Mortenson pegs growth to taking the long view

Take heed to the article
6 min

This audio is auto-generated. Please tell us when you have feedback.

For Mortenson, it’s all about planning forward. 

The Minneapolis-based contractor jumped 5 spots this yr on the nation’s list of top contractors by revenue, with $6.7 billion in 2024 income incomes the agency the twenty second place.

When you ask CEO Derek Cunz, the important thing to the 70-year-old firm’s development is determined by levelheadedness and staying the course. Which means persevering with to spend money on new sectors. 

This yr, the agency began a division centered on serving information middle clients with fiber optics and structured cabling options. The agency can also be hiring 300 new faculty graduates in addition to 300 interns this yr.

Right here, Cunz talks with Building Dive concerning the firm’s development, remaining centered in an unsure setting and long-term market success.

CONSTRUCTION DIVE: When last we spoke, you had simply change into CEO. How had been the primary six months within the captain’s chair?

DEREK CUNZ: I believe we have been so planful, having labored at Mortenson for 29 years after which having two years within the seat as president main as much as being named as CEO. We had a really considerate, long-planned transition. It did make it lots simpler that I sat by way of every kind of processes of working the corporate. However there may be completely one thing that adjustments when the buck stops with you.

So, I might say I’ve felt the accountability of the position. I had plenty of time to arrange, which is superior. I take into consideration the stewardship of the tradition and the look after the individuals at Mortenson, and now I’ve that weight on my shoulders. I get up fascinated with that on daily basis, about our groups and our individuals and the households that that represents. The factor that has modified is how I really feel. 

However enterprise is nice. We’re hiring extra individuals than ever this yr. And so there’s plenty of constructive issues occurring within the group. So it isn’t a foul time.

How a lot does that planful, forward-looking strategy bolster Mortenson’s enterprise?

I believe after I take a look at what we skilled final yr and the place the corporate’s going as we speak, it’s 100% due to a long-term view of our enterprise technique, the place we’re investing in a single new enterprise a yr. We’re always trying downstream and fascinated with the place issues are going and the place we need to be investing. 

It is principally a diversified market technique and an extended view. So not reacting to what’s occurring out there as we speak, however extra pondering forward. And the issues which can be paying off now are issues that we have been investing in for a few years. And admittedly, some years might need been down in that market, however we stayed the course as a result of we’ve a really long-term technique.

What are a few of the markets you’ve stayed the course with which have contributed to latest success?

A very good instance of a long-term technique can be our wind enterprise. We have been within the wind enterprise for 30 years, and 30 years in the past it was very fringe, not mainstream when it comes to energy technology. However it’s emerged as a really viable, cost-effective and aggressive strategy to generate vitality. 

There’s been ups and downs over time in that enterprise, however we have stayed with it as a result of we believed in it. And now we’re at a degree within the nation the place we want plenty of energy and wind energy may be very value aggressive. So once more, by staying with an trade and slowly seeing the funding in expertise, the funding in effectivity and now it is a aggressive type of energy technology. We have been at it lengthy sufficient and it made the investments to be right here. 

As a result of it’s capital intensive, it is arduous to study, it is arduous to get into. However we have been at it lengthy sufficient to then be capable of be in the correct place to achieve success. 

You talked about not being reactive. How do you deal with that when issues appear to always be altering, particularly as a brand new administration is available in and begins a significant pivot?

I believe for us it is at all times about serving our clients. So attempting to have as a lot information as potential about what’s occurring out there, in order that we are able to react to it, present essentially the most worth by way of the dynamic markets that exist, which have a lot of choices. 

, we have invested in a provide chain perform in order that we could possibly be extra agile as the availability chain shifts. We have invested closely in our expertise and other people improvement. So we’re rising the workforce of the longer term by investing in individuals. And once more, these are long-term investments, however they assist us climate the storm as issues change in entrance of us.

How is synthetic intelligence factoring into your enterprise planning?

I imply, we’re within the information middle enterprise, so it has been good for enterprise when it comes to this development of AI, which is driving plenty of building within the information middle enterprise. That is additionally helped us develop. We’ve been within the information middle enterprise for a very long time. So we had been already in that enterprise and once more, not reacting when AI got here alongside, we had been there already serving our clients.