TRICO HOMES INC.

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Author: Olijnyk, Zena

LESSONS FROM SOME OF THE BEST

TRICO HOMES INC.
CALGARY / CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE / 76 EMPLOYEES

The way Trico Homes CEO Wayne Chiu sees it, a work environment that encourages the Calgary home builder's employees to participate in the charitable and cultural life of the city pays back in spades. "I want to create a culture where we work as a team--where each person covers the other's butts," says Chiu, a Hong Kong native who started up Trico in 1993. Helping the wider community by organizing or taking part in events, like Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta, Hong Kong Days or Paint the Town Red (when staff descend on a low-income senior's home for a "Trico Extreme Makeover"), he adds, is "great for the company, great for morale, great for the team." A high participation rate in non-work events (in some cases more than 80%) is important, Chiu emphasizes, when you're a fast-growing company. Trico is now the eighth-largest builder in Calgary, compared to 15th five years ago, and has almost quadrupled its number of employees in the same period.

The community spirit has had a huge impact on how employees work together to handle the challenges of being part of the red-hot Calgary real estate market. Trico may have many of the same organizational features that other companies use--weekly executive, marketing, sales and operational meetings and biannual company-wide gatherings more focused on strategic planning-but bonding outside the office makes its long-term planning and development that much more successful, according to Chiu. He cites the example of how Trico came up with a five-year strategic plan in an all-staff "bottom up" process that outlined expectations for the future. Says Chiu: "The five-year plan is owned by the people who work for Trico, not by senior management, not by me."

Another important aspect of Trico's work culture is promoting multiculturalism. As the booming Alberta economy and high oil prices attract people from all over Canada--and, indeed, the world-Calgary is becoming more culturally diverse. A good number of Trico's staff members--about 15%--are visible minorities, but involvement with Calgary's Dragon Boat Festival, the Calgary Immigrant Aid Society and English as a second language programs also gives the firm a good "in" when it comes to figuring out the housing needs of people from other cultures, one that can be used in marketing its homes. "Ethnic buyers are probably going to be one of the more significant growth markets we'll see," says Richard Gotfried, vice-president of marketing.

Another pillar of Trico's culture is diversity of experience and background. "We like to bring people with different skills to the company," says Norm Mross, vice-president of operations, adding that "aptitude and attitude" are often more important than experience, "I can teach people the skills they will need for a particular job. I can't teach attitude."

PHOTO (COLOR): A tug-of-war at Calgary's Dragon Boat Festival, where a novice Trico team won division gold

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By Zena Olijnyk