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ON THE MOVE WILLDAN CEO SUCCESSION Willdan Group, Inc. announced that Tom Brisbin, Willdan’s CEO has retire from his position as CEO of the company. Brisbin will retain his role as chairman of the board and will act as the company’s part-time consultant to ensure a smooth transition. Willdan’s president, Mike Bieber, will succeed Brisbin as CEO and will become a board member. “I’d like to commend Tom for his leadership and commitment to our company over the past 16 years,” Bieber commented. “I’m proud of what we’ve built at Willdan, ANNOUNCES
and even more excited about where we’re headed. We are building a leading company that transitions communities to clean energy and a sustainable future. Willdan is finishing 2023 strong, and we’re well positioned for the next several years ahead. With just under $500 million in revenue this year and 1,600 team members, we are only getting started. I’d like to thank our customers and shareholders for their support, and I thank the board for this opportunity.” Brisbin has served as Willdan’s CEO since 2007, joining just after the company went public, and growing revenue
more than six times over that period. During the 2008 financial crisis, he led the company’s expansion into energy efficiency, diversifying into a growing market and adding long-term financial stability. Tom has focused most of his career on developing a culture of organic growth and fostering leadership. Bieber and Brisbin met while working with one another 27 years ago. Bieber joined Willdan in 2014 as vice president, corporate development. For the last seven years, Bieber has served as president and focused on company operations.
What are the typical project sizes you are performing? What is the typical contract size for our scope you usually award? Where do you operate? What’s your strategy in that geographic area for the next five years? Some questions you should be asking yourself are: Do we work in the same market(s) as the prospect? Does their typical project and contract size align with our typical project and contract size? Do we operate in the same area(s)? Is there long-term growth potential with them in that area(s)? Make sure you feel comfortable with the answers to these questions before ever bidding a project with a prospect. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time. If you don’t align, stop here. Say thanks for reaching out but don’t bid the job. If you do align, move to tenet No. 2. 2. Philosophical alignment (mutual relationship). Do you align philosophically? This is really simple: What are your values? Could you describe your last successful contractor partnership? On your last project, how did your contractors fit into the project’s success story? Basically, you want to ensure that if you work together, you will be treated fairly, with respect, and hopefully have such great cultural alignment that your teams do an awesome job working together! This is important because you’re setting yourself up to be treated like an equal rather than like a random bid. 3. Mutual agreement for how we will pursue opportunities (the rules of the relationship). To establish yourself as a true partner, you need to set some mutual ground rules for your relationship. The basic formula is: “If I do X, will you
commit to doing Y?” Here’s what that looks like: If we bid this project, will you commit to giving us good, honest feedback? Before we submit our bid, we like to schedule proposal review meetings. If we agree to bid this project, will you commit to having a proposal review meeting with us? If we bid this project and knock it out of the park – even if we don’t get the award on this one – will you commit to giving us a hard look on the next one? Your bid is your leverage. If you want to ensure you receive something in return for your bid – like a call back, a meeting, or really good feedback – then now is the time to do it. And if they don’t keep up any agreements they commit to? Then you have to call them out on it (respectfully). If they don’t own up to it, then never bid them again. If they do, then you’ve established yourself as a partner and professional. 4. Picking a “project” to pursue together. If you’ve made it past the first three tenets, then you get to the fun part: picking a project to pursue together. Maybe you already know which it will be, or maybe you realize the original job they reached out about isn’t right, but they have another one coming up that is. Either way, pick a project before ending the meeting, and then make sure everyone is clear on the commitments that go along with it. Boom. You just showed that you are not like your competition, established yourself as a professional, got commitments for feedback and communication, and significantly increased your chances of winning this project, or future work. Matt Verderamo, MS is a consultant at Well Built Construction Consulting. Connect with him on LinkedIn .
THE ZWEIG LETTER FEBRUARY 12, 2024, ISSUE 1524
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