From left: Adam Dering, Mike Pierson and Joyce Dering founded Dering Pierson Group in 2011. The firm is based in Rogers, Minnesota.

About 50 percent of Dering Pierson Group’s work involves restaurants, including Redstone American Grill in National Harbor, Maryland.

Dering Pierson Group (Dering Pierson) is proof there is strength in numbers and there is value in teamwork over individual effort.

The construction firm was founded in 2011, when Mike Pierson joined forces with husband and wife Adam Dering and Joyce Dering after they decided they could achieve more together than separately.

“All of us were very successful in doing owner’s representative construction-type projects,” Mike says. “In 2009 and 2010, we had so much work, we were turning down work individually.”

So they teamed up as co-owners and opened shop for full-service general contracting. Now, seven years later, Dering Pierson Group brings in $15 million to $20 million in annual revenue, working on projects as small as replacing a door and as big as a $10 million hotel renovation. The company specializes in hotels and restaurants, though its client list is varied.

Strong History, Strong Growth

Mike and Adam met when they both worked for Lifetime Fitness, building and remodeling health clubs across the country. When the Great Recession hit and Lifetime drastically reduced construction, Mike and Adam went their separate ways but stayed in touch.

Dering Pierson Group formed just in time. The company doubled in size every year for the first three years, Mike says, and quickly outgrew its one-room office in Rogers, Minnesota. In 2014, the firm bought a building with warehouse space in Rogers that’s been its headquarters ever since.

After that rapid growth, the owners made the conscious choice to slow down. “We felt like we weren’t as personally involved as we’d like to be,” Joyce says.

Adam, Joyce and Mike take pride in being involved in every project, and they realized that they needed a strategy for moving forward.

“Our clients appreciate personal attention from the ownership group,” Mike says. “We started losing touch with that as we grew. We stepped back a little bit. We stopped hiring for a while. We want to make sure we’re training people the way we want it to be done.”

Entrepreneurial Operating System

In an effort to keep the company growing without abandoning its core values, the owners began implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System, a program that offers guidelines and tools for running small businesses. “We are re-establishing and positioning ourselves so that we can grow and maintain that personal involvement,” Mike says.

As part of that work, Adam, Joyce and Mike are focused on hiring employees who understand the goals and values of the company and who can help with some of the daily tasks.

“When you wear a lot of hats,” Joyce says, “it’s hard to grow your business and be productive. It’s better if you have other people helping you along the way, assisting with day-to-day tasks so that the owners can focus on things that grow the business—maintaining client relationships and growing clients.”

The owners are looking to expand the staff of 14 this year and are seeking at least two project managers and one or two superintendents who bring their own strengths while adopting the Dering Pierson way.

Core Values

At the heart of the company’s work are its core values, a list of five non-negotiables for the team.

“We have a lot of passion for our core values,” Mike says. “We use them to help make decisions on how we do things and how we operate.”

The Dering Pierson list:

• Do the right thing.

 • Succeed as one.

 • Own it.

 • Out think and out hustle.

 • Family.

The values help guide Dering Pierson employees and everyone who works on a project toward a common goal. “We talk about the work environment in our team meetings with clients,” Mike says. “We’re in this together, with a common goal of high quality, on time and on budget.”

Keeping the core values in practice depends on the whole staff, Mike says—folks who communicate well, take accountability, follow through on promises and think creatively to solve problems.

“Part of the interview process in getting new people is a culture interview, to see if they fit in the DNA of our company,” Joyce says. “We want to make sure that the people we’re looking at fit in with everyone who’s here.”

Culture of Work and Play

Dering Pierson employees are held to high expectations, but there are benefits in return.

Employees are treated like family, Mike says, and they are encouraged to take care of their own families. That means, for example, that if a superintendent on a jobsite has an important family event to attend, management makes sure that there’s coverage on the site so the superintendent can leave.

“We know it’s not a 40-hour week here,” Mike says. “We work hard but we also make sure that we’re not missing the important parts of life.”

The owners also work hard to make sure there’s fun in the office. The company hosts weekly barbecues. There’s a rooftop bar that’s always open, a nod to the company’s work in the hospitality industry. There are big-screen televisions, pool tables and Ping-Pong. There’s even a basketball court built in the middle of the office.

“We are intense with whatever we’re doing,” Mike says. “Just about every employee here takes a break in the day to shoot hoops.”

Word-of-Mouth Referrals

That positive work environment produces strong results. Dering Pierson’s work comes entirely from referrals and repeat business. About 50 percent of its work is for restaurants—mostly for specialty restaurants or for ownership groups—with the remaining work for hotels, offices, tenant improvements, schools and municipalities. Recent projects have included a full renovation of Country Inn & Suites in Brooklyn Center, Red Sauce Rebellion in Excelsior, and Al’s Place in Northeast Minneapolis.

“Most of our clients come back to us because we’re responsive,” Mike says. “We do what we say we’re going to do. We assist them on the preconstruction side. We help them from the first time they even think about something. Sometimes they call us before they talk to an architect or engineer.”

That preconstruction work can include constructability analysis and value engineering. “We can develop a budget before we even draw anything,” Mike says. “That helps with lending and a business plan.”

Dering Pierson stays with clients every step of the way, with a commitment to the final finishing details, Mike says. “We manage the job from start to finish.” It’s that kind of commitment to customer satisfaction and quality work that keeps Dering Pierson pushing forward and poised for more growth.