Twenty years of success -- and just discovering marketing

Amsted Design/Build founder and president Steve Barkhouse outside his Stittsville, Ontario, office. The stones recognize employees for five years of service -- at the company's annual breakfast before our interview, several received the recognition.

Yesterday, I met with Amsted Design/Build president Steve Barkhouse as we prepared a 20-year anniversary feature about his renovation business for the GOHBA Impact!, the newsletter of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association. Amsted's business longevity closely matches mine and, as we parted company, Barkhouse observed how few businesses reach the 20-year milestone, let alone as successful as his enterprise.

Notably, Amsted to a large extent followed the conventional pattern of successful renovators and contractors. By doing great work, consistently and effectively, repeat and referral clients provide the basis for success and growth. In fact, Barkhouse said only recently has he started marketing.

(I'm not sure if this is entirely accurately, if you define marketing more broadly than conventional advertising. For example, he served as president of the GOHBA about a decade ago; and connected/worked within the community -- all valid marketing activities.)

Barkhouse offered an important explanation of why marketing has become more important to him recently. With 50 plus employees, without marketing to induce new client interest, he would have one other choice in a downturn in the market -- to lay off employees. Sure, he would do this if absolutely necessary, but he says he has built a competent team of qualified people -- and the company's scale of operation with design build, and in-house trades, would not nearly be as effective if it needed to shrink. So marketing allows him to manage the work flow -- and prepare for growth when conditions improve.

Of course, Amsted observes the core techniques of successful businesses including vision and mission statements and core values, which are discussed with employees at monthly meetings (meeting frequency increases if the business is working through a potential crisis):

Vision Statement

We will be the most sought after company in it's industry. To be highly respected for integrity, excellence and success. To provide a work environment that is enjoyable and achieves a balance between work and personal time.

Mission Statement

In order to realize our Vision, our Mission must be to exceed the expectations of our customers, whom we define as clients, partners and fellow employees. We will accomplish this by committing to our shared values and by achieving the highest level of customer satisfaction. In this way we will ensure that our profit, quality and growth goals are met.

Core Values

INTEGRITY -- Integrity is our trademark. We adhere to moral and ethical principles through soundness of moral character and honesty.

EXCELLENCE -- Excellence is the key to our continued success. We continuously strive for excellence in all we do.

TEAMWORK - Teamwork is our strength. Our chosen team works cooperatively, achieving common goals.

RESPECT -- Respect is the basis of all our relationships. We recognize and value both women and men around the world in all their diversity, whether inside or outside the group.

TRUST -- Trust is the foundation of our team. We build relationships and create a climate of trust among us all.

LOYALTY -- Loyalty is our commitment to the future. Loyalty is rewarded and highly regarded.

FULFILLMENT -- Fulfillment is our obligation. We continuously strive to exceed expectations and fulfill dreams.

PROUD -- being proud is our reward. We set high standards for ourselves every day, both as individuals and in our teams, so that we can give our best maximize our performance.

EMPATHY -- Empathy provides our peace of mind. We know the importance of experiencing the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another in order to succeed.

PROGRESS -- Progress is our movement toward a higher stage. We know how to look ahead, anticipate and educate, in order to develop new solutions that drive progress.

The construction business mission statement reviewed

This image is from a Google cached version of California contractor RTI Construction, Inc.'s website.

The company's real mission statement is:

"We, at RTI Construction Inc., feel it is our responsibility to provide the highest level of quality construction services at a fair and competitive price for our customers.
"We believe that the longevity of our company will come through repeat and referral business achieved by customer satisfaction in all areas including timely attention to detail and service-minded attitudes.
"Employees are dedicated to bringing back the lost art of skilled craftsmanship in our trade."

I think the placeholder page: "Under construction. Come back soon. " works a whole lot better.

Ugh. I realized on Friday I couldn't remember our company's mission statement, even though we had reviewed it just a few months ago. And I'm the company president! We have some work to do here -- and, by that, I certainly don't mean holding group sessions within our business where employees are expected by drill and rote to memorize the mission statement.

Here is the statement as it is now (and reviewed at the last planning session -- after I had forgot it there, as well!)

The Construction News Group:
Breaking new ground,
Building new bonds
and
Delivering news you can use every day.

Why doesn't this stick in memory -- so strongly and effectively that we almost sing it every day? Is something lacking in the statement itself, or am I don't something wrong in leading/implementing it?

Maybe the challenge is the possible distinction between the corporate mission statement and the real mission statements, we as individuals must use. My personal mission statement may be "I love digging out stories and sharing the news." I suppose that is partially covered in the corporate statement, which of course must accommodate others in the organization.

Can we do better?

Our new mission statement Tag Line

The Construction News Group:

Breaking new ground,

Building new bonds

and

Delivering news you can use every day.

Some businesses spend hours at management retreats, and engage in the services of high powered consultants to determine their Mission Statement tag line. And it is true that in our case, the process of reaching this conclusion took more than a year from the time we first raised the topic in one of our bi-annual planning/review meetings.

But the actual resolution of the question took us, well, about 15 minutes.

Yesterday, I posted our mission statement on this blog. Daniel Smith quickly penned this email to me:

I read your posting about the mission statement and tag line and I had a thought about an approach that might work. After some fiddling around, this is what I came up with:

The Construction News Group:
Breaking new ground,
Building new bonds and
Delivering news you can use every day.

The idea was to parallel the process of a development - first ground is Broken, then the Build starts and when done, the building is said to be Delivered.

At the same time the alliteration kind of flows (I think), it touches on three main purposes of our organization (innovation, building relationships and delivering relevant news) and it maintains the little "news you can use" bit, too, which I personally really like about the current tag line.

Obviously this is just a rough suggestion and could be changed as everyone sees fit. But what do you think?

I liked Daniel's thinking and Tag Line, so quickly added it to the agenda for our regular Monday staff meeting, along with several other topics.

At 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon, we went around the table (figuratively, as most of us participated in the meeting via teleconference) and our team universally agreed that Daniel's tag line makes sense, and should be implemented.

So you'll soon see it on our websites, and in printed materials.

Wow. After more than a year, we resolved the entire thing in a matter of minutes in one day!

That of course is the nature of healthy business in 2008. Not forcing issues; we can use new communications tools to speed up the process of adaptation and dissemination of good ideas, with respect for the originator's creativity, and the collaboration of the team. Note how this blog and our regular meeting system (and note that our weekly meetings never run more than an hour -- and this week we finished a fairly heavy agenda in 40 minutes) allowed what could have been a truly time consuming business process to conclude in minutes. But equally, while Daniel only needed a few minutes to write our new Tag Line, the process underlying to form the understanding of what is right took months. And that is the nature of most marketing and business development in our industry.

Remembering the mission statement

Do you ever have moments when you realize that you've forgotten something basic in the clutter of time and process? So I felt at our bi-annual planning meeting last week when we were to discuss the company's Mission Statement.

I had failed to connect that we actually had developed our Mission Statement at an earlier planning meeting, and the Action Item to review and develop new "tag lines" for this statement actually represented an updating and clarification, rather than "create from scratch" process. But, no, I went out over the Christmas period, blogging my thoughts on this topic, and coming up with some tentative wording for a new Mission Statement.

Well, all this came crashing down to earth when facilitator/consultant Bill Caswell pointed out the page number and specific references to the Mission Statement in the corporate business plan. So here we have the company president, in front of the entire team, having to admit he had obviously forgotten to reread the plan before trying to reinvent the wheel.

Fortunately, I have a thick skin, coupled with a healthy degree of humility about my weaknesses. We only needed 15 minutes to review the Mission Statement, tweak some wording, and then set it out and back into the business plan. Here it is:

Construction News and Report Group of Companies

Mission Statement

Purpose

The Purpose of Construction News and Report is to provide news about the construction industry. Specifically our purpose includes providing news that readers wouldn’t otherwise get, devoid of prejudice, so that readers can make better, more informed decisions and, in turn, provide better business solutions that serve their own clients. At the same time, Construction News sets out to be the heartbeat of the industry that binds people together, and to provide value to the readers.

Vision

The five-year Vision of Construction News and Report is, by 2012, to be functionally operational[1] in at least 12 locations across North America with annual sales above $6 million. A longer-term vision is, by 2020, to be functionally operational2 in at least 30 locations around the world3.

Values

The Values of Construction News and Report, to which we will adhere as we execute our Purpose in quest of our Vision, are:

· To report with objectivity, avoiding undue influence in editorial content
· To have integrity in all that we do, including reporting and operations

Appended to the Mission Statement is this note:

Note that this full Mission Statement is for internal use. For clients and others outside of Construction News, a condensed version of the Mission Statement would be presented. For example, a tag line might be: Construction News - The heartbeat of the industry that binds people together, and provides value to readers.

Now, I'm somewhat troubled that something as important as the company's mission statement so much slipped my mind that I set out to create a new one from scratch! But that is the nature of this sort of thing -- while mission statements are important and reflect the core values of a business, and therefore can guide us when we are making our strategic and operational planning decisions, they also have a tendency to be somewhat abstract and distant from the hard-rock, nuts and bolts of day-to-day business. Or it could be that the mission statement is so obvious that we simply know it by heart, and therefore don't think about it too much.

Whatever, I'm humbled by my experience but think it right to set out the Mission Statement here for everyone to see.

The Mission Statement (3)

Mike Finley, of Rocky Mountain Bathrooms, based in Littletown, Colorado, has developed and posted his company's Mission Statement in a logical and highly relevant location -- on its employment/job offer page. See this relevant posting in a thread on the Contractortalk.com forum.

Our Companies' Core Purpose
To be a valued partner to our customers by providing them with a means to make improvements to their quality of life through purchasing the services we provide.
Our Company Core Values
To serve our customers, to serve our employees, to serve our company.
To act with integrity and always be ethical with our customers and our employees.
Have respect for the individual growth and success of our employees.
To always be the leader in our field by intelligently
combining traditional, tried-and-true construction practices with new and innovative high-quality processes and materials.
To generate a reasonable profit proportional to the value provided to our customers.

This is really well thought. Again, mission statements are meaningless unless they are truly reflected in business practices -- certainly our 'old' mission statement (see my original entry here) remained in our newspapers despite many business operational flaws where we failed to live up to its values.

Mission statements (2)

The Mission Statement from Thieneman Construction in Indiana is simple and effective -- and this company receives one of the highest placements in Google's image function for the relevant keywords.

Here are some construction company mission statements, taken in "Google order" with the keywords "mission statement construction".

Bob Moore Construction, Inc., Arlington, TX

Bob Moore Construction's philosophy has remained unchanged for over five decades: Deliver a quality product on time and in budget.
To that end, our mission is:
To perform for our customers the highest level of quality construction services at fair and market competitive prices.
To ensure the longevity of our company through repeat and referral business achieved by customer satisfaction in all areas including timeliness, attention to detail and service-minded attitudes.
To maintain the highest levels of professionalism, integrity, honesty and fairness in our relationships with our suppliers, subcontractors, professional associates and customers.

C.F. Jordan LP Construction Services, El Paso, Texas

To be the preeminent provider of superior construction services by consistently improving the quality of our product; to add value for clients through innovation, foresight, integrity, and aggressive performance; and to serve with character and purpose that brings honor to God.

Gootee Construction, Metaire, LA

Gootee Construction is an experienced general and mechanical contractor dedicated to quality construction and efficient management of resources. Our track record of
major projects - including new construction, renovation and restoration - has
earned us a reputation for being creative, technologically advanced and extremely responsive to our customers.
Our two greatest assets are our people and our integrity. Gootee employees are experienced, well-educated professionals. Our competitive advantage stems from the atmosphere of mutual trust and respect that permeates our company. The care and concern that we have for our employees and subcontractors greatly enhance our ability to deliver quality projects on time and within budget.
Above all, we are dedicated to our customers and their projects. In addition, we are committed to community service, as a company and as individuals.

Krusinski Construction Company, Chicago

Our Mission... Krusinski Construction Company is a leader in providing value-added construction services to our customers by creating a successful partnership with them throughout the construction process. Our pledge is to establish lasting relationships with our customers by exceeding their expectations and gaining their trust through exceptional performance by every member of the construction team.

As marketing resources, I perceive that none of these mission statements would have any direct impact or value -- in themselves. The reason: They speak of standard values -- of expectations that I think everyone would have of a contractor or construction business. The only statement that takes any risk, if you wish to dare use that word in this context, is C.F. Jordan which states a religious message within its Mission Statement; presumably reflecting the company management's faith.

The mission statement importance in these contexts is the companies abilities to live up to their missions -- then, of course, they will communicate through deeds more than words that they are well-run businesses with solid community values and respect.

The mission statement

This image is from the Mission Statement page of SDC Construction Services -- a Portuguese company that has successfully expanded internationally, with U.S. headquarters in Miami.

So here I am, on Christmas night, in a quiet hotel lobby in Montreal, suddenly realizing that it is indeed time to define the business mission statement.

My influence: A truly influential book, The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning. Randy Pollock, editor of the SMPS Marketer, sent the book to me as a gift -- it arrived in the mail on Dec. 24 and went into my 'reading bag' as we started our brief Christmas vacation in Montreal.

The Mission Statement has been on the Action List since last year -- every time the due date for this project comes up, I've pushed it back; feeling in my heart that a Mission Statement is corporate gunk-talk; stuff for the people sitting around the table at endless meetings, not really knowing where they are going; or at worst, is platitudes and corporate-speak, designed to sell the business to itself -- and create a mirage image for the public.

But maybe I've had it wrong all along. Have I really thought about WHY we are in business; what our deep objectives are; and what we want to accomplish -- or do we just have a product, a market, and a sales methodology that sort of works, without respecting its implications in the marketplace as a whole.

And maybe the problem is that our existing Mission Statement is okay, but it came from the heart of someone no longer with the business, and is something I just paid lip-service to:

We are the Construction News and Report Group of Companies

We help to secure the ties that bind old and new relationships.

We provide word-of-mouth recommendations in print.

We work as a team to help strengthen your team.

Hmm, not bad, I think, now reading this. But where is the stuff that reaches my heart -- the passion, the desire for good journalism, the objective to build and enhance communities and correct problems and injustices? Where is the guidance, the support, the will to help the subcontractor struggling to find work; or the architect battling to find a place in the marketplace against overpowering competition. (Or, for that matter, how do these values relate to the well-run and successful corporation where solid business practices combine with practical understanding of the business to overtake the competition and succeed in virtually any market environment?)

Maybe I am ready to generate a more meaningful Mission Statement. Let me try this one on for size:

We are the Construction News and Report Group of Companies.

We support communities in the construction industry in achieving ethical growth.

We uplift individuals and businesses in achieving marketing insights and success.

We help to secure the ties that bind old and new relationships.

I'm not sure if this is the right statement; we will need to bounce it around; refine the message, think about the implications, and how it drives our passion. I would like to put more heart, more soul, more spirit into the mission statement.

So why is this so important all of a sudden? Well, I realized in a flash of insight tonight that I risk running a rudderless business, where our salespeople are working for money rather than a larager purpose-- where we are looking for short term objectives rather than long-term values; and I simply realized this won't take us to where we really want to go -- to be a business with international scope, leadership, and quality.

Leadership, says Denning, requires a passionate purpose -- you need to have something meaningful to lead before you can achieve much of significance. Just pushing out our papers (and websites) won't achieve this value. Just 'doing the job' won't achieve the higher level of meaningful accomplishment and greatness to differentiate us from all the other regular businesses out there. And I simply don't want to accept 'okay' as an answer -- good enough is, here, not good enough.

I want to share something beyond business as usual -- to communicate hope, adventure, love and respect. To help people work together; to bring communities to a richer space; to give the industry the tools to grow; to allow the entrepreneur to weather economic storms; to foster understanding and honor; to battle cynicism and blatant greed and hypocrisy. Most importantly, I want to elevate and honour the unsung heroes of our community; the subs who toil in the shadows; the consultants who live behind the scenes and help the big guys do their stuff so well; and yes, to the ethically run and well managed larger businesses who fuel the overall industry and have the capacity to handle the largest and most significant projects.

Now, I just have to boil these thoughts into a meaningful mission statement -- and that is going to take some work in the next few days. I certainly welcome your input.