Lessons learned
Comfort Systems USA is a far cry from the fragmented, debt-riddled company that existed during Murdy’s early tenure. From a
low point of $350 million in debt, Murdy says his company had
about $139 million in cash at the end of 2007.
The events of the past seven-plus years have reinforced some
valuable business lessons for Murdy:
Rely on others. In any challenging time, business leaders need to
know that they have surrounded themselves with great leaders,
and then be able to rely on those leaders to help steer the company through the stormy waters.
Murdy says the groundwork for that is laid at the interview table,
the first real chance you get to comb through a person’s background. Some of the qualities that make a good leader are universal across the business world, such as integrity, solid ethics and an
ability to relate to people. But the ability to dig down and find people who embrace those qualities in good times and bad can be difficult.
“A lot of it is intuitive and understanding, people not lying and cheating and stealing, people doing what they say and being completely above the board and honest about transactions,” he says.
“But there is no test that you can give them during the interview to
truly measure those qualities. A lot of it is reference-checking,
looking at their experience and background. If there is one mistake I’ve made in my career, it’s not making enough phone calls
about people.
“We’ve made mistakes on bringing people in who say they are
one thing and turn out to be something else. Largely, you have to
look back at what they’ve done and how they’ve done it. Those
actions are a good indicator of what the future will be like.”
Keep your focus. Don’t panic if your company suddenly finds
itself in a financial bind and begin venturing into areas you are not
prepared to enter. Murdy says Comfort Systems USA was encouraged by outsiders to diversify and enter markets outside of commercial HVAC.
“I think that would have been the ruin of the company,” he says.
“You have to stay focused. Do what you’ve done well before. Stay
at it, but with room for the proper modifications with regard to
circumstances, technology and everything else. Don’t reach for
possible solutions that might end up being possible complications.”
Spread best practices. A company — particularly a large company that is spread throughout a wide geographical area — will run
more efficiently if everyone is on the same page with regard to
policies and procedures.
Even after initially bringing all units together under a new alignment, Murdy still works with unit leaders and regional leaders to
make sure units in Florida know how units in the Pacific
Northwest operate, and vice versa.
Periodically, Comfort Systems will gather six or seven unit heads
together for several-day operational review meetings. Those meetings provide a chance for ideas to cross-pollinate throughout a
region, and from there, possible throughout the entire company.
“These are intensive day-and-a-half or two-day meetings where
leadership and other people go over all the activities in the company,” he says. “We look at everything from business development
to accounting, looking at how jobs are gotten, how they’re estimated, how they’re accounted for. All aspects of the operation are
considered and talked about.
“The leaders take that back to their own operation to work on.
It’s not an automatic, e-mail type of system that propagates best
practices. Throughout the leadership chain, company to company, in regions and across regions, we identify these things.”
HOW TO REACH: Comfort Systems USA Inc.,
www.comfortsystemsusa.com