This year’s Executive Summit was like none other in history. Even with the impending uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis, the attendees recognized the extraordinary importance of the topic and made the trip to South Florida for three days of discussion on “Superior Performance and Profitability: It’s All in Your Team’s Execution”.
Many builders brought their entire management teams to hear keynote speaker Chris McChesney from FranklinCovey, co-author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Builders worked with their teams to identify and move Wildly Important Goals forward, and everyone left with a doable plan.
“It was great to see builders present what they are doing in their own companies to incorporate the processes Chris discussed on the first day,” Shinn Builder Partnerships meeting planner Emma Jane Wildermuth said. “The energy of the room was dynamic and positive. There was a can-do spirit among the group.”
“The Four Disciplines of Execution is an outstanding way to prioritize the most important goals and ways of achieving them,” said Jim Weigel, senior consultant for Shinn Consulting.
For Weigel, the highlights included:
- Great information on a digital design center,
- Wonderful information about generating and converting leads digitally,
- Excellent examples of reducing direct construction costs, and
- A reminder about how important consistent, comprehensive customer service is to reduced warranty costs and increased referrals.
Attendees also heard from Mark Vitner, Managing Director/Senior Economist for Wells Fargo Securities, who presented the state of the housing industry and the 2020 economic forecast (to the extent that it was predictable with the uncertainty of the pandemic).
Leading builders from across the country presented their experiences of improved execution for achieving superior results, including:
Jonathan Belcher, President of Signature Homes
Richard Carilo, Director of Warranty and Quality Assurance for Stylecraft Builders
Jeremy Knicely, Vice President of Home Building for StyleCraft Homes,
Alan Looney, Founder and President of Castle Homes
Ben Rutt, Director of Marketing for Keystone Custom Homes
As with every Executive Summit, attendees had the opportunity to meet with key manufacturers and service providers in informal settings. They also gathered to honor the winners of the 2020 Builder Partnerships Achievement Awards.
During the Executive Summit, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. In an instant, everything builders knew about the economy and the housing industry changed. Faced with this extraordinary and unprecedented turn of events, the builders at the event drew on the expertise in the room to assess the situation and take action.
They immediately began creating and executing their plans to start working through the unknown. They left the event to return to a wildly different environment than they had left just a few days earlier, armed with the necessary strategy to move their companies forward.
“Certainly, no one at the Executive Summit could have anticipated the turn of events,” Chuck Shinn said. “But they could not have been at a better place to help them prepare for what was coming. The importance of execution has never been greater, and we will be there with our builders every step of the way, giving them the tools they need to survive this latest challenge.”