There’s a saying in the construction industry that a general contractor’s license is a license to lose money. But once in a while, a company defies the odds and actually finds a way to make money and stay in business. Bernards is one such company. Founded 35 years ago as Bernards Brothers Construction, the business now known just as Bernards, has weathered a number of challenging economic cycles, retooling multiple times and positioning itself to take the company through the next 35 years. All three of the brothers are still fully involved in the business. Doug is the president and CEO while co-owners Greg and Jeff manage the field and operations aspects, respectively, of the general contracting side of the business. But rather than relying solely on brotherhood to manage the store, the Bernards brothers decided about six years ago to bring in some outside talent to shore up certain areas of the business. Doug Bernards likens the company to a three-legged stool with private, negotiated work as one leg; public sector, hard-bid projects as the second; and construction management, fee-based services as the third. At the time, the company was very strong in the hard-bid sector. Its construction management group was slowing and there was almost no private, negotiated work. First aboard was Michael Cawlina, who had been Disney’s project manager on the Grand California Adventure project. Bernards built the Hollywood Backlot portion of the theme park. As that massive project wrapped up, Doug Bernards invited Cawlina to join the company as president of the management services division, more commonly referred to as construction management, or just CM. That was about six years ago. Then Greg Simons, who had been executive vice president at C.W. Driver in Pasadena, accepted an offer to join Bernards, about 4 & #733; years ago, bringing with him Steve Pellegren who had previously been with Bernards before joining CWD years before. “Doug was looking into the future,” said Simons. “He wanted to bring back the private sector work that the company had drifted away from.” “The company had grown but the infrastructure hadn’t kept up,” said Simons, who had a strong background in developing the types of systems and procedures that Bernards needed. Those unfamiliar with the construction industry might not be aware of the very sophisticated technology used to bid, plan and manage projects like the $250 million Americana at Brand, or the $44 million East Valley Middle School. Initially Simons spent time getting to know as much as he could about the company, meeting with all levels of staff and learning what was working, and what needed to be improved. Elements of change That process resulted in the Bernards Resource Center, or the BRC, the most significant initiative implemented so far, said Simons. The BRC is a web-based center of information that all employees within Bernards can access. “Back in the day, we would have procedures manuals in binders,” said Simons. “Now it’s all online. We brainstormed everything the company does; interviewed all 260 employees to get a snapshot of their roles and identified all of their tasks.” Plus, it’s never stale or out of date like those old binders. And it has been a real boon to recruitment, with old-timers and recent graduates citing the system as one of the reasons they chose to go work at Bernards. The BRC, said Doug Bernards, has transformed the company. Another area that has received a lot of attention internally is the estimating de-partment. Estimating is the lifeblood of a construction company. If the jobs are bid too low, the company doesn’t make money; too high, and the company doesn’t get jobs. Five years ago, said Simons, the estimating department was small but very competent in bidding public, hard-bid projects. Now Bernards has one of the largest estimating departments in the region with 16 to 18 estimators that are capable of doing conceptual estimating at the earliest stages of planning up; guaranteed-maximum as well as hard-bid public works and private competitive bid estimates. “We have built up the best estimating department in the business,” said Doug Bernards. “This brings over some value to the private side.” That’s due in part to the fact that the company has developed strong relationships with the best and most competitive subcontractors in the region. In the CM-at-risk and private arena, Bernards writes scopes and creates multiple-prime bid packages in a way that public works subcontractors are comfortable bidding on. “We bring competitive bid subs into private jobs which is good for all of us,” said Doug Bernards. There are a number of other initiatives underway. There’s the BIM, or building information modeling system, and IPD, integrated project delivery. “These are both emerging methods where we collaborate with the owner, architect, engineering, and other subcontractors online,” said Simons. The BIM and the IPD, he said, “take things into the third, fourth, and fifth dimensions.” The fourth dimension is time and the fifth is cost. With the BIM, “You can actually see the project built in real-time,” said Simons. It allows all team members to identify problems or incompatibilities before building begins, saving time and money. Bernards has also dived enthusiastically into LEED, the certification process promoted by the U.S. Green Building Council. More than 20 of their personnel are LEED-accredited and Bernards has completed several LEED-certified projects including the newly-opened Calabasas Civic Center. Into the Future Presently, Bernards’ headquarters offices are spread out in three different buildings. Next year, all of the company operations will be brought under one roof in a LEED-certified building they are renovating less than a mile away. About 70 percent of the company’s revenues are generated by projects in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The remainder are from offices in the Inland Empire, Orange County, and Central California. In 2007, the firm earned $452.7 million and currently employs about 250 people companywide. Construction is a cyclical industry, generally being affected at the back end of economic downturns. Both Simons and Doug Bernards see the signs of a slowdown, particularly in the subtrades bidding. “Previously we would get three to four subcontractors bidding in any given trade; now eight to 12 bids is more common,” said Simons. Remember that three-legged stool? “Being a balanced firm means we don’t rely on one particular delivery method or one market,” said Simons. “That means we’re able to keep our workload steady,” Bernards has plenty of work scheduled well into 2010, said Simons. “We had an exceptional year in 2008 and our backlog is strong.”
