Inside Mortenson’s $10.8B Business: The Bet on In-House Innovation | Gene Hodge

<p>A few years ago, Mortenson&#39;s own leadership group told them they were treating innovation &quot;kind of like a hobby&quot;.</p><p>This year they&#39;re No. 10 on ENR&#39;s Top 400, running a 90,000 sq ft R&amp;D facility and about to launch a joint venture with Goldbeck.</p><p>So we asked Gene Hodge, their VP of I4 and Innovation, how he proves the ROI on all of it:</p><p>&quot;I think anyone asking what&#39;s the ROI on innovation is not interested in innovating, most likely.&quot;</p><p>CFOs, we&#39;d love to hear you push back on this one.</p><p>#construction #constructiontech #aec #ai #bricksandbytes</p><p>Our Sponsors:</p><p>BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.co</p><p>Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co</p><p>Archdesk -  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com</p><p>00:00 - Teaser</p><p>00:43 - Intro</p><p>01:36 - Who is Gene Hodge &amp; Mortenson Overview</p><p>02:31 - Quick-Fire Questions: Builder vs Technologist</p><p>03:10 - Sponsors</p><p>06:19 - Is Most Construction Tech Worth the Money?</p><p>06:49 - How Has the Jobsite Changed Since 2005?</p><p>07:43 - The Reality of AI on the Construction Site</p><p>08:29 - Autonomous Equipment &amp; Robots in 5 Years</p><p>09:30 - What Actually Moves the Needle on Projects</p><p>10:04 - Mortenson&#39;s In-House R&amp;D &amp; Innovation Spending</p><p>11:39 - Data Sovereignty: Which Tech Mortenson Refuses to Buy</p><p>12:33 - Goldbeck Joint Venture &amp; Industrialised Construction</p><p>14:57 - Real-Time Jobsite Visibility vs Manufacturing</p><p>16:03 - Standardisation vs Bespoke Client Architecture</p><p>17:27 - Data Centres &amp; the Hyperscaler Effect</p><p>18:56 - Industrialised Construction Across Resi &amp; Defence</p><p>21:19 - Day-to-Day Role &amp; The ROI of Innovation</p><p>23:04 - 30 Years After VDC: Why Has Productivity Stagnated?</p><p>25:35 - Lessons from 2003: 18,000 Punch List Items on Paper</p><p>28:29 - Precast Duct Bank Innovation</p><p>30:24 - Building a Corporate Culture of Innovation</p><p>32:38 - BLUvera: Scaling Offsite Manufacturing</p><p>34:38 - Redesigning the Jobsite Trailer &amp; Field Wellbeing</p><p>36:41 - AI Hype vs Real Jobsite Workflows</p><p>38:46 - Machine Learning in Pre-Construction &amp; Estimating</p><p>4