Kieran Nally has been involved in the construction industry for over 18 years, initially working for supplier companies in a range of categories including coatings and intumescents, door systems, and plumbing and drainage. Over the last three years he has been CEO of Livingstone Building — a growing main contractor with 235+ staff which has seen record performance over the past two years. As part of the senior leadership team, Kieran is focussed on delivering large-scale projects across aged care and health, education, retail and hospitality, commercial and industrial sectors. 

One thing that sets Livingstone Building apart is their focus on design and build contracts — something which gives them the ability to carefully manage projects from pre-construction through to completion. The EBOSS team spoke to Kieran to find out more about design and build contracts and what advice he would give to product suppliers in 2025: 

Can you tell me about Livingstone’s focus on Design & Build contracts?

Over the past three years, we’ve focussed on much stronger engagement through the pre-construction and design space, more involvement in design and build, and early contractor involvement projects. That early engagement and focus on design and build ensures that we drive projects from start to finish. 

The mantra we take is that projects are very much a collaboration. It’s about bringing buildability together with design and material supply, and coordinating those to ensure that the client gets maximum return on their investment. 

In the current market, what factors should suppliers be aware of regarding the way products are specified and procured?

More education is needed. Suppliers typically educate the architectural market, but more education is needed for the construction market. 

Identifying knowledge is important. A lot of construction companies now have pre-construction teams, and in some cases like us, we’ve also formulated a design team with architects and designers from design practices, so there's a lot of subject matter and knowledge within our construction business around that which is different to the traditional model. 

Suppliers also need to engage with construction managers to be solution providers. Rather than making a hard sale on a product, suppliers need to understand what solution is needed. I know coming from the supply side quite often you're fixated on selling product. Over the years you have to adapt. It’s not always about sales, it's about education, engagement and collaboration to find a solution. 

What other advice would you give product suppliers on how they can be successful in design and build projects?

They need to be thinking about a collective approach around the stakeholders within a project. You have various stakeholders — architects, engineers, cost consultants and estimators, and the project managers who are effectively charged with building the building, so encouraging collaboration across stakeholder groups, rather than taking a siloed approach is important. That could mean not primarily focusing on architects per say, but rather respecting the construction chain and stakeholder chain and collaborating across that. Being more collaborative across stakeholder chains.