Jaynes, Banes and J. Howard Mock

New Mexico Business Journal, Nov, 1996 by Paula Paul

J. Howard Mock was born at a construction site in 1941 and has made construction his life ever since. Now he is senior vice president of Associated General Contractors of America, the construction industry's national organization, and is expected to assume the presidency next year.

He's also chairman and ceo of Jaynes Corp. in Albuquerque, one of the Southwest's largest construction companies, with volume of business to exceed $100 million this year. That's not all. Seven years ago Mock and others purchased another general contracting business, the Banes Corp. in El Paso, which is expected to gross between $25 million and $30 million this year. Besides his primary financial interests in industrial construction, Mock is also a stockholder in Mock Homes, a home-building business run by his brother, Joe.

Although Mock was born at Vallecito Lake in Colorado where his father was helping to build a dam, he is, for the most part, homegrown in New Mexico. Mock and his parents moved back to Albuquerque one month after his birth, and his father commuted to Los Alamos to help build what was then a top secret facility. Mock attended elementary and junior high school in Albuquerque, but another construction job took the family back to Colorado where he graduated from high school. He returned to New Mexico for college, however, and got his degree in civil engineering from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and several years later returned for an MBA. He became the owner of Jaynes in 1983.

Mock contributes his success to a business management style that makes use of long- and short-range planning and extensive market research. That style, which he says came as a direct result of training he received in the MBA program, sets his companies apart from other construction companies, he believes. "I think we may be different from some other construction companies because of the planning we do and the market research," he said.

Market research and projections was one thing that led Mock and other stockholders to El Paso as well as to expansion in other areas.

"Because of our market research, we were already looking at El Paso when the (Banes) company became available. Also Jaynes has had an office in Farmington for about 15 years, and we have had an office in Las Vegas, Nevada for five years. That also came about out of the market research and planning process - of us looking at where we really ought to be."

Construction projects in those areas have included retail centers, automobile dealerships, medical facilities, warehouses and others.

"We looked at these areas to provide opportunities for our people, and it was very controlled planning. Other companies tend to bounce around and don't do any long range planning, but we will have typically 25 of our people participate in a planning session each year, so it includes upper management, some middle management folks and people like superintendents and foremen. That way we can work on how we're doing as a company and how it's perceived by the employees. We get their thoughts and direction."

The unique relationship between union workers and management that involves bringing union representatives in on planning has set the Jaynes and other New Mexico construction companies apart from other construction businesses across the country.

"There has been a large movement across the country to have an open shop, versus unions, and I think it was needed at the time. The unions were becoming very onerous and way overboard and too costly, but as that movement happened, it was a large factor in driving wages down and they didn't have the same benefit programs."

Low wages and a lack of benefit programs will not attract the high quality employee Mock is looking for, however. "We are a union company and we've remained there because we can provide (through cooperation with unions) good benefit programs and good training programs."

Mock describes the company's relationship with unions as "very cooperative. They're sitting down with us and saying, now what else do we need to do to make sure you're competitive. What can we change to make sure you get there? Now that's a different atmosphere than you'd see in New Jersey or L.A."

Mock says there is currently an attempt, nationwide, to enhance training programs for construction workers. "We have a thing called the National Center for Construction Education and Research. It will be located at Gainesville, Florida. I think that will help bring the industry together to work on some of these problems."

The construction industry, nationwide, has suffered a severe economic downturn, Mock says, due to cutbacks in military spending as well as in manufacturing. Because of the slump in construction, after older craftsmen retired, younger workers were going to other industries such as health care and high-tech computer-related industries, Mock said.

"The economy for construction has been so far down in some places, that there is now a real need for crafts people," Mock said. "The Gainesville center is planning a two-year curriculum to train these people."