A Winning Mentality Scores Excellent Results
R-PCI Construction
This quote by Booker T. Washington is often displayed on those inspirational posters hanging in offices around the country: “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”
That is an apt way to describe the growth and success of R-PCI Construction. In 2016, the company made Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States. Its trademarked slogan: Building Integrity from Start to Finish.
Founded in 1989 and located in Mount Airy, Md., R-PCI’s growing footprint includes the mid-Atlantic, the Carolinas and Florida. Its best-in-class project management team allows it to specialize in bank, health care and retail projects. From customer concept to construction to completion, R-PCI not only builds from the ground up, but it has the flexibility to accomplish high-end renovations.
“We Like to Win!”
R-PCI President, John Ford, played hockey in college and he has brought that competitive drive to the business world.
“The simple way to describe our culture is we like to win,” he says. “When we ring the bell with a new contract, that’s a win. And you have to find people who think like that. We’re big on incentives. Anybody who can control the dollars and the schedules is under a big incentive plan. They do a good job, they do well, they earn it. We look for people who are competitive by nature.”
Ford, whose interest in construction started with summer jobs while he was in college earning a business degree at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, was one of the original founders of the company nearly 30 years ago. It started out just doing small project carpentry jobs.
The company started to morph into its current form when it was bought in 2004 by Barry Lake, now the company Chairman. Ford stayed on as President and is now part-owner. Since 2004, the company has expanded and changed to become a general contracting firm.
R-PCI has become a go-to construction company for banks and health care facilities because of its ability to deliver high-quality work on time and under budget. Other than a brand new, sharp-looking building, few things will make a customer happier than moving in on time and without spending extra cash.
“We’re selective in who we build for,” says Chris Greaney, R-PCI Vice President of Business Development. “It empowers our clients to know that we’re experts at the type of work they want done. We have select criteria regarding what projects we’ll take on. What differentiates us is that we’re not building high-rises or shopping centers; we have corporate clients that in many cases have repeatable business. The payoff for us is the chance to do the next job and the next job and the next job.”
A 110-Day Project
MedExpress is a rapidly expanding company specializing in emergency health issues. R-PCI agreed to take on its first project with MedExpress despite a daunting deadline. It had 110 days to build the nearly 5,000-square-foot building in the city of California, in Maryland.
“Typically, a build schedule is a bit flexible,” Greaney says. “When the project was set for 110 days, everybody said there was no way that could possibly be done on that schedule.”
No need for drama here—R-PCI delivered and finished the project on time.
“We cut our teeth doing a lot of under-the-gun remodels,” Ford says. “Over the years, we’ve created a culture in the company where we know we can do those projects on a deadline and be successful. Our project staff is second to none. They’re extremely well trained and committed. We don’t make excuses and we don’t fail. But that only works if we hire the right people.”
MedExpress has gone on to employ R-PCI to build other urgent care centers and there are more contracts on the table. The challenge of taking on clients who want to start turning a profit ASAP in a new facility is one thing that drives R-PCI’s staff.
“You need a bit of a competitive edge in this business,” Ford says. “If you’re complacent and you don’t want to tackle a challenge, you’re not going to do well.”
Predict the Unpredictable
Tackling deadline construction jobs is a gamble because of variables like weather and the delivery of materials. R-PCI has honed its craft to the point where it works diligently to predict the unpredictable and be proactive in an attempt to stay on schedule.
“We try to hit the ground running as soon as we get a final contract,” Greaney says. “Our internal processes are very good. The submitting and procurement process of materials involves a lot of paper pushing and we’ve become highly efficient in that area.”
Greaney notes that R-PCI project managers keep an eye on the weather forecast. For example, when footers are being dug at a project, a forecast of rain is important to know. In a case such as that, the team must be proactive and cover all trenches to prevent water intrusion. Not having to wait for the water to drain or not having to manually remove it can save critical time in the construction schedule.
Communication and coordination are crucial, particularly with R-PCI working with banks and medical facilities that require special equipment to be delivered and installed. MedExpress works with its own vendors to deliver equipment such as x-ray machines. Banks need to make sure that installations of onsite ATMs take place early enough so that they can be tied in to the network. “Trying to stay on schedule isn’t rocket science or revolutionary,” Greaney says. “We just think we do it better.”
The R-PCI team prides itself on being versatile. The firm has the ability to construct a building from foundation to finish but it also has a roster of subcontractors who are adept at doing elegant renovations and remodels of existing spaces. The versatility of providing construction work and remodeling jobs is rare for a company of R-PCI’s size but it increases its ability to serve its customers.
“We have two or three superintendents who have been with us for years and they have the experience of working night remodels in open, occupied banks and offices,” Ford says. “There’s a huge trust and responsibility factor involved in working in those environments. Our guys know how to get in there, do the work each night and then leave things so that the next morning you can’t even tell they were there.”
When this unofficial company motto—“from customer concept to construction to completion”—was suggested to Ford, he agreed.
“From a personal standpoint, my integrity is all I’ve got,” Ford says. “We don’t walk away until the project is finished. Some general contractors will. We don’t do that. And that’s why we have so many long-term clients. The biggest part of our culture here is integrity. Our clients know what they’re going to get from us.”
Part of R-PCI’s culture includes giving back to the community. For many years, R-PCI has been a drop-off point for Toys for Tots campaigns with the employees encouraged to help make sure the donation boxes overflow. The company also supports the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society because of the organization’s ties with one of R-PCI’s clients. Also, R-PCI co-sponsored a golf tournament with proceeds going to a scholarship fund at Towson University.
Ford and his staff are always on the lookout to bring in talented college graduates. Along those lines, R-PCI annually visits Virginia Tech for the school’s Connection Job Fair. That partnership produced two of the company’s new project engineers, Austin Gabel and James Brinsky, who were hired in the summer of 2016.
“They’re pretty much learning the business from the ground up,” Greaney says.
In addition to its headquarters, R-PCI has offices in Tysons Corner, Va.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; and Tampa, Fla. In April of this year, R-PCI opened a new office in Greenville, S.C. While the company is poised and well-positioned for more expansion, Ford is cautious.
“Our growth plan is organic,” Ford says. “We’re looking at different markets. Last year, we did about $20 million and over the next 10 years I’d like to see it double with a couple of fully staffed satellite offices. We’re looking to grow in the customer sectors we’re currently involved with. If we get to $40 million or $50 million I would be comfortable that we could keep the current structure of our company intact. We don’t want to grow to the point where we lose the soul of the company.”