Visions in practice
Who is this book for
- Designed for practical use, readers can dip into a chapter, explore a case, or reflect on a topic, a key concept, or framework, and immediately apply the insight to their work with reflection.Equally valuable for anyone interested in business strategy, ethics, and culture in addition to leadership, teamwork, communication, collaboration, humour, and goodwill.
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Construction Managers • Construction Project Managers • Architects • Engineers • Quantity Surveyors • Builders • Contractors •Consultants • Clients • Directors • Lawyers • Academics • Advanced Students • Researchers
This book presents a contemporary and reflective perspective on construction management, positioning projects firmly within their broader business, organisational, and societal contexts. It frames construction management as a professional discipline shaped by judgement, strategic intent, and visions integrating theory with lived industry experience to achieve both intellectual credibility and practical relevance.
Structured across 6 interrelated sections and supported by over 50 case studies and strategic frameworks, acrosos 750 pages, the book integrates what matters most to business – commercial fluidity, people capability, and strategic vision across the short, medium, and long term – together with the management of finance, contracts, procurement, costs, and risks. Alongside these, it gives deliberate attention to the behavioural aspects of practice – including leadership, teamwork, communication, cooperation, collaboration, coordination, humour, and goodwill – reflecting how construction enterprises actually function in complex, real-world environments, and how they might function better through creative and thoughtful practice.
How to use this book?
Check out the pre-chapter pages of the book. Here’s an extract:
“The book may be used as a practical companion in contractor and consultant offices, something to be dipped into rather than worked through sequentially. Short extracts, reflective cases, and focused discussions can be used to initiate conversations at meetings, toolbox sessions, or informal gatherings. A paragraph, a case study, or a provocative question may be sufficient to spark meaningful dialogue about practice, ethics, leadership, or on a host of other topics.
The book also lends itself to small group or quality-circle–style engagement, where volunteers read a chapter, section, or case study and share insights with others. With more than fifty case studies, and as many frameworks, both substantial and brief, this approach can encourage participation without imposing excessive time demands, while fostering shared reflection and goodwill within organisations.”
Section 1 : Introduction: Business Perspectives in Construction
“Construction drives development.
Business shapes outcomes.
Finance enables action.
Culture, ethics, and judgement determine success.”
Section 2 : Construction Finance: Investments, Returns, and Client Strategies
“Capital is commitment.
Cashflow is oxygen.
Finance demands judgement.
Only readiness endures.”
Section 3 : Construction Contracts, Claims, and Cashflow
“Contracts distribute risk.
Clauses define rights.
Trust, judgement, and goodwil
determine outcomes.
Section 4 : Costs and Prices, Risks and Contingencies in Construction
“Costs are not numbers; they are commitments.
Risk is not an exception; it is ever-present.
Contingency is not waste; it is preparedness.
Readiness is not reaction; it is foresight.”
Section 5 : Construction Procurement, the Strategy Diamond, and Purchasing
“Strategy shapes the arenas.
Procurement selects the players.
Knowledge creates advantage.
Winning becomes a discipline.”
Section 6 : Soft Skills for Construction and Business Managers
“Managerial skills are seldom seen as skills.
Yet they shape how managers see, judge, and respond.
Through them, decisions, relationships, and outcomes take form.
In truth, these are the visions of management.”
Book
Chapters
What have others said about the book?
“Its genuinely novel character lies in its breadth of perspective… addressing culture, ethics, collaboration, leadership, and humour alongside commercial and managerial realities.”— Professor George Ofori, Emeritus Professor, London South Bank University, UK
“Not a book to be read once and set aside… its breadth and depth… will resonate strongly with practitioners navigating complex and challenging environments.”
— Professor Craig Langston (retired), Australia
“A mature and insightful treatment of construction management … integrating theory with lived industry experience.” — Professor Syed Ahmed, Mississippi State University, USA
“An invaluable resource… a business-oriented perspective on construction management… encourages innovative thinking and reflective practice… strategic frameworks and culturally informed perspectives…” — Robert Wildermuth OAM, Past President, Australian Institute of Building; Adjunct Associate Professor, UniSQ (2013–2023), Australia ”
“A substantial contribution… reframing construction management as an integrated business and professional endeavour… alongside the human dimensions of practice…”
— Professor Yiannis Xenidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
“This book goes beyond conventional project management texts… explores construction as a business and professional practice… commercial, cultural, ethical, and leadership dimensions…” — Professor Rupa Purasinghe, Professor of Civil Engineering, California State University, Los Angeles, USA ”
Book value?
The Coffee Cup Test
In cities across the world, a cup of coffee is lifted, warmed, and finished. The moment passes. The cup is empty.
Its cost is seldom questioned. It belongs to the quiet rhythm of daily life.
Measured in that same rhythm, the digital edition offered is valued at about fifteen cups of coffee – a modest measure for a work shaped across many chapters. The printed black-and-white edition, a few more mornings of coffee. The premium colour edition, a few more still.
Coffee passes through the hands.
A book passes through the mind.
One leaves warmth for a moment.
The other leaves clarity for years.
The measure is not what is spent.
It is what remains.
From this perspective, the book reflects on a range of pricing strategies in construction, from cost-based and value-based approaches to competition, relationship, and predatory pricing approaches, while also exploring how pricing can be approached conceptually, creatively, and strategically in practice.
Black and white paperback edition: Amazon – US $120.
Kindle ebook – US $60
USD 60 ≈ 15 cups of coffee
USD 120 ≈ 30 cups of coffee
USD 180 ≈ a few more cups
Postage costs are to be covered by the recipients.
Complimentary Copies –
A Small Gesture of Goodwill
From time to time, a small number of printed copies are made available in a spirit of goodwill, where access may matter most.
Each year, I plan to make available a small number of complimentary printed copies of this book.
This gesture is intended for students, educators, and practitioners for whom access to the book may be difficult, and for whom the book may be genuinely useful at this point in their study or practice.
Complimentary copies are offered on application, considered on a first-come basis and at my discretion, based on a short reflective statement explaining why access to the book would be meaningful or helpful at this time.
This initiative is offered quietly and at a measured pace. Responses may take time depending on availability and commitments.
To keep this initiative simple and sustainable:
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Postage costs are to be covered by the recipient, payable in advance.
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Only a limited number of copies are made available each year.
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Complimentary copies are provided for personal study and professional reference only and are not for resale.
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Delivery is arranged after confirmation of availability and receipt of postage.
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Availability may vary depending on location and postal feasibility.
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If you wish to apply, you are welcome to write a short note (a few sentences is sufficient) explaining why access to the book would be meaningful or useful at this time, and where the book would be sent should a copy be available. Not all applications can be responded to individually.
The gesture is small by intention, offered without urgency, and held lightly.
Books Published and More to Come
Project and Production Perspectives on Construction Management
Visions of Management - With Case Studies and Reflections
Case Studies on Construction Management
Tips for Job Seekers - Steps for Success - Out of print (Authored by Dr-Eng Vasantha Abeysekera and Ashoka Abeysekera with Foreword from Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara)
Books on Construction Management written for other organisations
For Open University of Sri Lanka
- Planning and Control in the Construction Industry, Open University of Sri Lanka – 1991
- Construction Contracts and Claims – 1991
- Estimating, Tendering and Marketing in the Construction Industry – 1991 (Co-written with C. Pandita)
For University of Southern Queensland, Australia
To be populated
- Introduction to Construction Management & the Built Environment – 2010
- Building and Construction Procurement, University of Southern Queensland – 2013
- Residential Construction: Methods, Materials and Management- 2016 – using MIND MAPS