By Mónica Silva, assistant manager of communications and reputation at Conexión Kimal-Lo Aguirre.
The most recent evidence is compelling: the SmartMarket Brief 2024 Not by Design: The True Cost of Poor Collaboration shows that, of 251 contractors in the United States and Canada, 98% reported significant quality issues in the last three years and that poor coordination/communication between the company and contractors causes, on average, a +9% budget overrun and a 10% erosion of the annual margin. Formalizing communication and coordination with contractors has a positive impact on project success—improving time, cost, and quality—by reducing conflicts and rework.
Supplier management is not logistics: it is applied communication strategy. Each contractor, subcontractor, and local SME is a point of contact with communities, authorities, and workers. If that contact is organized with clear criteria, the project gains understanding and predictability; if it is improvised, costs, deadlines, and noise increase. Communication, in this link, ceases to be a narrative and becomes an operating system.
Context, criteria, and channels are fundamental. Context is delivering the social and operational map before moving a single machine. Criteria is aligning what to say, how to act, and when to alert, so that a field manager or driver responds with the same guidelines. Channels is ensuring traceability: recording, referring, and closing concerns with evidence. This triad turns communication into a management measure as concrete as a risk matrix.
Having a centralized coordination and reporting system avoids rework, provides traceability for commitments, and speeds up responses, establishing itself as a governance hub for meeting deadlines, budgets, and reputation standards. Clear information management allows for anticipating incidents, aligning expectations, and streamlining decision-making. It also strengthens site safety, reduces uncertainty, protects the schedule, and reduces legal disputes.
It allows the conversation to work. At Conexión Kimal-Lo Aguirre, we have launched Alineados, our program for working with contractors to achieve more effective and proactive communication. It is still in the implementation stage and requires commitment from both parties. Its focus is on translating ESG commitments into understandable routines: clear roles and visible responsibilities, contingency planning, appropriate training, effective coordination, and a common approach to alerting and escalating issues.
We are not looking for perfection, we are looking for consistency in order to learn, correct, and keep records. Turning the supply chain into a communication partner reduces risks, strengthens trust, and leaves capabilities in place in the local ecosystem, ensuring that the value of the project transcends its construction.
