Chip Desmone didn’t always dream of being in the family business, although he washed coffee mugs, made prints and learned how to draw at his dad’s architecture company.
Even after he got into architecture school, he wasn’t sure he’d end up as an architect.
When Desmone graduated in 1987, however, interest rates were high, the city was in a terrible recession and his dad, Luke Desmone, decided to start his own architecture practice again.
“I just helped him out on the side while he was working off the dining room table,” he says. “Most of my classmates weren’t even getting jobs. They were working as waiters or pumping gas or doing anything they could do.”
That’s how this version of the family company, Desmone Architects, started — Desmone worked out of his apartment, while his dad worked in his dining room.
“After about a year of doing that, I convinced him that we should have a real office. Interest rates started coming down again and we started getting more and more work, and we went and got ourselves a real office,” says Desmone, principal and president at the firm.
Nearly 30 years later, Desmone’s dad is 79 and still working away, even as other principals have been added.
“I like to tell people we cut him down to 55 hours a week, and he thinks he’s retired,” he says of his father.
And Desmone has laid plans to ensure the company continues for years to come.
A flurry of buy-outs
Pittsburgh has seen a flurry of mergers and acquisitions in recent years, as large and midsized service firms, such as architecture, accounting or law firms, change hands.
Desmone says this trend started during the recession and continues today. National and regional firms with a lot of cash are taking advantage of opportunities to acquire talent and buy firms.
The generation that started working in the late 50s and 60s wants to retire, but they never thought about transition, legacy and longevity, he says.
“They just thought they would work forever, and they come to work one day and realize that maybe their health is failing or maybe they need to do something else in their life, and they have to retire,” Desmone says.
“And there’s nobody in their office that they’ve nurtured and trained and brought up to take their place,” he says. “So they’re left with few options but to close their doors or to sell their business.”
And that’s a path Desmone Architects hopes to avoid because Desmone feels local ownership is important.
National firms aren’t invested in the neighborhoods in the same way — sitting on local boards and contributing to the foundations, organizations and schools that are part of the community.
“We give back to those organizations that are a part of our business network and our clientele,” he says. “I don’t see that those big multinational or regional firms do anything like that.”
Never too soon to plan
Desmone thought about business transition early in his career. He believes it’s never too soon to start planning.
He created an Excel spreadsheet timeline when he was 30 years from retiring. It looked at how many people it would take to buy out his father, how many people it would take to someday buy out himself and how many people would need to buy out the people who have just come on as owners now.
“So I’ve planned their future, too,” he says.
Desmone Architects has taken on four non-family partners, and these employees are stepping up to the plate.
“I think it’s important to the other parties that they see that and that they see a path to a future in the firm,” Desmone says. “And it’s important that that path is transparent and that everybody here knows what it is they have to do to take my job.”
It also helps prove that your name on the door isn’t as important as the longevity and legacy of the business, Desmone says.
“I have two sons, and I’ve never promised them or insinuated in any way that they become architects because I have this company here,” he says. “I don’t know if either one of them would become architects, but if they did, I think I’ve made it very clear to the people in the office that this is a meritocracy and you don’t get a job here just because you’re related to the boss.”
Cultivate ownership, transparency
If you provide leadership training and create a transparent path, everyone knows what it takes to be an owner and principal, Desmone says.
“Don’t be afraid to open your business to your employees so that there is no mystery about what you do and how you do it,” he says. “Because teaching them what you do and how you do it is what invests them in wanting to be a part of it. They know that they can be a part of your success.”
This, in turn, creates a strong workplace culture.
Desmone Architects has been chosen as a best-place-to-work the past six or seven years, Desmone says. And as the firms grows, they’ve been careful to manage that growth so it doesn’t shock the operating systems and shift the culture.
“We’re making sure that our employees are really well taken care of and that they’re happy and they’re enjoying coming to work every day and loving what they do,” he says. “That’s really important to us.”
