Pursuing Perfection

Solid values and driven employees have guided Graham Group to $2 billion in annual revenues

Pursuing Perfection

Solid values and driven employees have guided Graham Group to $2 billion in annual revenues

The values and commitment Graham Group expects from its team to help continue its growth as a Canadian construction industry leader are found in the pursuit of perfection.“You need to continually improve and we put that out in front of our people. Whether you start at estimating, project management or accounting, there are components of this business you should learn,” says Bill Flaig, president of Graham Group. “I do not believe anyone ever gets to perfection. However, I think it is a pursuit all people should have while recognizing you will never get there.”

GARY CAMPBELL PHOTOGRAPHY

Members of the Graham executive team, from left: Kim Johnson, executive vice-president and chief information officer; Bill Flaig, president and chief executive officer; Brian Lueken, executive vice-president and chief operating officer; and Daryl Ferko, executive vice-president and chief financial officer.

Graham Group is one of Canada’s largest construction companies, amassing $2 billion a year in revenues thanks to its drive to be a multi-talented, flexible, construction solutions partner. The company’s “Graham Values” – commitment, integrity and reliability – found

their beginnings in the family-run business started by Phillip W. Graham – in 1926 in Moose Jaw, Sask. – with P.W. Graham & Sons Construction.

“In the early days of the business when people would talk about a ‘billion,’ no one really knew how many zeros there were in that figure,” explains Ron Graham, chair of Graham Group and grandson of Phillip. “Now, you see contracts adding up to a billion dollars in value. I know it’s a different billion now than it was back then, but nevertheless, the connotation of those numbers is quite significant.”

Graham Group provides general contracting, design-build, construction management and public-private partnership services across North America’s ICI, earthworks and masonry sectors. The company was recently recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Employers by Report on Business Magazine for 2010. Graham Group also has been recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies.

Employee-owned since 1985, the drive for continued growth and success at Graham Construction is not about one person’s vision, but about the collective aspirations of its 1,200 employees through its employee-ownership model, believes Flaig.

“It is one of the absolute keys to our success. If you look at the individuals here, they are working hard for themselves,” says Flaig. “They recognize that their reputation is very much aligned with that of the company and on the line every day.”

Ron Graham was president of the company during the time of the transition to employee ownership. As the third generation of his family to head the company his grandfather started, he realized a change was needed to continue the company’s growth.

“I remember looking around at the people who had built the company by that stage and thought private ownership is not something in the best interest of the employees over a broad range of things,” recalls Graham.

All shares among the company’s 800-plus unit holders are equal, he notes. His shares carry the same weight as everyone else’s, even though his family laid the foundation for the construction giant. Graham says he has no doubts that the model has contributed to the company’s growth across North America.

“We are now owned by employees who have a vested interest in the performance of the company. People are much more interested in getting involved in the pros and cons of what we should be doing to make our work more effective,” explains Graham. “By that nature, people will take on more responsibility.”

Having an interactive business model is one way Graham Group actively engages in with its clients, Flaig notes. In an ever-growing and competitive Canadian construction market, understanding a project owner’s needs is key. Since Graham Group finds itself being brought into project development earlier than in the past, Flaig says that pre-planning is the single most important aspect of any successful project.

“What we do well is that we are first very careful to listen to an owner’s wants and needs, and only then do we offer solutions,” says Flaig. “Understanding an owner’s needs – whether it is the economy, design or schedule of the project – is extremely important. A contractor needs to recognize that, as opposed to ignoring an owner’s needs and only concerning themselves with price.”

Graham Group has used this highly engaged process with its project owners from its earliest days, notes Graham. In the 1950s, the Saskatchewan Power Corp. was one of the company’s “bread and butter clients,” and the close relationship Graham’s father Peter had with Bruce Campbell (a former chief engineer at the corporation who would eventually become its president and CEO) typified the nurturing and collaborative approach the company still employs today.

“You would hear stories about how Bruce would draw something he wanted on the back of a cigarette pack and then my father would go out and build it,” Ron Graham fondly recalls. “What I am seeing now is that owners are putting much more responsibility and demands on the process earlier. Contracts have now become much more involved early on in the process to help see what designs or materials would be most cost effective.”

It is in the area of cost controls and daily costing that the company boasts one of its greatest strengths: the Graham Toolbox, an in-house built information technology product. This multi-module, fully integrated system brings together all project aspects, such as estimating, project controls, field accounting, field time and scheduling. All Graham employees undergo broad training in the Graham Toolbox.

“I think it is one of the significant factors that Graham provides that no other contractor can to the degree we can,” says Flaig. “We inevitably hear from owners and from outside hires that they have never seen anything like it when they’re exposed to it.”

Graham Group was using computerized estimating 30 years ago, notes Flaig, who at one time was a lead estimator with the company. Ron Graham credits his father with taking the lead on improving the company’s use of technology to help collect and use information better and quicker.

“We have had a strong history in developing the technological part of the industry to help give us better information so we can price things with more certainty,” he says. “Because of that approach, if we see we are building something and it is starting to go askew or are not getting the performance we want, that is going to be triggered fairly early. You can see what the cost control performances are against what you did.”

The value of being able to provide accurate, real-time snapshots on projects is one of the major tools Graham Group showcases at one of its largest and most diverse projects currently underway: a five-year, $1.2 billion general services contract with Syncrude Canada Ltd.

The Fort McMurray, Alta.-based project calls for more than 120 pieces of heavy equipment – from 240-tonne haul trucks to large excavators – 135 light equipment pieces, and currently has 400 personnel on site with an anticipated 1,200 at its peak in 2011. The project includes restoration of mined-out areas, building tailings dikes and haul and access roads, and dewatering.

“It is a huge contract and very demanding, some of that work runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We see the ability to do a lot of the things we have done in the past in the forefront with Syncrude,” says Graham.

“They brought us on because of our broad base of skills. We pour concrete, build buildings and bridges and meet the needs required in that mine in a safe and efficient manner.

“At the end of the day, the cost information and controls we provide are something very significant in helping give the owners information quickly regarding the work we are doing for them.”

Flaig says there is always excitement with being involved in large-scale projects like the Syncrude contract and the $342-million Kelowna Vernon Hospital, or being a significant player in Calgary’s $450-million West LRT expansion. “We do projects big and small and hopefully that will never change for this company,” says Flaig. “Obviously there is a huge excitement with big projects, but there is also tremendous satisfaction in the smaller ones when you satisfy a client as well.”

The Graham Group footprint has primarily grown organically in Canada and the U.S., with locations from Vancouver in the west, to Omaha in the U.S. and Toronto in the east. The company intends to expand into Manitoba and Atlantic Canada.

As Graham Group continues its growth and begins to tackle its backlog of work post-recession, Flaig says, the passionate commitment to the Graham Group culture continues to grow too. “People enjoy the environment of being on this team. It is fun and there is a lot of hard work, but there is a lot of reward too,” he says. “I think you need to experience all of those things to truly feel you are moving forward. We as a company have always felt that we are improving and getting better day by day.”