February 2010

Lemont, IL

Resicom CEO John Fairclough has been asked to speak as part of a peer panel for the DePaul University Coleman Entrepreneurship Center.

The event is being held Friday, March 12, 2010 at the Naperville campus.

At this event, four seasoned business owners offer their insight to company issues in a town hall-style discussion by integrating their experiences, best practices, ideas, and recommended resources.  Business owners in the audience are encouraged to share their own experiences and thoughts in this open discussion.  The objective is that participants will leave with new ideas and approaches to not only address the challenges you currently face, but also to resolve future issues that may arise.

“Beyond a consultant’s expertise, a professor’s wisdom, and a thought leader’s acumen, most entrepreneurs believe they get the greatest value learning from the experience of those who have “been there and done that”.

John is the entrepreneurial founder of Resicom, a dynamic and successful company that believes in the bold pursuit of what normal should be.  It should be normal that the companies you hire make you better.  Resicom embraces its role in client brand and asset protection through facility maintenance and repair.

John continues to evolve in his own role as CEO and company visionary for Resicom.  Since founding the company in 1996 John drives the team to continually examine and fine-tune performance, while providing insightful options and experience upon which clients have come to depend.

CASE STUDY

How can you coordinate and execute multiple bathroom remodels in numerous locations nationwide within a tight deadline?

Project Overview

A retail client slated bathroom remodels throughout their nationwide locations.   Needing a quick turn around on a comprehensive scope and project completion, Resicom was ready to take on the challenge.  Relying on our structure helped deliver greater nationwide consistency for each facility restroom needing a face-lift.

Scope

The scope of work needed to execute this project included:

1. Plan site visits to each location to complete assessment and provide accurate pricing to client.  Accurate measurement is key considering all sourced material would need to be based off of these calculations.
2. Secure all material including partitions, tile, countertops, drywall, paint, mirrors, toilets, sinks, etc.
3. Assign thorough, specialized crews for multiple locations.
4. Coordinate travel so that teams are effectively dispatched to grouped regions.
5. Procure support items for project including dumpsters at each facility.
6. Complete all demolition and build back each individual restroom.
7. Provide client with customized schedule for rollout and real-time updates on project progress.
8. Complete a final walk through with the client providing before and after photos.

Challenges & Solutions

The constraints of the project that were overcome included:

1. Sourcing all of the materials needed in each city.
   • Suppliers were immediately contacted to begin the ordering phase of all material.
   • Measurements and drawings were submitted for partition orders two weeks in advance to ensure timely arrival.
   • A single floor tile supplier was contacted to coordinate delivery of all floor tile material needed nationwide.
   • Plumbing suppliers were contacted in each city to place necessary orders.
   • Countertops were ordered near home office and driven to each facility along with necessary tools and equipment to minimize shipping costs.
2. Coordinating technicians crews to maximize delivery.
   • In order to complete work by the clients deadlines, crews were scheduled in shifts to work around the clock.
   • Day crews complete demolition, followed by nights crews responsible for flooring installation.
   • Following day, shift crews return to fully complete restroom remodeling.
3. Nationwide remodeling project of all locations must be executed within tight scheduling deadlines.
   • Supervisor remains onsite at all times to provide status updates and detailed communication to home office.
   • Supervisor ensures crews operate effectively within schedule constraints, and to coordinate all material delivery.

Summary

Completing this project beyond the client’s expectations required detailed planning and project management to ensure each restroom was completed with minimal disruption.  Resicom listened to the client’s need for customized updates and verified information that each stage of the project was running smoothly.  Resicom creates options for our clients using our structure and communication, and in doing so opens possibilities.

How can approach to business enhance organizational clarity?

Our company uses the Verus Methodology of business management. One of its principles is that an organization must leverage clarity to operate optimally. There are multiple components to a business structure that can enhance this organizational clarity. They include: Business Strategy, Internal Communications, and Leadership/Executive Team Structure. When effectively leveraged, a company can enjoy a clear sense of direction and operate in great alignment.

How can strategy enhance organizational clarity?

A business needs to know its purpose, vision, goals, and core values. The purpose helps define the reason for being. The vision is what we aspire to be. The goals are intermediate points that are met during the life of the business. The core values are the boundaries that underline the behavior of people within the business, a set of constraints. 

When the business manages through its strategy, the team goals are clear, and management is able to keep the team accountable to them. It is important for the core values and purpose to come through in the way the business operates. It can become the thing that energizes employees to excel. 

This must be the central piece that unifies the company. This needs to be the common thread shared by all employees, and all things need to align with it.

How do I get it?

Here are the first steps to building a strategy for your business:

1. Examine the purpose of the business. Why does the company exist? Ask “Why?” multiple times and when you cannot ask it anymore, you are close to your purpose. This is typically the purpose of the founder of the company. This is not an easy thing to identify. There will need to be a lot of reflection by the founder and revisit the things that helped shape their perspective. The critical junctures in their life helped influence this purpose. Once identified, it will become magnetic to the people you need to attract. 
2. Identify your vision – what you are trying to become. Here is an example: Dell computer’s was “To become the IBM of the 21st Century”.
3. Identify your core values. Be careful to not focus on marketing catch phrases. These need to be things that will not change, and that you would be willing to suffer financial losses to hold true to them. You also must be willing to fire someone because of violation of them. They should be a couple of words each. Simple statements of a theme. You can support it with information, but the statement needs to be fast. Examples can include “Keep promises”. Then support that with “We keep promises to each other, to our vendors, and to our clients…”
4. Document it.
5. Preach it, teach it, post it, live it, and reinforce it. The strategy needs to be visible everywhere in the company, in the way it operates, manages, markets, etc. 
6. Hire people who have the desired skill set and align with the strategy.

This approach to strategy will give the company a sense of direction and deliver organizational clarity. This will allow the company to look at action and structure and measure it against the strategy, helping keep the company focused on what it is trying to accomplish.

Resicom is much like a vampire- we often do our best work at night.  Our nationwide scalability usually dictates overnight project execution to minimize disruption to facilities’ guests and staff.  Therefore, when asked to paint a store during the day, we had to shift gears and mindset on how to structure daytime project management during the facility’s regular business hours.  

Scope

The scope of work needed to complete this project:

1. Complete a storefront repaint with a new paint spec during regular business hours.

Challenges

The challenges of this project included:

1. Keeping the store entrance unencumbered of equipment and clear for customers’ passage.
2. Ensure a safe and unobtrusive work environment for both customers and technicians.
3. Prevent overspray on any surfaces that are not to be painted.

Solution

By outlining a specific structure to our project approach, we were able to maximize the small window of time in the morning before the facility opened to paint high traffic areas.  

Our solution to the project included: 

1. The storefront entrance was painted first, utilizing the grace period in the morning before customers were present.
2. Cones and construction zone tape were utilized to prohibit customers from the work areas.
3. Areas were prepped and covered with plastic and drops to protect all non-painted surfaces.

Summary

Because Resicom relies on standard – process – audit to effectively manage and execute deliverables, we were able to apply those same principles to a modified project and still achieve effective results.  Though specifications and circumstances may change for various projects, Resicom’s systematic execution works- day or night.