Intelligence gathering: a world-beating company runs on the power of ideas

Custom Home, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Bruce D. Snider

"Opportunities arose," Barry says. "Opportunities to build projects coincided with opportunities to have people who were capable of participating in those projects--a ratcheting up. That just kept happening, and we kept getting bigger and bigger."

The satisfactions of the work keep the ball rolling. "Our clients are indulging in support for the arts," Barry says. "We're the lucky ones who get to participate in that process." With that reward, he says, "people come and they stay and they learn and they succeed. Because of that, it's allowed us to grow. We don't lose that experience."

"We have a saying here," Barry says: "`Problems should be solved, not admired.'" It is an apt motto for those who qualify as Thoughtforms people. "What they really are are problem solvers," Barry says, "and it's very satisfying when they get problems to solve." And each hurdle surmounted builds the company's fitness for the next. Today, it is a house shaped like a school of fish; tomorrow, who knows?

Whatever the next challenge, Barry says, Thoughfforms' people will proceed as always: by using their heads. "Building is just a set of problems--technical problems, money problems, people problems--and it's a matter of keeping pressure on them so they get solved."