When Greg Rogers traded
in his days of drywalling
and fieldwork for heading his
own business, he knew little
about running a company.
As founder and CEO of contracting company Pacific
Building Group, the last 25
years have been a learning
experience based on trial and
error — and a lot of drive. That
experience has led to his understanding of what a CEO must
do to survive and also how to
lead a successful company.
The keys lie in awareness,
flexibility and diversification,
Rogers says.
“I think you have to be very
aware of your environment, and
probably as much as anything
else, especially in these times,
flexibility — the ability to quickly identify and adjust to industry
and economic changes,” says
Rogers, whose company posted
2007 revenue of $70 million
and anticipates about $100 million for 2008.
Smart Business spoke with
Rogers about how to tap in to
ways that will allow you and
your company to grow in any
environment.
Study your environment to gauge
the future.
You have to look at
your industry and industry
trends and what’s going on
around you. As you see the
economy slide, there are some
things you just know are going
to happen.
You have to relate all of the
things in your environment;
I’m talking both your economic environment as well as your
business environment.
Looking around, following up
with trade journals, following
up by keeping yourself
informed, whether it be
through economic forecasts
and forums as to what’s going
on in your own industry, to
think out ahead of how that’s
going to affect you and how
it’s going to affect your business.
As far as being aware of your
environment, again, it’s how is
your environment going to
impact your business as you
continue to grow. If, for
instance, building new buildings is going to slow down,
one of the things I have to
look at is, if it’s going to slow
down, how are we going to
meet that challenge? Are we
going to look for other kinds
of products to do? Are we
going to look for other kinds
of services to provide?
We have to be very proactive
about it. If we wait till it happens, it’s kind of too late.
Remain flexible.
Don’t get
locked into a box. It goes to
people that only provide one
service and do things one
way.
The problem becomes, in
many cases, you create obsolescence. Or when markets
change and your environment changes, if you’re rigid
and you’re not willing to
look for new opportunities
or new ways to do things,
you get left in the dust.
When I talk about flexibility, I mean that in a number
of senses. You need to be
flexible and open to new
ideas that are brought to you
by people that work for you.
These may be people in any
position in your company,
from your top management
people to your lowest people. You have to be flexible
enough to be able to accept
suggestions that may have
merit.
On the other hand, you have
to be flexible enough to understand that your company may
change and the products and
services that you provide may
have to change to fit the environment you’re in.
For instance, if you’re a
wheel-maker and all you
make is wheels and people
quit buying cars, you probably need to be flexible
enough to find a different
use for wheels if the only
people you’re selling it to are
carmakers.
If you don’t have that type
of flexibility, you set yourself
up for failure.
You strive as a business
manager and an owner
always to grow and to
expand and to do things bigger and better. Sometimes
based on the environment
you’re around, you have to
be flexible enough to always
understand that’s not always
possible.
