Stay nimble
To react to a changing economy, you need to keep your business nimble and adaptable. Fegley’s key to that is to make sure you know what is happening with the markets you serve.
“Being nimble is paying close attention, staying networked with the good people in your industry and making your moves quickly,” he says. “I don’t think it’s the company that behaves like a big giant that is going to be able to stay busy and profitable. It is the company that is going to be able to change. You have to change if you want to stay competitive.”
The seeds for a maneuverable company are planted in good economic times. By the time the economy has shown signs of slowing, it might already be too late to make adjustments that are going to cushion your company’s fall.
Fegley says diversification is one of the most effective ways to survive a down economy — as long as you are keeping your company focused on what it does best. You need to figure out new ways to employ your core competencies, but you can’t simply pull growth ideas out of left field.
It’s a lesson Fegley learned on the job.
“Five years ago, we started focusing on medical (construction) and we’ve continued to do more and more medical work,” he says. “We diversified well, but the problem was we stayed in the private market. So we have projects in biotech, office construction, general engineering and health care. But what we didn’t foresee was that the private banking industry was going to collapse the way it did and really drive the money.
“Typically today, if you were going to get involved in investigating a new market, it would be for the next downturn.”
It’s nearly impossible to accurately gauge how the next economic crunch will affect your business. But you can prepare for what might happen, which means bringing as many perspectives to the conference table as possible.
Fegley has done that by helping to foster a culture of continuous improvement at Reno.
“I drive them crazy with new ideas,” Fegley says. “I’m imaginative, and I’m always trying to figure out how we can do things better. In addition, I stay very involved with management groups and network with other CEOs, presidents and business owners.”
In order to get input from your employees, you need to develop a culture of communication that moves in two directions. You need to reach your employees, and as important, your employees need to be able to reach you.
“There has to be a lot of meetings with direct reports that enable information from the top to go down, then go all the way back up,” Fegley says. “And you have you make sure you allow open access to management. We have a company of 65 to 70 people today, and sometimes they need to talk and don’t want to necessarily talk to the person that they report to.
“I think it’s really important to take the time to sit down and listen, then ask your people how you can do something better. It requires you to make yourself a little vulnerable, but if you don’t, it’s difficult to get people to come in and tell you their problems or to get some fundamental feedback on what is happening at the grassroots level. I’m the last person employees typically want to tell, just because of my position. So you have to make it really easy for people to approach you. You do that by being relentless in your communication, both in person and in writing.”