You can usually tell when a commercial team is stretched.
Not from a single failure, but from the pattern.
Notices go out, but often later than they should. Reviews happen, but without the same level of challenge. Positions are agreed in principle, but not fully tested. Detail starts to give way to assumption.
Nothing looks fundamentally wrong. But the standard is slipping.
At that point, the role of the commercial team starts to change. Less time managing the contract. More time managing workload.
That is where risk starts to build.
What gets missed early
Opportunities are missed early because there is no capacity to develop them properly. Entitlement is recognised, but not fully articulated. The programme is relied on, but not interrogated.
By the time additional resource is brought in, the position is already partially set. The issue is no longer just capacity. It is reconstruction.
And reconstruction is always more difficult than control.
The difference that matters
In most cases, the difference is not capability. It is bandwidth at the point where it matters.
A commercial team that is stretched is not failing. It is prioritising. And in that prioritisation, the things that feel less urgent — proper notice, full entitlement capture, programme interrogation — are the first to slip.
Those are also the things that determine the commercial outcome.
Bringing in additional resource before the position sets is almost always more effective than bringing it in after.
Greg O'Connell MCIOB is Managing Director of Vinovius, a specialist consultancy providing commercial and planning expertise to the construction industry.
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