Ep 1: The Owner's Role with Chad Kruse

Nobody wakes up wanting to be an owner. But the owner's seat might be the most consequential seat in design and construction, and it is the least understood. In this first episode, we start where every project starts: with the person who has to hold it all together before anyone else is even in the room. GUEST Chad Kruse is Executive Director and Project Advisor at Nebraska Medicine, where he provides business support for strategic and campus planning across one of the country's major academic medical centers. With 25 years in the industry spanning general contracting, design firms, and owner roles, Chad brings a perspective that is equal parts operational and deeply human. He is one of the clearest thinkers in the business on what it actually means to lead from the owner's seat. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-kruse-6714b47/ WHAT YOU WILL LEARN Why the owner's role is consistently underestimated and what genuine owner leadership actually looks like in practice How the pressure to move fast at the start of a project creates problems that no amount of good design or construction can fix later Why picking the right team has more to do with people than brands, and how Chad approaches that decision under time pressure How front-end planning works at the project level, and why you cannot rush or replicate that time What procurement and contracting choices signal about an owner's priorities before a single drawing is made Why Chad's institution pursued IPD, what surprised them when they got into it, and what integration actually looks like when it stops being a philosophy and becomes daily behavior TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Introduction and what this podcast is trying to do 03:29 - Chad's background, from GC to owner, and why he keeps coming back 07:21 - What a good owner actually looks like and the stewardship mindset 09:30 - The convergence challenge: clinical, operational, financial, and design, all at once 13:25 - Why you cannot fast-forward front-end planning, at the project or career level 17:46 - A real $30M project that started with a phone call and what made it work 19:50 - How procurement and contracting decisions shape everything downstream 22:13 - Why owners need sociology more than technical expertise 27:37 - Picking teams: people over brands, and what that looks like under pressure 32:26 - Staying ahead of how the industry is changing 34:03 - IPD in practice: what Chad's institution learned going through it for the first time 39:39 - Advice for anyone who wants to get into the owner's role RESOURCES MENTIONED Gallup CliftonStrengths National Academy of Construction WHERE TO FIND CHAD LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-kruse-6714b47/ Nebraska Medicine: https://www.nebraskamed.com