Now, more than 30 years on, his innovation has burgeoned into a multi-billion pound international industry which Roger Knowles says is a "monster".
"Things have changed enormously over the past three decades," says Roger.
"When I set off in 1973, there was only really me in the business and I was motivated by a genuine desire to help the smaller companies who were being forced out of business.
"Today, the claims business is booming and is very much part of the fabric of the construction industry.
"It is also extremely sophisticated, but I believe that it is an expenditure which, if people behaved more rationally, would be greatly reduced.
"But I did create the monster," laughs Roger.
Indeed, his own dispute resolution business grew into a £30m international enterprise, which two years ago netted Roger a tidy sum when the business was sold for £7m to Hill International.
And Roger himself is still in huge demand on the international stage for lectures on the subject. He regularly tours the Middle East, Asia and Europe, and over the last three decades has given more than 1,300 lectures.
He is also the chairman and founder of the AIM-listed quantity surveyors Baqus Group, and the keep-fit fanatic also runs and cycles many miles each week.
It is seemingly an exhausting schedule, particularly when you are 71, but Roger says: "I like to keep busy - and what else is there to do apart from work?"
Born in Warrington the son of a civil servant, Roger left school at 16 and got a job as a trainee quantity surveyor at a firm called Wakemans, where he spent most of his days working out measurements.
"It was excruciatingly boring," says Roger. "But back in those days you were lucky to get a job."
Boring it may have been, but Roger had big ambitions. He enrolled at night school to gain Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' qualifications, and began to move up the ranks.
Roger spent 19 years at the firm, moving around the country and managing various offices until he "reached the dizzy heights of associate partner".
He says: "It was one step down from being an equity partner that meant they got the money and I did all the work!"
However, during his final few years at Wakemans, Roger decided to train as a barrister through distance learning.
He says: "I enrolled at the Inns of Court School in London and just turned up for the exams. Three-and-a-half- years later I was called to the Bar!"
A year after qualifying, a 35-year-old Roger decided to take stock of his life.
He says: "Although I was a qualified barrister, pursuing a career in the field was impossible because, apart from the fact it was very difficult to get into, I would have had to work for at least a year for nothing, which when you are married with a mortgage just isn't an option.
"So I decided to combine my quantity surveying skills with the legal qualifications, and set up my own practice in dispute resolution."
In 1973, James R Knowles was born.
Roger says "James is a family name. I didn't want to call the business Roger Knowles as it sounded like a hair salon - there were lots of hairdressers around at the time called Roger!"
"Dispute resolution was an innovation at the time, and I was one of the first to do it. I spotted a huge need in the market. At the time, inflation was running at 28 per cent and interest rates were 15pc, and many of the contractors and sub contractors were on two-year fixed contracts, which meant that with these escalating costs, they were in danger of going out of business before the contract ended.
"My mission was to squeeze as much money out of people to protect the contractors.
"Basically, I approached their clients and said `Here is a bill for the extra costs the contractors are having to bear, and if you don't listen we could go to arbitration but our case is very strong'."
Roger says it was a gradual process of persuasion but, once word got out, the business was flying.
Over the next three decades James R Knowles opened offices around the world. In 1998 it floated on the London Stock Exchange to raise money for further expansion.
By 2006, James R Knowles was a £30m business with 350 staff employed as far afield as Dubai and Vancouver, and during the three decades had managed to make a profit every year.
However, after 33 years at the helm, Roger decided to sell the business.
He says: "I got the point when I thought to myself, I'm 68 and it's time to cash in my chips. The company had also grown into a monster, and I was attending hundreds of meetings every year around the world. It was time to go."
James R Knowles was sold for £7m - a price based around the previous year's profit.
While Roger admits that if he'd have sold the business a few years earlier he'd have probably got more, but he's certainly no regrets.
And at 71, Roger certainly has no plans to take it easy.
"You are as young as you feel," says Roger who, preparing for a seven-mile run, added: "Age is all in the mind!"
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