Tag Archives: Masonry Blog

Maintaining a Standard of Excellence

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These days my sons have freed me from all the day-to-day rigors of running and maintaining the business. My request to them as I may have said before, was to make me a ghost by May this year and they seemed more than excited to accomplish the task. So now with many extra hours in the day with very little responsibility I have plenty of time to wonder if we are staying the course and continuing to serve our clients with the highest standard of excellence. I am confident that my sons are the best there is in the business at what they do as well as dedicated to a high standard of excellence, it’s just that I have been at the helm for so long with my hands in every pot it’s hard to know for certain that we are “maintaining a high or higher standard” in all that we do with out me being this involved. I begin to start thinking of ways to install policies and procedures that hold us accountable to the highest standards. The boys are not bashful in asking me if I have too much time on my hands and ask, “Don’t you have a tee time or doctors appointment?”  I guess after 30 plus years at building a business you may finally reach some resemblance of success– now you want to maintain that degree same degree of success and I’ve found that it starts with the search for a high standard of excellence. Where do we start with this new challenge and how do put it into action?

I decided to call a few of our regular General Contractors and find out were we may be falling short and how can we increase our standard of excellence. This may be a risky thing to do and you need to be prepared to hear some things that you may not want to. Our goal as I have said in other blogs is to prepare our foreman for success, I w ant to set my sons up for the same success in “maintaining a high standard of excellence” in serving our clients. What I heard from our clients was, safety first, quality second and meeting the schedule is very import but not at the top of the list. In fact several have said that they felt that meeting schedules were our strong point; but we did need to strengthen our safety and we could use some improvement in our quality control. Some of this was due to our need to train a new a wash down sub and add new workers to our team to meet the new demands. These were things I didn’t want to hear but after doing some investigating I found that some of what they were saying was true. The first thing we did was contact our safety consultant at 360 Safety and schedule a mandatory company safety workshop. This was also a great opportunity for our company to come together and it encourages team work and camaraderie that we can’t achieve out at the site with it’s constant challenges. We have been working very closely with are wash sub at DC restoration to get to the pristine finishes we are after with chemical washing for our clients. I am also working with the office staff to fine tune the art of internet communication and how to communicate with all our clients and venders with a high degree of respect.

These are just a few of these areas that we are challenging all our employees to continue to work at the highest level of excellence we can achieve for our clients. In the future I will have to find some other things to do with my extra time besides being on a constant vigil for sustaining this high level excellence. As for now I am challenging myself as I challenge other managers, not to grow weary in well doing or fall asleep at the wheel. All of us should remember that 2008 gave all of us a false sense of security and were not prepared for the challenges that took place
the following years. If you stay alert and pay attention to details you should not be caught off guard again. So this is the challenge; to constantly look for improvement, train and encourage others to do the same and stay alert constantly working towards maintaining a high level of excellence. Enjoy the fruits of your labor and pay attention to detail, you will continue to reap rewards in the future and be ready for any new challenges to come.

“Cornerstone in the Work-zone”

Sincerely, Larry Bonife, President larry2


 

Forward Thinking

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When I research the definition of forward thinking I find that there is no clear definition. Many define it as a business term for visionary. This would be someone that looks to the future to better perform tasks more efficiently and grow their business in size and volume. I would tend to agree at first thought. I have always been one to ask the question “what are we going to do next” and this would indicate one that is never satisfied or one with an unsatisfied desire to get bigger and better. Another way to define a progressive thinker would be one that might ask the question “what opportunities will the future bring”. These may all be true for some forward thinkers and visionaries. I would like to believe that these things would just simply be the result of forward thinking. In other words when you are a forward thinker constantly asking the question “what is next” and acting on the answers the results would be very positive for your companies growth.

Recently I challenged my sons who are the managers of our company to start showing me forward thinking in each of their areas of responsibilities. There was a quizzical expression on their faces as though I wasn’t clear in what I was asking for. I see now that was due to the lack of clarity to the definition of the term. I tried to explain that I wanted them to look and plan ahead, anticipate the future, look for potential problems and find solutions. I tried to use some examples such as using capitol to replace worn out equipment before it starts breaking down while a job is in progress or searching for new and stronger clients for when the economy becomes more challenging as well as searching out a better way to prepare or present bids. In my view, this would be forward thinking. Workforce management would be another example of forward thinking “anticipate what our needs will be and make a plan to get those needs filled. My fear would be that if we are not thinking and moving forward then we are going backward. We tend to fall in a mode of complacency and feel as though we are entitled to only good results for our efforts. This breeds laziness and entitlement and could bring your company to it’s knees while complacency sets in.

This would bring the question to mind of what kind of forward thinking can we bring to the masonry industry? I remember when mast climbing scaffold came on the scene and all the “old timers” stuck in their ways did not want to embrace this new step into the future. We did make the investment realizing some of the potential, a safer and more productive way to put masonry units in the wall. This was most evident when the construction holocaust hit us in 2009 and we needed to be more competitive for the limited work that was available to us. This is a great example of preparing for trends in the market place and opportunities before they develop (“forward thinking”). There are many other examples and I would like to thank those who are constantly investing their time and money to help keep our industry in the current century. Bricklaying is commonly refereed to as the second oldest industry in history but we don’t have to act like it.

I always like to leave you with a challenge and today’s would be to practice froward thinking, you may not have a natural bent for it but certainly you can plan and practice foresight (which in Greek means) forward thinking and be better prepared for the future. Who knows maybe they may start calling you “The Visionary.”

“Cornerstone in the Work-zone”

Sincerely, Larry Bonife, President larry2


 

Formula for Success

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It is easy for me say that I’m an expert when it comes to the formula for success because I have three son’s that have diverse talents that fit perfectly together and fit perfectly as well in the masonry industry that has certainly been a huge part of our success. It also doesn’t hurt that they ALL seem to buy into the same philosophy of serving others (especially our clients) as well. When we talk as a family, to own the Cornerstone model and discuss the need for each of them to own their responsibilities to insure success with this model, it’s plain to see that we are all on the same page. When talking to clients, venders and suppliers it is clear to see that when it comes to my three sons we would not be experiencing the degree of success we are experiencing today. Yes I am a blessed CEO but most of all a very proud father. I will say again these three men have been a very large part of our success and I’m proud of them.

I’m often asked how we make it work outside a miracle with all this testosterone working together with dad every day. We first had to discover which part of the piece of the puzzle each one fit into and how that piece fit our model for success. I often tell people that I have three sons with three distinct personalities. If I were to give them a challenge to charge up and take a mountain, the first would say let’s go and he would make his plan on the way up, hurrying to be the first to the top; the second would take some time to make a plan and think about it some more and maybe make a new plan before starting up. The third son would just want everyone to have a good time on the way up. On a more serious note we just had to identify each best and how they fit together.

My youngest son Drew in spite of being a bit on the playful side as it turns out has amazing IT skills. He has designed our website and does all our in full 3D and has found the APS and downloads we need to organize our communications. Once Drew has dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s and has secured a contract or letter of intent, my oldest son Josh who has the special ability to identify and solve problems is our Project Manager; he is responsible to start submittals, order material and proactively root out and help solve problems before we start jobs;  this is a huge part of making our model work. Ian my second born being a realist, has the need to have all the questions answered before he begins to put a plan in place after doing so, is now ready schedule man power and equipment for job start up and works closely with our foreman. His gift of needing to have everything in its place fits perfect as our Operation manager. This has been a great formula for success and I am a proud father who is honored to be able to work successfully with his sons, I just want to say thank you sons from a proud dad. Cornerstone in the Work zone.

Sincerely, Larry Bonife, President larry2