THE EAST SIDE
Editorial comment from Steven A. East President
of CSM Group
THERE'S A REASON WE'RE SO BUSY!
One of my favorite lines is attributed to Yogi Berra, in
talking about a popular new restaurant in New York City.
“It’s so crowded, nobody goes there any more,”
Yogi said.
Well, I don’t know about you, but when I travel, I’m
a lot more interested in stopping at the restaurant full
of customers than the one with crickets chirping and
the chef sitting on the front step. Chances are, busy
means good!
As you might guess, there’s a lesson here for our
business. CSM Group has been fortunate in recent years
to experience significant growth in business. Of course,
we’re thrilled. But what I’m most proud of is the way
we’ve done it.
Excuse me a bit of self-satisfaction, but basically, we’ve
done it by being very careful to hire the right people, and
to do the right things. We don’t settle for an “almost
good enough” employee, and we don’t cut any corners
on any project to save time or money.
As a result, our projects tend to go very well, and earn us
loyal customers. Which means we gain repeat business,
and an excellent reputation. That’s the best possible way
to grow a business.
Funny, though, every now and then, someone will fail to
choose us because they think we’re “too busy.” Now, I
know you can’t win them all, and there are other good
construction companies out there. But this particular
“reason” makes me shake my head.
We’ve achieved success due almost totally to our
unwillingness to compromise, and our dedication to
flawless performance. Does anyone think we’d really
jeopardize that by taking on a project we weren’t
prepared to handle? That’s just not in our DNA.
And frankly, it’s just a
bit frustrating to see
good projects go
elsewhere because
another company
appears to have
more time to focus
on them. There may
be a good reason
those firms have
time available. That’s
a shortsighted
approach, and
probably not one
I’d use to pick a brain surgeon or attorney. |
