Building the New Economy

OFIs do more than enhance individual projects. Every OFI that gets implemented also gets logged into a Lotus Notes database. With a few keystrokes, DPR employees can search through every project that the company has ever done to discover where their colleagues found room for improvement. The entries are itemized and cross-referenced, and they can be searched by keyword, by cost, or by one of DPR's seven critical success factors. "It's just one hell of a resource," says Webb.

DPR views CIP as a cornerstone of its business. Indeed, one member of its management committee is specifically charged with overseeing the program. "This is not a voluntary program," says Nosler. "You're either on a task force, working on ideas, or helping to implement things. One way or another, everyone is involved."

On the Summit project, Webb's responsibility is both to ensure implementation of approved CIP ideas and to measure their impact. One recent OFI suggested that the company install fax machines in Summit's two pavilions, where tradespeople were working. Those machines seemed like a luxury -- until Webb calculated how much time it took for people to walk down to the DPR site office, pick up a fax, and then walk back to the job. The total came to 880 labor hours over the life of the project. Webb installed the faxes, and he estimates that the investment will save DPR $42,000.

DPR is a company that takes measurement very seriously. "If you're not keeping score," people at DPR like to say, "it's only practice." The company has created metrics for performance in each of its seven critical success factors; it tracks that performance closely; and it shares the results widely. The "zero punch list" goal, for example, translates into finishing all outstanding items on a project by the time of its substantial completion. The company tracks how many days its projects are operating above or below that goal. One finding: DPR has gone from being an average of 25 days behind its original contract schedules, in the second quarter of 1995, to being fewer than 3 days behind today.

DPR doesn't just measure results -- it pays for them. Bonuses can reach 30% of base salary, and the criteria mostly relate to performance in the company's seven success factors. DPR is even trying to expand its pay-for-performance approach to include subcontractors and union tradespeople -- by giving bonuses in "DPR Dollars." Workers not in DPR's direct employ can use the currency to buy golf shirts, ice chests, and other construction-guy stuff.

Perhaps the only performance attribute that DPR doesn't quantify is fun. But on the company's list of four core values and beliefs, "enjoyment" is preceded only by "integrity." "Enjoyment" doesn't just mean great parties (although DPR, like its Silicon Valley neighbors, has Friday-afternoon bashes at a local wine bar). It means the satisfaction that comes from collaborating, sharing knowledge, and building great things. "When people's goals are aligned," says Nosler, "when everyone is working toward the same objective, people suddenly discover, 'Hey, this is a blast.' "

It's late in the day at the Novell job site. Weary craftsmen walk to their pickup trucks, tools jangling from their belts. Mike Glogovac, 41, project manager for a subcontractor, Frank Electrical Co., doesn't look as if he's having a blast. He looks beat. Yet when asked how he likes working with people at DPR, Glogovac breaks into a broad smile. "Their business philosophy is that everybody on a project has to be successful, or else the project won't be successful," he says. "It's not just a nice thought -- they actually mean it. When we hit a rough spot, they don't say, 'Too bad.' It's more like, 'What can we do to make this work for you?' And because of that attitude, when you have an opportunity to help DPR, you do it."

Glogovac pauses. He's been on some nightmare jobs, projects on which he felt like "one lone contractor fighting against the rest of the world." But this job, his first with DPR, feels different. "You know," he says, "it really does become win-win."

Eric Ransdell (ransdell@well.com), a Fast Company contributing editor, is based in San Francisco. Visit DPR Construction Inc. on the Web (www.dprinc.com).