Dave Suder knew what the keys to his culture would be before he even co-founded his company. In fact, if you ask him how he sets a vision for the West Coast limb of KHS&S Contractors, his answer has been nearly a whole career in the making.
“It’s like you work your career and different positions and different organizations and you see what works and what doesn’t work,” says Suder, the co-founder, president and CEO of KHS&S West Coast. “In your mind, you start saying things like, ‘If I had my own business, I would certainly do this, but I wouldn’t do that.’”
The one fundamental from his early career that shapes his leadership today is the importance of people.
“The biggest thing, without a doubt, is treating people right,” says Suder, who worked at other companies where corporate politics drove out employees and he vowed not to let bureaucracy take a toll on KHS&S. “If you look at your balance sheet, your equipment and your plant and your offices probably are the largest line item. But your personnel costs are more [important] than anything we spend money on.”
A couple of years ago, Suder made his company nearly 40 percent employee-owned, giving everyone a stake in its success. But the culture seeps much deeper than an ownership plan, thanks to his constant communication efforts that keep everyone aligned.
Suder builds an environment of teamwork by involving employees in the goal-setting process and empowering and entrusting them to achieve. That team effort boosted the West Coast company’s 2008 revenue to $326 million, up from $255 million in 2007.
As the company continues to grow, Suder keeps employees informed of where the company’s headed, uniting them under the same vision.
Here’s how he does it.
