Investing in a World of Hope
Integrity Construction Maintenance Builds Lives Through a Servant Mentality
Generous people are probably the happiest people. Their joy resounds in their voices. This is most definitely the case for Bennett White, Owner of Integrity Construction Maintenance, Inc., whose insights are infused with open cheerfulness when he speaks about the business he’s spent the last 36 years building.
White was a young man, only 20, when he founded his company in 1981. Even at that young age, he had a profound desire to help other people. This philosophy has guided the evolution of both his life and his business.
The Business of Service
Integrity Construction Maintenance (ICM) started as a janitorial service. Often while White and his crew were cleaning clients’ offices someone would request other services, such as hanging a picture or unclogging a toilet. These were small requests and White, a helpful person, cheerfully went the extra mile instead of telling the client, “We don’t do that.”
White understood that his clients were stressed by having to spend hours every day dealing with numerous vendors to manage their properties. He realized that if they could make one phone call that would solve most of their problems, he could truly be of service to them. “The one thing people can’t get enough of is time,” surmises White. “The best service you can provide is to buy the client time.” To serve clients to the fullest, he knew he had to provide a broader array of services.
White quickly obtained the appropriate licensure to add a variety of maintenance and construction services to his company’s offerings. The effort to become properly licensed also demonstrates to clients that they are receiving quality service, an act that supports the use of the word “integrity” in the company’s name. For the ICM team, integrity also involves taking care to look beyond the actual task to achieve the desired result.
ICM has since evolved into a full-service construction, janitorial and maintenance provider. Currently, it is the only janitorial service that holds a valid California General Contractors license. The business, based in Sebastopol, Calif., offers an array of building management services to the entire San Francisco Bay area, including painting and decorating, demolition, construction cleaning, water blasting, sand blasting, mold inspection and remediation, and more.
Foremost on White’s mind is how to be the best servant to his clients. He strives to ascertain their true needs, then pulls together the resources to fulfill their expectations. “The word ‘help’ itself implies a level of urgency, and there is a sense of urgency involved in most ICM projects,” says White. Attention to detail is another quality that White strives to bring to his clients to earn the trust that they place in his firm.
Project Variety
Most of ICM’s construction projects involve damage repair, remodeling, tenant improvements and mold remediation. In addition, the company has handled several unique job requests, from adding a second story to a residence to refurbishing two jet engine test cells for United Airlines.
The major American airline operates a maintenance base at the San Francisco International Airport, where ICM was contracted to work on the jet engine test cells. Prior to painting, the ICM crew sandblasted the interiors of the cells and intake wings without damaging any electrical, computerized or hydraulic equipment or systems. The cells were then primed and painted with plural component Ameron epoxy. Every single grain of sand was cleaned up afterward because any particles left behind could critically damage the jet engines.
Another noteworthy effort took place in office buildings converted from military hangars at Hamilton Field in Novato. A lift could not be used to change light bulbs 65 feet off the ground, so crews had to configure a special rigging system to replace the bulbs.
A recent tenant improvement project started with a completely vacant space. The team was called upon to finish out the interior for the Circle Bank (now Umpqua Bank) in the Town Center Corte Madera. ICM was responsible for bringing in all power, water and HVAC into the space, altering the storefront, and completing the interior finish-out. Upgrades included interior walls, drop and hard-lid ceilings, cabinetry, restrooms and other work.
While the firm operates primarily in northern California, the generosity of its owners extends beyond state borders—and even outside of the U.S.
Serving and Helping Beyond Borders
Bennett and his wife, Trudy, have always been generous to local charities and Christian organizations. About 25 years ago, they also became active supporters of Compassion International.
Based in Colorado, Compassion International is a child-advocacy ministry that pairs compassionate financial donors with impoverished children around the world. These one-to-one sponsorships focus on economic, physical and spiritual needs. Each sponsor must make a long-term commitment to personally invest in the life of a designated child until that child reaches the age of 18. It is the goal that each child one day becomes a responsible and intrinsically fulfilled adult.
At any given time, the Whites sponsor 20 children from at least 10 different countries. They correspond frequently with their children via written letters, keeping up with their birthdays and holidays. Because these children are located all over the world, in countries with customs dissimilar to ours and speaking different languages, Compassion International provides translation services for correspondence as well as guidance on gift-giving customs in other countries. After “graduating” from the program, these individuals sometimes continue corresponding with the altruistic sponsors who made such a significant impact upon their childhoods. One of the Whites’ sponsored children, who became fluent in English, is about to graduate from the program. The couple looks forward to following his adult life, as they have done with others before him.
It is Bennett White’s belief that the good fortune he has achieved in life is a gift from God, and that he is merely a steward of the resulting material goods. As for his business, he says, “It was never about just being a janitor. It was about serving people, and the best way to do that is to seek out and meet their real needs. Then we can say that we have truly served them.”