Kubale Constructions has been operating for over 26 years, with administration and project management based in Warragul, east of Melbourne, and Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. In that time, we have delivered commercial, industrial, government, education and maintenance projects across Victoria and South East Queensland.
Ask anyone at Kubale Constructions what more than two and a half decades in construction has taught us about meeting client expectations, and the answer will be fairly consistent. People … it’s always about the people and the way they conduct themselves.
This article looks at what that actually means on a project, and why mutual benefit sits underneath all of it.
"It's almost all about the people on your team. If we attract the best people, treat each other with respect, and focus on a culture of self-improvement, accountability and reward for success, the rest plays out naturally for both the client and our team" - Tim Kubale, Director
The Foundations We Build On
Our reputation for delivering on our promises rests on six pillars of project management, and every one of them describes a focused behaviour:
- Customer Focus … understand our client’s needs and priorities
- Focus on planning to reduce costs, avoid errors, and pre-empt difficulty
- Live what you say, making open and honest communication our standard
- Genuine relationships with our staff, our subcontractors, and our suppliers
- Determined risk mitigation with a personal stake in keeping everyone involved safe
- Make quality a personal statement and focus on getting it right the first time, on time
Systems support each of those, but none of them survives a culture that does not want them. You can read more about how we are structured on our company page.
A Culture of Continuous Improvement
We run a youthful and progressive culture where self-improvement is valued, and our staff are encouraged to promote and embrace change rather than defend the way something has always been done. That sounds straightforward until a project throws up an uncomfortable lesson. The real test is being able to confront problems, accept change, and see problems as opportunities.
Ideas Are Judged on Merit, Not Seniority
"Leave your ego at the door. It's a place where good ideas are valued, no matter where they come from. And most problems turn out to be an opportunity in disguise!" - Dion Bright, Systems Manager
What has stood out over the years is the appetite for change and new ideas. Talented people join, contribute fresh thinking, and advance their careers on the back of it. The measurable result is efficiency: our staffing has grown, but our project throughput has grown considerably more. Our administration team now handles 300% of the volume of business it did a decade ago, and our average retention is over 6 years.
We Develop People Rather Than Replace Them
We operate a decentralised HR model that requires our team leaders to coach and train their staff, and we invest in our people and recruit from within wherever we can. Careers here start in a lot of different places including apprenticeships, industry placements, and mid-career changes from outside construction entirely.
Not only does this create benefit for the person learning, teaching itself is highly rewarding and delivers personal growth. You can meet some of the team on our people page.
Mutually Beneficial Goals
Construction has an earned reputation for adversarial commercial relationships. If you’ve spent any time in the construction industry in Australia in the last 30 years, you’ll understand this … growling Site Managers, rough tradies, arrogant Project Managers, lazy apprentices, workplace bullying, combative clients, shifty subbies. We accept none of these … none.
We take a different position, and it is a practical and commercially oriented one rather than a purely sentimental one.
By deploying local resources wherever possible, we’re utilizing decades of experience and the cost efficiencies that can only come from long-term relationships with local suppliers. Those relationships are built on mutual benefit, fairness, and trust. A subcontractor who expects to be back on the next job prices honestly and raises problems early, because the relationship is worth more to them than the short-term advantage of staying quiet.
The same logic applies to clients. We have put our clients’ needs at the core of our decision-making, and we choose our projects carefully so that we are working with like-minded partners. We are growing because our clients are happy with our performance and trust us repeatedly with their projects.
"They were approachable, responsive and worked collaboratively to ensure the build progressed smoothly with minimal disruption to our school" - Stephen Pitt, Principal, St Angela of the Cross PS
Empowerment and Accountability
We have developed and recruited talent around a simple belief: good people, better empowered, make the best decisions. You cannot hold someone responsible for an outcome they were never given the authority to influence, so on our projects those two things arrive together.
Everyone Carries Responsibility for Leading
Everyone here is responsible for leading in a culture that rewards initiative. That means showing leadership both in our own performance and in seeking opportunities to develop the competence of team members with less experience. We expect it on major project decisions and on the tiniest gestures within our workplaces.
"Our leaders may be responsible for making the big decisions concerning major risks, yet expected to do the small gestures like buying the crew a coffee, saying thank you, or lending a hand. We're in this together." - Anthony Magnuson, Operations Manager
Accountability Sits With a Named Person
We are also big on personal accountability. Each major activity within the business is led by a manager who is responsible for the performance of their team, and our team leaders are required to coach and train their staff before they can be truly responsible for team outcomes. For a client, the practical consequence is that when you talk to one of our team leaders, you are talking to an experienced construction professional who is exceptional at their role, not to a message-taker.
"The support from my manager has been awesome and I’ve been trusted to make big decisions." - Daniel Jone, Site Manager
Risk and Reward
Our flexibility in delivery models gives us agility, yet we take a conservative approach to risk. Those two things are compatible, and in our experience they depend on each other.
Agility in How We Deliver
We work across a range of delivery models tailored to suit our clients’ needs, and they can be customised to suit the stage of the project and the nature of the relationship a client requires:
- Design & Construct (D&C)
- Construction by contract
- Construction management
- Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) including construction budgeting
- Hourly Rate + Expenses (HRE)
- Maintenance contracts
Caution in What We Claim
Diligent risk mitigation is one of our six pillars, and our project management expertise includes cost minimisation strategies, the hands-on experience to pre-empt and mitigate risk, and agile resources capable of meeting changing demands. The aim is straightforward: deliver what we have promised … no surprises, on time, and on budget.
Reward That Is Actually Shared
Reward-for-success is part of the same equation. Our KC Benefits+ program goes beyond the usual employment entitlements and incentivises staff to develop their skills, seek responsibility, and lead others by raising the bar. It also rewards loyalty to our team and our clients with significant financial incentives tied to our shared profitability, including profit share for longevity. When the people running your project have a stake in how well the business performs, the interests line up.
Culture That Extends Beyond the Site
Equality, fairness, and truthfulness are critical parts of our team culture, and they show up in places that have nothing to do with a contract.
We're a regular donor to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, because many of our staff have a personal connection to the outback and we understand what that service means to remote communities. We support the Wilderness Society because we're a regional-based company that supports the country-lifestyle of our staff, suppliers and subcontractors. And for decades now, we've supported the small organisations that are a big part of the communities where we build.
We also treat mental health as a critical OH&S concern rather than a side issue, and we support Mindfull Aus both financially and strategically through a program of visitations, mental health first-aid training, and connections for our team. We see this activity as essential and part of our culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should company culture matter to me when I am comparing builders on price and programme?
Price and programme are what a builder commits to at tender. Culture decides what happens to those commitments when the project meets its first real problem. A useful question to ask any builder is how they handled a project that went wrong, who told the client, and how quickly.
What does mutual benefit actually mean in practice?
It means the commercial relationship is set up so both parties succeed together rather than one recovering at the other’s expense. On our projects it shows up as genuine long-term relationships with subcontractors and suppliers, open and honest communication with stakeholders, and problems raised early rather than saved for a claim.
How do you give site teams authority without losing control of quality and cost?
Authority sits with the people closest to the work, inside a structure where each major activity is led by a manager accountable for their team’s performance. Our project management team also works from live, cloud-based data synchronised between our administration staff, our crews on site, our construction partners and our clients, so decisions are visible rather than reported later.
Will your team tell us about a problem, or will we find out later?
Open and honest communication with project stakeholders is one of the six pillars our project management is built on, and taking a no-nonsense approach to resolving project complexities is how we prefer to work. We would rather have a straight conversation early than manage around something quietly.
Do you work with our existing architects and consultants?
Yes. We work across a range of delivery models, including Early Contractor Involvement, specifically so that we can join a project at the stage that suits the client and work alongside the design team already in place.
Build With a Team that Talks Straight
We are dependable, progressive, transparent and people oriented, and we live a no-nonsense approach to commercial construction. Our clients benefit from clarity and transparency in project communication because we stay focused on their goal rather than our own convenience.
Planning a project or preparing a tender package? Visit our commercial construction page to see how we deliver, or get in touch with our construction teams for a straight conversation about your upcoming build.