa Rica, Haiti, Venezuela and several major European Union companies, plus Japan, South Korea, and China. Mr. House is also an experienced Eminent Domain, right-of-way agent acting as a mediator to negotiate and settle significant land and easement acquisitions.
Art draws upon his over 45 years of executive business development and managerial experience, from concept to turn-key, combined with a law degree; to provide expert, multi-disciplined, cross-industry advisory consulting, conflict resolution, and mediation services to commercial entities, small business claims, and the construction and forestry industries. He has represented and served clients with the utmost skill, integrity, responsibility, and compassion. His clients and associates include business owners, landowners and developers, construction managers, general contractors, specialty contractors or subcontractors, and vendors. His extensive resume of clients is engaged in construction management, forestry, transportation, export logistics, and renewable energy.
Arthur has been a principle Owner/Developer, Owner’s Representative, Strategic Business Development Executive, Project Manager, and an internationally recognized Construction and Engineering Management Consultant, engaged in over $2 billion of construction and real estate development projects, humanitarian projects, forestry, export, and renewable energy industries for over 45 years.
Art has dedicated his career focused on project development and oversight, facilitation of strategic management, and owners' representation. He advocates for in-depth pre-project analysis, preventive planning to mitigate risks, and avoidance of disputes. With over four decades of hands-on experience combined with an MBA, Doctoral Work, and a Law Degree, with over twenty years as an Adjunct Professor, in both Undergraduate and Graduate Programs, including Construction and Engineering Management, Corporate Finance for Construction and Development, Strategic Planning, International Business Development, and Construction Contracts, Arthur is uniquely qualified to facilitate the resolution to complex controversies and disputes.
He has provided professional expert witness testimony to support law firms in furtherance of reaching equitable solutions to complex controversies or disputes. Art is a Member of the Maine Association of Mediators, a Certified Mediator in the Judicial Branch for the State of Maine, an Adjunct Law Faculty Member, and a Statewide Right of Way Negotiator in Eminent Domain procedures.
Mr. House taught and served, for over 20 years, as an Adjunct Professor of business development, strategic management, corporate finance, business and contract law courses at several universities. He has provided extensive pro bono services during natural disasters and humanitarian needs - such as having been engaged by the Ministry of Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 Devastating Earthquake.
“While Art was in charge of plant and facilities operations for Associated Grocers of New England, he called me with an emergency. Apparently a site work company was exploring for a leak from an underground fuel tank at their truck depot in Manchester, NH. The company began digging with an excavator in an area specifically designated by Art not to be disturbed due to a lack of clearly defined ‘as built’ drawings that showed the potential existence of an 8” diameter water main. The contractor dug, hit the high pressure water line and the empty fuel tanks blew out of the ground about 10’ in the air. Water was shut down for all businesses in the area. By the time I got to the site the TV News choppers were there and the project was a catastrophe. Art signed a contract on the spot – we had the project finished in less than two days – new fuel tanks, rerouted water line and completed reconstruction of the degraded area due to the water’s force. All was up and running in two days. The real task was accessing ‘Super Fund’ monies not only to pay us but to reimburse AGNE as well. Mr. House accessed those funds for AGNE…If you need a guy who can assess a problem in an instant and put corrective action in place in the blink of an eye – get the work done and get you paid – Then Art is your guy.”
– Darrell Dodge, President Dodge Construction, NH
