President’s Message – Latest Scoop 2024 Issue 2

The heart of Brubacher, our capabilities and culture, is undoubtedly our team members who are committed to doing their best every day. Some of them serve in highly visible ways; their names are known and their effects obvious. Many others serve in obscure ways that are equally important, but only observant people notice their roles behind the scenes. I’m proud of our team and their dedication to serving clients with safe, efficient work done right the first time, no matter their role.

As proud as I am of our collective capabilities, without clients who trust Brubacher with their projects and resources, every one of us would be looking for another way to earn a living. In fact, we are grateful that over 85% of our revenue comes from repeat and returning clients. I often think of this as a reminder of how many people trust their dollars, plans, and outcomes to us, and how important it is for the Brubacher team to consistently be a good steward of their trust.

To help us continue serving clients well in areas of our strength and to identify areas of improvement, we recently invited many of them to participate in a survey of their experiences and perceptions. We are thankful for those who took the time to respond with valuable insights. It is gratifying to read many compliments the Brubacher team earned, such as:

• Clear proposals and expectations (yes, there is a positive side to a list of scope narratives, aka special notes, that drive meaningful conversation and avoid surprises)
• The estimating and/or project team suggested effective alternatives
• The project team communicated well, was easily accessible, and professional
• Quality work completed on time

Illustrating many of these qualities, I recently heard a project manager explaining how, on a sprawling multi-phase project for a repeat client, the Brubacher team noticed a way to minimize blasting and the size of a retaining wall by moving the location of a greenspace several dozen yards. Pending approval of the appropriate parties, the client will save money, resources will be conserved, and the schedule accelerated, all while accomplishing the same result.

Of even greater value is the constructive feedback that helps us identify where changes can have a positive impact on our relationship with clients. In a fast-changing, competitive environment, we are committed to continually pushing ourselves to add value in the areas our clients care about: budget and value-enhancing alternatives, schedule, and a clean project finish.

The things you can count on staying the same are our commitments to Shape the World We Live In; Be Uncommonly Refreshing in our Approach to People, Projects, and Solutions; and to do so while living out our values of Safety, Integrity, Initiative, and Teamwork!

We look forward to building on our foundation of success to support our team members in serving our clients even more effectively in the future!