DECEMBER 2006           

INTERVIEW: MIKE DAVIS, PRESIDENT AND OWNER, H.L.MOE COMPANY, INC. 

Note:  In this interview, Mike Davis describes how Mulkern Associates has contributed to the rapid growth of his company.  H. L. Moe is a multi-million dollar, privately-held plumbing and construction contractor headquartered in Glendale, California, with several locations in the Los Angeles area.  Its 180 employees provide both residential service and repair as well as new construction plumbing.  Projects have included the Staples Center sports arena, Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, and Downtown Disney in Anaheim.

    The interview was conducted in the Fall of 2006 by Jean-Noel Bassior, a journalist based in Los Angeles who specializes in profiles of celebrities and best-selling authors for magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.  She has interviewed Mike Wallace, Larry King, Bill O’Reilly, Geraldo Rivera, John Gray, Buzz Aldrin, Dr. Bernie Siegel, Laura Schlessinger, and many others.  Her work has appeared in Redbook, Parade and has been syndicated worldwide by the New York Times Syndicate, Knight Features (London) and other agencies.  It is appearing here for the first time.

Is it true that your growth and revenues have nearly doubled since you began working with Tony Mulkern a little over two years ago?

Yes. We had been bumping along at the same level for a number of years, but from our last report, it looks like overall we’ll be up close to 100%. And our Westside location, John Keefe Company, which I bought in 2000, has grown 140% since Tony began working with us. It really went up!

You’ve been skeptical of coaches and consultants in the past. What made you trust Tony Mulkern?

When we met, I told him what’s going on with the company, and he said, “I can help you with that.” And I’ve never told him this, but in the back of my brain I was thinking, “Yeah, and you’re the fourth guy who’s told me that.”  So I really resisted, because I kept thinking, “If it’s that simple, how come I haven’t figured it out?”

What happened then?

Well, Tony is very personable, very candid—a straight shooter.  He doesn’t hold back.

So I said, “OK, let’s try it,” while thinking to myself, “Put up or shut up.” So I gave him an assignment, and the result was some markedly different changes in the dynamics of one of our offices. I thought, “That worked well.”

Then I asked him, “What’s next?” And he said, “Here are the steps we need to take. . .” From there, we did his Quality Improvement Teams seminar, and now we’re doing Management and Supervisory Skills. That takes us into a sort of Phase 2 leadership program.

What’s one of the most important things he’s taught you?

To let our staff know “Why.” So often, we tell people what to do, but we don’t tell them why. We try to give people a lot of latitude in our company, so sometimes they think, “If I do it this way, it’ll be even better.” But if they know why we need the thing done, they realize their way won’t work. When we tell them “why,” they feel like they’re in the loop. That’s a big one.

How did Tony show you this?

He brought in some great “problems” for us to solve during a management training exercise. He split us into two groups—a planning group and an implementation group, in separate rooms. He said to the implementation group, “The planning people are going to figure out a problem; then they’ll ask you to join them when they have a solution for you, and then you’ll implement it.”

The problem he gave the planning group was very challenging, but they assumed they had to figure it out for themselves. Meanwhile, the other group – the ones who were going to implement things after the solution was found – assumed they could not ask what was going on in the next room. So they had no idea what the first group was trying to do. They didn’t know if they were dealing with a cake, a truck, or if they were going to build a building.  The result was predictable—the implementation phase was a bust! 

Now like most companies, we have different groups. We have estimators, purchasers, project managers – from all different facets. And what it showed that if they don’t talk to each other, no matter how involved the problem is – or how simple it may be – you lose when communication breaks down. And this opened us to the thought that if we all sit down and talk, we can share all kinds of ideas. A good idea might come from the guy in purchasing, who’s not supposed to know about giving estimates. This got us coloring outside the lines. Before, each group would say, “We’ve got our own people. Don’t worry, we’ve got it handled.” But now we think, “I can go in and talk to anybody at this company.” And I told Tony, “You know, the dynamics of our company are changing. I hear people talk differently today.”

How fast did you feel the effects of Tony’s techniques?

Right away! We had 18 managers at that meeting I just described, and we started using what we’d learned the next day. And that’s very important because when you, as a manager, see something that you get to use right now, you go, “Wow, this is pretty neat!”

Did you ever ignore Tony’s advice?

Yes. I wanted to do something for the managers regarding compensation, but he warned me against it. And I said, “Thanks for your opinion, but I’m going to do it anyway.”

What happened?

We had scheduled our first planning and objective-setting session.  It was on a Saturday, and I wanted to give everyone $500 for coming, but Tony said no. He said that an occasional weekend meeting without additional compensation is to be expected of them because they’re managers, and if you give them something extra, they’ll take it for granted and expect it again. And he was right – not one person even said thank you!

How did he react when you didn’t take his suggestion?

He was right there – alongside, supportive, coaching me the whole way through. And when it didn’t work out so well, he didn’t throw it in my face. He just said, “OK, things like that happen. Let’s move on.”

How has working with Tony changed you personally?

He said, “You gotta back off of some of your control issues.” And I said, “Control issues? I’m not a control freak!” But outside my door some people were waiting to talk to me, and I said to Tony, “Hang on just a minute, because what the woman at our dispatch desk just said to that customer is not right. . . I’ll be right back.” I did that twice during the meeting, and then I thought, “Who the heck am I kidding?”

So I said, “OK. I have to learn to give up some control and set parameters so that everybody knows where the borders are.” Now the reality is, there are a lot of roads to get from A to B, and I may pick the one that I think, in my benevolent wisdom, is best. But I’ve got managers who are going say, “I could get there just as quick going down these side streets.” So I’ve gotten to the point where I can say, “Look, here’s the goal, here’s what you’re going for. You tell me how you’re going get there, and I’ll give you all the support I can.”

You’ve said that trust and communication, from management down, has increased dramatically because of working with Tony.  How did that happen?

One day he showed us his Delegation-Freedom Chart, which categorizes people on a duty-function level from 1 to 5. 1 and 2 are below the acceptable line; those are people who see a problem and don’t do anything to solve it. You want to get everybody above the line, which means that when they see a problem, they address it and do something about it. That way, they’re not dumping it on somebody else’s desk.

For example: We had a truck in our parking lot with a flat tire. Two people saw it everyday and didn’t do anything about it. Turned out it was a bad tire. One guy just pumped it up. He was trying – struggling to get above the line and move up the ladder. But where we ultimately want our managers and their support staff to be is at 5. That’s where they see a problem, address it, take care of it – and then, next time there’s a staff meeting, they say to the manager, “Oh, by the way, there was a flat tire, and I had the truck taken out and the tire was fixed.”

What else did he teach you about jumpstarting communication?

He had us set up Quality Improvement Teams at our West L.A. office – a cross-section of upper and lower management who met for four months and brainstormed about the issues. And what we found is that if you give everybody the opportunity to have some input on a problem, people you don’t hear from very often have valid things to say, and it becomes a team effort. With Tony’s coaching, they presented me with an overall review of what the problems were, and we came up with goals and objectives to conquer them. Did we hit a home run? No, but we got further out of the gate than ever before, and we continue to work on these things. The Teams allowed people who so often don’t have a voice to talk in these meetings and bring up some valid points. It’s a very inclusive feeling for all the people involved because they become part of the solution.

So giving employees more power to make decisions is profitable?

Yes. We’re seeing an increase in volume because of it. Now, the other side is, I’m trying to get the managers to do the same – and some of them have more trouble than I did with giving up control. They don’t see giving control to staff people as a good sign. One of my people still insists that his staff ask him about everything. And the reality is, if he would just set the parameters and let his staff go, as long as they’re within those parameters he looks good! In fact, he looks better because those people are functioning. But he doesn’t understand that.

How has your company changed since working with Tony?

I’ve got guys who are empowering everybody below them and beside them to get the job done.  What’s driving the company now is managers who are saying, “Hey, let’s set some goals and I’ll give you all the support I can.” Also, our work load has gone up, yet the amount of people hasn’t gone up in proportion. I’ve really thought about that. I keep saying to myself, “I don’t know how much more I can put on everybody’s plate, because they’re all pretty busy. Yet when we come up with new things, we all go to the next level. Now we’re creating an executive committee of upper management that will work together more as an executive management company would, at the larger companies.

So there’s more communication?

Right. We’ve learned that you need to share, you need to talk, be available. He’s shown us what happens when you have a closed vision – when you’re more worried about yourself than the overall project, so you don’t want to share. These are things that some of our people are really thinking about, and it’s generated, if I can use that old term, an esprit de corps. We’ve realized that even though we’re all in different parts of the company, we’re on the same team. And I told Tony, “You know, the dynamics of our company are slowly changing. I hear people talk differently today.”

Sounds like Tony showed how to bring more meaning to everyone’s work, which increased their loyalty and commitment to the company. . .   

I think that’s accurate. I just sent an e-mail out that says, “We’re going to have yet another meeting.” Now you’d think people would say, “Doggone it, Davis, I’ve got more going on than you do. You have your meeting and send me an e-mail.” But the majority of them have responded: “No problem. When are we going to do it? I’m there.”

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Copyright, Mulkern Associates, 2006