In the course of their 24 years in business, Bruce Giffin (from left) and Geoff Crane have developed a New Year’s ritual. “We think it’s important to establish a theme for the year ahead,” Giffin says. “Last year, it was Survival.” Facing a worsening financial storm, the partners set a conservative ladder of goals: Stay in business, break even, and—if possible—earn enough money to award bonuses to their employees. They accomplished all three. But given the devastation in the industry, the partners were only too happy to see 2010 heave into view. “It’s a new year, and a brand-new decade,” says Giffin, who nevertheless admits that more challenges lie ahead. “We have to do more with less. Innovation and Retooling: These are our new themes for the year.” Giffin & Crane General Contractors’ clientele remains among the wealthiest in the country, but the company is building more and smaller projects than in recent years, and its reduced staff is working harder. Each project manager used to produce an average of $1.3 in annual volume, Giffin reports. “Now it’s $2.1 million.” Accordingly, avoiding burnout has become a primary goal. “We’ve got to come up with simpler systems,” explains Giffin, who likens his field crews to a football team. They don’t want to write game plans, he explains; “They want to run plays.”
For their part, Giffin and Crane remain cool in the face of what remains a perilous economy, partly because they’ve experienced worse. “In 1993 we went from 50 employees to two and a half,” Giffin says. “We had no work for nine months.” The experience taught them the importance of planning and financial controls. And humility. “In the boom times we weren’t very good businessmen,” Giffin jokes. “We didn’t raise our rates, and we returned people’s calls.” That approach has served the company well in recent days. Unlike some competitors, it hasn’t had to cut its fees or resort to competitive bidding. “That’s the nice thing about age and longevity,” Giffin reflects. “We recognize that we only have so much time, and we want to give it to people who are going to appreciate it.”
Giffin & Crane General Contractors, Santa Barbara, Calif.
www.giffinandcrane.com
Type of business: Custom builder
Years in business: 24
Employees: 35
2009 volume: $14 million
2009 starts: 10
