January 4, 2010

Have you ever thought about the parallels between success at the Olympic Games and success in business? With the Winter Games being held in our time zone this year, it's interesting to view our challenges through this prism. Both undertakings take incredible amounts of drive, passion, teamwork, dedication, expertise, great self-expectations, consistent peak performance, natural talent, lots of support (financial, logistical, emotional), trust, appreciative fans, world class competition and so on.

With this in mind, in developing our business plan for 2010 we begin by taking account of our current competitive form and juxtaposing it against where we want to be. Then we develop a plan of action to bridge the gaps between those two pictures.

This is an excellent time for an Olympic-hopeful business to be in training. We expect this year to feature slow but steady recovery of the economy in general. We expect our clients to continue investing in their future but to be extremely cost-conscious about it. There will be no easy meets.

Since we became a somewhat smaller company during 2009, if we focus on sharpening our capabilities, building our market presence, and further developing our key areas of differentiating expertise we will be well positioned to stay strong and healthy in the near term and grow smartly when the market opportunities are there.

So what guidance can we learn from our past performance which can help in designing our training regimen? Specific to Meade Construction Group, Inc. and our six years of business experience we can glean a few gems, such as:

• Never outgrow your ability to deliver great service. When top quality performance is your brand image, it is better to be staff-heavy than too lean.

• Never stop looking for great people. There is a very limited supply of top people who will thrive in a collaborative, team environment like ours. No matter what the market conditions, if the right person comes along we should grab them.

• Building from within improves the company in multiple ways. Not only do we promise excellent junior folks an exciting career path. We also give our senior people an opportunity to build a legacy by training and mentoring the future company leaders.

• Keep your fixed expenses to a minimum and manage your variable costs smartly. Keep plenty of cash in the bank. Make quick and decisive financial moves based on solid data.

• Be transparent with your people about how things work financially. This will create a clear link for them between their job performance and the company's ability to reward them.

• Don't count on luck.

• Think long term about Business Development. Plant seeds. Don't go for home runs; just try to get plenty of trips to the plate.

• Our best BD strategy is to perform our projects with enthusiasm and great attention to detail and to build trusting, enjoyable working relationships with our clients, design partners, subcontractors, inspectors, and everyone else who contributes to the project's success.

• Take pleasure in the good things around you every day. Look at problems when they arise as a chance to strengthen your skills and talents to help your client. Keep your mind clear, be positive and don't let things get you down.

We will focus this year on broadening our market presence and pursuing more of the challenging projects at which we excel. We will continue to involve most of our employees in the pursuit of work, it's everyone's job and together we can do a much better job than just a few of us doing it alone.

We will build our strengths in the areas of most value to our clients and to our teammates. This will involve gaining expertise, sharing knowledge broadly throughout the organization, improving processes and providing greater value for every construction dollar.

We will investigate new capabilities and new methodologies and invest in developing those which can bring the most benefit to our clients and help differentiate us as a cutting edge builder.

And we will continue to manage our financial store smartly, keeping our head and upper torso above water so we are positioned to bring strength and resources to bear whenever our clients need us to.

Finally we look to build our team of excellent Meade employees. If you are driven to be the best in the business but want to accomplish this as part of a team of folks who appreciate you and are fun to be around... well maybe we should talk.

The Management Team
Andy Meade, Tim Tempel, Jill Dressel, Mickey Wagle