A very expensive Vitamin...

If you’ve had ever had the pleasure of pitching to investors of any kind, you’d have come across the importance of classifying your solution as an ‘Aspirin’ for a problem (or Viagra in more liberal countries) as opposed to a ‘Vitamin’.

Before you get concerned about me launching into another highly-complex-allegory, let me tell you, that I have a very simple theory on this one in relation to BIM.

If you had recently come up with an idea that you think will revolutionise construction, or at least fix its main problems, do the following self-check on your proposal:

Answer with YES/NO to this question:

Is the implementation of your idea (system/approach/toolset) going to make ALL project-participants get their hands dirty with project-information?

And when I say ‘dirty’, I mean dirty.

Use information direct from the horse’s mouth and plonk it back there once done with it;

If your answer is yes, you are onto something.

If not, you’re investing in (possibly) a very expensive vitamin.

Not convinced?

Think of writing a letter through dictating to someone and having an answer read back via a third person once it arrives (much later).

Replace those two sub-processes with emailing a message from your mobile phone and getting back an answer instantaneously.

A change from first to the second required a major ‘pain-killer’, no ‘vitamin’ could manage that.