Power generation: Scott Hobbs juices up the family company

Custom Home, Jan-Feb, 2005 by Snider. Bruce D.

Hutch Hutchinson was on a high-end remodeling project, adjusting a sticking door, when the homeowner flew off the handle. Why, he demanded, was this taking so long'? Why wasn't it done right the first time? If he ran his business this way ... A veteran construction superintendent with Hobbs Inc., Hutchinson was used to dealing with wealthy and prominent clients. The company had long been a favorite with the carriage trade of Fairfield County, Conn. But this client was bigger than big-time, a household name, head of one of the world's largest corporations. So when he lost his cool, Hutchinson might well have been intimidated. But rather than accept verbal abuse or, worse, lose his own temper, Hutchinson simply picked up his tools and walked out of the room. "When you're ready to discuss this reasonably," he said, "come and get me." Before long the client calmed down, and Hutch was able to explain that the door had to fit a little bit tight to keep out the wind off the water, and that you had to work the handle like this ... And while the owner may not have expected a lesson in manners from a construction worker, the incident did not sour relations on the job. In fact, the two men went on to become close friends. Both were private pilots, it turned out. They ended up flying planes together.

Every company collects stories about itself. They constitute a kind of oral history, the means by which a company defines and perpetuates its own culture. Ask anyone at Hobbs Inc. about Hutch, and you'll hear about the day he stood up to one of the most powerful men in the business world and made a friend out of him. The story says a lot about Hutch's character, his confidence in his skills, and his sense of his own worth, traits that made him a role model at Hobbs Inc. But it also speaks volumes about the company itself, because Hutch has been retired for five years. The incident of the door occurred about 20 years ago, before some of the people who tell it had graduated from high school. One of them is Scott Hobbs, the man who now runs the company. "Hutch worked for my grandfather, my father, and me," says Hobbs.

The world of custom building is full of second-generation, and even third-generation, craftsmen. But third-generation companies are rare. Building a business sound enough to survive a single generation is tough in itself. Raising a child interested in and capable of taking over adds a large element of chance and a further level of difficulty. By simply making it to the third generation as a successful company, then, Hobbs Inc. represents something of a standout in the industry. But Scott Hobbs has not been content with this generational hat trick, impressive as it might be. Since taking over the CEO spot in 1999 at the age of 31, he has plotted a course of ambitious but carefully controlled growth. Leveraging the family company's sterling reputation and solid-gold client base, he diversified into remodeling and estate management and expanded into new geographical markets. He modified the company's management structure and systems to handle the rapid increase in volume and leveraged its new economic power to offer big-company benefits and hire full-time human resources and safety managers. Most importantly, though, he leveraged the human capital of people like Hutch Hutchinson, who represent the legacy of his grandfather and his father. Building on that legacy, he has transformed an already first-rate outfit into one of the most formidable custom building companies in the country.

Ted Hobbs, Scott's grandfather, got the ball rolling in 1945. After working as a government construction engineer during World War II. Hobbs says, "He started out with another guy and a hand roller, pressing driveways. And from there he went straight up." Over the next three decades he tackled a wide range of projects: spec housing, custom homes, commercial buildings and condominiums. What distinguished Ted Hobbs" way of doing business was not what he built, but what his grandson calls "golden-rule management." Put simply, Ted Hobbs treated people well. He delivered on his promises to clients, paid his subcontractors on time, and took care of his employees. Among other things, he was far ahead of his time in stressing jobsite safety. Ted's son Mike joined the company in 1968, after a stint in the Air Force. At 35, he brought considerable outside work experience to the company, experience that would serve him well, because he would be running the show perhaps earlier than he expected. In 1975, Hobbs says, Ted's doctor predicted that he would be dead in a year if he did not retire. "He came back to the office,'" Hobbs says, "cleaned out his desk, and said, "Mike, you're in charge.'" Setting an important example for the family business, he meant what he said. In the coming years he scrupulously refused to interfere with his son's conduct of the business. And he had plenty of opportunities to butt in: he lived another 23 years, to the age of 84.