Subcontracting the field work has allowed the firm to focus on its management systems and build a formidable crew of superintendents and project managers. The latter—16 superintendents and 11 project managers—average more than seven years of tenure. Brubaker, now 48, hired on 25 years ago.

The company's other vice president, Kevin O'Donnell, who focuses on marketing and business development as well as project management, has only 12 years under his belt and considers himself "a newbie." The company has made an art of pairing superintendents and project managers with complementary personalities and skill sets, and it allows on-site management teams a significant degree of autonomy. But it has also achieved something of a group mind-meld, which is reflected in its superintendent field manual. A continuous work in progress, the manual represents the combined knowledge ofthe entire team.

Hefting the 400-page slab, Payne says, "This is a sequential document, from dirt work to foundation to framing, and so on." Entries range from nuts-and-bolts matters (don't accept spruce-fir framing lumber when the spec calls for Douglas fir) to material-selection advice (no limestone counters in the kitchen) and such arcana as the fact that dogs tend to dislike in-floor radiant heat.

The construction-checklist section runs to 39 pages. At their monthly meetings, the project managers and superintendents continuously update the manual (which Payne has actually copyrighted), sometimes with the help of an outside expert invited to speak on a new product or process.

The company's emphasis on learning and self examination verges on obsession. Beck contracts with an outside company called Priority Management, which provides a time-management training course. "Everybody in the company goes through that," he says. "It's an automatic. When guys have to manage all this construction and do paperwork too, you've got to give them tools."

A few years back, Beck sent Brubaker and O'Donnell to Florida for a week-long course of management training. The company produces an "after action report" on every project. "We grade our subcontractors," Becksays, "we grade ourselves. What worked, what didn't? It's layers of always checking in with everybody." To hone the energy performance of the company's buildings, the company brought in Minneapolis building science specialist Mark LaLiberte to lecture on the topic. "We invited our local architects, too," Beck says, "to get them to buy in."

This self-improvement imperative goes all the way to the top. More than a decade ago, Beck and Payne realized that the company had outgrown the seat-of-the-pants business skills that had served them up to that point. So they sent themselves back to school, taking a series of week-long management classes at the University of Wisconsin. "We're businessmen in the construction business," Beck says. "But," Payne adds, "we weren't always." Beck nods. "We had to make that transition inorder to survive." In fact, he says, "We've reinvented ourselves several times as we've gotten bigger or changed the kind of work we were doing."

And Beck has not been shy about enlisting the help of outside consultants. Some 10 years ago, the construction-industry consulting firm FMI conducted a thorough analysis and revision of the company's systems and procedures.

Architect: RMT Architects; Photo: Ron Ruscio

But the latest reinvention will be the most significant since Beck founded the company, because when this one is complete, Beck will no longer run it. The process began some 15 years ago, when Beck was working on his estate plan. His insurance company referred him to John Brown, a Denver attorney and expert in "exit planning." Brown said, in effect, "So you expect to die some day. What would you like to do before that happens?" The timing was fortuitous, because a successful exit—that is, one that allows an owner to realize a return on his investment while leaving the business in sound shape—can easily take a decade to plan and execute. The culmination is one of three scenarios: a transfer of ownership to a family member, a sale to an outside party, or a sale to company employees. Each case poses a significant challenge for the business, which must maintain operational momentum, produce a profit for its new owner, and, ineffect, fund the founder's retirement. With that in mind, Beck put his company on a decade-long training regimen aimed at building core staff, clarifying and standardizing management systems, and maximizing profitability.

The primary goal of any exit plan is to build and preserve the value of the company. In custom building, a business with relatively few fixed assets, that value lies in people. Preparing for a successful transition, therefore, entails finding the right people and binding them to the company.

"As much as 15 years ago," Beck says, "the question was, how are you going to compensate key individuals beyond their salary?" He began by making Payne a minority owner and offering a generous deferred compensation plan to his other key people, giving them a financial stake in the company's success. He worked at standardizing the company's systems and documenting its procedures, in effect downloading the management software from his own head and publishing it for the team that would take over for him. At this point in the evolution of a company, Beck says, the owner's focus "goes from being entrepreneurial to being organizational." Whatever role the owner has played, "You have to define that, share it, and assign it. As soon as you have a process in place, you've got to paper it."