Scope Diversity is Key

We’re an unusual company. Asphalt paving, mechanical installations, bridge construction, electrical installations, rock crushing, facility maintenance, and much more. Some business units are labor-dependent; some are much more equipment-dependent. Some rely on public money; some rely on private money. Some projects are $100 million and more; some projects are $10,000 and less. At times, it’s difficult to tell a cohesive story about what we do because it’s such a strange mix. We have dozens of competitors, but not one competitor or any other U.S. company for that matter has a mix of business units like we do. We’re unusual, but our 75-plus years of being a growing and thriving business is due to that unusual-ness. Diversity in the work we do means that there is always a segment of our business that is strong. We very rarely see all of our segments down and our work scopes are counter-cyclical to a large degree. When private spending is weak, public spending is strong. When new construction is weak, maintenance is strong. When one city is in decline, another of our cities is booming. Conventional wisdom may be that it’s too hard to manage all of these scopes, but for us, it’s been the key to who we are and who we will be in the future.