Rick Bucher
Executive Vice President, Technology & Product Development
Victaulic
Easton, Pennsylvania
The overriding factor is what’s best for our customers. This intelligence comes through what we call customer intimacy (i.e., continual collaboration and face-to-face conversations with them at industry conferences, their offices, and especially observing their challenges and needs firsthand on jobsites).
We focus on innovation and a constant pursuit to provide our customers with the tools, products and services they need before they even realize they need them. This means we likely have already thoroughly considered real-world scenarios and tested various approaches to ensure we have the right solutions.
This commitment makes business decisions—even the most complex and challenging ones—easier because I can refer to the in-depth processes we used and our overriding set of guiding principles.
Making tough business decisions is more manageable because I rely on firm evidence that comes from our customers. It’s a unique differentiator for our company.
Larry Kraemer
COO
Harkins Builders, Inc.
Columbia, Maryland
To me, good decision-making is a critical skill set that is hard to teach, but must be practiced and learned over time. Because most tough decisions rise to the top, they typically are critical, time sensitive, and affect internal and external customers.
Harkins’ overall success is on the line, so it’s important to start out by gathering all the information and facts so we don’t overreact and take the wrong approach. Gathering your own intel and communicating with relevant stakeholders are part of my process as well.
Being surrounded by a solid leadership team at Harkins, I am always able to discuss options and gain input. As employee-owners, we all have skin in the game and have no shortage of people willing to help.
Developing “what if” scenarios are another critical component of tough decisions. I also find that it’s good to be able to sleep on a really tough decision to allow the mind to brainstorm other scenarios.
Once a decision is made, commit to it, move forward and have a positive attitude.
Mike Ryan
President
The LandTek Group
Amityville, New York
Every decision must be weighed and examined in terms of how it will impact the company today and in the future. I am always focused on the future and where I want The LandTek Group to be.
I seek to identify opportunities and minimize risk. With my team, we collect information and discuss how the decision in question will impact the company. I am also always asking the question: Why shouldn’t we take this risk or course of action? The key to growth is accepting appropriate risk as long as the potential outcome fits with the long-term goals of the company.
There are certainly times, however, where gut instincts play a role. For example, we recently acquired a sports field construction company in the Florida market. We have been watching the region for some time and know there is tremendous potential there. Over time, we gathered information, and I knew instinctively that this was the right decision. The early response has been very positive and we are focused on building a strong presence in Florida.
