The Core Beliefs of Our Business
By Michael Rattacasa, Founder of The Casa Group, Inc.
The New York construction business, like many sectors across the world, has been rocked by economic disruptions and new complexities that were unforeseen in early 2019. Yet, with a myriad of business and economic headwinds, many types of businesses have still grown and thrived in this most uncertain time.
Within the professional services arena, The Casa Group has cultivated deep relationships with key partners, and those partner’s resiliency can be summarized in three core business beliefs that withstand even the wildest swings in economic cycles. These beliefs, once operationalized and woven into the fabric of your firm, will be the bedrock foundation of business continuity for decades to come.
Alignment
“Alignment is the business skill to know your clients so well, that you can interpret their vision…”
Clients generally have a vision of what and how they want things to happen, but there is often a gap between their vision and what is actually delivered. Alignment is the business skill to know your clients so well, that you can interpret their vision, recast the deliverable back to them, and agree on a path forward. Easier said than done for certain, but like a well-tuned jazz trio, once there are a deep understanding and trust that your partnering relationship wants you to succeed, needs you to succeed, and will guide you toward mutual success, alignment has been achieved. Often, alignment at this level happens outside normal business meetings where the lines between business and friendships are blurry. As we move through time and we continue to invent technology to keep us apart, alignment becomes a more rare and therefore valuable business quality.
What are you doing today to cement and enhance alignment with your clients?
Accessibility
On the grand spectrum of client engagement lays the typical and maddening, yet all too common practice of a professional that’s hard to reach. We often spend tremendous amounts of time tracking down one agency or another who has blown through deadlines, has given empty promises, and then disappears, only to finally be found frothing with excuses. Covid has given this type of person an even more convenient veil to hide behind. In the long term, these people will get discovered and most companies will root them out, discover their lack of urgency, and cull them from the business.
A core belief like accessibility is not something you should take lightly, but rather commit to it, drive it deep into your culture, and your clients will respect and value your dedication to being consistently accessible.
What do your customers say about how easily they can access you?
Accountability
If there is one business trait that makes professionals irate when it is not reciprocated is accountability. This trait occasionally is difficult to accept as we know in complex projects, sometimes issues arise that are absolutely no fault of our own, are random, and are generally unknown, unknowns. The hard pill to swallow is your partners will still, and rightfully so, hold you accountable. Instead of dodging this responsibility, embrace it, own it, communicate it. The long-term benefits of messaging to your clients that “we will be accountable” even when you’re not completely responsible, is pure relationship gold. Solid business partnerships are not built on the assumption that every project will go perfectly, but rather, knowing when issues arise, will you handle them without excuse, without delay, and without blame.
How are you demonstrating accountability to your clients? Can they trust that regardless of the situation, you’ll step up and be a solid, responsible partner?
Join us in making these core beliefs of accountability, accessibility, and alignment the mutually agreed-upon code of business engagement for 2021 and beyond.
The CASA Group, Inc. offers personalized, solutions-oriented consulting expertise, within the construction and development market through the motivation and intellect of our people.
Founded by Michael Rattacasa