Family Album

Just Who is McCarthy and What Do We Do?
By: Mike Bolen

It's amazing just how recognizable “The Dude” has become. Trucks, trailers, cranes, fences, buildings and equipment. Shirts, caps, jackets, hardhats, tools and trinkets. Coast to coast, Mexico to Canada — the cute little fella is everywhere. And more and more often it seems like the people we come in contact with want to know the details of who McCarthy is and what we do. These are both questions we should all ask ourselves on a regular basis, and a decent answer requires a little reflection.

Peter Drucker is a world renowned V.S.G. (Very Smart Guy) and has been one for a very long time (90 plus years). His area of expertise is business, and one of his main theories was a real surprise to me. Mr. Drucker strongly believes that the sole purpose of any business is to create and keep customers. Think about that. The sole purpose.

When I first heard it I said to myself — self, here at McCarthy we do lots of other very important stuff besides create customers. We organize, we direct, we build great things.

We certainly do all these things, but what is our purpose? The more I thought about it, the more elegant and powerful his idea became. I am now convinced that Mr. Drucker is right; the sole purpose of any business, McCarthy included, is to create and keep customers.

Sure, McCarthy has many functions, values, systems, plans, programs and policies. We have strategies, markets, philosophies, financial strength and a strong family culture. All very important stuff. But McCarthy has lasted for nearly 140 years, and will survive in the future only because our customers allow it. They willingly and repeatedly buy things from us. If they stop — we're done.

Maybe that's the best way to focus on who we are and what we do. Rather than try to describe our vision of ourselves, what if we do something a little different. What if we all take a moment and try to look at McCarthy from our customer's perspective. Not just what it is, but also what we hope to achieve along the road to becoming “The Best Builder in America”.

Here's what I want our customers to believe about McCarthy — McCarthy delivers:

• Consistent, prompt response to my needs.
• Creative solutions to difficult problems.
• Fair pricing that we stand behind.
• Certainty of performance based on:
• Financial strength
• Top Quality
• On-time completion
• A finished product that we stand behind.

Because McCarthy is:

• Smart People
• Experienced People
• Focused People
• Honest People
• Committed to lasting relationships.
• A genuine pleasure to work with.

What do you think? There's nothing really complicated here, but in my experience the most powerful ideas are generally pretty uncomplicated. In fact, sometimes they are so simple that we can lose sight of them if we aren't careful. So what exactly is it that McCarthy does? You guessed it — we create and keep customers.

The Dude Rules!