Building its own niche

Source: Technology Digital

Date :25/09/2007 15:19:00

For H.J. High, success is measured by the quality of its work and the long-term relationships this central Florida construction company has built with its clients.

By James Buchanan

In a world where people seek more and more, bigger and bigger, H.J. High Construction Company doesn’t feel the same pressure as other companies to constantly expand and grow.

Rather, the company has found a comfortable home in central Florida where it is working to develop its business and client relationships within the niche it has carved for itself.

Founded in 1936 by Harlem John High in Orlando, Fla., over the past 71 years the company has built a strong foundation for itself by taking on a range of products that are both large and small, and building long-term client relationships.

Along the way, the company has been able to play a role in some rather notable projects — which includes work at Cape Kennedy in preparation for the Apollo moon landing, and then the $60 million main campus for Florida Hospital in Orlando in 1972 (this was the first project to use Construction Management in central Florida).

Since then the company has played a significant role within its regional community by building churches, high schools, community colleges, distribution centers, and many other forms of commercial buildings.

Throughout its history the company has been successively led by Harlem, his son, and now his grandson Robert High, the company’s current president. Working with High to help guide the development of the company is Vice President Bart Sontag.

According to High, the company is a general contractor, design build and construction management firm that is one of the oldest general contractors in the state. The company subcontracts out approximately 90 percent of its work, which is primarily performed in central Florida.

“We will work on both coasts of Florida,” he says, “but generally our jobs are within about a two to three hour driving radius around Orlando.”

High goes on to add that, “The past few years have been the busiest and involved some of the most challenging projects we have ever built, which is a reflection of the commercial building market and the clients we have been able to attract.”

With so many builders and subcontractors feeling the heat created by the waning housing market, High says his company’s focus on commercial building has largely protected H.J. High from the vagaries of the housing market. In fact, he says the slacking of the once mighty housing boom has brought some benefits to his company’s segment of the construction industry. Not the least of which has been stabilizing costs for building materials, which over the past few years had grown significantly.

By way of example, Sontag notes that the company installs a lot of acoustical ceilings and over the past three months the cost for these materials has dropped by approximately five percent.

The availability of quality subcontractors has also increased as these specialized tradesmen have not been in such high demand by homebuilders.

“They don’t have the same volume of residential housing building that they once had, so they are getting more aggressive about attracting more commercial construction work,” says High. “Previously, there were subcontractors that we would seek out to work with, but because they were so busy they just didn’t have any availability, but now they are available and even seeking us out.”

Sontag adds that price stability and subcontractor availability enables the company to reduce costs to clients and provide some forward looking consistency in terms of costs and work scheduling.

Asked if this new trend provides H.J. High with a competitive advantage, High says it has more of an industry-wide effect.

Sontag adds, “It has been across the board for everybody in this industry. What we are able to do is provide better pricing for our customers.”

As he explains, the company does not generally compete for new work via a bidding process. When building within the public sector, jobs are generally won through bid. But for its private clients the company often takes on new work through negotiated contracts.

Because the company is able to assure that the work will be completed on time, on budget, and with lower materials costs, H.J. High gets a bit of a boost when negotiating these contracts.

Where the company draws a true competitive advantage, says High, is in the quality of its employees and the company’s approach to its clients.

With regard to the company’s employees, High says, the company takes great pride in the long-term relationships it has been able to establish with its employees. Many have remained with the company for 10, 15 and 20 years. One employee, adds Sontag, recently celebrated his 40th anniversary with H.J. High.

Further, both High and Sontag say the company seeks to develop strong leaders within its ranks.

“These are the people that steer the course and set the priorities for the company,” says High.

Sontag also says that one of the important elements the company looks for in new employees is people who are a good match for H.J. High’s philosophy.

“We are ethical in how we do business,” says Sontag. “We act ethically and morally in an industry that has long had a reputation for doing the opposite.”

As an example of how the company operates, he says H.J. High is diligent with regard to paying its subcontractors fully and in a timely manner, which has built loyalty among the tradesmen that work with them. This also adds to the company’s ability to promise consistent and on-time delivery of the work it takes on.

Further, by treating its subcontractors well, Sontag says the favor is returned in terms of finding new employees.

“We prefer to bring peo-ple in by word-of-mouth, which is where treating our subcontractors well helps out,” says Sontag. “Because we have good relationships with these people, if they hear of someone at another company who is looking for a new opportunity, they will steer them toward us.”

As to retention, Sontag says the company strives to be a bit more generous than its peers in terms of pay and benefits.

When discussing how the company manages relationships with its clients, both High and Sontag say H.J. High tries to be fairly selective as to the types and number of projects it will seek out. The bottom line is that the company wants to stay sure it has enough work to be busy, but not so much that it may compromise its ability to provide the best service possible to its clients.

“We try to differentiate ourselves as not being a company that will do one project and then move on, but as a company that will work to build long-term relationships with our clients so that we are their contractor of choice for all of their projects no matter how big or small,” says High. “We will even keep in touch with our clients when we aren’t doing any work for them at all.”

According to High and Sontag, the company usually will enter into a new project as it is being designed. “We work hand-in-hand with the architect in order to provide our input as the design matures,” says High.

Sontag adds that the company will help the client and architect select and design the best structural system for the project as it relates to quality, cost and functionality.

The design process can often last as long as six months, and may even extend out to six years.

Once the design phase is completed, the company begins its work in earnest by selecting its own field team to manage the project — which includes a superintendent and support staff — and then contracting with subcontractors to do the work.

As work progresses, the company manages the relationships within the construction team, which is comprised of the client, architect, subcontractor and H.J. High’s people. In this role, the company acts as the construction manager — at — risk.

“This means that the contractor is always in the owner’s corner, so everybody is able to work together to achieve what the owner needs,” says Sontag. “The largest part of that is to bring subcontractors in that have a strong reputation and capacity to get the job done.”

After work is completed, H.J. High follows up on its post construction responsibilities with the goal of developing the relationship with the client in order to be the contractor of choice for that customer.

“We have been successful at this and have one client [First Baptist Church of Orlando] that we have been their contractor for since the 1980s,” says Sontag.

One example of how well this process functions is the company’s work to build the Indian River Community College’s Kight Center for Emerging Technologies, which was recognized by President Bush for leadership in educating people for jobs for the future.

The design and planning for the center was begun in 2000, when the school determined it needed a way to consolidate it technology focused curricula and services.

H.J. High and Florida Architects — a team that had worked with the school on its health science center — were asked to design and construct the 108,000 sq. ft., $20 million facility. Eventually the design came to include a number of horizontal and vertical angles and planes, which added to the complexity of the project.

Ground was broken in February of 2003, and by May of 2004 the structural work had been largely completed and interior work was under way. At this point it seemed as if the project would be completed on time.

However, a series of successive hurricanes battered the region and caused significant damage to the building. From early September to December of 2004, the company worked to repair the damage and play catch up in the wake of what nature had wrought.

Work was continued at a heightened pace until it was largely complete in May of 2005, when equipment and furniture were brought in. By August of 2005 the center was completed and ready to go.

For this and its many other projects, the company’s focus on maintaining manageable workloads means the company’s principle management team is available to respond to clients’ needs and concerns, not to mention hurricanes.

“We meet with the clients and walk the jobsites; we are involved with the day-to-day activities of the projects and worksites,” says Sontag. “When one of our clients calls, they are able to speak with the head of the company or anyone else they need to speak with. They are not handed off to a third-level manager.”

Looking to the future, High says the company is enjoying being in the niche it is in. He adds that because it is still a family-owned and operated business, management doesn’t have the same pressure as in a public entity to show constant growth and profits to investors. They are answerable only to themselves and their customers, which means they can comfortably maintain the company growth and the scope of its work.

This is not to say that growth does not occur. Rather it happens by their own pace through doing good work for clients, maintaining those relationships, and letting clients spread the good word about H.J. High.

“We could easily double the volume of work that we do, but that wouldn’t necessarily increase the amount of profit we earn from that work,” says High. “We want to continue to seek stability and consistency.”

Sontag notes that growth for growth’s sake is not necessarily a good thing. He sites the example of one contractor that had good, solid growth, but then left the state leaving its clients in the lurch.

Further, success is not always measured in percentage increases in profits, but by the quality of the work that is done. In the last five years the company has won six Eagle Awards from the Associated Builders and Contractors for excellence in construction.

Each year a group of 20 judges from around the state and from varied segments of the construction industry visit each facility. Criteria used to judge these projects includes site concrete, paving, landscaping, skin of the building, electrical, interior walls, ceilings, interior finishes, plumbing, mechanical, flooring, and project presentation.

An additional emphasis is given to the level of safety achieved on the job.