Show me the money

The answer is money.

The questions: Why do construction companies operate? Why do designers design? Why do ironworkers dangle in their harnesses hundreds of feet in the air? Why does anybody do anything in any profession?

They do it for money. Oh sure, money isn’t always the first answer to those questions, but it’ll always be the last. How do you prove it? By asking a simple follow-up question: Would you do it for free?

How many people — how many businesses — can answer that in the affirmative? I’m guessing not many. It’s not always the most tactful conversation topic, but we’re all in it for the money.

We can say what we want about love of the job, camaraderie, professional fulfillment or answering a calling. We can talk endlessly about how good it feels leaving home with a goal to reach and returning with a goal met.

But how much fulfillment would we get if we returned home with empty wallets, if we knew that meeting a goal was the only reward?

People in construction design, engineer and build beautiful buildings. Many industry professionals care about the environment, donate their time to worthy causes and step forward to champion any number of important initiatives.

These are all truly important aspects of construction, and Wisconsin Builder commits 11 months of every year to focusing on them. But once a year, we get right down to the real nitty-gritty with our A List.

It’s about as cut and dried as it can be, as unemotional as a dollar bill. It’s a list — or, in this year’s case, four lists — that essentially ranks construction companies based on how much money they made in the previous year.

In no way does The A List pretend to report on the success of the individual companies listed. A firm ranked at the end of a particular list might be coming off a year in which it hit every financial goal it set.

And that’s the thing about money. It’s a driving force, but it doesn’t tell the whole story of a company, just as it can’t paint the full picture of a person.

Money might be at the heart of the construction industry, but it would be a mistake to think it’s the construction industry’s heart.