Staying stoked: Terry Wardell likes the action both on the jobsite and off - Custom Builder of the Year - Cover Story

Custom Home, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Bruce D. Snider

For Wardell, doing it right at this stage of his company's life cycle involves narrowing and focusing his own job description. Initially responsible for all sales, estimating, and project management, Wardell has already shed the estimating job and is now shifting project management to construction manager Mike Murphy and controller Vickie Geyer. "We've reached that growth spurt where we've got to restructure our whole business to succeed," says Geyer. "Terry used to do scheduling; I'm doing that now. He used to do quality control; Mike is doing that now. We're basically trying to get project management more into the office. We're trying to bring the buy-out into the office, so [the superintendents] can be more into what's going on out on the job, instead of the paperwork, and so Terry can focus more of his energy on sales and the client relationship throughout the job."

"What we have works," Wardell says. "But we think we might be more efficient." With his current 65 employees, including 9 superintendents, "I think we can be more centralized without losing the finesse." As always, the reorganization has been a group effort. "We do beta runs and discuss it: How much can be systematized, and when does the systemization reach the point of diminishing returns?" The changes will spread management responsibility downward in the existing hierarchy. And in the role he envisions for himself--"more of a CEO than a president"--Wardell will explore ways to further expand career opportunities for his long-term employees. "People need more to step up to," says Wardell, who has quietly begun a "special projects" division to do smaller jobs, such as kitchen remodels. In the meantime, current volume and profit margins should see the company comfortably through to its next incarnation. "It's more important to me that the systems get in place right than to rush out and get more work."

As always, however, opportunities present themselves. Wardell and general superintendent Greg Muise recently returned from a trip to Mexico City, where they toured the works of architect Alberto Kalach, in preparation for building a 12,000-square-foot house Kalach designed for clients in Del Mar. Muise will step down from his current position, in which he acts as traveling mentor to the project superintendents, and strap on his tool belt to captain this high-profile, high-stakes project. "It's basically a cast-in-place concrete house," Muise says: No paint, no plaster, no room for error. "Everything has to he in place, then it's poured. In superintending there's always the before-the-pour jitters. Here there's going to be 35 or 40 pours."

That wave will be Muise's to ride. Meanwhile, Wardell will continue to match himself against challenges on the business end of building. "I'm still in the middle of the MBA," he says, grinning. "It's a reall-l-l-l-y long program." But the surf is up on this side of the beach, too. "I think building a business is as exciting as building a house," he says, and the glint in his eye says that it really is. "It's very soul-satisfying on a lot of levels, and it's very consuming and painful at other levels. You get a lot out of it, and you give a lot to have it. When I get burned out, I think of exit strategies. Other times, I think I could do this till I'm 80."