8 minute read
Messer Sets A Standard of Excellence
Messer Construction Sets a Standard of Excellence
Messer Construction was the contractor for the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority BNA/MRO Hangar Development project. The project received the 2017 AGC of Tennessee Award of Excellence in New Construction (under $50M). The 90,000-square-foot airplane maintenance hangar contains a new concrete apron and new taxiway to the existing airfield. The project exceeded the company’s 20% S/M/WBE requirement with an actual achieved participation of 40% S/M/WBE.
Messer Construction consistently sets a standard of excellence in the construction industry as a quality builder of commercial projects. Since its inception in 1932, the company has established a successful track record in several market segments including aviation, health care, higher education, industrial, and science & technology. The company is ranked by Engineering News-Record as #75 on its 2018 listing of the Top 400 contractors across the country. The employee-owned firm surpassed $1 billion in revenues during 2018, and has more than 1,100 employees across 10 regional offices in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.
Along with a stellar reputation in building construction projects, Messer also sets a standard of excellence for economic inclusion in the markets where it does business, both in the procurement of goods and services from diverse suppliers, and in workforce diversity across the organization. Messer’s commitment to economic inclusion is made clear through its identification of Diversity and Inclusion as one of the company’s six cultural values; and its commitment to inclusion as a key factor for continued success in the company’s 2019-2023 strategic plan.
Vice President and Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer Stanford Williams leads Messer’s economic inclusion initiatives. Williams believes that although the company has grown over the years, it has maintained a commitment to the community – and to economic inclusion – that is led by Messer Chairman of the Board Thomas Keckeis and President & CEO Tim Steigerwald. “Our leadership communicates the importance of inclusion, and that it is a competitive advantage for us,” Williams said. “It helps us win jobs because our customers value the diversity and inclusion results that Messer brings to their projects.”
In addition to winning jobs, Williams also believes that being a world-class company for inclusion improves Messer’s overall performance in its market areas and market segments. “Diversity and inclusion is not just a good thing to do; companies that are diverse outperform those that are not diverse,” Williams said.
Messer uses an organization-wide scorecard system to measure each region’s performance in all strategic areas, including economic inclusion, as a means to track the company’s key performance indicators. The scorecard ensures corporate and regional leadership stays aware of ongoing performance, and serves as peer motivation between the regional offices. “Everyone can see the scorecard and we have economic inclusion goals for every department and region of the company,” Williams said. “No one wants to have their area in the red in its strategic objectives, including economic inclusion.”
Supplier Diversity
One component of Messer’s economic inclusion effort is a commitment to do business with diverse firms. The company spent more than 17% (or $154 million) with certified companies owned by minorities or women, exceeding its 15.5% goal set for fiscal year 2018. Messer established a goal to exceed 16% (or $176 million) in spending with certified minority- and women-owned firms in fiscal 2019. A key to reaching this goal comes through providing support, monitoring and tracking of the firm’s Top 60 projects throughout the year. Messer’s Economic Inclusion Vice President of Supplier Diversity, Sonya Walton, maintains a close working relationship with the regional offices and helps them create and implement strategies to find diverse firms to work on projects. To that end, Williams said: “We have a supplier diversity goal for every project we do, regardless of whether the client requires it or not. We do it because of our corporate commitment to economic inclusion.”
Stanford T. Williams Jr. Messer Vice President & Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer
As a result of the ongoing success of Messer’s Economic Inclusion program, the company has been recognized by several organizations in the minority and women’s business development arena. Messer was the National Minority Supplier Development Council’s 2018 runner-up for Class I Corporation of the Year, and recognized as a 2018 ‘Best of the Best’ Companies for Supplier Diversity by Professional Women’s Magazine. Messer also was named Diversity Inc. Magazine’s #8 Best Company for Supplier Diversity in 2016, and won the Ohio Minority Supplier Development Council’s Class I Corporation of the Year for three years in a row from 2014-2016.
These and other honors were given to the company based on its strategy to be a preferred customer for diverse firms in its market areas. Messer continually looks for opportunities to work with smaller companies, especially those with the potential to become larger subcontractors in the future. “We meet companies where they are and then try to have them grow with us,” Williams said. “What causes me to lose sleep at night is thinking about where the next generation of entrepreneurs is coming from that want to grow with us.”
TriVersity Partnership
Messer’s commitment to economic inclusion is further exemplified by its strategic relationship with TriVersity Construction. TriVersity is a Cincinnati-based contractor led by CEO Melvin Gravely II, with annual revenues approaching $100 million. Gravely acquired majority ownership of TriVersity in 2009 and has a 67% ownership stake in the company, while Messer owns the remaining 33%.
TriVersity’s relationship with Messer began in 2005 when the company was initially founded. Messer’s leadership wondered why there were no scaled-up, minority-owned construction companies with the ability to complete larger projects. Messer’s answer was to do something about it – becoming the third investor in the minority-owned firm. Messer’s intention was to help build a minority-owned company with the capacity needed to be a large contractor in the Cincinnati market. The TriVersity experiment had some early success as the original owners and Messer leadership worked to turn the vision into reality. “There were fits and starts in the beginning,” Gravely said. “Messer leadership had a vision for what TriVersity could become, but bringing the relationship to where it is now has taken some work.”
The Messer/TriVersity venture has thrived under Gravely’s leadership. So much, in fact, that TriVersity became one of the leading construction companies in the Greater Cincinnati Area. A May 2019 listing of the Largest Greater Cincinnati General Contractors ranks TriVersity #7 – five spots behind Messer at #2 on the list. “We have been ranking between #7 and #9 for the past few years,” Gravely said.
TriVersity has grown and expanded capacity through the ongoing support of Messer’s leadership. The strategic relationship allowed TriVersity to access the latest construction processes and technologies from an industry leader, and provided an opportunity for the company to work along with Messer on numerous large projects. As a result, TriVersity staff members gained significant project management experience necessary to succeed on future projects.
TriVersity Construction CEO Mel Gravely speaks to company employees at the 2019 Safety Day Program.
While the business-to-business relationship has paid dividends for both companies, it has also come with a few growing pains. As TriVersity grew and developed capacity, it led to situations of direct competition between the two companies, as they encountered projects both entities wanted to win. “There have been times where both companies see a project that we want to go after, and we’ve competed against each other … but generally, we don’t cross paths on projects,” Gravely said. When situations like this arise, the solutions are addressed seamlessly due to the close relationship between the companies. TriVersity’s five-member board of directors includes Gravely, two members appointed by Gravely, and two members from Messer. The two Messer members are Williams and Messer President Steigerwald.
“Messer has been fully engaged from the beginning,” Gravely said. “The partnership has allowed us to see the inner workings of their company, learn the latest technology and business processes, and work closely with their project managers to increase our capacity.” This type of mentoring has been invaluable to the success of TriVersity, and has allowed the company to steadily grow its organizational skill and capacity to the point where approximately 75% of the company’s work comes from prime contracts won independently, while the other 25% comes from partnering with Messer on large projects.
The strategic partnership has performed so well that both companies are now considering the next step in the relationship. Since TriVersity has become a successful company in its own right, Messer has been able to take a step back in the partnership it helped to build. “They came to trust us,” Gravely said. “But it is because of the transparency of the relationship and their commitment to seeing us succeed on our own.”
This overarching commitment has allowed TriVersity to continue to access the resources of Messer, while simultaneously gaining knowledge and different business processes from new employees that join the company after working for other large firms. “We have employees that have worked for several of the largest contractors in the country,” Gravely said. “They bring skills and processes from their prior companies, so now we combine what we have gained from Messer with what our people have brought in from the other companies.”
Williams has provided guidance and support for the Messer/TriVersity relationship since the initial stages and is proud of the success TriVersity is having under Gravely. “This has been a great example of Messer’s commitment to building minority-owned firms and supporting our community,” Williams said. “We know that this type of success not only grows the business, but that minority-owned firms are more likely to hire minority employees, which creates an even greater benefit.”
Forging Ahead
Messer shows no signs of slowing down its growth in 2019 – tirelessly in constant pursuit to be among the top contractors in the industry. In 2018, the company opened a regional office in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has plans to make additional inroads in the health care and aviation industries in particular. “Aviation is a definite area of focus for us,” Williams said. “We see this as an area of growth in the future.” The company is currently completing airport projects in Nashville, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Messer Senior Project Manager Mieah Turner served as on-site leader for the $35 million Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority BNA/MRO Hangar Development Project.
The company is also in the midst of its largest contract ever, a $350 million critical care building for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Williams and his economic inclusion team developed and launched a robust effort to include certified diverse companies in the project, and to create an innovative workforce diversity program to ensure members of the community near the construction site have the maximum opportunity to gain employment, and potential long-term careers with Messer. The project has the goal of creating 50 sustainable jobs for diverse candidates. “Thirteen people have already attained full-time employment,” Williams said. “We have four more in the queue, and will have another eight by the end of the year.”
Messer began the 2019 fiscal year with first quarter revenues of $538 million, the highest quarterly revenues in the history of the company. Williams believes the company has an excellent chance to reach the 2019 revenue goal of $1.25 billion, which will offer significant opportunities to diverse firms and potential employees across the regions where Messer does business. However, Williams insists his main focus isn't on the amount of revenues the company earns, but on the lives he has a chance to impact through these economic opportunities. He said, “It’s about more than building buildings, it’s about building lives.”
