| 2003
Pacesetter Awards: Excellence in Production
Source: CUSTOM HOME
Magazine
Publication date: 2003-11-01
By CUSTOM HOME Staff
Scott Hobbs
A company founded in 1954 might seem an unlikely candidate for a
growth spurt. But shortly after Scott Hobbs joined Hobbs Inc., the
family business founded by his grandfather, the company took off on
a tear, building its annual volume from $12 million in 1992 to $63
million only 10 years later. The company's average project size has
grown from $2 million to $6 million in the past five years alone. To
maintain control over production, Hobbs—who took over as president
from his father, Michael Hobbs Sr., in 1999—has implemented systems
as advanced as high-speed data links between jobsite and office
computers and as straightforward as printed checklists to guide each
phase of every project. The result is what one might hope to see in
a 50-year-old company: a thorough, professional, and fully mature
approach.
In Hobbs' view, the key challenge growth presents is keeping a
large company fully integrated, so that each project represents not
just high quality, but “the same high quality.” The company's
emphasis on training, communication, and continuing education is
aimed at creating a vast pool of accumulated expertise, to which
each employee contributes and in which each shares. “We're trying to
make it into an aggregate, which gives everyone in the company
several hundred years of experience, cumulatively.”
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That cumulative experience has led to an extraordinary commitment
to worker safety.A company safety director runs an orientation
program that is mandatory for all subcontractors and new hires,
provides continuing safety education, and conducts random, daily
site inspections to verify compliance with company standards.
Subcontractor violations are reported and tracked, and a pattern of
violations brings consequences. “Sometimes it means taking a break
from some guys,” says Hobbs, who has taken subcontractors off the
bid list for several projects in order to drive the message
home.
Hobbs states plainly his belief in every worker's right to go
home as healthy as he was when he arrived—“That's just the kind of
contract management should have with the employees”—but insists that
altruism is not his only motive. “When someone gets injured on the
job, the loss of efficiency is staggering.” The company's exemplary
safety record also yields measurable dollar savings. “Our workman's
comp modifier is .6. Our payroll is down $100,000 to $150,000 in
worker's comp cost [from where it would be] if it were a modifier of
just 1,” Hobbs says.“It's an investment; it's not a cost.” -
Bruce D. Snider
Hobbs Inc. New Canaan, Conn. Type of business: custom builder
Years in business: 50 Employees: 70 2002 volume: $63 million 2002
starts: 13
2003 Pacesetter Awards
Introduction
Excellence
in Customer Service
Excellence
in Innovation
Excellence
in Management
Excellence
in Marketing
Excellence
in Production
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