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CONFERENCE CALL, from page 7

TZL: What’s the key benefit you give to your employees? Flexible schedule, incentive compensation, 401(k), etc.? DG: No one key benefit stands out but our overall package includes a healthy 401(k) match, flexible schedules, paid (or comp time) for every hour worked, HSA health plan, PTO based on both age and years with company (which helps at- tract staff with experience), maternity/paternity leave, tu- ition reimbursement, and regular employee social events TZL: How do you raise capital? DG: We haven’t needed outside capital. We are fiscally con- servative with no substantial debt. Retained earnings and sale of stock to new owners has financed our recent growth and buy-back of retiring owners’ shares. TZL: What’s your preferred strategy for growth, M&A or organic? Give us a synopsis of how your firm effected growth in the recent past. DG: We have used both organic and M&A to grow. In the past three years, we’ve grown about 33 percent to a 400-per- son firm in 10 offices. One-third of this growth came from two small strategic acquisitions. The balance came from or- ganic growth. When we consider an M&A opportunity, the number one requirement is it must be a cultural fit for Coff- man. TZL: What’s the greatest challenge presented by growth? DG: Our greatest challenge has been and will always be maintaining our culture. Our culture has been built around local office autonomy and a relaxed, informal, family-ori- ented operation. With growth, there is a tension between needing more con- trols (policies) for efficient operation and maintaining lo- cal office autonomy (guidelines) that allows for flexibility based upon local needs. Leadership has been very cogni- zant of this tension and we have worked hard to limit cor- porate influence and maintain local office autonomy as we have grown. TZL: What is the role of entrepreneurship in your firm? DG: “Entrepreneurial” is one of our cultural components in our mission, vision, and values statements. Most success- ful businesses are founded by an entrepreneurial-inspired person, so it makes sense to instill a similar value in all our employees. We share personal ownership and responsibility for our company. This drives us to innovate and take calculated risks. TZL: What’s your prediction for 2017 and for the next five years? DG: We are cautiously optimistic for 2017. Our long-term growth planning process has resulted in a diversity of cli- ents, markets, services, and geography that has and will continue to provide the balance and stability to weather lo- cal economic downturns. Our longer term outlook is also bullish. We are planning for 7 to 10 percent sustainable growth and to further strength- en our diversity in all of our markets.

corrective actions if a budget shortfall is detected. TZL: How does marketing contribute to your success rate? Are you content with your marketing efforts, or do you think you should increase/decrease marketing? DG: Yes! We are content! Our marketing and business de- velopment team does a great job supporting our engineer- ing staff. Their goal is to support and bring value to Coff- man. They provide this support in a range of ways including proposal preparation, business development, internal and external communications, supporting the implementation of business processes, advising on market intelligence, sup- porting company culture, and maintaining our brand. Our marketing team is constantly helping us to become a more proactive and strategic company. They help us see the big picture by pushing us to base decisions on facts rather than emotion. “Our long-term growth planning process has resulted in a diversity of clients, markets, services, and geography that has and will continue to provide the balance and stability to weather local economic downturns.” TZL: What has your firm done recently to upgrade its IT system? DG: We’ve fully implemented Office 365 groups with web portal for sharing of files, calendars, and OneNote at de- partment- or project-group levels. We have a cloud-based file system with 15-minute back-up intervals, file version control, and access to all project files from any office. Our recent security enhancements include mobile device man- ager for tablets and cell phones, two-factor authentication for remote login, and real-time threat analytics software. And, we’re beginning to use 360-degree video cameras to capture video and photos from a site visit or walk-through. The video can be uploaded to a virtual reality headset to cre- ate a virtual walk-through of any space. TZL: What’s the best way to recruit and retain top talent in a tight labor market? DG: We constantly focus on our employees – our greatest asset. We work hard to develop a great company culture where people want to work. We constantly test ourselves by submitting for “best place to work” awards. We have size- able employee referral rewards for staff who bring new hires to the table. We also push our employees to leave reviews on our Glassdoor page. These reviews are an anonymous way for employees to rate Coffman and leave feedback. Our company president reviews and responds to our Glassdoor feedback on a weekly basis. We strive for all staff to have a healthy work/life balance and we spend a lot of time crafting our job advertisements in a way that appeals to the generation of staff we’re look- ing to hire.

THE ZWEIG LETTER July 17, 2017, ISSUE 1208

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