Five Beliefs You Can Build a Business On

Years of experience allow Reuenhorst to shed light on his five foundations of business success.

By Gerald Rauenhorst

Last year, the company I started in my three-bedroom bungalow in 1953 celebrated its 50th year in continuous business, generating yearly revenue in excess of $1 billion.

What has 50 years of running a successful business taught me?

Among other things that at least some of the naïve beliefs you hold in your youth aren't so naïve after all.

In fact, some are downright sensible.

Here is a list of my top five:

1. Maintain integrity at all costs. That's first and foremost. In terms of dealing with customers, maintaining your integrity is pretty clear cut. It means offering honest, realistic pricing and sticking to it, no matter what; starting each job when you promised; and finishing each job when you promised. It also means fixing things that may go wrong in the process - quickly and cheerfully. Make your rule-of-thumb, "We'll treat customers decently," and you'll discover in no time flat you have a distinct competitive advantage. Do things right and people will notice!

2. Focus on the fundamentals. Business people love to talk about objectives and budgets. But it's smarter to approach your work as if you were a sports coach. Coaches don't set elaborate objectives before a game or budget for the score. They concentrate on fundamentals: on making each move well. Make your approach to business the same. Just focus your mind on the fundamentals — on core business principles — and execute every move as well as you can. The "score," whatever it turns out to be, will simply be the measure of your ability to concentrate on the basics.

3. Delegate artfully. Easier said than done. In fact, the toughest challenge in management, by far, is delegation. To succeed, you have to delegate both authority and responsibility, in significant, equal amounts. To give a colleague authority, but no responsibility, is to risk the person becomes a dictator. To give the same colleague responsibility, but no authority, is to risk he or she becomes a slave. Proper balance is achieved only by parceling out both in healthy, equivalent doses. Authority is what makes work enjoyable. Responsibility is what ensures it's well done. So dole out both artfully. It will eliminate red tape out and keep coworkers motivated.

4. Share credit, tame blame. A lot of people fail in business due to a tiny, three-letter word: ego. Big egos simply don't make it far, because they always put the freeze on team spirit. You know the pattern. When things go well, gargantuan-size egos like to soak up all the credit; when they don't, they like to look for people to blame. Coworkers should always share in the elation of a major accomplishment. And they should never automatically "take the rap" when things go wrong. Share credit for successes freely with everyone. And learn from mistakes quickly: don't dwell on them, or isolate the individual who might have been responsible. Let everyone know your company stands behind them and their work.

5. Give back to the community. The notion that a business exists solely to make money for its owners or shareholders is history. Ancient history. Businesses today have to pitch in and help solve our worsening social problems, if they hope to retain their freedom to operate as free enterprises in the future. Every organization must be willing to set aside a portion of its people's time and talent, as well as a portion of its profits, for the benefit of the larger community. If it doesn't, there won't be any pleasure in profit-making.

Gerald Rauenhorst is founding chairman of Minneapolis-based Opus Group, a design-build developer. Opus East, the firm's Washington-area operating company, is headquartered in Rockville. E-mail: info@opuscorp.com. Phone: 301/354-4444. Web site: www.opuscorp.com.