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What are McCarthy's Core Values?
By: Mike Bolen

We are all clear that our primary goal at McCarthy is to become the Best Builder in America.

But as I travel around the company talking to our various groups, it's amazing how often a single question gets asked: “What does McCarthy really stand for?” In my opinion, what they're really asking is “what are the core values that define McCarthy?” It's a great question, and not one to be pondered lightly or referred to in a printed vision statement.

Coincidently, it is a question I've spent a great deal of time thinking about over the last twenty or so years, and one your senior management has worked very hard on over the last few years. The answer will never stop developing, but we're convinced our values are now clear, and they represent the bedrock foundation for everything we do at McCarthy.

We believe that six simple, but wonderfully powerful words define who we are and what we are about. In no certain order they are:

INTEGRITY. To me integrity is kind of like having blue eyes — if you don't have it, you can't fake it for very long. And unfortunately out there in the cold world of work, more people don't have it than do. But what does it mean here at McCarthy? Very simply, integrity means an environment where you can trust your partners and are in turn trustworthy. That's what we have here today, and if we maintain that, the bar will stay high above the herd of companies who only have employees. And beyond all of that, it's the right way to live your life.

LEARNING. The only way McCarthy can continuously improve, and we must, is for each of us to get better. None of us will ever get any more intelligent, so it follows that we can only improve through learning and experience. It's a physical law of the universe — sort of like gravity. I call it the law of cumulative improvement, and it's why we all think we are better at forty than we were at twenty-five. McCarthy's job, and our commitment, is to provide each of you with the tools, time, and encouragement to learn as much as you can. Your job is to take advantage of the opportunity and leverage the vast knowledge and experience within the company.

EXCELLENCE. It is an absolute requirement for success, and it is what our clients will pay a premium for. The standard of excellence is what attracted so many of us to McCarthy, and it must be cherished, encouraged, and protected at all costs. If we ever tolerate the notion that “if the minimum wasn't good enough — they wouldn't call it the minimum”, then we will have surrendered to mediocrity. McCarthy has an incredible culture built around the relentless pursuit of excellence, but it will always be everyone's job to reinforce it every day.

PEOPLE. We are not a manufacturing business. Yet each year we open, operate, and shut down over 100 factories all around the country. They are called jobsites. We are not really a service business. We build things. Yet failed relationships or poor service will put us out of business faster than any defect in anything we've ever built. We are a collection of people, simple as that. Jim Collins said it best in Good to Great — “People are not your greatest asset. The right people are your only asset.” That's why McCarthy people are all owners of the company, and if you want to assess the value of your investment — just look around at your partners. I really like what I see.

COMMUNITY. While each of us is an integral part of the McCarthy family, we are as importantly, a key part of the larger community where each of us lives. You often hear us talk about being a “community-based builder”, and time and time again (most recently with our Lake Pleasant experience detailed on page 3), the notion of being an involved, visible, and highly reputable community member has borne incredible fruit. The clear message is get involved in your community — if you don't believe that what goes around comes around, you aren't paying attention.

DEDICATION. Three things go into making a great business person — ability, inclination, and experience. Dedication is about the inclination part, and like integrity, it's awfully hard to fake. Success in our business requires dedication at every level, and I for one couldn't be prouder of the dedicated McCarthy owners I see every day in every corner of our company.

That's what we see as the core values of McCarthy. Did we get close? What did we miss? Drop me an e-mail and let me know what you think.

And one more thing — everyone have a wonderful and safe holiday season.