The Christman Way
By Mindy Kroll
Universal Advisor , 2005 Issue No. 2


Most organizations like to think of themselves as unique. To succeed, it’s crucial for organizations to differentiate themselves from their competitors, yet oftentimes, if you delve more deeply, many organizations are a lot more like their competitors than they’d like to believe.

So when Steve Roznowski, President and CEO of The Christman Company (Christman), said, “There’s something very unique about our organization,” it was easy to be skeptical. Turns out, he was right. Christman is unique. Unique in terms of history, in terms of ownership, and in terms of client service delivery. Yet as distinctive as these attributes are, there’s something else that resonates more deeply: its culture and the fact that some 300 staff are genuinely motivated by a purpose, goal, and set of values known as “The Christman Way.”

Unique in History

Christman was founded by H.G. Christman in South Bend, Indiana, in 1894. Initially a family-owned company, Christman focused on industrial projects throughout the Midwest. In 1908, Christman began what will soon be a 100-year relationship with Michigan State University with the construction of Agriculture Hall. Today, Christman is responsible for nearly one-third of the buildings on MSU’s campus; in fact, they’re now beginning to renovate buildings that they built years ago.

Due to increased business activity in Lansing, Christman opened an office at 408 Kalamazoo Plaza, where the company headquarters remain today. During the depression in the late ’20s and early ’30s, however, H.G. Christman began to struggle. The family-owned business eventually went bankrupt, and the Lansing principals acquired the Christman family interests. Today, Christman is an owner-managed company with approximately 300 staff in Lansing, Ann Arbor, Traverse City, and Petoskey, Michigan, as well as Washington D.C.

Unique in Ownership

Christman epitomizes one of the earliest versions of management ownership, and that model remains unique within the construction industry today. “Most of the largest construction companies are private, closely held, family owned businesses," says Jim Cash, Senior Vice President of Christman. “Our ownership structure distinguishes us in the industry and helps us attract the kinds of people we want to attract — people with entrepreneurial mindsets.” Steve Roznowski agrees. “The essence of what we do is management and leadership. We look for people that have the skills to be leaders, and our staff appreciates the leadership opportunities. It’s an incredibly successful draw for recruiting and retention. In fact, I can count the number of people who’ve left Christman over the years, that we didn’t want to leave, on one hand.”

This philosophy not only benefits Christman staff but also its clients, as each and every construction job has at least one owner manager overseeing it. Since these owner-managers have a vested interest in assuring each job is a success, Christman clients are afforded peace of mind — something else that tends to be unique in the construction industry.

Unique in Diversification

Christman has a national reputation as experts in the preservation of historic buildings; they’ve worked on some of the most famous and prominent structures in the country, including the Michigan State Capitol Building, the Golden Dome at Notre Dame, and the Thomas Jefferson-designed Virginia Capitol in Richmond. In addition, they’re market leaders in the health care and education (K-12 and higher education) industries.

However, they also recognize the importance of diversification. “If you look at our experience portfolio in 1998, it was very concentrated in higher education,” says Cash. “Shortly thereafter, the state budget crunch hit, and the schools were affected dramatically; however, at the same time, our health care business was taking off. Even though a major business sector was declining, our corporate markets continued to grow, thanks to our focus on diversification.” This diversification includes not only staples such as health care, education, and historic preservation, but also the industrial, offices, public buildings, research & development, retail & hospitality, and specialty buildings markets.

Unique in Client Service Delivery

Christman has a fully integrated client service delivery approach. To that end, in 1994 and 1995, Christman formed two subsidiaries: Christman Constructors, Inc. (CCI), and Christman Capital Development Company (CCDC), respectively. CCI was incorporated in 1994 for the purpose of providing quality concrete, carpentry, resteel installation, and general contracting work. “We wanted to really specialize in subcontract work,” says Roznowski. In addition, even when Christman is not selected for a particular project pursuit, CCI still has a shot at becoming a subcontractor on the same job. “It doesn’t erase the pain totally, but it helps,” laughs Roznowski.

But what about work that Christman is subcontracting out? Does CCI have a leg up on the competition? Roznowski laughs again. “There was a lot of concern in the subcontract community that we’d do that,” he says. “But we play it straight; we have to, or we’d lose all credibility. And we routinely award contracts to CCI’s competitors- much to CCI’s chagrin!”

CCDC, on the other hand, was borne of Christman’s desire to stretch their expertise within the construction industry. “We thought, ‘Why not build our own buildings?’ Some clients prefer to lease their facilities rather than tie up capital in bricks and mortar,” says Cash. “We’re available to help them analyze both paths and determine which is the most cost effective.”

Unique in Approach

The vast majority of Christman’s work is negotiated as opposed to competitively bid. As such, they often become involved early on in a project and are able to participate in the design phase. “A building is a tool for our customers to do whatever it is they do, whether they’re an insurance company, university, or serving a function for an organization,” says Roznowski. “It’s crucial that they realize how they operate, how they use technology, how they use their staff, and plan their space accordingly.”

Sometimes clients think they need more than they actually do. “We had a hospital client who was planning to build a replacement facility — an entire new hospital in a new location,” says Cash. Instead, Christman helped them realize they could replace their existing hospital on a phase-by-phase basis by building additions and decommissioning older parts as they moved into newer parts. The result? What the hospital anticipated would be a $200 million investment became an $85 million investment. “I yelled at our guys for that,” jokes Roznowski. “‘You cut us in half!’ But we do that all the time; we pride ourselves on giving our clients good advice — even if that sometimes means they decide not to build a building.”

Unique in “The Christman Way”

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Christman is its culture — a culture that’s remained the same since its inception more than 100 years ago. Until five years ago, however, that culture had never been committed to paper, so members of Christman came together to develop what became “The Christman Way”: “They didn’t just come together and say, ‘Let’s write out some goals and values,” says Angela Bailey, Director of Corporate Communications at Christman. “They looked at how the company had been doing business for the past 100 years and drafted the purpose, values, and goal from what already existed. That’s part of what soldme on the organization.”

“It’s not just lip service,” says Roznowski. “You ask anyone who works for Christman about our purpose, values, or goal, and they’ll be able to tell you. It’s inherent in our culture. ‘The Christman Way’ is who we are.”

Indeed, when I asked 10 Christman staff members of varying location and job titles about “The Christman Way,” the response was unanimous. Each staff member knew, word for word, the purpose, values, and what Scott Potter, a Senior Estimator, called the “BHAG” (pronounced “Bee-hag”) or Big, Hairy, Aggressive Goal: to be the most sought after in the markets they serve.

“A lot of thought went into that goal,” says Roznowksi. “The temptation was to be quantitative and say ‘to be a billion-dollar organization’ or ‘to have work in x amount of states,’ but if you focus on quantitative goals, it’s often at the expense of your values. Instead, we’d rather focus on being so good at what we do that we’re sought after — not just by customers, but by employees and colleagues at other firms who want to work with us.”

And how will they know when they reach that goal?

“Right now we have to explain to people why we should be sought after,” laughs Cash. Roznowski agrees. “Yeah, we actually still have to compete for projects,” he laughs. “My goal is to sit at the phone all day and field calls. When that happens, I’ll know we’re the most sought after.”